Rat Race: Barbara Bush has revealed that...

Rat Race: Barbara Bush has revealed that a rat was swimming in the White House pool with her several months ago. Bush said in an interview with the Houston Post that the rat “just went by in front of me . . . . I was out of that pool so much faster than I thought I could.”

Hospital Report: Surgeon Thomas Starzl, 64, was expected to be back seeing patients this week after undergoing coronary surgery in the Pittsburgh hospital he helped make famous for innovative transplants. He was released Tuesday from Presbyterian-University Hospital, where doctors removed a blockage from his right coronary artery. Starzl, who performed the world’s first successful liver transplant in 1967, was admitted Sunday with chest pains. “He’s doing quite well,” said Starzl’s physician, Bruce Wilson. “We expect a speedy recovery.”

His Other Kitchen Cabinet: Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th U.S. President, apparently had considerable culinary skills, according to Ed and Candace Russoli, authors of “Ike the Cook.” The book includes 32 recipes and photographs of Ike in an apron. Some of his specialties were vegetable soup and squirrel stew. The recipes come from Eisenhower’s former staff members and from Eisenhower’s archives.

Respite: Embattled Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry spent part of the weekend with James Usry, who faces charges of corruption resulting from his tenure as mayor of Atlantic City, N.J. Barry, on trial in connection with drug possession and perjury charges, said he was in Atlantic City to relax, and he and Usry joined their wives Sunday at church services. Usry is charged with accepting a bribe and was defeated in his reelection bid last month.