"It is a good birthday present," said his longtime secretary-companion, Alan Searle. But it was hardly that. After a 21-month fight to disinherit his daughter, Lady John Hope, in favor of Searle, W. Somerset Maugham admitted that "all differences have been settled." They seem to have been settled in her favor. In addition to $280,000 cash for some already-sold paintings, the agreement grants her royalties from some Maugham books as well as majority interest in his $1,000,000 villa on the French Riviera. Estimated value of the package: $1,400,000. Deaf, partially blinded by cataracts, and plagued by a fading memory, the aging author ignored doctor's orders, traveled to nearby Monte Carlo for a 90th birthday lunch. But while he had "no wishes to make" on his last birthday, the dimmed old man now nightly implores Searle: "Pray that I don't wake in the morning."

Those nondrinking, nonsmoking folks were mighty impressive, and so was their militant talk about forcibly righting the racial wrongs inflicted on Negroes. Breaking training for his upcoming championship fight with Sonny Listen, Cassius Clay, 22, flew from Miami to New York for a meeting of the violently anti-white Black Muslims. Rumors have it that Clay's secretary-business manager is surnamed X, and he has previously expressed admiration for Muslim Kingpin Elijah Muhammad. "I won't say if I'm a member or not," continued Clay, forgoing the poetry this time. "All I know is that I'm black."

"Her achievements are not ascribable merely to the accident of birth, but to qualities which many women must cultivate today: perseverance, courage, intellectual concern." With that citation, Columbia University conferred an honorary doctor of laws degree on Queen Frederika of Greece, 46. And having thus started her private 17-day visit to the U.S., the charming, capable Queen and her daughter Princess Irene, 21, turned to shopping and socializing. With Sister Sophie married and Brother Constantine engaged, reporters wondered if Irene would soon head down the aisle. "No, no," smiled Frederika. "I must keep one for myself."

It looked as though he would be in town for quite a while, and so Jimmy Hoffa, 50, decided to throw the old weight around. Working out with bar bells in a Chattanooga, Tenn., Y.M.C.A., he started with relatively short, painless sessions. That, explained Instructor Bill Floyd, was because the hardheaded teamster boss was going a little soft in the gut. Hoffa will need all the exercise he can get. He's in Chattanooga for a federal trial (his fifth) on jury-tampering charges stemming from his fourth court appearance, and it promises to be a lively one. His attorneys have already said they will call a monumentally hostile witness for the defense--Old Hoffa Baiter Robert Kennedy.

On location filming Mister Moses in Naivasha, Kenya, Carroll Baker, 32, was cutting quite a swath among the Masai tribe. The script called for native children to sing a Swahili Silent Night, but none of them spoke the language. So Actress Baker learned the Swahili and taught the kids. "At the end of the first day's lesson," she reported, "they were so good I gave them candy and soda pop. In return they introduced me to their favorite drink, a mixture of blood and milk." And Carroll drank it down. She was such a lady that the local Masai chieftain had another idea. He offered to buy her for his very own, offering $750 cash, 150 cows plus 200 goats and sheep. Carroll was flattered --considering the going price for brides is $200 and twelve cows.

Once a strong voice in favor of tightly guarding U.S. scientific secrets, Physicist Edward Teller, 56, now thinks everyone should be let in on most classified information. Why? "I am pretty well convinced that the Russians have all our secrets," the father of the H-bomb told a House committee on U.S. research, "and I am even afraid they have the secrets we are going to discover in the next two years." That being the case, the only ones in the dark on most data are "our industry and our citizens." The present criterion for releasing news of an important discovery is absolute certainty that such information would not harm the national interest. Argued Teller: "I think the burden of proof should be on the other side."

Jackie Gleason, 47, weighs 258 Ibs., and he likes being the biggest. To indulge that craving, CBS-TV offered its giant ego $6,000,000 (a $1,000,000 raise) to entice him into one more season. Out of that sum, Jackie's Peekskill Enterprises will pay all costs of producing the shows, but what Gleason likes is the size of the price tag. "I'm told it's the biggest one-year contract in the history of television," he chortled. And under the terms agreed on, he is going to try moving the whole show down to Miami, "so I can sit around in the sun and play golf while working. Come next fall, we'll rent a boat, load the whole crew aboard and sail out of New York for Florida, full toot." Will his booze-'em buddy, Restaurateur Toots Shor, make the trip? "Why, certainly," expanded The Great One. "He'll probably be the boat."

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