"It was absolutely a ball--we laughed until we ached." There it was, another daredevil adventure by the U.S.'s most publicly athletic family. With 14 assorted youngsters in tow, Bobby and Ethel Kennedy, Astronaut John Glenn and a platoon of guides piled into World War II rubber landing craft and shot nearly 100 miles of boiling rapids in the Middle Fork of Idaho's Salmon River. It is known as "the River of No Return," and the poor guides thought that was for sure. The place is full of dangerous rocks and swirling eddies; so naturally every time a guide stood up to see what lay ahead, some fun-loving Kennedy would push him overboard. The children organized rattlesnake hunts, and good old Bobby insisted on negotiating most of the run alone in a kayak. But Expedition Leader Don Hatch insisted it was a piece of cake. "The biggest problem," he said, "was keeping Ethel's wig box right side up through the rapids."

The couple had been praying for a child ever since they were wed in 1960. The devout husband even made a pilgrimage to Lourdes. All to no avail--until last week, when Belgium's King Baudouin happily announced that his beloved Queen Fabiola, 38, expects an heir to the throne this winter. The news was kept a strict secret until the fragile Queen had passed her critical third month, since she had been bitterly disappointed by three early miscarriages in the past. And as Fabiola canceled all engagements for the duration, all Belgium hoped for a safe accouchement.

They arrived in Manila to the usual frenzy: 4,000 screaming fans swarming over 700 police and soldiers at the airport. When they left two days later, the porters refused to carry their bags, and an angry crowd of Filipinos hollered "Go to hell!" and "Get out of our country!" John Lennon and George Harrison were roughed up against a wall, and Ringo was pushed down and kicked. What had the Beatles done? They had failed to show up at a scheduled luncheon with the wife of the President, Imelda Marcos. (The lads later claimed they were never invited.) Even a formal apology by the British embassy couldn't cool Philippine tempers. And the boys did nothing to help their image when they finally returned to London. "I didn't even know they had a President," sniffed Lennon. "If we ever go back, it will be with an H-bomb."

The week before Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was scheduled to dedicate a bridge in Belfast, Northern Ireland, four young Roman Catholics were mercilessly shot down from ambush in yet another example of the bloody, factional feuding that has rived the country for 44 years. The incident could hardly have come at a worse time; despite the deep loyalty of most of the country's 1.5 million people, Elizabeth is the living symbol of oppression to the 500,000 Catholic minority, and officials feared some kind of retaliation. Sure enough, as the royal bubble-top limousine rolled through the city, a 12-lb. chunk of concrete was tossed at the car from a fourth-story window, miraculously glancing off the hood. Later that day a woman bounced a beer bottle off the bubble-top. The Queen never lost her cool. 'Tough car," she quipped as she finished her tour.

Back from a three-week tour of Viet Nam in preparation for filming The Green Berets, John Wayne, 59, said he found today's G.I.s "more on the ball than they were in their fathers' war." Explained the Duke: "Maybe it's because the guys I met in New Guinea during the last war had been there a long time and didn't have enough ammunition or food. Morale was bad. These boys in Viet Nam know that they will have only a year's tour of duty, and they're out there and ready. They also know that if we don't win there we'll be fighting some place else soon."

As unthinkable as Juliet without Ro meo. Yet Lynn Fontanne, 78, theater's grande dame, announced that she would make her first appearance in 38 years without Husband Alfred Lunt. TV fans will get the chance to see if the flame's the same next season when Fontanne plays the dowager empress in NBC's Hallmark production of Anastasia. Alfred will not be left home to tend the petunias. He is scheduled to direct the Metropolitan Opera's new version of La Traviata at the same time. And as his wife says, "When Alfred is working with the Met, I'm really sort of squeezed out. I'm delighted to be, but it really can be rather boring. So the show will be my angel of deliverance."

Arriving in Japan with four other U.S. Cabinet members to attend the fifth annual Cabinet-level conference of the two governments, Secretary of Labor Willard Wirtz, 54, and his wife Mary left the rest of the gang at the doors of their Western-style rooms in Kyoto's elegant Miyako Hotel and headed for the Japanese wing. Beds are all very comfy at home, but when in Japan do as the ... A thin tatami mat, please, and they couldn't be more comfortable stretched right out there on the floor. "It feels wonderful and is very good to our spines," insisted Mary. Willard looked inscrutable.

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