The Press: Escape Artist

† Wrote Steinbeck: "When my grandchildren speak of their sugarplum eroticisms I can say, 'You see? This is how it was in my day. This Dragon Lady, with the figure of a debutante (if debutantes have figures) was one of your old man's girl friends.' "

* "We have had many requests to put the News on a freee list," wrote J.M.P., "but. . .the Government has money enough to provide subscriptions if it wishes to do so." He later relented a little.

* Crockett Johnson abandoned Barnaby last year, and Roy Crane gave up Wash Tubbs. Major Hoople, star boarder of Our Boarding House, did better after his creator Gene Ahern was replaced by a group of N.E.A. artists and writers.