(FORTUNE Magazine) – -- BARBARA BUSH, 63, on her role as a fashion trendsetter: ''My mail tells me that a lot of fat, white-haired, wrinkled ladies are tickled pink.''

-- GEORGE S. VEST, 70, personnel director at the State Department, on James Baker, the Secretary of State-designate, turning up at the Foggy Bottom cafeteria: ''Everyone was buzzing. It was sort of like Jackie Onassis at the '21' Club.''

-- GROVER PRICE, who runs an official inauguration souvenir stand in Washington, D.C., on being asked about his cheapest item, a $1 plastic cup: ''You shouldn't ask for the cheapest, you should ask for the least expensive. This is Republican stuff, and they don't use the word cheap.''