Well-Suited: House Speaker Thomas Foley (D-Wash.) used...

Well-Suited: House Speaker Thomas Foley (D-Wash.) used to bulge out of his suits. Today, he has lost more than 50 pounds with a medically supervised liquid diet and with sessions on exercise machines. He says he’s “about 60%” toward his weight goal--which he won’t reveal. But nobody’s perfect. One sharp-eyed snoop spotted Foley packing a shopping cart with frozen dinners.

Prized Words: Augusto Roa Bastos of Paraguay has received the Cervantes Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards. He said in Spain the award was “a double honor, for my work and for the culture of my country.” Roa Bastos wrote “I, the Chief,” a novel about 19th-Century Paraguay. He said he would use the $93,000 gift to make books available cheaply in his homeland.

LBJ’s Way: Lyndon Johnson didn’t hesitate to criticize John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt, according to a September, 1965, interview the former President gave historian William Leuchtenburg that is published in the current American Heritage magazine. Johnson said: “No man knew less about Congress than John Kennedy.” LBJ said of Roosevelt’s Social Security, labor-management and business-regulation laws: “None of it compares to my education act.”

Helping Hands: George Bush presented volunteer awards Friday in Washington, D.C., to 19 people, including Lucia Rede Madrid, a retired school teacher who established a library for the poor in Redford, Tex., and Clarence Wilson, 17, who helped develop a community anti-crime watch program in St. Louis. Bush said in a White House ceremony: “Any definition of a successful life must include serving others.”