Dream

Editor's note: Matthew the mouse lives in a dreary corner of a dusty attic. A trip to the museum helps him look at his surroundings in a new way.A couple of mice lived in a dusty attic with their only child. His name was Matthew. In one corner of the attic, draped with cobwebs, were piles of newspapers, books, and magazines, an old broken lamp, and the sad remains of a doll. That was Matthew's corner.The mice were very poor, but they had high hopes for Matthew. He would grow up to be a doctor, perhaps.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- For all that inflation has affected, one price has remained unchanged: the cost of dreaming."You can still do that for free," John Chaney was reminded."

DALLAS -- The stranger at Mike's nightclub seemed a daydream made flesh.To the men, rural Mexicans newly arrived seeking work, he had all they longed for: manly good looks, fine cowboy clothes, the confidence of a rich man. Unlike the other patrons, he didn't appear to be paying the woman beside him. He never even asked her to dance.Eyeing the light-skinned stranger from bar stools, the women hoped he'd ask them to dance. They liked the way he sipped soda instead of swilling beer. They noticed his wavy hair and his glinting green eyes.

The dream was always the same. She was trapped below the surface of a vast, watery darkness, drowning. She could hear a steady pounding, like a drum or heartbeat, growing louder and nearer. She couldn't breathe, couldn't cry out, couldn't do anything except feel. And what she felt was fear.Eventually, the dream of drowning stopped. Little Connie Imboden grew up in Ruxton, went to art school and studied photography. Twenty years later, her work is admired and exhibited all over the world. Her first book of photographs, "Out of Darkness," was published in 1992.

Poncho's Dream Girl found a seam along the rail and then powered through to score an easy win in the $50,000 Nellie Morse Stakes yesterday at Laurel Park.Leading rider Mario Pino steered the 5-year-old daughter of Fortunate Prospect under the wire in 1 minute, 51 seconds for the nine furlongs over a fast track.Poncho's Dream Girl paid $29.40 and was the top half of a 9-5 exacta, which paid $220.00. The 9-5-6 trifecta returned $729.20. The victory marked her first added-money win since taking the Obeah Stakes at Delaware Park in late June.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Maryland Terrapins' goal in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament? To win it, of course. No one gives them a chance because of the presence of top-ranked Duke, which has blasted the Terps in four straight games over the past two seasons, but with a 25-4 record and No. 5 national ranking, the Terps are good enough to dream big dreams.But what's a realistic goal for the Terps this weekend? How about this: They win today, beat North Carolina for the third time this season in the semifinals tomorrow, then give Duke a good game for a change in Sunday's final.

1989: Quake stops World Series1991: Jordan and Bulls win first of six titles in '90s1992: First Olympic 'Dream Team' romps

Editor's note: A chapter from the life of the artist who painted primitive landscapes until her death at 101., One morning at breakfast, Anna Mary's father told her that he'd dreamed about her the night before. Anna Mary Robertson was a little girl and she was curious about that dream. "Was it good or bad, Pa?" "That depends on the future," her father replied. "Dreams cast their shadows before us."Her father had dreamed that he was standing in a room where many people were gathered, all of them shouting and clapping their hands.

On those momentous Wednesday evenings when Kathleen Deoul makes a personal appearance at the Pikesville Hilton hotel, she arrives early to park her Rolls-Royce Bentley sedan near the hotel entrance. There, among the Saturns and minivans of those who have come here to see her, it shimmers like a dream come true.Deoul knows the Bentley gets people hungry. Gets them jazzed. It is there to testify, as Deoul is, that anyone has a shot at this shiny green, turbo-charged, $175,000 machine and the wealth it broadcasts.

The Ford Mustang was slipping, sliding, swerving. Across the snow-covered three lanes of highway. Onto a grassy median. Going more than 60 mph, the red sports car turned end over end. Once, twice, a third time.With each flip of the car, Shannon Merlo, Westminster High School Class of 1997, was slammed against the seat, the roof and, finally, the rear window. Glass shattered. Merlo was ejected. She blacked out.When she woke up, she was lying on the grassy median of Interstate 25 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Andrew Happick had to leave his family in Bel Air and go off to Virginia Tech to pursue his lifelong dream - not mechanical engineering, his major - but skydiving. "He'd been saying for a long time that he wanted to do that, and we'd say 'No way,' " Beth Happick, his mother, recalled Friday. "Once he got out from under us, he did it. It seems to be his passion." www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOLfQGf2D1o.

