Love Notes: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is...

Love Notes: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is playing Cupid to a German hunger striker and her Iraqi fiance--dispensing romantic advice and showering gifts on the couple. Hussein plucked 23-year-old Silke Hottmann from relative obscurity Wednesday for an hourlong chat at one of his palaces. Hottmann, who went to Iraq last year to join a planned peace camp, ended a 13-day hunger strike at Hussein’s request last week after her doctor (and fiance), Ahmed Saleh, said she was about to lapse into a coma.

* Now, Voyager: A sailor who retraced Christopher Columbus’ route says it’s no accident the explorer found the New World. “He was right on the money,” said Douglas T. Peck, who stepped ashore Wednesday at the Bradenton, Fla., Yacht Club after a 9,000-mile transatlantic loop using compass headings from Columbus’s logs. Peck, 73, plans to repeat the voyage next year.

* In-House Change: Changing the name of a tiny Mississippi hamlet from Dirty Corners to New Hope has brought the five resident families more than just pride. They’re also getting new homes--with indoor plumbing. U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp said Wednesday that HUD will provide mobile homes until the new homes are ready. “This shows there’s people in the world that care,” said Susie Woodson, 43, who lives with her husband and eight children in a four-bedroom house with no toilet.

* Boola Boola: After 108 years, the last of Yale University’s all-male senior societies has agreed to admit women. Wolf’s Head followed the lead of Skull and Bones, the oldest, most prestigious of Yale’s secret societies, which voted in October to admit women. “I’m sorry it took so long, but I’m glad it finally happened,” said Yale President Benno C. Schmidt, a Wolf’s Head member.