The First Lady’s Back to Normal

Looking fresh and slimmer than usual, First Lady Barbara Bush left Walter Reed Army Medical Center after undergoing treatment to control a thyroid condition. During her two-hour hospital visit, Mrs. Bush drank a radioactive iodine solution to destroy her thyroid gland because it was producing excess levels of hormones. The condition, known as Graves’ disease, caused her to lose 21 pounds in recent weeks and irritated her eyes. The treatment, which takes about two to three months to deactivate the thyroid, is standard for the ailment, which can be life threatening if left untreated. Doctors told Mrs. Bush she should not hug her dog’s new puppies or kiss any of her 11 grandchildren for a few days because puppies and children have a heightened sensitivity to radiation. Otherwise her normal activity should not be interrupted. Only hours afterward, she hosted a White House reception for Queen Silvia of Sweden. “I never felt sick,” Mrs. Bush said. “I never felt better.” Referring to her weight loss, she said: “I like half of my disease. In fact, I love half of it.”

--John Tower, whose nomination to be defense secretary was derailed in part by allegations of drinking and womanizing, has signed a book contract with the Little, Brown publishing house. But the former Texas senator won’t be penning a torrid kiss-and-tell tale. Instead, the relationship he’ll be exposing will be that between Congress and the presidency. Actually, Tower had signed to write such a book two years ago, but he didn’t have enough time for it. The new book is expected in the fall of 1990 and will include passages about his rejection by the Senate.

--A retired Australian sheep shearer who inherited the title of Earl of Lincoln enjoyed his visit to his namesake city in Britain, but even the prospect of sitting in the House of Lords wasn’t enough to make him want to stay. Edward Fiennes-Clinton, 75, and his wife, Linda, decided to return home after learning there is no ancestral home to go with the title--only a seat in the hereditary House of Lords. Fiennes-Clinton inherited the 16th-Century title on Christmas Day upon the death in Britain of a remote relation, the 10th Duke of Newcastle and Earl of Lincoln. Because the duke had no children, the dukedom became extinct. But the lesser title of the Lincoln earldom passed to the Australian, whose forebears had emigrated. Fiennes-Clinton said being the 18th Earl of Lincoln “won’t change our lives. We are still the same people and I hope it’s not going to change me at all.” Still, he said, “it is an old and honorable title and I would like to carry it on in the few years left to me.”