Rough Seas: It was a bad time...

Rough Seas: It was a bad time at sea for George Bush. And we’re not talking the Persian Gulf here. On Monday, the President’s speedboat conked out off Kennebunkport, Me., with Canada Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and his wife, Mila, aboard. Alternator burnout was the alleged culprit. The party transferred to a trailing Coast Guard boat. Then on Tuesday, Bush got hooked in the ear while fishing with son Jeb and Mulroney. “It was not a hostile act,” Mulroney joked. Diplomatic sources said it was Jeb who landed his father.

* Now See This: A group of women protesting what they said were unfair, outdated laws about public wear led a topless march Monday through downtown Madison, Wis. “My breasts are not disorderly,” read a sign carried by one protester; another sign read “Breasts, not bombs.” The march followed a court hearing in which Marcia Weisman pleaded innocent to a charge of disorderly conduct for refusing to wear a top at a Madison public beach. She said it was unfair that men could go shirtless in public but not women. There were no arrests.

* Oh Say Can You See: Leona Helmsley, whose husband, Harry, has a controlling interest in the Empire State Building, said Monday the skyscraper will be lit in the colors of the American flag until the Persian Gulf crisis is resolved. The lights go on today. Helmsley is appealing a federal tax conviction.

* A Little Respect: Businessman Warren Meyer wants to enshrine junk mail in a museum. “There’s a lot more to junk mail than Ed McMahon’s handsome face,” said Meyer, known as the “junk mail king.” He said junk mail suffers from a negative image; he hopes his museum, due to open in mid-1991 in Los Angeles, will deliver some respect.