Drop-In Visitor Welcomes Harsh Words From Hostess

--When Richard Parks crashed his homemade gyrocopter into Ursula Nagati’s front yard at Mars, Pa., he expected at least a little sympathy. Instead, Nagati gave him a piece of her mind. But he didn’t care too much. “I was smiling the whole time because I was happy to be alive to have somebody yelling at me,” Parks said. Parks, 32, said he was flying his helicopter at about 200 feet on a fine afternoon when his engine began to sputter. “The only thing worse than that sound is when your engine doesn’t make any noise at all,” Parks said. “The copter dropped about 50 feet and I thought I might not be in very good shape.” Parks said he was emerging unhurt from twisted pieces of metal when Nagati stormed from her house to berate him for damaging a tree and some shrubs. Several minutes elapsed before Nagati paused to ask about Parks’ condition, he said. After cleaning up the mess left by the crash, Nagati said Parks could replace the plants next spring.

--New Zealand’s first Maori governor-general, Sir Paul Reeves, 53, was sworn in in Wellington, wearing a feathered tribal cloak instead of the ornate colonial military uniforms traditionally sported by previous governors. Reeves, a former Anglican (Church of England) Archbishop of New Zealand, was greeted by a war dance and a traditional Maori welcome outside Parliament before the ceremony to install him to the largely symbolic post of Queen Elizabeth’s representative.

--Joan Baez spent six days in Poland, giving impromptu concerts at a church, a university and the apartment of Solidarity founder Lech Walesa. The singer, who has championed civil and human rights in a musical career of more than 20 years, said she felt a sense of purpose among Poles that is lacking in the United States. “In my life, the political, personal, musical and spiritual elements either come together or fall apart,” Baez said. “And here, for instance, is where they all came together.”

--British businessman Stan Johnson said he is seeking permission to re-create a World War II POW camp in north Yorkshire. The British Tourist Board said it agreed and believed the idea could be one of the top British tourist attractions of 1986. Johnson said he has had many letters from young Germans who have offered to work there as POWs to improve their English. “I believe there is growing nostalgia for those wartime days,” Johnson said.