Back Yard

Woop! There it is!There indeed, was that night thing, that Arsenio Hall thing, turning up in, of all places, a place so suburban it's a suburb of another suburb (Rockville).At 8 p.m. last night -- a time when moms and dads are usually firing up the Weber grills and kids are heading to the mall -- Arsenio Hall popped out of the back door of a Derwood house into a backyard-turned-dogpound (that, for you "Nightline" and Leno watchers, is Arsenio-ese for his wooping-it-up audience section).This out-of-studio experience was only the second for the show in its five- year history.

For those already tired of mowing the grass this year, conservationist Billy Mills has some welcome advice: Plant flowers, shrubs and trees instead."How many more years can you drag that lawn mower across the lawn every Saturday?" he asked a gathering at the Maryland Inn in Annapolis last week.Mr. Mills, who works for Alliance of the Chesapeake Bay, is among those trying to teach Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania homeowners landscaping techniques that will help protect the bay."There is a responsibility for individual stewardship, and one place you can start is your own home," he said.

As of midday Tuesday, Del. Virginia M. Thomas thought there was no way she could beat three-term Sen. Thomas M. Yeager, having represented only one-third of the incumbent's district."

VICKY CREAMER OF Belquest Kennels in Mount Airy is proud indeed these days.American, Bermudan, Puerto Rican and 1997 World Champion Tabatha's Rollick at Carowby (Aaron), Creamer's 5-year-old black Labrador retriever, earned a well-deserved Award of Merit from the class of 30 champion Labs from all over the world Feb. 9 at the 123rd annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden in New York.As his registered name proclaims, Aaron is America's top winning Labrador retriever, accumulating the most points in American Kennel Club (AKC)

About 40 Joppa homeowners plan to oppose at a hearing tomorrow a Fallston company's proposal to start a tree-grinding and gravel surface mining operation on a 56-acre tract off Mountain Road near their homes.The citizens, calling themselves the Mountain Road Defenders Association, will be taking their concerns to the county zoning hearing examiner during a public hearing in County Council chambers tomorrow at 7 p.m.T.C. Simons Inc. of Fallston is seeking four special zoning exceptions to the county zoning code to allow the company to move ahead with its plan.

Birds of a feather not only flock together, they flock to people, too. And with just a little encouragement, so do bats, butterflies, squirrels and other denizens of the wild.With the growth of environmental consciousness, more and more people are spending more and more time and money to accommodate their fellow residents in nature.Bird watching and the home feeding of wild birds now are together the second most popular leisure time activity in the country, behind only gardening. Americans spend roughly $1 billion a year on seed and other wild bird foods.

WHERE THERE IS smoke, there is Steven Raichlen. On a recent Baltimore afternoon, the author of a series of best-selling barbecue books, including The Barbecue! Bible and How to Grill, was sitting in Joy American Cafe on the top floor of the American Visionary Art Museum, where the air, appropriately, was perfumed by the restaurant's wood-burning grill. Raichlen, a native of Baltimore who now splits his time between homes in Coconut Grove, Fla., and Martha's Vineyard, Mass., has set fires around the world.

OUTSIDE THE Beth Am Synagogue, 2501 Eutaw Place, four uniformed city police officers offered a comforting presence across an anxious weekend. On Sunday morning, one of them pointed to two large signs that stood like sentries for all those arriving to mark Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. Here are the things, the signs declared, that cannot be brought into the synagogue this year: Packages. Large pocketbooks. Diaper bags. Strollers. Once associated purely with childhood innocence, diaper bags and strollers are now seen as potential transporters of doom.

Evil-smelling effluent bubbling from a factory into a bay. Is that what you see when you think of water pollution?Twenty years ago, that picture would have been pretty accurate. But factories and municipalities have largely cleaned up their act -- and their effluent, the technical term for waste water.Now when it comes to polluting surface waters, the biggest villains are us. You, me, Mr. Perennially Tinkering Under Cars next door, Ms. Weed and Feed the Lawn Every Month Whether It Needs It or Not on the corner, and the folks across the street who paved their yard so they wouldn't have to mow it.The problem is runoff.

Most people have a favorite room in the house - an elegant living room, a cozy family room, a spacious kitchen, or a master bedroom with a grand view. Even though Matthew and Susan Reilly's Westminster home features each of these qualities, she is quick to say that her favorite spot is her back yard. "Without a doubt, it is my favorite room - the free-form pool, the ponds, the waterfall, and the frogs," she said. Over the last four years, the Reillys have transformed their quarter-acre back yard into paradise.