Biting

Ray Miller comprehends the inevitable when he sees it. That he also can feel it, hear it and taste it makes the sense only more palpable that this afternoon's game will be his last as Orioles manager.The Orioles must decide whether to exercise the option on Miller's contract before Thursday. Orioles officials have given no indication to believe that a search for Miller's successor won't be under way before the postseason's first pitch. Miller says he will remain in town until told.Miller says if fired he isn't likely to pursue an opening elsewhere as pitching coach as the last two years have constantly tested him professionally and personally -- so much so that he asked Peter Angelos to fire him several times this season if the majority owner thought it in his franchise's best interest.

A monkey walks into a barThat's no joke to Steven and Kimberly Ritterspach of Glen Burnie, whose pet Bonnett macaque, Jamie, a repeat-biter, recently touched off a barroom brawl.On May 11, a District Court judge will decide whether the 9-pound monkey returns to the custody of the couple that raised it like their child, or is sentenced to life in a Howard County refuge.Since the bar incident almost three weeks ago, the 2-year-old primate has been in isolation at Frisky's Wildlife and Primate Refuge in Woodstock.

A Westminster man accused of biting his wife's face was held yesterday at the county jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.Dean R. Carver, 48, was charged with one count of second-degree assault against his wife, Norma Carver, according to police.Police found Norma Carver with a swollen red cheek outside an apartment in the 100 block of Pennsylvania Ave. after responding to a domestic dispute Wednesday evening. The suspect was not home at the time, but he was arrested about three hours later after police found him in the basement.

What is there to say about 1997?It was the year a toupeed sportscaster chomped his longtime lover's back.The year a heavyweight boxer -- and ex-con -- bit off a chunk of his opponent's ear during a fight.The year a movie star sunk his teeth into the stomach of a guy during an argument.And the year a seemingly nice woman with bad teeth gave birth to septuplets.So what can you say about 1997?Well, you could call it The Year That Bit.Sports announcer Marv Albert avoided jail on charges of biting his longtime lover on the back.

Ending a case reminiscent of the Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield fight on pay-per-view television, an Anne Arundel County jury yesterday ordered a Pasadena man to pay nearly $85,000 to a man whose ear lobe he bit off in a brawl."

LAS VEGAS -- Mike Tyson was disqualified at the end of the third round for twice biting champion Evander Holyfield on his ears in their heavyweight championship rematch at the MGM Grand Garden Arena last night.Tyson was disqualified by referee Mills Lane, for whom the Tyson camp had campaigned after voicing objections to the selection of Mitch Halpern. Late Thursday night, Halpern withdrew from the bout, resulting in Lane, a Nevada district judge, getting the coveted assignment.The bizarre ending to what was being advertised as one of the great heavyweight confrontations in history left the sellout crowd of 16,338 in a state of disbelief.

At last we have a secretary of state who knows how to be undiplomatic.Senator Cohen was never the kind of Republican whose presence in the Clinton cabinet would call off the conservative attack dogs.Professor Lake as CIA director is an example of man biting dog: Academia penetrates the Agency.The new national-security adviser has a good name.Pub Date: 12/09/96

For the first time in its director's memory -- and that goes back nearly 14 years -- Pets on Wheels has had to ban a dog from visits to a nursing home because it bit someone there. The director of the nursing home responded by banning Pets on Wheels. That's a first, too. And a very sensitive matter.We're picking this story up three months after the bite but in the midst of what are described as "talks" among the parties involved -- the injured woman and her attorney, the owner of the dog and her insurance company, the president of Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center, and Elaine Farrant, who runs Pets on Wheels.

The nature of ice he learns with his teeth,head down, biting and biting and pawing,already suspecting that, underneath,this hard cold slippery antagonistis nothing but water, already thawingitself, not like the shoe, the stick, the fisthe suckles and gnaws, true things whichresist --for the world abounds in tricks and infraudswithout mettle; even the ocean poundingashore, when he learns it, simply applaudsits own landfall, and he romps through afoamsoft as...

Like hungry trout that find a fly can be a hook, House Republican leaders are snapping eagerly at Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan's reiteration of an old gripe: Government statistics consistently exaggerate inflation rates, thus increasing entitlement payments and tax exemptions based on COLAs, or cost of living adjustments.For politicians who have vowed there will be no cuts in Social Security benefits or boosts in taxes, Speaker Newt Gingrich and House majority leader Dick Armey may regret their quick embrace of Mr. Greenspan's complaint.

