Passengers Pick Tampa As Nation's Best Airport

You'd think his dialect would have given him away, but from a military base in St. Mawgan, England, comes word that a British restaurant doorman named Mark Looney successfully posed as a US Navy officer for five days before being unmasked. "Lieutenant" Looney regaled listeners with stories of his exploits in Bosnia, until a real American officer noticed that medals on his uniform were plastic. No, he won't be court-martialled, but security at the base is being reviewed.

Then there's the Bulgarian businessman whose striking resemblance to Saddam Hussein prompted him to think he could be of help to Iraq's armed forces. Lyuben Kovachev volunteered - in a letter to the Iraqi embassy in Sofia - to join the defense against a US-led attack. The Iraqi leadership has called on civilians to volunteer for a self-defense force, but Kovachev's offer was declined.

Heard about the fellow in Great Falls, Mont., who was arrested for driving 104 m.p.h. in a 45-m.p.h. zone? His excuse: He was air-drying his pickup truck, which he'd just washed.

The Day's List Passengers Pick Tampa As Nation's Best Airport

Airports in Tampa, Fla., and Detroit were rated the best and the worst in a survey of about 90,000 air passengers commissioned by 36 of the largest US airports. Their facilities were rated in eight categories, from speed of baggage delivery to quality of restaurants. Passengers were surveyed in the first six months of last year; results were obtained last week by The Detroit News. The poll's top-10 airports:

1. Tampa, Fla.
2. Pittsburgh 3. Charlotte, N.C.
4. Nashville, Tenn.
5. Denver 6. Phoenix 7. Las Vegas 8. Salt Lake City 9. Atlanta 10. Baltimore