Devil

In response to the letter written by Dr. Jean Silver-Isenstadt ("Cost of inaction on health care reform is too high," Readers respond, Feb. 4), I think that everyone agrees with her seven points, and if those were the only items included in the bill, it would most likely pass unanimously. That would be a one page bill. It is the other 1,999 pages and behind-closed-door deals that everyone is afraid of. Thank goodness we have people in Washington like Reps. Frank Kratovil and Roscoe Bartlett there to protect us from that monstrosity of a bill that will most likely have an even more devastating effect on our lives than what is currently in place.

For the second time in the last two years, these Atlantic Coast Conference rivals will meet for a third time in the season. Maryland is 59-20 against Duke. The two sides split their earlier contests with the Terps winning, 10-7, on March 3, and the Blue Devils returning the favor with a 6-5 decision in the ACC tournament semifinal on April 20. No. 3 seed Duke (15-4) defeated Syracuse, 12-9, in the first round and Colgate, 17-6, in the quarterfinals. Maryland (11-5) upended No. 7 seed Lehigh, 10-9, in the first round and No. 2 seed Johns Hopkins, 11-5, in the quarterfinals.

Average Americans probably doesn't know a position trade from a secondary offering, but they do know that when a company creates and markets a product of questionable value to customers and then bets heavily against it, something doesn't smell right. That's why Democrats couldn't have asked for better poster children to focus public outrage at Wall Street than those unrepentant Goldman Sachs Group executives who ducked and weaved their way through 11 hours of a Senate subcommittee hearing this week.

John Haus hasn't heard from his younger brother this week. Of course, the Maryland men's lacrosse midfielder hasn't exactly tried to reach out to him either. No hard feelings. It's just the nature of sports. "It's game week," said Will Haus, a freshman starting on Duke's defensive midfield, "so there's not much talking going on. " John's Terps will face Will's Blue Devils in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament Saturday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

Nancy Grace's reaction to the not guilty verdict in the Casey Anthony trial is one for the ages of cable TV. You could not invent a character like Grace. You might think Grace would be somewhat more even-handed after the woman she characterized as a murderer was declared not guilty. But not Grace. Take a look at this video . After priming the emotional pump with a description of members of the defense team sitting in a bar drinking a champagne toast, Grace says, "You know what?

Day Time TV Starters Tonight 7:35 CSN Scott Kazmir (8-9, 3.85) vs. Rodrigo Lopez (14-9, 4.82) Tomorrow 4:35 54 Casey Fossum (8-11, 4.73) vs. Bruce Chen (12-9, 3.60) Sunday 1:35 54 Doug Waechter (5-10, 5.23) vs. Daniel Cabrera (10-11, 4.69) Radio: All games on 1090 AM Devil Rays update Tampa Bay was once one of the hottest teams in the league after the All-Star break, but it has cooled in September. The Devil Rays have lost eight of 13 games this month, and they face a brutal schedule to close the season.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Mark Hendrickson (4-7) threw seven solid innings and Jonny Gomes hit a two-run double for Tampa Bay. The Devil Rays scored four runs in the third inning to take a 5-0 lead. Gomes' hit was followed by a sacrifice fly from Toby Hall and Julio Lugo's RBI single. Hendrickson stopped a personal four-game losing streak.

Wakefield, by Andrei Codrescu. Algonquin Books. 288 pages. $24.95. You talk about alienated. Wakefield, the protagonist of Andrei Codrescu's weird new comic novel, makes Holden Caulfield look like a towel-snapping frat boy. He makes Yossarian look as though he runs the weekend ham supper at church. Wakefield dusts off a timeless (some would say shopworn) theme: Man makes a pact with the devil. And from there it veers, with mixed results, into an on-the-road adventure -- forget Kerouac; think Woody Allen, without his medication, jumping onto one 757 after another -- and sociological exploration of some of the maddening aspects of late 20th-century American life.

What better time than Halloween to give the devil his due? The devil, you say!Truth be told, though, we've been giving the devil his due pretty much year-round, and all over the country. The Dictionary of American Regional English, up in Madison, Wis., has collected ,, devils by the dozen. Among the best:C9* Devil-dancer: A gust of wind, especially on the water.* Devil-on-a-sidewalk: A sparkling firecracker you roll with your foot.* Devil's bopeep: A wild young girl.* Devil's lantern: A will-o'-the-wisp.

