Garage Sale Soon: When a Minnesota newspaper...

Garage Sale Soon: When a Minnesota newspaper published a purported inventory of the governor’s mansion--including 156 chairs, six television sets and 26 sofas--a miffed Gov. Rudy Perpich and his wife, Lola, responded by proposing the state sell off the place. In a huff at what she called criticism of her family’s life style, Lola Perpich said that she and the governor will ask the 1990 Legislature to sell the mansion and its contents and donate the proceeds to help the homeless. The state attorney general’s office will determine if a sale of the 1910 mansion is possible.

Queen of the Bile: Today’s the big day for hotel queen Leona Helmsley. U.S. Dist. Judge John M. Walker Jr. will decide whether the dust-busting innkeeper will exchange her designer clothes for a prison uniform. Convicted Aug. 30 of evading $1.2 million in federal taxes, the 69-year-old Helmsley could get up to 127 years in prison.

Helmets On: Gary Busey, recovering from the head injury he suffered in a motorcycle accident, has changed his mind and now advocates the use of helmets. “Next time you’re doing 45 miles per hour, look at the curb and think about slam-dancing with it once, and you’ll start thinking about helmets,” Busey said on the “Arsenio Hall Show.” He was not wearing a helmet when his motorcycle struck a Culver City curb, and in the months after the accident, he insisted on his right not to wear head protection.

Animal Cracker: “Santa Paws” Bill Stovall wore flea-and-tick powder in his red outfit last weekend in Pensacola, Fla., when he played Santa for about 100 animals in a fund-raiser for the Pensacola Humane Society. For $5, pets could climb into Santa’s lap and ask for a Christmas bone. “I’ve never had a pet that is obnoxious, but every once in a while you get a kid that is,” Stovall said.