Bloodlines

WE HAVE much in common, we Americans.It doesn't matter what the prefix -- African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, European American.We share quite a bit, sometimes more than we like to admit. Sometimes the commonalities reach our bloodlines.A furious debate ensued, and continues, over whether Thomas Jefferson fathered the children of his slave Sally Hemmings. Even those who ignore clear evidence about the Founding Father cannot deny that common blood in blacks and whites.If African Americans trace their roots deep enough, they are likely to find white ancestors.

ALONG time ago, when my college-age friends and I were young, over-privileged and not very responsible, family togetherness was the last thing on our minds when we rushed home to Baltimore for the Christmas holidays. Rather, the main attraction was an exhausting series of parties -- lunches, receptions, dinners, balls -- that filled part of every day and most nights.We slept while the sun shone after dancing into the early morning hours, to the music of Lester Lanin amidst the gilded excess of the Belvedere Hotel ballroom, or to the home-grown arrangements of Rivers Chambers at the plainer, if more tasteful Elkridge Club.

Westminster activist Patricia Holbert began making preparations yesterday to run for County Commissioner.Although the election is two years away, Holbert held an organizational meeting yesterday with campaign workers. She does not plan to announce her candidacy until September but wants "to get everything in place now.""I like to be organized," she said.Holbert, a Republican with strong GOP bloodlines -- "My father has been a Republican since God was a baby" -- sees the run as the pursuit of a lifelong dream.

We know what Thunder Gulch isn't. He isn't the way-out-there long shot suggested by the 24-1 odds he carried around the racetrack in winning the Kentucky Derby.But, with the Preakness just two days away, do we know what Thunder Gulch is? We don't. It's still too soon, too early in his career to know.He could be a champion in the making, following the lead of such recent Derby winners as Alysheba and Sunday Silence. Or he could be a one-hit wonder, following the lead of such recent Derby winners as Winning Colors, Lil E. Tee and Go For Gin. Or he could be something in between.

I meant to mention Susan Conant's new dog-lover's mystery, "Bloodlines" (Doubleday, $17), several months ago, when a review copy first crossed my desk. But then I did a foolish thing: I gave it to a friend who saw it at my house and begged me to let her have it "just for the weekend."I never saw that copy again.I tried to get it back recently, only to discover that to track it down I'd have to be as good a sleuth as Ms. Conant's dog-training amateur detective, Holly Winter."Great book," said the friend.

LAUREL -- John Friedman never gave up the dream.It's been 21 years since the retired Washington firefighter took on the biggest names in racing and won the 1971 Coaching Club American Oaks with the unfashionably bred filly, Our Cheri Amour. The filly cost her owner, the late Helen Vizzi, only $1,800 at the Timonium sales.It was one of racing's great Cinderella stories, ranking right up there in local lore with Harrison Johnson's victory in the Hopeful Stakes with Gusty O'Shay.Now Friedman, 60, has burst onto the scene with another stakes runner with similar unfashionable bloodlines.

Lacrosse has such a strong presence and following in the Baltimore area that the quality baseball played at the high school and college level here is often overlooked. UMBC has just one non-Marylander on the team that earned an at-large berth to the NCAA baseball tournament, and George Washington used local talent to win the Atlantic 10 Conference.Dave Fletcher, a senior catcher from Dundalk who's hitting .315, is a four-year starter for the Colonials, who open the Midwest Regional against host Wichita State tomorrow.

Cellular service for D.C. subwayBell Atlantic Corp. plans to provide cellular services throughout the Metro subway system in Washington later this fall, the company said yesterday. Bell Atlantic, working in conjunction with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), said it will make underground services available in six stations initially and expand to as many as 23 by the end of next year.The cellular system will eventually allow subway riders to initiate calls underground or above ground and continue those calls throughout their ride.

"Kuwait is liberated," proclaimed President Bush last Wednesday night.The news was greeted with justifiable jubilation by Americans who can certainly be grateful the war was won so swiftly and at such little cost in lives of U.S. and allied soldiers.But now that the victory has been achieved, we might do well to reflect upon just what "liberation" means.To illustrate the point, let us devise a scenario -- a scenario which, granted, is improbable but which nonetheless may serve its purpose.

AT LAST. Three Democrats have said out loud they are ready to run for president in 1992. You know what that means.It means the political handicappers have to start giving odds.Paul Tsongas. 10,000 to 1 against winning the presidential nomination, 1,000 to 1 against winning the vice presidential. He has never run for national office before. Track record is very important. About 75 percent of all presidential nominees ran and lost before they ran and won the nomination.Some critics say Tsongas' liability is that he is a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts of Greek extraction.

