Calvin Coolidge

Today belongs to the voters of Carroll County. All the campaigning, electioneering, propagandizing and spin-doctoring comes to an end, and the 70,000 registered voters in Carroll County will make their views known on a variety of issues. This is the one day of the election year when the citizens have the real power. And everyone should take advantage of it.Even though there has been an upsurge in the number of democratic countries around the world, few match the freedom and vigor of ours.

ON Inauguration Day, when George Bush turned the White House keys over to William Jefferson Clinton (whatever happened to just plain Bill?), some pundits noted that Mr. Bush had seemed to age markedly in his four years as president.This observation is usually made of an outgoing president. Who would doubt that the colossal strains of the job would not leave their mark on even the healthiest specimen?Yet the ages of the presidents of the six-and-a-half decades since Calvin Coolidge suggest there's something about being Chief Executive that adds years to a man's life.

In delivering his first State of the State address yesterday, Gov. Parris N. Glendening must have been tempted to borrow a quote from Calvin Coolidge. "The business of America," said the 30th president, "is business." Governor Glendening's policy speech to the General Assembly could have been summed up that same way: "The business of Maryland is business."Jobs and economic development dominated the governor's 40-minute lecture. He hammered home the message that Maryland's future depends on this state becoming business-friendly and focused on stimulating employment.

WHEN YOU enter the Clinton White House from Pennsylvania Avenue, keep an eye out for presidential portraits. There, in an honored niche on your right, is Harry S. Truman. There, in an equally prestigious spot on your left, is Franklin D. Roosevelt.The visages of these Democratic greats tells you that a Democrat is in residence at the Executive Mansion. During the long Republican hiatus that preceded Bill Clinton's inaugural, HST was hung obscurely in a far hallway. We are not sure about FDR.And what, pray tell, has happened to Republican presidents of yesterday?

SUNDAY YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN: This is your last chance to see the stage version of Mel Brooks' classic monster-movie satire. You'll hear songs such as "Transylvania Mania," "He Vas My Boyfriend" and "Puttin' on the Ritz" at the Hippodrome Theatre, 12 N. Eutaw St., at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. There are also performances Thursday through Saturday. Tickets are $24 to $85. Go to ticketmaster.com. FIRE & ICE SHOW: Enjoy an evening of burlesque entertainment with the added benefit of a 10-foot chrome pole at Ottobar, 2549 Howard St. This 18-and-over show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 day of performance.

They called themselves "Democratic-Republican." Then "Republican Delegates from the Several States." Then, at a convention in Baltimore in 1832, they adopted the name that has endured: Democrats.Baltimore must have charmed them. The Democrats returned for their next five conventions, through 1852. Baltimore's attraction? In the decades when slavery was being debated, the city seemed a safe, middle ground between North and South.The Democrats hold their latest convention next week, this time in Chicago.

Hanns-Joachim Friedrichs, 68, a foreign correspondent and television anchorman whose lively reports helped transform German television news, died of cancer yesterday in Hamburg. He anchored ARD's late-evening news program, "Tagesthemen," from 1985 to 1991, helping to transform German television news from the static reading of scripts to an American-style format, featuring live correspondent reports and a more engaged news presentation. For 20 years, he was a foreign correspondent for ZDF, the other leading German public television network, including two long stints in the United States and covering Vietnam from 1972 to 1973.

THE late American humorist Will Rogers was noted for saying he never met a man he didn't like. Political commentator Molly Ivins is noted for writings that suggest she has never met a public official she hasn't disliked.Will Rogers the lovable populist and Molly Ivins the acerbic wit seem an unlikely match. Yet there Ms. Ivins was in the Oct. 17 issue of The New York Times Book Review, raving about both Rogers and a new biography of him by Ben Yagoda. A sampling from her write-up:"Those of us who write political humor will want to study Will Rogers's approach to the players in public life.

Top-ranked Mount St. Joseph basketball faced a determined Bullis School in the semifinals of the Gonzaga D.C. Classic on Saturday night. The Gaels and the Bulldogs traded leads throughout the first three quarters until St. Joe pulled away in the fourth quarter, winning, 78-66. The Gaels (7-1) will face Sidwell Friends (6-0), an 82-71 winner over the host Eagles, in tonight's championship game at George Washington at 6:45. Ohio State-bound Kameron Williams came up big again, scoring 28 points.