Biting comedy, award-winning reality TV and the start of a new season for a great family drama are available this weekend. CHRIS ROCK IS BACK TV comedy does not get much better than Chris Rock's HBO shows. Premium cable has the freedom not to bleep Rock, and that makes a difference. The language that some consider harsh is crucial to the biting edge that Rock brings to his keen social insights. (9 p.m. tomorrow, HBO) *** "THE AMAZING RACE" BEGINS AGAIN The reality show that keeps winning Emmys returns for a new season on CBS. (8 p.m. Sunday, CBS)

Jeannie Clancy reports swarms of "biting black flies chased us off the beach" in Ocean City on July 31. Next afternoon, "millions of grasshoppers appeared in the ocean and on the beach." What's going on? she asks. UM entomologist Mike Raupp accuses bloodsucking stable flies. They breed in horse dung and rotting vegetation, both plentiful on the Delmarva coast. He says migrating "differential" grasshoppers can reach "astonishing numbers" in roadsides and meadows. Maybe they were blown to sea and washed ashore.

Many of us learn it by bitter experience. Now scientists say it's true. Some people, thanks to their genetics, behavior, diet or some poorly understood combination of factors, have body chemistry that draws mosquitoes like linebackers to a loose football. Others just seem invisible to the bugs. "I am irresistible to mosquitoes," said Michele Karanzalis, 33, a research project manager from Overlea. "I just try to stay inside a lot ... I start to get panic atacks after a while when I feel like I'm getting bit too much."

Edwin F. Hale Sr. stood before a few dozen shareholders and board members of his First Mariner Bank at its annual meeting last week, biting his lip. The brash former ironworker, who has enjoyed tweaking the city's elite in his rise from blue collar to boardroom, usually delights in the spotlight. But not on this occasion. "We've taken our lumps," Hale acknowledged. "Hopefully, this will be the end of it." It was a humbling moment for Hale. First Mariner, the base of his empire, is struggling after a series of bad loans, even as Hale looks to expand his proposed Canton real estate development into a city unto its own and to build a new arena for his Baltimore Blast pro soccer team.

You got it / What it takes / Go get it / Where you want it / Come get it / Get involved / 'Cause the brothers in the street / Are willing to work it out -- "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" PUBLIC ENEMY / / Performs 7 p.m. Tuesday at Rams Head Live, 20 Market Place, Power Plant Live / / 410-244-1131

How's this for a recruiting pitch? Being bitten. Paper wasps in Costa Rica bite their nest mates to recruit them for foraging duties, a University of Washington researcher says. Sean O'Donnell, a psychology professor and animal behaviorist, anesthetized and marked hundreds of wasps in Costa Rica by tapping on their nests and capturing them in bags of ether. He found that when he removed active foragers from four colonies of Polybia occidentalis, wasps that had never left the nest were bitten six times more frequently than their foraging counterparts.

Hold the garlic for dogs, cats I heard that garlic could keep fleas from biting, so I put some in my dog's food for about a week. He became lethargic and couldn't even climb the lowest stairs. I thought this might be a reaction to the antibiotics I had him on to heal sores from the original flea bites. Both garlic and onions can cause anemia in dogs. Cats are even more susceptible. Always check with the vet before giving your pet any medicine or extra treats like chocolate or raisins, which are also toxic to dogs.

Something in my house is biting me. I've used foggers, had pest control companies come, but no one can even find the little pest. I'm at my wits' end. The itching is driving me crazy. Help! No insects that bite humans are invisible to the naked eye. However, there is a long list of things that make people feel as though insects are biting them. This phenomenon is known as "delusory parasitosis," but the sensation of being bitten is usually anything but delusory. Possible causes can include medication side effects, hard water, harsh detergent, wool allergies and aging.

648 B.C. - Going for broke ... broken bones The Pankration combined wrestling and boxing into a no-holds-barred event with arm-twisting, fingerbreaking and biting.

A 43-year-old Columbia man accused of biting off his ex-girlfriend's lower lip after shooting at her a half-dozen times last fall pleaded guilty yesterday to felony assault and a handgun charge. In return for Fernando A. Carr's guilty plea, prosecutors said that they agreed to cap their request for prison time at 20 years - 15 for the assault and five for the gun charge. Sentencing for Carr, of the 7200 block of Calm Sunset, is scheduled for Dec. 20 before Howard Circuit Judge Lenore R. Gelfman.