Swimmer Plunges to the Defense of New York Water

--At last, some good news to report about the state of New York’s waters. In an attempt to demonstrate to skeptical New Yorkers that--recent reports to the contrary--their water quality is improving, environmental investigator Skip Storch became the first person to swim the Hudson River from Albany to the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor--and he lived to tell the tale. An amateur long-distance swimmer for the last 10 years, Storch, 31, of Monsey, began the 153-mile marathon last Thursday and, averaging between 20 and 25 miles a day and sleeping on a boat at night, completed the epic journey in 54 hours and 50 minutes. Storch said he encountered none of the medical debris and other waste that have closed ocean beaches throughout the metropolitan area. “ . . . I was surprised--it tasted delicious. I thought: ‘This is great.’ I felt like I was down in the Caribbean or something.” Over the last two decades, strict environmental legislation has curtailed the dumping of pollutants into the Hudson, resulting in its remarkably improved water quality, Storch said.

--There may be only one way to skin a cat, but there are lots of ways to foil a cat burglar. The Duchess of Beaufort, who lives in the 40-bedroom Badminton House (which gave its name to the racquet sport) in Old Sodbury, England, leaped out of bed and, with her trusty dog Mabel at her side, chased a burglar carrying an antique tea caddy out of her 17th-Century country home. On the other side of the Atlantic, Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) opted for an even more aggressive approach. When a man entered his Brooklyn home through a second-story window, Towns charged and just missed grabbing the suspect’s leg when he retreated through the window. Towns then raced downstairs and, armed with a tree limb, confronted the man when he jumped from the garage roof. “Don’t get up, if you do I’m going to break your legs,” Towns warned him. The suspect complied and later was charged with burglary and criminal possession of drug paraphernalia.

--When Birdie May Vogt was born, Ulysses S. Grant was President, there were 39 states and Gen. George A. Custer had just been killed in the Battle of Little Bighorn. Vogt turned 112 Wednesday, making her the world’s second-oldest person, according to the Guinness Book of World Records (a Mme. Calment of Arles, France, is 17 months older). She marked her latest milestone with a small luncheon attended by her nephew, a cousin and about two dozen other well-wishers at the retirement home outside Miami where she has lived for the last 25 years.