* Royal Tempest: Is Britain’s royal family...

* Royal Tempest: Is Britain’s royal family taking the war too lightly? “This country is at war, though you would never believe it from the shenanigans of some members of her majesty’s clan,” the Sunday Times said. Sarah Ferguson was upbraided for staying on a January ski trip until “hostilities actually broke out.” Prince Edward was chastised for not taking his theatrical company to entertain troops in the Gulf. Lord Linley, the queen’s nephew, was pictured in another paper, wearing lipstick, a party dress and posing with men in drag.

* Did I Write That? The CIA helped undermine the Iran-Contra criminal investigation by providing witnesses with “stunning memory lapses,” charged federal prosecutor Jeffrey R. Toobin. Even when confronted with documents they themselves wrote, the officials’ memories went blank, Toobin said in his new book, “Opening Arguments”: “Chin in hand, they would study the document in exaggerated bewilderment, like a desert nomad reading directions for how to build an igloo.”

* Broken Heart: One valentine for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor almost did not arrive. As O’Connor lunched with members of the Palm Beach County Bar Assn. in West Palm Beach, Fla., hotel security men stopped a disheveled man carrying the missive. He was not charged because “it’s not against the law to pass a valentine to a Supreme Court justice,” said a police officer.

* Coloration: For the first time in its 88-year history, the maker of Crayola crayons is brightening up. High-tech colors dubbed Silver Swirls give crayons a metallic silver appearance with swirls. The new hues debuted at the International Toy Fair in New York. “These are special-effect crayons that let kids achieve qualities they can’t with ordinary crayons,” said company spokesman Brad Drexler.