In tiny (pop. 2,371) Poecking, West Germany, Archduke Otto of Habsburg, 46, son of the last Austro-Hungarian monarch (Charles I) and pretender to the nonexistent Austrian throne, admitted that he had given up the good fight for feudalism, hoped to enter his homeland (from which he was barred so long as he wanted to run it) as just plain Dr. Otto Habsburg. The likely new pretender: Otto's younger brother, Archduke Robert, 44, who waits for the impossible, in Paris.

A meandering four years after love walked in, husky-throated Singing Cinemactress Julie London, ex-wife of Dragnet's Joe Friday, and Composer-Pianist Bobby Troup decided to make a wedding of it (in mid-December), left their joint business manager to utter the thought-provoking explanation: "They suddenly discovered there's no reason not to be married."

Budding Novelist Helga (The Wheel of Earth) Sandburg recalled, for the Saturday Review, some early impressions of an awed offspring of her poet father Carl. One revelation: Liberty Lover Carl often proved less than democratic about the egalitarian reading habits of his kiddies. "I remember," wrote Helga, "an odd group of books called Bongo, the Jungle Boy. This is etched on my brain because one evening my father stopped in at my room to say goodnight as he was going to his attic quarters. Bongo sailed across the room flapping while a thundering voice reverberated, 'Life's too short for this damned tripe.' "

Amid the jollity of a Dallas wingding, wise old Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, 76, plunked down at a handy piano with the boyish, mop-topped guest of honor, added an uneasy basso ostinato to the sure-handed treble provided by Van Cliburn. Texas-bred Van, drawled Sam, is "a glowing symbol of the 98 1/2% of American boys who are good."

Tireless Name-Dropper Elsa Maxwell, reporting for the Hearstpapers her latest encounters with the well-known, recorded some brief banter with a sly curmudgeon of old. "I once asked Bernard Shaw which was his favorite Shakespearean comedy," wrote Elsa, "and he replied. 'Othello.' 'But Othello is not a comedy,' I told him. 'It's a tragedy.' Mr. Shaw quipped, 'Any play whose plot hangs on a lady's handkerchief must be a comedy.' "

In New Delhi, India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru spied a familiar face (his own), happily gave the verdict on a wax bust molded by a local sculptress named Viramani: as good as anything he'd ever seen at London's famed Madame Tussaud's. After a minor touch-up job and correction of a faux pas--the plaque at the base of the bust added a year to Nehru's 69--the present from Sculptress Viramani goes on permanent display at his home.

Crooner Eddie Fisher, who can use some good publicity these days, set up a $2,000 award in modern music and a $4,000 award for classical music at Brandeis University, both named for banjo-eyed Vaudevillian Eddie Cantor, who gave Fisher his first show-biz break nine years ago. Appointed advisers for the scholarships: Cantor for the modern, dynamic Conductor Leonard Bernstein for the classical.

Flashing their serene smiles to one and all, Monaco's royal croupiers, Grace and Rainier, arrived in Manhattan for a month-long visit. By the end of their first week, the beaming couple had managed a circumspect pub crawl, shared a turkey (33 lbs.) with the Philadelphia Kellys, nibbled on the inevitable hot dog at the Army-Navy game.

At the Thanksgiving Day chow line while on maneuvers near Grafenwoehr, West Germany, G.I. Dreamboat Elvis Presley flashed a newly won sign of official esteem: the lone stripe of a private first class. Groaned the jeep-driving Pelvis: "I'm proud to have a stripe."

Rejoined for the moment in wedded bliss with her oft-alienated Hotelkeeper Husband Andy, Minnesota's handsome lame-duck Congresswoman Coya Knutson* summoned a Washington press conference, let it be known that she was asking a House committee to nose into a dastardly Republican plot that led to her loss. Key ploys in her story of Machiavellian tactics: 1) at G.O.P. urging, Andy had been beguiled into penning his "Coya come home" letter last spring (TIME, May 19); 2) on Election Day, Andy had been further suckered into filing a $200,000 damage suit (since dropped) against Coya's innocent Assistant Bill Kjeldahl for alienation of affections and slander (sample complaint: Bill had called Andy an "impotent old alcoholic"). As the angered opposition rumbled out stern denials, a House spokesman said it would make a check. Likely prospect: Coya will stay on the beaten track.

Oft-lionized Novelist W. Somerset Maugham, 84, unleashed himself from a human bondage borne for some 60 years, reaffirmed his long-standing threat to write no more. "From now on," he explained, "I shall travel and see the places 1 went to 30 years ago and would like to see once more before I die." Among the Grand Old Party's improbable old haunts: Tibet, Malaya, Thailand.

* Blitzed by Republican Odin Langen, Coya had the dubious honor of being the only Democratic incumbent not re-elected to the House.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.