Darrow

ON THE WEEKEND WATCH:MORE DEAD SHOWS -- Into the summer rerun season, the networks are offering what will perhaps be last-chance viewings of series from the long list of canceled fare. Just tonight, for example, ABC (Channel 13) has moved "Gabriel's Fire" to 9 o'clock (although star James Earl Jones is coming back in the fall as the same character in a new show, "Bird and Katt"). And CBS (Channel 11) has two returns, the mid-season replacement about a Cajun cop, "Broken Badges" at 9, and Edward Woodward's rather likable "Over My Dead Body" at 10. Note also that CBS on Sunday (10 p.m.)

IF ONLY Tennessee's lawmakers would listen, Sally Carstensen and Michael Weiss have something useful to say about the proposed ban on teaching evolution in that state's public schools.Ms. Carstensen and Mr. Weiss are painters and graduate students at the Maryland Institute, College of Art. Their work explores the gray areas of mental life "where definitions break down and the dynamics of abstract and intuitive thought begin," according to the exhibition brochure.The Tennessee legislature is suspicious of gray areas.

This week's decision by the Kansas Board of Education to delete references to evolution from the science curriculum evokes memories of one of the century's most celebrated trials. In the summer of 1925, a Tennessee high school teacher named John T. Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution in violation of state law. The prosecution was led by three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, the defense by legendary attorney Clarence Darrow. That most famous of Evening Sun correspondents, H. L. Mencken, was in Dayton, Tenn.

CLEVELAND -- Believe me, it's not easy being a sports fan when you're from Cleveland and living in Baltimore. Albert Belle? Can deal with him, sort of. I root for the O's. But Art Modell? Can't deal with him at all. Couldn't possibly root for the Ravens. Ever.So I arrived here last Wednesday to get my football fix in Cleveland, my boyhood home, a place splashed with orange and brown and foamy beer, where people are preparing for the biggest party in a long, long time.The Cleveland Browns, thank the Lord, are back.

At a couple of points in "A Passion for Justice," the engrossing one-man play about Clarence Darrow on the boards at Everyman Theatre, the famed lawyer reminds his listeners that "history repeats itself — that is one of the problems with history." Paul Morella, who co-wrote the play with Jack Marshall, delivers those words in a slightly world-weary way that speaks volumes about the cases and causes that occupied Darrow. From his efforts on behalf of organized labor and victims of racial hatred (the jurors "were prejudiced and they rose above it")

THE PEOPLE VS.CLARENCE DARROW.Geoffrey Cowan.Times Books.544 pages. $27.50. This book is a bitter pill for anyone who dreamed of going to law school to become another Clarence Darrow -- and, save for William F. Buckley and Rush Limbaugh, who of us over 40 didn't?As with most medicine, however, we'll be better off for it. Heroes are even more compelling with a bit of clay on their feet, and in "The People vs. Clarence Darrow," Geoffrey Cowan demonstrates that the great crusading lawyer didn't always play by the rules.

Clarence Darrow had a carefully cultivated, aw-shucks persona that barely concealed an abrasive core. As a defense attorney, he was caught red-handed trying to bribe a juror to acquit two brothers accused of a bombing in which 21 people died. He treated the women in his life with callous disregard. It's an unlikely biography for a great American hero. "Performing this role is like peeling an onion," says actor Paul Morella. "After 10 years, I've just scratched the surface."

The Forbes Magazine Collection has a monopoly on old hand-made "Monopoly" games. It passed all other bidders and collected the prizes at a Sotheby's auction in New York earlier this month, buying three properties for $11,500, $17,250 and $23,000 each. It already owned an early-round version for which it paid $71,500 at Sotheby's in December 1992."We thought the 'Monopoly' games were appropriate for the collection of a magazine about money," said Mary Ellen Sinko, a Forbes curator. "We will display them at the Forbes Magazine Galleries during the Christmas season."

Twenty years ago, Kevin Kelly ended his paid tour of Houmas House by tossing a quarter into a wishing well fashioned from a huge, sugar-cane syrup kettle. "I wished that one day I'd own a plantation," Kelly recalled. Wishes do come true. Kelly, a 48-year-old bachelor from New Orleans, has done well in shipping and real estate. Last May, he returned to Houmas House and bought the 21-room Greek Revival mansion in Darrow, La. Another of the grand old houses of the Deep South was saved.

On December 3, 2004 GEORGE WILLIAM FREAS, JR., beloved husband of Ruth D. (nee Darrow). Loving father of George W. Freas III, Carolyn Elizabeth Jennings, Mary Karen and Nancy Ruth Freas. Cherished grandfather of 4 and great grandfather of 2. A Memorial serv ice will be held on Monday 11 A.M. at the family owned Slack Funeral Home, P.A., 3871 Old Columbia Pike, Ellicott City. Interment private.