Mideast Respite: The tall woman and her...

Mideast Respite: The tall woman and her security guards turned heads Monday at the Giant grocery in Washington, D.C. It was Jordan’s Queen Noor in black stirrup pants and a pink sweater. She bought $47 of candy and cookies, presumably for two of her children who had tagged along with their nanny.

Denial: Both Ronald Reagan and his longtime friend and political ally, former Sen. Paul Laxalt, are denying a report in Sidney Blumenthal’s “Pledging Allegiance” that Laxalt was strongly opposed to the selection of George Bush for vice president in 1980. In a letter to the Washington Post Tuesday, Laxalt said: “I felt (Bush’s) selection was a wise one and so indicated to Mr. Reagan at the time.” Reagan Tuesday accused Blumenthal of “untruths.” Blumenthal said Tuesday that he stands by his report.

Wedding Bells: Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, a son of Ethel Kennedy and the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, will marry Victoria Ann Strauss, a law student at the University of Virginia, where Kennedy also is a law student. A wedding is planned for July.

Special Visit: To honor the memory of his son Jed, author Ken Kesey went where he’d expect to find him. The Kesey family gathered early Monday on Mount Pisgah near Eugene, Ore., for installation of a bronze sculpture in memory of Jed Kesey and Lorenzo West, both of whom died six years ago in a traffic accident. Kesey’s daughter, Sunshine, had asked him where they might go to meet Jed if “somehow we were to die.” Kesey, who wrote “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” said: “Jed would know to meet me up here on Mount Pisgah.”