Amnesia

Jimmy Smith encountered the first test of his blossoming career when the Ravens rookie cornerback was targeted often in Sunday night's 34-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers. Starting for the injured Lardarius Webb, Smith, the organization's first-round pick in April, was targeted at least five times in the first half by quarterback Philip Rivers, and Smith eventually surrendered a 28-yard touchdown to wide receiver Malcom Floyd in the third quarter. After the game, Smith chalked it up to a learning experience.

The grades for the year are in,and Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold has received a C- from an environmental group disillusioned with his handling of conservation issues. The Anne Arundel chapter of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters faulted Leopold, whom it had previously endorsed, for not living up to promises it said he'd made about enforcing environmental laws and regulations - and for what it called his "utter failure" to push for county funding for controlling polluted storm-water runoff.

May brings variety, in nature and in novels. Garden, park, beach or bathtub: choose a place, settle in and marvel at the luxuriant new crop of spring fiction.Don't be deceived by the jacket copy on Elizabeth Berg's sixth novel, "What We Keep" (Random House, 288 pages, $23). This book may look like bland women's magazine fiction at first glance, but it's in a different class altogether, bringing to mind such highbrow novels of girlhood as Lisa Shea's "Hula" and Susan Minot's "Monkeys."Ginny Young is flying to California for a reunion with her mother, with whom she's had no contact in 35 years.

Jimmy Smith encountered the first test of his blossoming career when the Ravens rookie cornerback was targeted often in Sunday night's 34-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers. Starting for the injured Lardarius Webb, Smith, the organization's first-round pick in April, was targeted at least five times in the first half by quarterback Philip Rivers, and Smith eventually surrendered a 28-yard touchdown to wide receiver Malcom Floyd in the third quarter. After the game, Smith chalked it up to a learning experience.

MIAMI -- He's young. He's scared. And he has no idea who he is.The mystery man with amnesia is the latest twist in Hurricane Andrew's indiscriminate trail of misery.Nails bitten to the nub, he picks some more. Eyes to the ground, he chain-smokes and says quietly, "I want to know who I am."The GIs with the 82nd Airborne called him Joe. They've been his buddies since Tuesday, when he showed up in a daze at their encampment on Krome Avenue in Homestead, Fla."Strange," he said, still talking to the ground.

What's hot? Well, R&B vocalist Alicia Keys - she's this year's "hot chanteuse," according to Rolling Stone. And the "hot book du jour," says Daily Variety, is the new Walter Kirn novel Up in the Air. And, improbable as it might seem, tourists and travelers have made Iceland a "hot destination," reports USA Today. Useful information? Maybe, but mundane all the same. How about something a little less obvious? What, for example, is the hot neurological disorder? Clearly, it's amnesia. To wit: The English rock band Radiohead's recently released fifth album is titled Amnesiac.

Critic's Pick-- Amnesia and bad luck land a war veteran (Adrien Brody, above) in a barbaric insane asylum in The Jacket (8 p.m.-10 p.m., Cinemax).

How did Hollywood, where people like to pat themselves on the back over how socially progressive they are, end up in a labor showdown over pennies? This industry is responsible for movies like Norma Rae with Sally Field, John Sayles' Matewan and The Grapes of Wrath - movies that trumpet the triumph of the working stiff. Hollywood is so proud of itself that the 2006 Oscar show paid video tribute to the town's social consciousness. So how can that industry let its labor relations devolve to this point?

Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts Clive James W.W. Norton / 876 pages / $35 In Cultural Amnesia, the prodigious critic Clive James succumbs to a mighty ambition: In 100-plus alphabetically arranged essays, he pays homage to the vast Western humanist enterprise (writing, filmmaking, music, philosophy, theater), defending it from myriad enemies. I don't fault his intelligence or erudition: This Australian omnivore has read, traveled and thought more than perhaps any critic alive.

Is there any older, creakier, deader movie bit than . . . amnesia? Really, not even Carbon-14 dating methods could unearth the first time this ancient stroke was employed by a desperate storyteller. Surely it was sometime in the Jurassic.Now here's "Clean Slate," which builds a whole movie around amnesia. Talk about despair! It's a festival of strained, grasping, sweaty almost-gags and near-jokes.Dana Carvey, as wan a screen presence as he is dynamic a tube presence, plays a Los Angeles private detective named Maurice Pogue who has received a brain injury in the middle of a case.