Et cetera McCoughtry's career-best 34 carry Dream to 93-87 victory Angel McCoughtry (St. Frances) scored a career-high 34 points and the Atlanta Dream beat the San Antonio Silver Stars, 93-87, Thursday night for its seventh win in the past eight games. "She was awesome," Atlanta coach Marynell Meadors said. "She just did a lot of incredible things." McCoughtry, the No. 1 overall pick in this year's WNBA draft, was 12-for-17 from the field and 10-for-17 from the foul line. The former Louisville standout also had seven rebounds and four assists.

For the past three years, Bruce Springsteen has been on a roll in the studio. The Boss has recorded three ambitious albums in that time, exploring his literary leanings (Devils & Dust, 2005), his admiration of folk music (We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, 2006) and his thoughts about the dark realities of American life under George W. Bush (Magic, 2007). Springsteen's new CD - Working on a Dream, out today - comes just 16 months after Magic hit the streets. In the halcyon days of his career, back in the mid-'70s and throughout the '80s, the New Jersey superstar was known to take at least two years between albums.

When Jamie and Fred Mansperger married in January 2002, she left her South Carolina roots - family, culture and customs - for the countryside of northern Baltimore County. He left Columbia for the same country feel. And then some. "There were three things I wanted," said Fred, the former owner of a reprographics business. "This area, a house at the end of a road, [and] I wanted a pool." Jamie wanted an interior decor that would be representative of the comfortable, easy Charleston way of life.

There's a dream sequence in Wild Strawberries, and in it Ingmar Bergman had the good sense to understand that a dream, for the dreamer, is very real; there is no strange music or wobbly focus. A horse-drawn hearse catches a wheel against a lamppost, and the horses try again and again to get that wheel past the lamppost. Who has not had that sort of dream of stupid frustration? Then the wheel breaks off and a coffin tumbles onto the street. Bergmanesque? The great Swedish director, who died yesterday at age 89, certainly brought a thick dark streak and brooding fixation on death to some of his most remarkable films.

The moon nears its first-quarter phase tonight, the 38th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing. Look up. People walked there in 1969. Moonwalker No. 2, Buzz Aldrin, said in 1970, "We understood the significance what we were doing. I felt like we were not alone." They weren't. Millions of us watched, spellbound. Neil Armstrong, No. 1, told Life magazine of a recurring dream: "He was able to hover over the ground if he held his breath. ... It was a beautiful dream." It was.

Sitting atop the rolling hills of rural Howard County is a large, luxurious, European-style manor house. Built as a private residence, the house was transformed into a boutique hotel. Since then, the establishment has undergone major renovations, won national awards and been featured on several television programs. "The house draws people because it's new, but it has Old World charm," said owner Cynthia Lynn, who works as an accountant. In the last decade the house, called the Inn at Peralynna Manor, has been voted the Best Bed and Breakfast/Inn in North America in 2005 and 2006, and the Best Bed and Breakfast/Inn in the U.S.A.

Richard Pelletier always wanted to be a professional writer. The dream eluded him until he and his wife, Linda Massey, bought an Italianate house on Hollins Street in Southwest Baltimore. Right after the purchase in July 2001 - and at the beginning of extensive renovation - Pelletier lost his job as his employer, Eastman Kodak Co., downsized. "I was plenty scared," he recalled, "but walking the neighborhood and enjoying its history and architecture, I realized if ever there was a story handed to you, here it was. And I began to write."

The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups Ron Rosenbaum Random House / 606 pages / $35 Like Hitler, Shakespeare attracts apocrypha: fake diaries, forged testaments, the textual traces of an irregular inner life. Like Hitler, Shakespeare's genesis is unknown: Both have lost years, and both demand we consider the question of how an apparently unremarkable childhood produced that. Like Hitler, Shakespeare stands at the extreme fringe of our culture: the most evil man, the greatest writer.

I had this dream the other night in which I was taking a college course on sports and - egads - I got a 50 on my first quiz. I say that only to let you know that my knowledge might be a little lacking today. Of course, I also dreamt that I was floating down the river with Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, an eerie Doors song playing in the background. So maybe dreams are just dreams. That preamble aside, we're moving on with preseason football rankings today. Running backs dominate the first two rounds of any fantasy draft and are generally viewed as the building blocks of a good offense.