Back In Baltimore

David Blumberg of Baltimore is the head of the city's Republican party and a delegate to the Republican National Convention. A librarian at the Baltimore City Detention Center, he is writing each day about his thoughts and experiences.Both of our congresswomen are with us this morning. Connie Morella is one of the most hospitable people I've ever met in political or private life. Her ever-present smile and pleasant demeanor make her a delight.Helen Bentley, however, is the better dresser.

Irving Cohen, a Baltimore businessman who with his wife started one of the earliest treatment centers in Maryland for alcoholics, died of cancer Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 87. Born in Baltimore, Mr. Cohen was a 1934 graduate of City College and attended the old Baltimore Business College. Before World War II, he started the Parkton Co., a Baltimore business that originally sold neckties but became a men's sportswear manufacturer and wholesaler. His work at the company was interrupted by the war. His father ran the business while Mr. Cohen served as a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps.

First Union Corp., which came to Baltimore in small numbers last year but vowed to become a force in the market someday, this month decided to pare back both its personnel and physical presence in the area.The Charlotte, N.C.-based banking company said yesterday that Ronald C. Fowler, president of the nine-branch Baltimore division, has been named to head a 22-branch operation for First Union in Bristol, Va., the company's new southwestern Virginia "hub," according to Hugh Long, president of First Union's Capital Area operations.

HOWARD UNIVERSITY and Kurt L. Schmoke should be a perfect match. Eager to win back its standing as a pre-eminent producer of African-American lawyers, the university chose a leader of stature and accomplishment who is likely to flourish as Howard's new law school dean. Mr. Schmoke arrives in time to help the District of Columbia school celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education, the epochal U.S. Supreme Court decision desegregating the nation's public schools. That case was argued by Howard Law School graduate and Baltimore native Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first black member of the nation's highest court.

BOSTON -- It figures that this city, which takes sports so seriously, would take the death of Reggie Lewis so hard.Not that the pain is felt exclusively here, where he played college and professional basketball and captained the sacred Celtics. I haven't been in Baltimore for 10 days now, but I'm sure Lewis' hometown must be grieving, too.There's something about his life and death that transcends every barrier, even the racial one, and it's this: We like our heroes as big as we can get them, and we need their journeys to be complete.

DENVER -- Some would call him undisciplined, others merely undaunted. Some college coaches backed away from Kevin Norris during his senior year at Lake Clifton High School, or merely forgot about him during his one season at Maine Central Institute.But Miami's Leonard Hamilton knew that Norris -- "Stink" to all his friends and relatives back in Baltimore -- could be just what the Hurricanes needed to help a team badly in need of a jump-start. All it would take was a little bit of adjustment.

Baltimore's downtown buildings and streets stood in this week as substitutes for Washington for a new Die Hard film. Movie companies take liberties all the time, and when the films are completed, it's fun to see how the sleight-of-hand works. But could the two cities, Baltimore and Washington, be more different? The things that separate Baltimore and Washington are far larger than 38 miles. I spent four undergraduate years at the Catholic University of America in Northeast Washington (the part of the capital no tourist visits)

Finally, a movie where Baltimore gets to play Baltimore -- and starring Nicole Kidman, no less. The Visiting -- formerly known as Invasion -- begins filming here Monday. But a news conference featuring its stars and director was held yesterday in Washington, where other parts of the movie will be filmed -- perhaps it was just too much to ask the national press to schlep all the way to the other end of the parkway. Still, after Baltimore's recent history of standing in for other cities (in XXX: State of the Union, it played Washington; in Major League II, it subbed for Cleveland)

The NBC drama series "Homicide" is coming back to ` Baltimore to film at least 13 new episodes, which will mean about an $8 million boost to the local economy."

Louis C. Thuman, who rose from the Baltimore sandlots to the Washington Senators only to have his pitching career cut short by a German bullet, died of pneumonia Dec. 19 at Dulaney-Towson Health Care Center. He was 84. The lanky Baltimore native and Polytechnic Institute graduate was playing for the Apaches, a local amateur ballclub, when major-league scouts discovered him pitching at Bugle Field on Erdman Avenue. After a brief stint in the minor leagues, Mr. Thuman was promoted to the majors for the 1939 season, debuting as a pitcher for the Senators at age 22. Like many young pitchers, Mr. Thuman needed some breaking in: In his first two seasons, he pitched in only five games, giving up 15 hits and nine walks in nine innings, while registering one strikeout.