Big Question

New Orleans.--With vacation looming, the big question is: how does a workaholic acquire the grace of slack?How does one hold at bay that sinking feeling when it's nearly 1 p.m. and the phone hasn't rung once? I want to imagine myself disconnected from the phone, free of the fax, unplugged from the computer, far from the intercom, days away from overnight delivery, pardoned from the doorbell, unworried about reservations, careless about reception & delivery, wireless, barcodeless, modemless.

Executive producer Barry Levinson urges viewers to think of his HBO film "Phil Spector" as a two-person play - not a docudrama about the first murder trial of the rock producer. "It really is a two-person piece," Levinson said in a telephone interview last week. "And if you're looking for some kind of docudrama, which we are more familiar with on television, this isn't it. " The two persons, Academy Award-winners Al Pacino as Spector and Helen Mirren as his defense attorney, Linda Kenney Baden, can fill a screen like few others.

CHICAGO CUBSSpring priorities: Manager Jim Lefebvre has a host of starting pitchers, but he has to find an ace to replace the departed Greg Maddux. He's hoping former Texas right-hander Jose Guzman can step up. The Cubs also have to find out if right-hander Mike Harkey is ever going to have a healthy year.New faces: Left-handers Randy Myers, Dan Plesac and Greg Hibbard, Guzman, catcher Steve Lake, infielder Tommy Shields, outfielders Candy Maldonado and Willie Wilson.Hot prospect: Outfielder Kevin Roberson is the best of a lean rookie crop.

Lisa Graff, an author who teaches children's literature at McDaniel College, can't read a map to save her life. She's terrible at crossword puzzles, has trouble telling her left hand from her right and uses far too many exclamation points. While she was growing up in California in the 1980s in the shadow of a brilliant older brother, young Lisa became convinced that she had no special talent. She thought of herself as utterly, unspectacularly average. But Graff must have been good at something, because she grew up to become a respected author of children's books: six for younger students and a seventh for teens under the pseudonym Isla Neal.

BALTIMORE ORIOLESSpring priorities: It should be no secret by now that the Orioles will spend the next six weeks searching for the final piece of manager Johnny Oates' five-man starting rotation. . . . Oates also will face a big decision in right field, where Luis Mercedes, Chito Martinez and Sherman Obando will compete for playing time. . . . Getting starting catcher Chris Hoiles (wrist surgery) and backup Jeff Tackett (broken collarbone) back to full strength also will be important.New faces: Second baseman Harold Reynolds, outfielder/DH Harold Baines; minor-league free agents Steve Searcy, Jamie Moyer, Mike Cook and Wayne Edwards.

More than any other celebrations, the rich holidays of fall and winter demand that your table be properly dressed.The big question is what to put at the center of the holiday table. Most of us love flowers but tire of using the same bowl year after year, filling it with the standard blooms of the season.There's plenty of room for creativity. Don't shy away from mixing disperate elements.An innovative centerpiece is something you'll find so special during the holidays that you'll probably be tempted to bring some of those touches of folksiness, romance and elegance to the table all year.

East Regional at MCI Center No. 2 Connecticut (25-6) vs. No. 7 N.C. State (23-10) Time: 2:30 p.m. Conferences: Connecticut, Big East; N.C. State, Atlantic Coast. Outlook: The big question is whether N.C. State players such as Marcus Melvin, Julius Hodge and Ilian Evtimov can be enough of a nuisance to make up for a size disadvantage against the frontcourt duo of Emeka Okafor (6-9, 240) and Johnnie Selvie (6-7, 235), who combined for 26 rebounds and six blocks against Hampton on Friday.

The image orgy has begun. Martin Scorsese's "Cape Fear" is hardly a cup of sparkling punch for the holidays but its appearance does note that the last two weeks in November and the first 25 days of December are prime movie-going time. This weekend saw the first full deposit of Christmas films -- "Beauty and the Beast," "The Addams Family" and "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West."Here's a look at what's to come, with the proviso that these are the films slated for Baltimore, not America. You'll read gushing national reviews of "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" in early December, as that movie opens in New York and L.A. But I won't start gushing till the movie hits our little town.

