Cure

There are many ways of getting poison ivy, but one of the best is to get naked and to roll around in a patch of it, coating your entire body.I apparently did this a couple of weekends ago. I have no memory of it, but there is much I do on weekends I have no memory of.One of the best things about poison ivy, aside from the oozing, crusty pustules that keep people from crowding too near you on the bus, is all the stories you are told about it."You think you got it bad?" a guy next to me on the elevator said.

BOSTON -- Why did the Orioles sweep the Boston Red Sox so convincingly over the weekend? Are they officially over whatever it was that ailed them for a month? Or are the Red Sox just that pathetic?Both, let's say. Yes, let's.The Red Sox certainly are lamer than a Sonny Bono solo album right now. They're working into the big fall that was inevitable when Frank Viola's elbow blew out May 3. Sox pitchers had allowed almost 10 runs a game for a week before the Orioles hit town. Someone was going to get spoiled on them this weekend.

SOMEDAY, scientific research will cure cancer and bring true hope to patients with the fatal disease. But that day is not here yet. This has become clear, but only after days of hype stirred by an unrestrained story in the New York Times that was filled with overly optimistic statements about research conducted in Boston by Dr. F. Judah Folkman.No question, Dr. Folkman's work is promising. His laboratory has developed two proteins, angiostatin and endostatin, that have worked with remarkable success to eradicate cancer in mice by blocking the formation of blood vessels that feed tumors.

In his first week at Mount Hebron Baptist Church, Pastor Anthony Johnson was asked to comfort a young member of his congregation who had lost her baby.Now, 13 years later, as Johnson prepares to leave the church, the relationship he formed with the young woman has come to symbolize his groundbreaking work in East Baltimore.Since that day, said Tammy Bradford, 28, Johnson has always been in her life, as clergyman and friend."He's like a father to me," said Bradford of the 4300 block of Shamrock Road.

The first time Michael Sien of Eldersburg participated in a walk for breast cancer awareness five years ago, he noticed something that surprised him: very few men were among the walkers. At the time, he didn't even know anyone who had breast cancer, but he walked to support a cause that affects thousands of women - and more rarely, men - each year. "I started to think what could I do to make breast cancer and volunteering, in general, more on the radar for men," Sien said. Last year, Sien walked and crewed the National Philanthropy Trust's Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk in San Diego that supports Susan G. Komen For the Cure nationwide.

BOSTON -- Even with a 19-point deficit in the third quarter against Boston College on Saturday, Maryland quarterback Sam Hollenbach said he was convinced "everybody on that sideline believed we could win that game." With their leading receiver injured on the bench, though, it quickly became apparent the Terps needed to cling to more than just hope - somebody had to start catching the football. Wake Forest@Maryland Saturday, 7:45 p.m., ESPN, 1300 AM, 105.7 FM Line: Maryland by 1

Last weekend, thousands took part in the "Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day" walk-a-thon between Baltimore and Washington to raise money for research and treatment. This weekend, another dedicated group will pursue the same goal - through song. On Mother's Day, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society will present the Maryland premiere of Sing for the Cure, an hourlong work with texts by Pamela Martin and music by 10 composers, to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Joining the 100-member chorus will be Grammy-winning country singer Kathy Mattea as narrator, vocal soloists Allison Miller and Al Johnson, 100 voices from the Baltimore Girls High School Festival Chorus and a full orchestra.

LOURDES, France - As Pope John Paul II visited here yesterday, he counted himself as one of the thousands of ailing Roman Catholics who come to this pilgrimage town in the Pyrenees foothills every year to pray to a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, but the Vatican denied that he came seeking a cure. "I am here with you, dear brothers and sisters," the pope said in a message that was read for him by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray of France. "With you I share a time of life marked by physical suffering."

The widespread use of standard antibiotics to treat sinus infections does not help cure patients and may harm them by increasing their resistance to the drugs, according to a new study published today. The researchers found that the percentage of patients who got well in 10 days was about the same whether they took an antibiotic or a placebo. "With a little bit of patience, the body will usually heal itself," said Dr. Ian Williamson, a family medicine researcher at the University of Southampton in England and lead author of the paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

As she walked across the finish line, Sandra Stromberger paused to hold her son, Dan Meyers. They closed their eyes, letting go of a few tears. Thirteen years ago, while Stromberger was overcoming breast cancer, she walked in Baltimore's first Race for the Cure, a fundraiser put on annually by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, a nonprofit charity organization. Then, she was one of a handful of cancer survivors who huddled together for a photograph after the race, which then drew 500 to 600 people.