ENTRY INFORMATION COMPILED BY KEN MURRAY SUN REPORTER RACING COMMENTS BY SANDRA MCKEE SUN REPORTER 1 - LIKE NOW ODDS 19-1 COLOR BAY JOCKEY - Garrett Gomez -- Replaced regular rider, 18-year-old Fernando Jara, at the request of the owner. Ranked fifth in the nation in purse earnings last year with $14,221,321 and his 245 wins led all Southern California riders. TRAINER - Kiaran McLaughlin -- Lexington, Ky., native who got his start under D. Wayne Lukas and established himself in Dubai.

"Bloodlines," by Fred D'Aguiar. The Overlook Press. 161 pages, $24.95. Fred D'Aguiar's novel-in-verse, "Bloodlines" is a brilliant venture that almost succeeds. It takes the reader on a wild voyage tossed by love, sex and violence; it's funny, satirical, serious. It's like a documentary done in Errol Flynn-movie style. It can be so poignant the reader aches -- or so off-the-mark the reader cringes. The big risk, obviously, is writing an "issues" novel -- "Bloodlines" tackles the consequences of U.S. slavery -- in verse: strict ottava rima (each stanza consisting of eight iambic pentameter lines end-rhymed abababcc)

ALONG time ago, when my college-age friends and I were young, over-privileged and not very responsible, family togetherness was the last thing on our minds when we rushed home to Baltimore for the Christmas holidays. Rather, the main attraction was an exhausting series of parties -- lunches, receptions, dinners, balls -- that filled part of every day and most nights.We slept while the sun shone after dancing into the early morning hours, to the music of Lester Lanin amidst the gilded excess of the Belvedere Hotel ballroom, or to the home-grown arrangements of Rivers Chambers at the plainer, if more tasteful Elkridge Club.

WE HAVE much in common, we Americans.It doesn't matter what the prefix -- African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, European American.We share quite a bit, sometimes more than we like to admit. Sometimes the commonalities reach our bloodlines.A furious debate ensued, and continues, over whether Thomas Jefferson fathered the children of his slave Sally Hemmings. Even those who ignore clear evidence about the Founding Father cannot deny that common blood in blacks and whites.If African Americans trace their roots deep enough, they are likely to find white ancestors.

Westminster activist Patricia Holbert began making preparations yesterday to run for County Commissioner.Although the election is two years away, Holbert held an organizational meeting yesterday with campaign workers. She does not plan to announce her candidacy until September but wants "to get everything in place now.""I like to be organized," she said.Holbert, a Republican with strong GOP bloodlines -- "My father has been a Republican since God was a baby" -- sees the run as the pursuit of a lifelong dream.

We know what Thunder Gulch isn't. He isn't the way-out-there long shot suggested by the 24-1 odds he carried around the racetrack in winning the Kentucky Derby.But, with the Preakness just two days away, do we know what Thunder Gulch is? We don't. It's still too soon, too early in his career to know.He could be a champion in the making, following the lead of such recent Derby winners as Alysheba and Sunday Silence. Or he could be a one-hit wonder, following the lead of such recent Derby winners as Winning Colors, Lil E. Tee and Go For Gin. Or he could be something in between.

I meant to mention Susan Conant's new dog-lover's mystery, "Bloodlines" (Doubleday, $17), several months ago, when a review copy first crossed my desk. But then I did a foolish thing: I gave it to a friend who saw it at my house and begged me to let her have it "just for the weekend."I never saw that copy again.I tried to get it back recently, only to discover that to track it down I'd have to be as good a sleuth as Ms. Conant's dog-training amateur detective, Holly Winter."Great book," said the friend.

LAUREL -- John Friedman never gave up the dream.It's been 21 years since the retired Washington firefighter took on the biggest names in racing and won the 1971 Coaching Club American Oaks with the unfashionably bred filly, Our Cheri Amour. The filly cost her owner, the late Helen Vizzi, only $1,800 at the Timonium sales.It was one of racing's great Cinderella stories, ranking right up there in local lore with Harrison Johnson's victory in the Hopeful Stakes with Gusty O'Shay.Now Friedman, 60, has burst onto the scene with another stakes runner with similar unfashionable bloodlines.

Cellular service for D.C. subwayBell Atlantic Corp. plans to provide cellular services throughout the Metro subway system in Washington later this fall, the company said yesterday. Bell Atlantic, working in conjunction with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), said it will make underground services available in six stations initially and expand to as many as 23 by the end of next year.The cellular system will eventually allow subway riders to initiate calls underground or above ground and continue those calls throughout their ride.

Lacrosse has such a strong presence and following in the Baltimore area that the quality baseball played at the high school and college level here is often overlooked. UMBC has just one non-Marylander on the team that earned an at-large berth to the NCAA baseball tournament, and George Washington used local talent to win the Atlantic 10 Conference.Dave Fletcher, a senior catcher from Dundalk who's hitting .315, is a four-year starter for the Colonials, who open the Midwest Regional against host Wichita State tomorrow.