The world's most celebrated literary award, the Nobel Prize, has gone to eccentric choices often enough to stir grumblings about favoritism, political influence, and dismay at a tendency to seek geographical distribution instead of international renown. This year the selection was a case of sweets to the Swedes. The 1974 winners: Swedish Poet Harry Martinson, 70, and Swedish Novelist Eyvind Johnson, 74. Martinson's best-known work, Aniara, published in English in 1956, is a narrative poem about a space voyage. Johnson's chef-d'oeuvre, a semi-autobiographical series called The Novel About Olaf, published in the mid-30s, was never completely translated into English. The two writers' fame is hardly international, and the choice promptly gave rise to complaints. One charge seemed at least plausible. Alexander Solzhenitsyn is expected at the December ceremonies in Stockholm to pick up his 1970 prize and the Swedish Academy did not want his presence to upstage another international figure like Graham Greene or Vladimir Nabokov, for instance.

Sixty used to be considered what Keats called the season of "mellow fruit-fulness." But Mr. Keep Fit, Jack La Lanne, whose name adorns 85 muscle salons across the U.S., declared: "Proper living can ward off the aging process."

So with messages of encouragement from President Ford, 61, and California's Governor Reagan, 63, Jack celebrated his 60th birthday by swimming 1 1/2 miles across San Francisco Bay from Alcatraz to Fisherman's Wharf--handcuffed, his feet chained together, and towing a rowboat filled with 1,000 lbs. of sand. After 80 minutes of diving through the bay like a clumsy dolphin, Jack landed at the Wharf, blue with cold. Rushed to a nearby sauna for defrosting, he emerged to the cheers of fans and promptly fell to the ground, only to do ten brisk pushups. Then, his teeth still chattering, he proclaimed: "Anything is possible with the human body."

Tennis Champs Jimmy Connors, 22, and Chris Evert, 19, may have played their last love match. Last week the fiancees were in different parts of the U.S., he in California, she in Texas, and their much celebrated wedding-to-be was postponed. Chris's father said: "They might get married in December or next year or a year from now." But the romance seems to have shaken Chrissie's game. After winning 56 straight matches, she has been beaten two times running by Australian Star Evonne Goolagong and rumors persist that Jimmy's mother, Gloria Connors, a former amateur star herself, is possessive, and does not give the young couple enough time together. Well, mixed doubles is never having to say you're sorry.

Rome is not known for a shortage of scantily clad prostitutes. Most of the girls are all remarkably handsome, but one slinky, dark-eyed ragazzaccia in garters and black hose was a real bam-bola (doll). It was Sophia Loren, just turned 40, who had strayed away from the camera crew for her new movie Gun Moll, in which she plays a former whore. Neorealism proved too much for one passing truck driver. He leaned out of his truck crying "Che bona!" and made Sophia an offer. Rebuffed, he sadly muttered: "Peccato! That one was stacked just like Sophia Loren."

To begin with, the 30,000 fans who jammed the stadium in the Brazilian port city of Santos were lethargic. Then, as the players came on the field, they started chanting, "Pele is our king!" over and over again. Pele, of course, is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, 33, who is quite simply the most famous athlete on earth, and he was playing his last professional game. Now he wants to devote himself to his family and business interests. Pele dominated international soccer for nearly two decades, leading Brazil to an unrivaled record--three World Cup championships. In the process he banked an estimated fortune of $10 million, and became the first player ever to score more than 1,000 goals, a feat marveled at from Moscow to Manchester. In 1961, when President Janio Quadros feared that he might be lured abroad, Pele was made a national asset. Last week he was still No. 10 with the Santos, the team he had joined in 1956 as a scrawny 15-year-old from Bauru in the Sao Paulo highlands. Twenty minutes into play, Pele stripped off his jersey and, holding it aloft like a banner, circled the field to the cheers and tears of the crowd. "Thank you, my people," he said as he jogged through the exit, weeping unashamedly.

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