Take Note: Rumors of romance swirled around...

Take Note: Rumors of romance swirled around Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wartime driver, and letters with hints of their relationship will be auctioned this week at Sotheby’s in New York. Eisenhower, a married general during World War II and later President, wrote a note to Lt. Kay Summersby: “How about lunch, tea & dinner together? If yes: Who else do you want, if any? At which time? How are you?” It is signed “D.”

Does He Get Promoted?: The National Journal has given President Bush a C-plus grade for his handling of domestic issues, and the revealing right side of the report card says he “obeys classroom rules” and “works and plays well with others.” The report gave Bush no A’s and two D’s--in health care programs and poverty relief. And the President needs improvement in these areas: “finishes assignments,” “puts forth best effort” and “assumes responsibility.”

Second Thoughts: After Daniel Quinn of Austin, Tex., won the $500,000 Turner Tomorrow Award for a novel, authors and award judges William Styron, Peter Matthiessen and Wallace Stegner, all of whom recommended the book, said he didn’t deserve that big a prize. Quinn, 55, shrugged: “Awards are by their nature arbitrary.” Broadcast magnate Ted Turner established the competition to encourage novels “with creative and positive solutions to global problems.”

No Bail: Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson was just too busy. His mother called twice from behind the wooden bars of a mock jail recently in McCook, Neb., asking for $100 in bail that would go to the American Cancer Society, but Nelson was in meetings most of the morning and didn’t return the phone calls. Birdella Nelson, who agreed to be “arrested” to raise money for cancer research, got the money by calling others, and she laughed as she told her son: “It’s a good thing I didn’t have to wait on you.”