Scouting report: Orioles vs. Devil Rays At Tropicana Field, Tampa, Fla. Day Time TV Starters Tonight 7:15 Ch. 13 Jose Mercedes (6-4, 4.73) vs. Travis Harper (major-league debut) Tomorrow 4:15 Ch. 54 John Parrish (1-1, 4.85) vs. Tanyon Sturtze (2-2, 6.42) Sunday 1:15 None Sidney Ponson (6-7, 5.42) vs. Ryan Rupe (3-4, 7.97) Radio: All games on WBAL (1090 AM) and WTOP (1500 AM) Devil Rays update Tampa Bay is all that separates the Orioles from last place in the AL East, but that could change in the next three days.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - It's April, so it is time for Duke's men's lacrosse team to start its annual march toward the NCAA championship. The Blue Devils, behind stellar defense and three goals effort from sophomore attackman Josh Dionne, won their ninth straight game Friday, beating Maryland 6-5 in the ACC semifinalsat Klockner Stadium. The fourth-seeded Terps (7-3) had two good scoring opportunities in the last 13 seconds, but Duke goalie Dan Wigrizer saved both as time expired.

No. 7 Duke (11-3, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) used a 6-0 run in the second half to elevate itself past No. 1 Virginia (10-2, 2-1) on Friday night, 13-5, in front of an announced 7,234 at Klockner Stadium. The Blue Devils earned the top seed in the ACC tournament and will play fourth-seeded Maryland in the semifinals Friday at 5 p.m. Maryland, the defending ACC champion, took the regular-season meeting between the teams, 10-7, on March 3 in College Park. The second-seeded Cavaliers will face third-seeded North Carolina at 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU in the second semifinal.

As hot as Washington is - a seven-game winning streak tends to heat up things nicely - the Shoremen will meet a hotter opponent this Saturday in No. 5 and Centennial Conference foe Dickinson. The Red Devils (9-1 overall and 3-0 in the league) have not lost since Feb. 25 when St. Mary's prevailed, 12-9, and have strung together eight consecutive wins. They are the reigning conference tournament champions, and they represent the sternest test of the season for Washington (7-2, 4-0)

Don't miss Susan Reimer's story in Wednesday's Taste section on deviled eggs. It's not about making them yourself. It's about ordering them up in restaurants. They're quite the thing these days, and Reimer's story takes in the deviled eggs at Woman's Industrial Kitchen and Woodberry Kitchen, where Spike Gjerde is using a recipe borrowed, with a few tweaks, from his mother-in law. "Otherwise, it is just the classic mayonnaise, Gulden's mustard, salt and pepper," Gjerde said.  "And a tiny bit of fish pepper powder that we make here.

When Irene Smith took over Baltimore's Woman's Industrial Kitchen last fall, she was determined to return it to its rightful place as a lunchroom where American home cooking is celebrated. What better way to do that, she thought, than to restore the classic deviled egg to the menu? "Deviled eggs," she said, "are so integrated into American iconography that every maker of fine china also makes a deviled egg plate. "Even the hot dog doesn't have its own plate. " The deviled egg, a staple on the Easter menu — what else are you going to do with all those hard-boiled eggs?

As an ardent supporter of former Republican Sen. Charles McC. Mathias Jr., it saddens me to observe what has happened to his Grand Old Party. It has made a grand terrible bargain with the devil. The equation is easy to see. They don't want to raise taxes on people earning over $1 million a year, which they say is critically important for the average American. To achieve this goal, they say, we must accept some things we may not like from a vocal minority of the party: Limiting women's access to contraception; limiting women's ability to make decisions regarding their health; and limiting men and women's right to marry whomever they wish.

As if snapping a six-game losing streak to No. 8 Duke wasn't arduous enough, No. 17 Loyola welcomes the Blue Devils to Ridley Athletic Complex Saturday with just two days of practice in the bank. The Greyhounds walloped Michigan, 15-8, on Wednesday night, but didn't return to campus until Thursday morning. The team got in a light practice Thursday and is expected to participate in another session Friday, but Loyola won't have the benefit of a full week of scouting and preparation as Duke - which hasn't played since dropping a 10-7 decision to No. 5 Maryland last Saturday - has likely enjoyed.

Notre Dame fired the first volley of the 2012 season when the then-No. 7 Fighting Irish upended then-No. 1 Duke, 7-3, on Saturday. It was the third time Notre Dame opened the season by beating the Blue Devils, and the team is enjoying a 15-game winning streak in the month of February. But coach Kevin Corrigan said he hopes the victory doesn't satiate the players' hunger for a national championship. “Any win helps you with your confidence,” Corrigan said Tuesday. “I hope it lets our guys know what they should already know, which is we're going to be there competing with everybody.