Dancers drew inspiration this week from famous movie scores. That meant lightsabers, suspension cables, swords, whips and lots of other flashy props. Oh, and there was some dancing, too. Unfortunately, a few dancers lost focus on their actual choreography - perhaps distracted by all those extra props. Best dancing: Ricki Lake's and Derek Hough's tango to "Psycho. " The technical execution and acting surpassed all others of the night. They were just 1 point shy of earning three perfect 10s from the judges.

How did Hollywood, where people like to pat themselves on the back over how socially progressive they are, end up in a labor showdown over pennies? This industry is responsible for movies like Norma Rae with Sally Field, John Sayles' Matewan and The Grapes of Wrath - movies that trumpet the triumph of the working stiff. Hollywood is so proud of itself that the 2006 Oscar show paid video tribute to the town's social consciousness. So how can that industry let its labor relations devolve to this point?

It was a big week, what with Stanford beating USC in football, of all things, and with a second-string quarterback starting his first college game, and on the same day political riots in Bern complete with rock throwing and tear gas - the Swiss! Acting up in the streets! - and on the very same October day it was 85 degrees and muggy in Minnesota. One jolt to our belief system after another. And then Cosmopolitan magazine offered to show us how to achieve the "blended orgasm" - I had no idea there was one!

Why don't they take Ambien off the market? I spoke to a friend who drove 20 miles at 7:30 in the morning and doesn't remember a thing that happened. Another driver saw him weaving around on the road and called 911. The thing that bothers me is that not one doctor at the hospital asked him whether he had taken Ambien. They did many tests and sent him home, saying he had global amnesia (whatever that is). He just found out about the new warnings that are going to be on the bottle. We have heard from others who have also reported "sleep driving" while under the influence of Ambien.

Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts Clive James W.W. Norton / 876 pages / $35 In Cultural Amnesia, the prodigious critic Clive James succumbs to a mighty ambition: In 100-plus alphabetically arranged essays, he pays homage to the vast Western humanist enterprise (writing, filmmaking, music, philosophy, theater), defending it from myriad enemies. I don't fault his intelligence or erudition: This Australian omnivore has read, traveled and thought more than perhaps any critic alive.

Critic's Pick-- Amnesia and bad luck land a war veteran (Adrien Brody, above) in a barbaric insane asylum in The Jacket (8 p.m.-10 p.m., Cinemax).

"Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days," by Jared Cade. Dufour Editions. 258 pages. $39.95.For one of the most influential mystery writers of all time, Agatha Christie came off as something of a rank amateur when she authored her own 11-day disappearance in 1926. She talked too much, she gave conflicting explanations. Even then, the press was scornful of the official explanation -- amnesia -- and cynical enough to suggest it was all a publicity stunt for the writer who had just published her sixth novel, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd."

They had talked many times before, each discussion a little grimmer than the one before. Now, both knew all hope was lost to the unrelenting march of AIDS. Dr. Lisa Smirnow reached into a drawer and pulled out a plastic magic wand and announced, "Now, I'm going to sprinkle fairy dust on you." And she did. "Can you imagine saying that to a homosexual man?" asked Margaret Blandin-Clark, a friend of 14 years and director of behavioral medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

BOSTON -- So it comes down to 9/11. Again. The president has drawn a great dividing line through the country, separating his supporters from his critics. Again. This time, those who see a presidency run amok are not just labeled "defeatists." They are considered amnesiacs. This time, those who oppose torture are diagnosed with short-term memory loss. Those who are outraged at domestic snooping are people who have forgotten to be afraid. The president's "humble" speech from the Oval Office contained the inevitable line: "September the 11th, 2001, required us to take every emerging threat to our country seriously."

ON THE SEA OF MEMORY Jonathan Cott Random House / 218 pages ONE SPRING DAY IN MANHATTAN in 1998, the esteemed journalist Jonathan Cott woke up to a depression so severe that he instantly landed in the hospital. Over the next two years, desperate for relief, he underwent a course of electroconvulsive therapy treatments. That is, Cott, then in his mid-50s, received a series of split-second blasts of 200-volt current through the frontal lobes of his brain. Electroshock is still controversial.