"I was talking to my bookie," Slats Grobnik said, "and the odds are getting real big that O.J. will beat the rap."That's what most legal experts say -- that there will be a mistrial or a not guilty verdict. Either way, Simpson will wind up a free man."Well, if that happens," Slats said, "this country is gonna have to deal with one big question."Yes, whether the legal system really works."Nah, that ain't the big question."Of course it is. Even now, serious doubts are being raised about the jury system and the way selection can be manipulated by sharp lawyers and consultants.

Do you know someone who wants to get married?Laura Gomoljak of Arnold had an answer to the question written on a sign posted along the wooded road in the Ramblin' Pines Campgrounds in Woodbine. She'd had an answer to that question for the past two years.While riding to the campsite with her boyfriend, Bill Moxley, Ms. Gomoljak continued to read the handmade signs.Roses are red, violets are blue, when he pops the big question, will she say "I do?"Come one, come all, witness the big question . . .Will You Marry Me?

During his weekly Monday news conferences, Ravens coach John Harbaugh's mood usually depends on how well the Ravens played the previous day. That's understandable and I'm sure not unique in any of the 32 buildings in the NFL on Mondays. But in the brief time I've been covering the Ravens, I've never seen Harbaugh as direct, open and candid as he was this past Monday following the blowout against the Houston Texans. He took accountability for the loss and said that he and his staff didn't prepare the team well enough.

After two massive, widespread, multi-day power outages in less than a year and thousands of complaints from angry customers left in the dark, literally and figuratively, it can now safely be said that Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. gets it. Company officials testified before the Public Service Commission last week that they are strategically hardening the system and asking the big questions about what it would take to redesign the entire grid to promote...

One of my favorite activities this primary season is to read the seemingly endless analyses of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The profiles run the gamut from glowing to scathing; just about every Washington pundit has a strong opinion of "Mr. Speaker. " Yet, most of the talking heads have not worked with the man or known him very well. I have worked with Newt, consider him a friend, but also understand the eccentricities of this fascinating leader. (I am also Maryland chairman of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.)

It took only 44 minutes of Dan Duquette's introduction to Orioles fans for them to ask the big question: What are the club's chances of landing free-agent first baseman Prince Fielder? “I lost the over-under on that,” Duquette joked to the crowd. Duquette, the club's new executive vice president of baseball operations, and Orioles manager Buck Showalter participated in the day's first Q&A at this year's Orioles FanFest. As for Duquette's answer, he said, “Are we going to get him?

Instead of solidifying his spot as the Ravens' backup quarterback, Tyrod Taylor added another question mark to the situation in the Ravens' preseason finale. Taylor left the first quarter with a bruise on his left shoulder and didn't return in the Ravens' 21-7 victory over the Atlanta Falcons at a nearly empty Georgia Dome. Hunter Cantwell (13-for-28 for 111 yards and one interception), a little-used third-string quarterback, struggled with his touch and accuracy as the Ravens' offense repeatedly stumbled and piled up the punts (a total of eight)

With County Councilman Joe Bartenfelder's official announcement Friday that he will run for county executive, it's looking like we'll have the most hotly contested race for the county's top job since 1994. Mr. Bartenfelder, a veteran councilman and former state delegate, will face Councilman Kevin Kamenetz in the Democratic primary, and at least one credible Republican candidate, former Del. Ken Holt, will seek the GOP nomination. No matter what, the election will mark the biggest turnover in county government in more than a decade; in addition to a new executive, there will be a majority of new County Council members come December.

With time running out for the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers in Baltimore and around the world are gearing up for the biggest research project ever mounted on the orbiting observatory. Later this year, astronomers from dozens of institutions will begin gathering images of more than 250,000 of the most distant galaxies in the universe. They will seek answers to some of astronomy's biggest questions - queries that go to the origins of the universe itself. There is a sense of urgency to the effort.