Several prominent leaders of the Women's Lib movement have raised a new banner to battle under: bisexuality. Reacting to TIME'S story (Dec. 14) reporting Militant Kate Mil left's public admission that she is "bisexual," nine Women's Lib leaders held a press conference last week in New York City to announce common cause with "the struggle of homosexuals to attain their liberation in a sexist society." The leaders, including Millett herself, Ti-Grace Atkinson of the National Organization of Women, and Writers Gloria Steinem, Sally Kempton and Susan Brownmiller, issued a prepared statement. Excerpt: "Lesbian is a label used as a psychic weapon to keep women locked into their male-defined 'feminine role.' The essence of that role is that a woman is defined in terms of her relationship to men. A woman is called a lesbian when she functions autonomously. Woman's autonomy is what Women's Liberation is all about."

The impact of Actor Jackie Gleason on Rudolph Walter Wanderone Jr. goes on and on. When Gleason played a pool shark called Minnesota Fats in The Hustler (1961), Wanderone, then known as New York Fats, was moved to sue. But the cash value of the movie's publicity made him change his mind--and his monicker; instead of trying to beat them, he joined them. As Minnesota Fats, he prospered, became president of a billiards-equipment company and starred in a TV show. Now he, not Gleason, is playing Minnesota Fats in a movie called The Player, currently being shot in Baton Rouge, La. Too well known for hustling, Fats now plays exhibition games--with no frills. After watching dinner-jacketed players at a New York tournament, he once observed that "dressing a pool player in a tuxedo is like putting whipped cream on a hot dog."

After carefully inspecting the mouth of their gift horse, a committee of 15 students from Amherst, Hampshire, Smith, Mount Holyoke and the University of Massachusetts decided last week to accept $25,000 from John D. Rockefeller III. He had offered to pay expenses for a student-faculty study to determine what kind of social-improvement project might be carried out in the Connecticut River valley (TIME, Dec. 21). The students had refused to take the money until they could check out Rockefeller's motives--64 is, after all, quite a bit over 30.

What is the purpose of poetry? One well-qualified practitioner of the art supplied an answer at a doctors' meeting in Manhattan. Said Poet Wystan H. Auden, 63: "To enable people a little better to enjoy life, or a little better to endure it." What is a minor poet? The furrowed face broke into a smile: "If you take two poems by one man and read them, and you can't tell which was written first, that is a minor poet." The subject of education evoked another satisfyingly sweeping statement: "Political history is far too criminal a subject to be a fit thing to teach children. Art history, literary history, yes--but not political history."

Last week, after modeling his new, somewhat military bathrobe at a West Point preview, Funnyman Bob Hope, 67, put his show on the G.I. road for the 20th Christmas season. Hope's send-off included a Christmas supercard signed by President Nixon, Vice President Agnew, the Governors of the 50 states and all the members of Congress. He also got a holiday shopping assignment: he's to "buy the boys soft drinks" with a check for $8,000 from the Women's Christian Temperance Union. With an 87-member troupe including Actress Ursula Andress, Cincinnati Reds Catcher Johnny Bench, and Miss World Jennifer Hosten, Hope will spend 15 days at military installations in Britain, West Germany, the Mediterranean, Thailand, Korea, Alaska and, of course, Viet Nam. "I hope it's the last time I get to Viet Nam," said Bob, "and I think it will be."

Life continued to imitate a detective story in the ongoing Howard Hughes mystery last week. No fewer than nine private investigators moved into rooms directly beneath the Hughes suite on the ninth floor of Nassau's Britannia Beach Hotel, their suitcases crammed with bugging devices, amplifiers and detailed maps of the island. Perhaps nine was a few too many to be inconspicuous; perhaps they were out-bugged from above. In any case, they were spotted, questioned and turned over to Bahamian authorities by agents of Intertel, a security firm employed by the Hughes Tool Co. "Get off the island," said the Bahamians to the Private Ears, and off they went, without so much as a coded call for help.

From Saigon word came that General Creighton Abrams Jr., 56, commander of U.S. forces in South Viet Nam who previously indicated no religious preference, has joined the Roman Catholic Church. Meanwhile, back at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird dedicated a small room in the Aring as a place for meditation and prayer. "In a sense, this ceremony marks the completion of the Pentagon," said Secretary Laird. "Peace is the business of this building."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.