House Siting?: On those occasions when you...

House Siting?: On those occasions when you think about Thomas Jefferson’s home, you think of Monticello, right? Well, the scoop from Shadwell, Va., is that archeologists may have found the site of his childhood home, which should answer the big question: Did Jefferson come from money? There always has been some question regarding the social standing of Jefferson’s parents and the origins of Jefferson himself, said William Kelso, director of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation. Historians believe Jefferson lived in his childhood home for about 20 years before moving to his own pad in Monticello. Eventually--as we all know--he got a bigger place in Washington.

Day One: Let’s see, now. On her first full day as Miss America, Carolyn Suzanne Sapp had her faced licked by an English sheep dog, jumped in the air for photographers, wore her 736-rhinestone crown, sat at a table with her parents, said things like, “This is just so exciting,” and went to the beach in Atlantic City--no doubt a treat for Sapp, the contestant from Hawaii. All this, of course, makes her a prime target for “Late Night With David Letterman,” where she is scheduled to appear this week. Letterman has never been particularly kind to his Miss America guests. “Hopefully, I won’t have any sarcasm from him,” said Sapp.

Ah, Sentiment: What will $10,000 buy? For an anonymous collector, it got one of two black latex death masks molded from John Dillinger’s face. (Auctioneers also threw in two wax impressions of Dillinger’s face.) The mask shows the bank robber’s pencil-thin mustache and a bullet hole, put there in 1934 when he was gunned down by the FBI. The mask was made, without FBI permission, to illustrate a new technique for taking facial molds, according to documents. The other mask is in the hands of the FBI.

Drum Roll, Please: If Dr. Ruth Westheimer had a fantasy date, who would the gentleman be? “If I were not married . . . and didn’t know my husband . . . Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf,” she confessed recently on a radio talk show.