Remember Watergate? John Ehrlichman does, probably somewhat differently from you and me. The former Nixon aide says that the effect of Watergate on the nation is "like pretty girls . . . not entirely good and not entirely bad." Anyone interested in more such pearls from Ehrlichman can tune in on his new 2 1/2-min., five-day-a-week radio commentary, The View from Here, airing Oct. 2 on more than 900 stations. In a promo record, he comments on the upcoming Begin-Sadat meeting at Camp David. Noting that there is only one kitchen that serves guests at the presidential retreat, he asks: "Do you suppose the Egyptians will have to eat kosher?" Anyone for a few 2 1/2-min. tape gaps?

"I am a chess fanatic," says Op Artist Victor Vasarely, a resident of Gordes in the South of France. So when Actor Curt Jurgens invited him for a few games at his villa in nearby Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Vasarely arrived with chess set in hand. And not just any old set. The artist himself had designed the Plexiglas board and chessmen. Says Vasarely modestly: "It is an immense pleasure for the eye." He now plans to sell signed and numbered copies of his creation. The price: $1,500.

When the tourists arrive, head the other way. That is the motto of British Author Graham Greene, who flees his home in Antibes, France, each summer for less crowded haunts. On his third trip to Panama, a favorite spot, Greene visited Panamanian Chief of State Omar Torrijos. "I have not even concluded whether I have done good or bad," Torrijos told his guest. "It's like going to the gas station. You pay and the pump returns to zero. Every time I awake I am back to zero."

The smile is winning, the grasp firm. Is that a future politician swaddled in those blankets? Well, Baby Jennie's Grandpa Nixon lived in the White House and so did her Great-Grandpa Eisenhower. But Jennie's parents, Julie and David Eisenhower aren't sending her on the hustings yet. As for Nixon's view of his granddaughter's future, he says: "There's only one area I'll try to influence her in. She'll be an Angels fan."

On the Record

Humberto Cardinal Medeiros,

Archbishop of Boston, when informed in Rome that the Red Sox were 8 1/2 games ahead: "Deo Gratias."

Art Buchwald, humorist, speaking at Boston's Emerson College: "Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time you've got."

Edward Heath, former British Prime Minister and now a conductor of the European Community Youth Orchestra, when asked to compare his two careers: "At least the conductor and the orchestra are trying to reach the same destination, which isn't always the case in politics."

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