Watch Out, Yuppies: Here Comes Comrade ‘Cuppie’

Blow-dried hair and Brooks Bros.-style suits have been de rigueur among younger diplomats at the Soviet Embassy in Washington for several years, but now they have found a name for their cross-cultural style. Dressed in a gray pin-striped suit and bright red tie, Alexander Kluyev, 33, third secretary for economic affairs, appeared with other ambassadors, economists and political leaders at a four-day Midwest World Affairs Conference at Kearney, Neb. Kluyev said he is aware he doesn’t meet the expectations of most Nebraskans. “Anytime we leave Washington, D.C., we are a constant subject of interest,” he said. “You have your yuppies here. Well, I am a ‘cuppie’--a communist urban professional.” He described himself as “very typical of businessmen in Moscow and Leningrad.” Kluyev said he liked the Midwest. “Nebraska is very flat and very American looking.”

--President Reagan rose to say goodby at his seventh and final White House Correspondents Assn. annual dinner, looked out at a crowd of Washington elected officials, Cabinet members and celebrity guests from Hollywood and said: “It looks like the index of Larry Speakes’ book.” The President observed that Speakes had criticized his mental powers, when his former spokesman said in a recently published book that preparing Reagan for a press conference was like “reinventing the wheel.” “I was around when the wheel was invented,” Reagan said. Noting frequent complaints that he doesn’t hold enough press conferences, the President said the presidential campaign has left him “feeling a bit lonely. . . . I’ve been so desperate for attention, I almost considered holding a news conference.” After the jokes, he gave a warmhearted toast and bade farewell: “Every President seeks to use the press. The press can take care of itself and hopefully so can a President. I hope that my epitaph will be with relations with the White House press corps, ‘He gave as good as he got.’ ”

--Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes received the 1987 Miguel de Cervantes Prize for Literature from Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. In his acceptance speech, Fuentes, 59, author of “The Death of Artemio Cruz” and “Terra Nostra,” called Spanish “the language of imagination, love and justice--not of empire.” The prize pays the equivalent of $90,000.