Quayle-ing: George Bush, who sometimes says strange...

Quayle-ing: George Bush, who sometimes says strange things even when he is trying to make himself clear, baffled reporters with a one-word answer late last week. As he took an early-morning stroll with his wife, Barbara, to see Washington’s blooming cherry trees, a reporter asked about developments in Iraq. “Seven,” Bush replied, and climbed into his car. Asked later what he meant, the President chuckled: “It’s one more than six.”

Appealing: The sincerity of a witness’s tears will be at issue when attorneys for Pamela Smart file an appeal of her murder-accomplice conviction. A Smart defense attorney told the Boston Globe he has evidence that William Flynn, Smart’s teen-age lover, was faking when he broke down and cried on the witness stand as he described shooting Smart’s husband, Gregory, in the head last May in Exeter, N.H. “The day after he testified, we received information that indicates he was acting,” defense attorney Paul Twomey said. He did not describe the nature of the information.

Parting: The 23-year marriage of 88-year-old conservative Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) and his 44-year-old wife, Nancy, may be ending: They announced a separation last week. She said she wanted “some measure of independence.” He said the decision was “amicable.” The 1968 marriage was the talk of D.C. when the one-time Democrat married the ex-beauty queen. Tongues wagged that he was too old for the young woman, but he boasted about what great shape he was in and soon fathered four children, whose ages now range from 15 to 19.

Flapping: Adults may think it’s tacky but south Florida teen-agers think it’s “really wild” to leave the price tags and manufacturers’ throw-away tags on their sneakers, hats and clothes. Said Albert Hall, a Miami Beach High School senior who sports a $10.95 tag on his Los Angeles Raiders cap: “It’s noticeable. It looks lively when you walk. It’s flying around all over the place.”