* Plotting an Overthrow?: Norman Mailer, honored...

* Plotting an Overthrow?: Norman Mailer, honored as New York’s official author, jokingly urged other states to grant similar awards to create a body of writers who could act as an opposition government. “This idea may be a consummate bummer,” Mailer said, “but I think it’s worth a try. . . . Now that we no longer have that moribund, decrepit, sad, Third World country--the Soviet Union--to be our evil empire, we have to contemplate the evil empire within our own borders.”

* Outlaw Lawman: A police officer in Mishawaka, Ind., pleaded guilty to stealing a pair of tickets to a rock ‘n’ roll concert from the body of a motorist killed in a car crash. Officer Leroy Witucki gave George Thorogood concert tickets to a family member, who sold them. Relatives of the crash victim were surprised when the ticket holders sat next to them at the concert three weeks after the accident. Witucki faces up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

* Back at You: Marilyn Quayle picked up her own poison pen to duel “Doonesbury,” the comic strip lampooning Dan Quayle. In South Portland, Me., for a speech, the wife of the vice president singled out the strip’s story line about an alleged cover-up of a drug probe directed at her husband. “I think it is time we stood up and said we won’t tolerate this anymore,” said Quayle. News organizations said they had found the allegations of drug use unproven.

* Name Game: Miyazawa is the name of Japan’s new prime minister, but when Japan’s most famous Miyazawa became the subject of a book of nude photographs, pictures of the office holder were not to be seen. The most famous Miyazawa in Japan is 18-year-old Rie Miyazawa, a model and actress--no relation to politician Kiichi Miyazawa. All 100,000 copies of the book were snatched up Wednesday, the first day of sale.