Ex-President Bush celebrates by skydiving

Ex-President Bush
celebrates by skydiving

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — He’s 83 and just had hip replacement surgery in January, but that isn’t keeping former President George H.W. Bush from skydiving. Bush celebrated the grand reopening of his presidential museum on Saturday with a surprise skydive, his sixth and his first since 2004, when he jumped to celebrate his 80th birthday. Bush jumped on Saturday strapped to an expert from the Army Golden Knights parachute team, as he did three years ago. His first parachute jump was in 1944 when his plane was shot down over the Pacific island of Chi Chi Jima. The 69,000-square-foot museum, described by the former president as the “centerpiece of my library,” has been mostly closed since April for an $8.3 million facelift. The museum and library opened 10 years ago last week on the Texas A&M University campus about 100 miles northwest of Houston.

Prince Harry splits
with girlfriend

LONDON — Prince Harry and his Zimbabwean-born girlfriend have ended their three-year romance, a newspaper reported Sunday. The News of the World said the Chelsy Davy, who has been studying at a college in England while dating the prince, broke off the relationship this week after losing patience with his playboy lifestyle and lack of commitment to her. Prince Harry, 21, graduated this year from Britain’s elite Sandhust military academy after training to become an army officer. He hopes to one day serve on the front line alongside his colleagues if called to wars such as the one being fought in Afghanistan.

Keys could’ve been Wild

NEW YORK — If it weren’t for her mother, Alicia Keys might have a radically different image. Keys, who has a new album titled “As I Am,” says that when she was trying to choose a professional name she went through a dictionary and stopped on the word “wild.” She tells Newsweek in the magazine’s Nov. 19 issue that she asked her mother how Alicia Wild sounded to her. “She said “It sounds like you’re a stripper,”’ Keys said. After that, she decided to use Keys. “It’s like the piano keys. And it can open so many doors,” said the singer born Alicia Augello-Cook.

Today’s birthdays

Rhythm-and-blues singer Ruby Nash Curtis (Ruby and the Romantics) is 68. Actor-playwright Wallace Shawn is 64. Singer Brian Hyland is 64. Rhythm-and-blues singer Jimmy Hayes (Persuasions) is 64. Rock musician Booker T. Jones (Booker T. & the MGs) is 63. Singer-songwriter Neil Young is 62. Rock musician Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser (Blue Oyster Cult) is 60. Country singer Barbara Fairchild is 57. Actress-talk show host Megan Mullally is 49. Olympic gold medal gymnast Nadia Comaneci is 46. Rock musician David Ellefson is 43. Actor Sam Lloyd is 40. Figure skater Tonya Harding is 37. Actress Radha Mitchell is 34. Actress Lourdes Benedicto is 33. Actress Tamala Jones is 33. Actress Angela Watson is 33. Singer Tevin Campbell is 31. Actress Ashley Williams is 29. Actor Ryan Gosling is 27. Contemporary Christian musician Chris Huffman is 27. Actress Anne Hathaway is 25. Pop singer Omarion is 23. Actress Macey Cruthird (“Hope and Faith”) is 15.