* Wax Job: Boris Yeltsin, popular opponent...

* Wax Job: Boris Yeltsin, popular opponent of the coup attempt in the Soviet Union, has been asked by officials at Madame Tussaud’s waxworks in London to pose for them. Yeltsin, the president of the Russian Federation, would be the first Soviet leader to pose for the famous museum of world and historical personalities. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is on view, but his model was sculpted from photographs.

* Big Catch: Alaska Gov. Walter J. Hickel is offering millions of pounds of excess salmon to the Soviet Union “to celebrate the victory of democracy. . . . We offer this to you and your people in the spirit of goodwill and assistance,” Hickel wrote the Soviet ambassador. But Hickel issued a caution: The fish should be given, not sold, to Soviet citizens.

* No Steam: Pardon me boy. Is that ticket on the Chattanooga Choo-Choo really $3,000? It was, before poor ticket sales derailed the Choo-Choo Golden Anniversary Special, a planned Sept. 8-10 vintage-train excursion to mark the 50th anniversary of Glenn Miller’s recording of “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.” Promoters in Chattanooga, Tenn., had booked whistle stops in Philadelphia, Washington and Atlanta--all mentioned in the song.

* Police Story: A deputy sheriff and his wife pleaded innocent Wednesday in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., to running a prostitution ring, while their lawyer said they were only coping with his impotence and her nymphomania. Deputy Jeffrey Willets, 40, walked into court clasping the hand of his wife, Kathy, 33. Police found detailed records of transactions, including customer’s whims, in her husband’s police car. Defense lawyer Ellis Rubin, fending off doubting questions about the Willets’ alibi, said: “I did not make this up.”