JOTTINGS IN A JOURNAL HELP FOR ILL AIRLINE PASSENGERS.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

American Airlines has begun a program to help sick people who are able to fly but might need a nurse's help.

Under the plan, offered on only a few flights now, the patient is accompanied by a registered nurse from American's roster for an hourly fee of $90. The patient buys two one-way tickets at either the first-class or full coach fare, with a 30 percent discount for both seats.

The program, begun Feb. 19, was initially offered on certain flights to, from or connecting in Dallas-Fort Worth, American's headquarters, or Chicago. Mark Slitt, a spokesman for American, said that a patient wishing to fly, for example, from Los Angeles to New York could use the service by connecting through Chicago or Dallas.

Those using the new service must be ``stable for travel,'' he said, and not pose a health risk to others, said Dr. David McKenas, who designed the program.

Information: [phone].

MAKING A SPLASH: A program at a recently opened dolphin research center in the Central American country of Belize allows visitors to assist biologists in a study of bottlenose dolphins.

The Blackbird-Oceanic Society Field Station, which opened in January on Blackbird Cay, 32 miles southeast of Belize City, is run by the Oceanic Society, a conservation organization.

Participants in the society's eight-day dolphin project, available year-round, help monitor the behavior of the more than 100 free-ranging dolphins in the warm, exceptionally clear waters surrounding Blackbird Cay and the mangrove- and beach-fringed Turneffe Islands.

Information: [phone]; www.oceanic-society.org.

MILES AND MILES: Jazz great Miles Davis would have been 75 this year, and dozens of organizations on both sides of the river in the St. Louis area plan to celebrate his life.

The Miles 2001 Festival will center on Davis' birthday, May 26. (Davis was born in Alton, Ill., and grew up in East St. Louis, Ill. He died in 1991.)

The Missouri History Museum opens a comprehensive exhibition on Davis' life, including rare film footage, artifacts and photos, on May 13. The Miles Davis Arts Festival, featuring local and national musicians in a variety of genres, will take over the East St. Louis riverfront May 24-28.

Jazz at the Bistro will host an all-star gala tribute at Powell Hall on May 25. And the Forum for Contemporary Art will mount an exhibition of Davis' own paintings and drawings, opening May 25.

FIND AND SEEK: A ``Global Scavenger Hunt'' will be held May 5-27, during which 25 teams of two will engage in a competition while traveling around the world (Los Angeles to New York - the long way).

According to the Santa Monica-based organizers, teams of participants will be given sealed envelopes as they fly over the international date line. Inside will be air tickets and hotel vouchers. Competitors will also receive a list of riddles, clues and cryptic passages which, when solved, will lead them to sacred sites, cultural festivals, bazaars and ruins as they visit 10 countries on four continents.

There will be $100,000 in prizes at stake. The competition also hopes to raise $1 million for international charities.

Cost is $19,800 per team of two. Information: [phone]; www.GreatEscape2001.com.

BRANCHING OUT: A Hawaii developer is planning to build as many as 40 treehouses in artificial banyan trees near the Big Island's Waipio Valley.

Tom Heers said the small resort will be built on the wooded grounds of a former plantation manager's mansion at Kukuihaele. Heers acquired the home last year and now lives there with his wife and two daughters.

Each of the treehouses will have a kitchen and bathroom and will be 14 feet off the ground on concrete and steel structures that will look like banyan trees, Heers said. The artificial trees would be set in a 20-acre grove of natural trees planted in 1911.

< TALL-SHIP REENACTMENT: Most Americans learned about the Mormon trek west to Salt Lake City in their history books, but far fewer know about the immigration of more than 85,000 European Mormons to the United States in the mid-1800s. Those European converts arrived by ship, of course, and the 150th anniversary of those ocean sailings will be commemorated this year with a 59-day tall-ship reenactment.

One big difference: This time the fleet will have tourists on board.

The Sea Trek Foundation, nonprofit sponsor of the project, says 10 tall ships have been chartered for the voyage, beginning Aug. 7 in Denmark and continuing to ports in Sweden, Norway, Germany and England before crossing the Atlantic to the Canary Islands and the Bahamas, arriving in New York on Oct. 4.

At major ports of call, celebrations are planned, with exhibits about Mormon migration, history forums, ship tours, music and other attractions.

Information: [phone]; www.seatrek2001.com.