People: Aug. 12, 1966

(2 of 2)

Every folk singer worth his guitar has got to have a motorcycle. It's a symbol of status, or maybe antistatus. Such a symbol comes dear, as it did to promising young Singer Richard Fariña, who died in a cycle accident in April. Folk Hero Bob Dylan, 25, was luckier—but not by much. He was buzzing along on his Triumph 500 near Woodstock, N.Y., when the rear wheel froze, flipping him off and onto the pavement. Dylan was rushed to a doctor and will spend at least two months in bed, recuperating from a neck fracture, a concussion (he wasn't wearing a helmet), and severe face and back cuts.

None of that stuffy oldtime ribbon-snipping for Mayor John V. Lindsay. New York, says His Honor, is a "fun city," and he and his merry men do things that way. Out in Central Park to dedicate a new Fountain Café, Lindsay and Parks Commissioner Thomas Hoving dragooned City Greeter Sharman Douglas and former Miss America Bess Myerson into rowing them around the lake ("Stroke, stroke, stroke!" cried Lindsay), engaged in an oar-slapping water fight with pursuing newsmen (who seriously considered sinking the mayor's "Ship of State"), captured a tiny snail ("Escargot," they announced), cooked an omelet, and toured the environs atop a "cherry picker" used to replace street lights. Funny.

If there is anything the Irish admire more than a first-class horseman, it's a chap with a tongue touched with blarney. And to have both in the same man, now there's a fine ambassador for the Americans to be sending. Of course, Raymond Guest, 58, noted Virginia horse breeder and financier, did warn them when he arrived last year that he "intended to be the kind of American you would like to see in your country." So it was no surprise when he showed up at the Dublin Horse Show astride his eight-year-old gelding, properly named Shaun, and proceeded to ride off with the walk-trot-canter event, even though he had not ridden competitively for 25 years. "I am delighted and grateful to have a win at the best horse show in the world," murmured the ambassador as he accepted his prize.