What presidential candidate insists that he keeps in trim by obeying his grandmother's injunction and eating cottage cheese laced with ketchup "until it runs out of my ears"? The answer can be found in this week's cover story. Such offbeat and often unexpected bits of information can be found in almost every section of the magazine, in almost every issue. A sampling from this week's stock:

Why is the mayor of a charming medieval French village threatening to paint its buildings red, blue and green? And why does la Patronne want the one word, Ouf!, on her tombstone? See THE WORLD, The Benefactress.

Who is "Big Daddy," and why is there a price of up to $15,000 on his head? See SPORT, Big Daddy, Won't You Please Come Home?

Who is Priscilla Goodbody, the imaginary little lady with the big scissors who keeps Johnny Carson from turning too blue? See TELEVISION, Talkathon of Comment.

Which high court of law has gone over the heads of the President and the Congress and decided that the U.S. is officially at war in Viet Nam? See THE LAW, What Is a War?

Where is a liberal education considered a waste of time, even when it is dressed up with black-gowned students and white-thatched, Oxford-style dons? See EDUCATION, Ivory Towers in Africa.

Where is the "ice-cream parlor" of Asia? See THE WORLD, The Troubled Truce.

Why is a small, efficient, private air force bombing the lush seaside acres of Monterey County, Calif.? See BUSINESS, Men v. Mice.

What philosophical thoughts might a priest have as he eats pepper steak with red wine while the heart of an other man beats in his breast? See MEDICINE, Questions of Conscience.

Where can the man who likes to travel light find a vacation house that he can pack into two suitcases and inflate with a bicycle pump after he arrives at a congenial resort? See MODERN LIVING, Preparing for the Year 2000.

Where did some of the angry natives so resent a local benefactor that they wore buttons proclaiming "No Man Is an Island"? See BUSINESS, Trading Up Nantucket.

Why is an artist like a prostitute? See Music, Second Fiddle con Brio.

What 19th century explorer thought a grizzly bear had led him straight into "the gates of Hell"? See SCIENCE, Percolators in the Earth.

Where was Woodrow Wilson's exasperated Vice President Thomas Marshall moved to complain, "What this country needs is a good 50 cigar!"? See NATION, Closing the Republic's Clubhouse.

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