Tasteless? For Sure--but Kennebunkport Cashes In

Gift shop proprietor Jody Bibber says that Bush Sauce--touted as “excellent with quail”--is so popular with tourists in Kennebunkport, Me., that she can’t keep the $5.25 item on the shelves. Chamber of Commerce Chairwoman Barbara Aiello acknowledges that some products that capitalize on the town’s link to President Bush are “borderline tasteful.” Aiello says “expensive-tacky is creeping in,” but the resort isn’t overwhelmed by it. In one store, a cardboard Bush mask with cutout eyes is displayed between photos of Pee Wee Herman and Joan Collins. Or how about a $30 pair of flag-striped slippers adorned with plastic heads of the President and Barbara Bush--asleep on pillows bearing the seal of the United States? Then there’s the $46 clock shaped like a bright red mouth, with the famous “Read My Lips” quote. One presidential mask bears the warning: “Not intended for use by children under the age of 3 or by Dan Quayle. May cause drowsiness while operating heavy machinery, pitching horseshoes, vetoing legislation . . . . “

--Sweden’s Foreign Ministry said Soviet activist Andrei Sakharov was unable to learn what happened to Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who disappeared in 1945 after using his diplomatic status to rescue Budapest Jews about to be sent to Nazi death camps. The ministry said Sakharov found no trace of Wallenberg on visits to two Soviet prisons in the last two years. Wallenberg was never seen in public after Jan. 17, 1945, when he was driven to see the commander of Soviet troops occupying Budapest after the Nazis retreated. In 1957, the Soviets said Wallenberg had died of a heart attack in prison 10 years earlier. The Swedes rejected that report.

--The Von Trapp family of “The Sound of Music” fame have angered hunters by buying the 50,000-acre Snowcrest Ranch in Montana and closing one of its roads to Beaverhead National Forest. Johannes von Trapp said he wants to be a good neighbor but also wants to be “a good land steward.” Though he left open several roads, sportsman Bill Endy complained: “They closed a road that’s been open for 60 years.”