Old Hatchets: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher put...

Old Hatchets: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher put aside old political wounds Wednesday and went to a lunch in London honoring former Prime Minister Edward Heath. Though he has kept up steady criticism of her policies, he warmly welcomed her to the affair.

Love Letters: French papers are taking up sides over the publication of letters from Simone de Beauvoir to Jean-Paul Sartre, which concentrate on her affair with him and her bisexual love life. The newspaper Le Monde said Wednesday that “anyone who loves life will find these letters delicious,” while Liberation said “this suffocating display is a crime.” She said of her conquests: “When I see all these dropouts and all these little, nice and weak people . . . it pleases me to think how solid we are, you and I. I’ve found up to now that it is a success for our morality and way of life.”

Strange Bedfellows: Vice President Dan Quayle announced Thursday that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), will accompany him to the March 11 presidential inauguration of Patricio Aylwin in Chile. Quayle, champion of the Republican right, held a photo session with Kennedy, symbol of the Democratic left, saying “It shows the bipartisan commitment to the advancement of democracy in Chile and the Western Hemisphere.” Aylwin replaced military dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Light Debt: Seymour Durst, president of a real estate company in New York, has a unique way of reminding people of the size of the U.S. debt. “It’s a sign 10 feet by 25 feet we put up on 42nd and 6th Avenue,” he explained to Mark Patinkin of the Providence Journal in Providence. R.I. “It shows the debt, all 13 digits of it, in flashing lights.” The electronic sign, which now totals up to more than $3,000,000,000,000, continually updates itself. “The debt increases $8,000 a second,” said Durst.