Thirsty for Watergate

The controversy surrounding the Whitewater financial affair has been a fiasco so far for President Clinton’s Administration, but at least it has helped Yorba Linda’s tourism business.

Kevin Cartwright, assistant director at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace there, says that the number of visitors to the museum has surged about 20% this month, which he attributes directly to a Whitewater-inspired curiosity about the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon’s resignation nearly 20 years ago.

Cartwright believes that the frequent comparisons to Watergate that the press is making have inspired people to check out the museum’s Watergate exhibit, the largest of the museum’s 22 exhibit areas. Older people are refreshing their memories, he said, while many younger people are studying Watergate in detail for the first time.

Especially popular, Cartwright notes, is an exhibit in which Nixon on tape fields some questions about the scandal.

In one response, Nixon quotes Winston Churchill as saying “great leaders do the big things well but they tend to stumble on the little things . . . in this case, a little thing became a big thing and of course destroyed us.”

Sole Man

Paramount Communications takeover winner Sumner Redstone no doubt hopes he won’t lose his shirt as a result of the $12-billion acquisition.

He almost lost a shoe already.

In a talk last week to film exhibitors in Las Vegas, the Viacom chief told how one of his shoes slipped off his foot in a deep New York City snow bank the night last month when he was waiting for shareholders to decide between his bid and the rival one by QVC Inc.’s Barry Diller.

Redstone said passersby hunted through the snow bank while he stood by in the cold. One man went into a store to get a shovel, he said, and found it.

Redstone said that when he asked the stranger what he could do for him the man replied: “Nothing. I just want you to be healthy when you win Paramount tomorrow.”

Something for Everyone

Now there’s a catalogue to help you sort out even the obscure catalogues being published.

Catalogues featured in “The Best Catalogs in the World” include a “Northern Sun” catalogue that sells politically correct items, a catalogue with more than 200 kinds of playing cards, a catalogue of dragon sculptures and another showing T-shirts, tableware and other items featuring pictures of cows.

Briefly . . .

Help wanted: Auditions are scheduled for Wednesday for “Super Strawberry, the 1994 California Strawberry Festival Official Mascot.” . . . Metropolis magazine includes a postcard in its issues encouraging readers to “recycle this card” by sending it back with a subscription order. . . . American Demographics magazine says Americans are skeptical of “green” products, with only 30% believing ads claiming a product is better for the environment than a competitors’ brand.