Big Picture

BEN CARSON, the Hopkins pediatric neuro- surgeon who takes his role as role model seriously, preaches the gospel of education, education, education, and doesn't leave a yawn in the room.He's an example of how the will to learn makes all the difference in life. Once the self-described dummy of his class back in Detroit, and not motivated to change that situation, Carson, at his mother's prodding, went on to great things and international celebrity for his accomplishments in the operating room.

After traveling 14 hours Monday, practicing about three hours since, and then playing with typical on-the-road caution for 83 minutes last night, Ecuador seemed unlikely to win at Memorial Stadium.But a goal off a contested breakaway that began with a long pass from just outside Ecuador's penalty area about seven minutes from the game's end gave Ecuador a 1-0 victory.From coach Steve Sampson to defenders Thomas Dooley, Robin Fraser and Martin Vasquez, the U.S. verdict was "off-side." No doubt, many in the stands saw it the same way. But referee Raul Dominguez of Texas didn't blow his whistle and his nearest assistant on the break, Ellicott City's Rob Fereday, kept his flag down.

PRINCESS ANNE -- Fang Mitchell paced in front of Coppin State's bench. He wiped his face with his hands, waved his arms, stomped his feet and hollered. And this was during the first minute of the game.By the end, Mitchell had covered more ground than a marathoner. But he had more to show for it, too -- his 400th career win.Not that he enjoyed it much. Coppin rallied in the last six minutes to defeat UMES, 69-60, at Tawes Gymnasium, but if that were reason to celebrate, Mitchell couldn't see it.His vision was locked on what he calls "the big picture."

Those who know him well, friend and foe alike, say Gov. Parris N. Glendening's summer of controversy flows from a style in which promises, easily made, are easily broken, from arrogance and from poor political instincts.He has presented himself as a man committed to pursuit of the public good, an unswerving traveler of the political high road.Yet, from the beginning of his administration 20 months ago, he has had to explain embarrassing disclosures: generous and secret pension allowances for himself and his aides, a legal defense fund amassed in secret by special interests, questionable fund-raising expeditions and disputes with other public officials who doubt his word.

Not My ViewThe July 6 editorial page included a very interesting political cartoon by KAL that perfectly illustrates the double standard that the liberals in this country practice on a daily basis.In the cartoon, irate rioters in support of the flag burning amendment, school prayer amendment and the balanced budget amendment assail the Constitution.Obviously, the artist who drew the cartoon believes that these amendments assault the freedoms guaranteed to him in the Constitution. I would like to ask where is the cartoon that points out the assaults on the Second, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth and 10th amendments that have been going on for years?

TOKYO -- Consider pacemakers and shoes.Both are common products, both are produced internationally, and both are emotionally charged, multimillion-dollar players in the multibillion-dollar issue of trade between Japan and the United States.President Clinton and Japan's Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa will try to thrash out the big picture on U.S.-Japan trade relations at a meeting set for next week. Each has the same broad goal of reducing Japan's vast trade surplus.In areas that do fall within the shadow of a national government, such as foreign policy and federal spending, there is likely to be some agreement, and that could have a modest impact on trade.

In the fall, members of the first class of trainees in a new leadership program for Anne Arundel County will gather monthly to address issues of government, crime, health care and economics.Organizers of Leadership Anne Arundel expect the first class of 35 to mushroom into a network of the county's most well-informed citizens, prepared to assume leadership posts throughout the county. The effort is co-sponsored by the Anne Arundel Trade Council and the Annapolis Chamber of Commerce."This program is going to be training the next generation of leaders for our county," said County Executive Robert R. Neall, on hand yesterday as the group's board of directors unveiled its plans.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton entered office with the job of charting America's foreign policy beyond the Cold War. Nine months later, a series of self-inflicted wounds to his prestige has hobbled his efforts, raising questions about his ability to project force credibly abroad.Doubts about the American leader's competence in world affairs -- overseas, on Capitol Hill and among the public -- are high. In a recent Gallup poll, approval of the president's handling of foreign affairs dropped from 51 percent to 40 percent.

WASHINGTON -- With only three weeks to go before Congress votes up or down on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor seems weary but determined to pull President Clinton's biggest chestnut out of the fire.Neither the pounding from anti-NAFTA forces led by organized labor preaching it will cost American jobs, nor the aftereffects of a bad fall that has kept him in a large back brace, appears to have daunted the Los Angeles lawyer and Friend of Bill who accepted what is perhaps the toughest remaining challenge on the Clinton first-year agenda.

Paul Tagliabue, the commissioner of the National Football League, was at a news conference last week when it was announced there will be expansion by two or four teams next year.Don't get too excited.It was World League of American Football that announced it's expanding.The story is different in the NFL. It has been more than 13 months since Tagliabue said in a conference call April 4, 1990, that the NFL would expand, "possibly by 1992, certainly by 1993."It's too late to expand for 1992, and now the question is whether Tagliabue can twist enough arms to make expansion a reality in 1993.

