People: Aug. 24, 1962

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For two weeks, while a Swedish medical board studied her plea for a legal abortion to end the three-month pregnancy she feared might produce a thalidomide-de-formed baby, Phoenix Television Actress Sherri Finkbine, 30, and her husband waited at a suburban Stockholm villa. As if it were not enough that the press around the world had covered her case at the highest pitch of sensationalism, the Finkbines sold exclusive rights of her personal story to a Swedish newspaper for an undisclosed sum. At last the medical board granted permission for an abortion, and Mrs. Finkbine, the mother of four normal children, immediately entered a hospital for a 45-minute operation. The doctors confirmed her fears: they announced that the drug had indeed caused abnormality in the fetus.

Scene: the White House in 1964. The "President" peers through his horn-rims at ..a list of Cabinet choices. For Secretary of State, Herbert Hoover; Defense, Richard Nixon; Treasury, Alf Landon. What about Nelson Rockefeller? That left-winger? A small postmastership in upstate New York. Then the President surveys his new office. "I like the decor," he says. "Jackie did it all up in 18th century style. That's right up my alley." Taking the ribbing like a potential presidential candidate should, Arizona's Republican Senator Barry Goldwater, 53, chuckled through a 2½hour lampooning by Atlantic City's Circus Saints and Sinners last week. Then he gave as good as he got. He, too, liked to poke fun, deadpanned Goldwater. But his sense of humor had been dampened lately by worry over his grandson. "He's too young to vote," lamented Goldwater, "and too old to be Attorney General."

The legions of paparazzi had dwindled to mere platoons at Ravello, and vacationing Jacqueline Kennedy found it easier to relax. The lazy Mediterranean days were spent swimming at Conca dei Marini and yachting aboard Fiat Automobile Heir Gianni Agnelli's 82-foot yacht, at times taking a turn at the wheel. One night Jackie even managed to give her secret service escorts the slip, with Agnelli and her brother-in-law, Polish Prince Stanislas Radziwill, paid a 1 a.m. visit to a sidewalk cafe for a glass of wine and a cup of espresso. Next night Jackie was off on the yacht to the Isle of Capri, where, appropriately clad in green Capri pants, she dropped in at several dim bistros, then returned to the yacht accompanied by an Italian crooner and five mandolin players who serenaded her party on the voyage back home. Jackie had planned to stay just two weeks, but now she decided to linger on "till the end of the month, I think."