Hock the House: Sotheby’s, the auction house,...

Hock the House: Sotheby’s, the auction house, slapped a lawsuit on lawyer Marvin Mitchelson Monday, saying he still owes $975,000 for jewelry once owned by the late Duchess of Windsor. And if he does not have the cash, his house will do. Mitchelson claims he has no assets, says Sotheby’s, while “living in a multimillion-dollar estate in the Hollywood Hills.” The lawyer had no comment.

Tuesday Knockout: “Tue$day Night Out,” New York’s much-ballyhooed plan to boost business on Tuesday with lower restaurant and theater prices, stayed home. “Tuesday what?” said the night manager of Beefsteak Charlie’s, which had signed up for the plan. “I don’t know of any such thing.” The boss at Rumpelmayer’s ice cream shop first heard of the plan from a customer who became chilled when she learned that prices had not been discounted.

A Toast: British Conservative Party members living in the Washington, D.C., area got a bit of a boost from home Tuesday from Jeffrey Archer. The famed thriller author put up for auction a bottle of House of Commons Scotch, specially distilled for Parliament. The bottle was signed by two of Archer’s pals, Prime Minister John Major and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and sold for $500.

Slow Down: Singaporean men are too busy making money to make babies, a member of parliament said. Arthur Beng told the House he was worried that unless something was done, “I believe the last traces of libido . . . will simply evaporate.” He said pressures of work and reserve military duties left the men too stressed to enjoy sex. Why the worry? The nation’s birth rate is slipping.