PERSONALITIES

On Ash Wednesday, March 4, Washingtonians will be seeing Mitch Snyder, actor Martin Sheen and other Hollywood celebrities awakening after a night on the city's heating grates. And among them should be a number of congressmen. Reps. Tony Coelho, Mickey Leland and Stewart McKinney are sending a "Dear Colleague" letter around the Hill today, seeking other members of Congress to join the "Grate American Sleep Out" that homelessness activist Snyder and Sheen are organizing for the night of March 3.

In the letter, the colleagues are invited to spend the night on the streets "as a demonstration of our determination to assist the homeless people of the United States. We are confident that this event will help to greatly increase public awareness and concern for the homeless around the nation." House Majority Whip Coelho said yesterday that "getting people to support a cause is easy; getting them to participate is more difficult." He said he will be sleeping on the streets that night and expects other congressmen to join him.

Theletter also includes an invitation to see a play, "Voice From the Streets," produced by the Community for Creative Non Violence, on March 4 in the Dirksen Auditorium. It will be narrated by Sheen, with songs by lifelong activist and folk singer Pete Seeger.

Out and About No dog will ever replace the famed C. Fred Bush, but a new dog is living in the vice president's mansion on Massachusetts Avenue. C. Fred died after a number of ailments and now the Bush family has a 1-year-old springer spaniel who arrived last weekend. The new brown-and-white, freckled member of the Bush family is named Millie, after a good friend, Mildred Kerr ...

Everybody has a favorite presidential ticket. Former Virginia governor Chuck Robb, hosting a fundraiser in his home for the Democratic Leadership Council Wednesday night, said his ticket was in the room: Sen. Sam Nunn and Rep. Bill Gray. Maybe he would have had something else to say if former senator Gary Hart and Rep. Richard Gephardt had been at the reception ...

All those 1950s rock stars seem to be seeking their place in history. Little Richard, 54, who sang such hits as "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti-Frutti," wants to see a movie made of his life and even though he hasn't found anyone interested in such a project, has decided that fading rock star Prince should play him ...

Dr. Benjamin Spock, who wrote the child-rearing bible for so many parents in his bestselling "Baby and Child Care," says he made a mistake. His mistake, the 83-year-old author said, was in warning mothers against returning to work. With increasing numbers of mothers working in the marketplace, Spock said in the 1986 edition of "Working Mother" that he has modified his advice "because a number of mothers told me I gave them a terrible sense of guilt." He now says a woman should work when "she needs to" ...

John Paul II, the athletic pope, was reportedly spotted skiing on the slopes Tuesday in the Apennine mountains northeast of Rome. A known ski buff, the pope was seen not in his usual white robes, but in a practical ski suit and a quilted hat. The Vatican would only say that John Paul II "spent a day privately at Ovindoli" ...

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.