20th Anniversary

In the annals of social interaction, Trivial Pursuit is a big deal. Word and board games had existed before 1982, when the brain tickler in a box became widely available, and of course people had gathered together for an evening of conversation before then. But no board game created for adults had ever become such a phenomenal success, even among those who didn't play cards or chess and who thought children's games like Monopoly were insomnia cures. Although its impact on social life at the end of the 20th century was not as profound as the invention of e-mail, Trivial Pursuit did start its own little revolution, fought by an army of competitors willing to take off their Walkman earphones, turn off their computers and leave the cathode-ray glow of their TV sets to play games designed for groups of grown-ups.

On the day he died, 20 years ago tomorrow, Jimi Hendrix wa at the peak of his career -- and deep in debt.The 27-year-old rocker was one of the most successful artists of the '60s psychedelic era. He had recorded five top-selling albums and was one of the highest-paid concert performers of his day ($125,000 per show). But he owed tens of thousands of dollars to his record company and was the target of numerous lawsuits, ranging from management contract disputes to a paternity suit.After his death, a series of bad investments and bitter litigation battles nearly drove his estate into bankruptcy.

LOS ANGELES -- Alistair Cooke can pinpoint the day he got the call about hosting a new show that was to take the best of British dramatic television and put it on PBS every week."

BOSTON - Before I raise my glass to John Edwards, may I take a moment to salute a little-known "mentioner" on a small island in Maine. Midway through the Fourth of July parade, behind the fire trucks and before the clowns, there was a family float bearing the message: Woman Veep in 2004. Were it not for this one handmade poster, I suspect that the only "mention" of a woman on the Democratic ticket this year would have been someone "mentioning" how no woman had been seriously "mentioned."

IT WAS RAINING and snowing and not at all the kind of weather any rational person would want to see on the eve of Opening Day. Outside the Orioles clubhouse, Jim Bradley, the trusty attendant, waved off any concern about baseball's official 2003 start in Charm City. "Are you kidding? With 48,000 tickets sold? They'll play," Jim said yesterday. Good, bad but definitely never indifferent, they'll play. Here's an Opening Day thought to ponder: What would Baltimore be like without the Orioles?

IN September someone pushed a syringe around the edge of a door at the building that houses the Northland Family Planning clinic and sprayed the vestibule with acid. The clinic was one of 14 in Michigan so targeted.On Christmas Eve, members of a Lutheran church in Omaha received postcards picturing a dismembered fetus.The mass mailing to 250 homes came after a worship service had been disrupted and scriptural graffiti painted in red on a church wall, all because one church member is a doctor who performs abortions.

The Clinton administration is asking a federal court to throw out a challenge by six members of Congress to a new law giving the president a line-item veto."

The Columbia Festival of the Arts has built a reputation for bringing new acts to familiar Columbia venues. This year, the organizers are presenting some familiar groups in new ways to celebrate the event's 20th anniversary. The festival is pairing renowned fiddler, violinist and composer Mark O'Connor with the Columbia Orchestra on Sunday, and the Columbia Pro Cantare will join the Minnesota Dance Theatre's performance of Carmina Burana on June 15. The festival has long offered opportunities to local performing groups and visual artists, particularly at the free LakeFest event, in workshops and at smaller venues.

My father's advice was that Feb. 14 be ruled out as a wedding date. "It could ruin Valentine's Day for the rest of your lives," he told us. We all laughed, my mother, my fiance and I. As it happened, we were married just before Christmas, in 1964. A few weeks shy of our 20th anniversary, he left. "We want different things," he said. "It's no one's fault."I was alternately sad, relieved and excited. One minute, I would be diligently working on my newspaper column. I'd write a line, a line I liked.

Sunday, May 19 Chamber music The Sundays at Three Chamber Music Series presents Duo Amaral at 3 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, 6800 Oakland Mills Rd. in Columbia. The duo will perform music by Scarlatti, Sammartini, Handel, Vivaldi, Franck and Rodrigo, written or arranged for two guitars. Tickets are $15 and free for those 17 and younger accompanied by a paying adult. Information: 443-288-3179 or sundaysatthree.org. Cookbook author appears Chabad of Clarksville and the Jewish Federation of Howard County host an evening with Joanne Caras, creator of the "Holocaust Survivor Cookbook" and "Miracles & Meals" cookbook, at 7:30 p.m. at the River Hill Village Center, 6020 Daybreak Cir. in Clarksville.