THE TOP FIVE 1 Titans (8-0) Sooner or later, they'll need to throw. 2 Giants (7-1) Everything's working for Tom Coughlin. 3 Steelers (6-2) How long can Ben Roethlisberger hold on? 4 Panthers (6-2) Play Raiders today, Lions next week. 5 Eagles (5-3) Acid test tonight against Giants at home. THE BOTTOM FIVE 28 Rams (2-6) Coaching change has worn off; it's back to losing. 29 Bengals (1-8) Will they be satisfied with one win? 30 Chiefs (1-7) Can't protect a big lead even at home.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The Ravens' offense was running a two-minute drill this offseason when John Harbaugh mistakenly called a timeout. "But I was the head coach, so I made it a defensive timeout," Harbaugh joked. "So, that was easy." It won't be that easy starting tonight, when the Ravens kick off their preseason against the New England Patriots. Harbaugh, 45, is one of four first-year NFL coaches who will have four games of on-the-job training before the regular season starts. Just as rookie quarterback Joe Flacco is learning the offense, Harbaugh is learning time management, the give-and-take with his coordinators and the pulse of his team.

Dishing out sports media notes while waiting for the next episode of the new summer series on Fox News, The Greta and Brett Show: *The hiring of Bob Papa as the NFL Network's play-by-play voice - a long-anticipated move announced this week - means a switch in outlook on the games from the perspective offered by Bryant Gumbel. That's according to the man sitting behind the analyst microphone for the Thursday night package, Cris Collinsworth. "With Bryant, I was always interested in his take on the games because Bryant has a way of seeing a very broad picture of the NFL and big picture of where the NFL fits in the world, obviously with all his news background and such," Collinsworth said, according to highlights of a conference call.

Once upon a time, the United States was the world's most powerful economic engine, a job-producing machine that propelled a broad swath of its citizens into a comfortable middle class. They bought tidy little houses they could afford. They bought big, shiny Chevrolets and Fords with bench seats. They used their health insurance to pay for the occasional tonsillectomy or appendectomy. They retired with pensions generous enough to purchase nice gifts for the grandkids. That period of broad prosperity was relatively short, no more than 50 years after the end of World War II, but it looms large in the national psyche, supplying the cultural icons and touchstones that furnish the "American dream."

When junior attackman Mike Leveille arrived at Syracuse in fall 2004, the Orange was coming off of its third NCAA title in the previous five seasons. The school had won eight national championships dating back to 1983, and had been to every tournament final four since then. Little did Leveille know that he was walking into a new era of Syracuse lacrosse - an era during which the Orange has begun to slide into the ranks of the ordinary, an era during which increasing parity in the Division I game is stalking the big boys.

Jeff Antoniuk stood at the front of the cramped room. With his eyes closed, his hands glided along his tenor saxophone. He wailed and grooved before stepping aside to let the other members of his quartet, the Jazz Update, add their signatures to the song. Steve Olson was one of seven of Antoniuk's students who attended the nighttime gig at 49 West Coffeehouse, Winebar and Gallery. Olson sat near the band, his head and shoulders absently dancing to the tune. The music, he would say later, left him itching to practice his drums.

The Sun has given prominent coverage to the most dramatic aspects of the BGE rate increase story: legislation passed by a special session of the General Assembly that caps the initial increase at 15 percent instead of 72 percent, fires all current members of the Public Service Commission, which oversees utility regulation, and restructures the commission. The newspaper also has paid close attention to a public hearing on the bill that was chaired and tightly controlled by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., and to the governor's subsequent veto of the legislation.

The Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team is not scoring goals the way it used to, and the Blue Jays don't care. The critics wonder when Hopkins will start steamrolling opponents, and the Blue Jays just smile. Hopkins, which expects to conclude a perfect regular season today against visiting Loyola, hears the skeptics and tunes them out. The Blue Jays are the lone unbeaten team in Division I, but they don't scare anybody. They are headed once again to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Their senior class has yet to lose at home and has an overall mark of 50-6, but three losses have come during the postseason's championship weekend.

The Big Picture. The New Logic of Money and Power in Hollywood By Edward Jay Epstein. Random House. 381 pages. $25.95. Each week, most newspapers publish the movie industry's Top 10 weekly box office grosses. To the press and to most consumers, this chart is the barometer of financial success for films. But as well-respected journalist Edward Jay Epstein writes in his meticulously reported new book, The Big Picture, the size of those box office receipts has little to do in defining success in today's Hollywood.

Wim Wenders' spectacular image of the Australian outback, on view at C. Grimaldis Gallery, presents an enormous panorama of rust-colored rock, jagged mountains and pale-blue sky 6 feet tall and more than 14 feet long - a picture so large it nearly fills an entire wall of the gallery. Only a few years ago, such a gargantuan image would have been a rarity - indeed, a near physical impossibility - for most photography shows, where the idea of big used to be anything larger than 8-by-10 inches.