Easy

The groundhog didn't see its shadow yesterday, which means six more weeks of Bruce Chen on the free-agent market. ... Nobody said it was going to be easy for the Maryland women's basketball team to repeat as national champions. No, wait ... everybody said it was going to be easy. Guess again. ... Corey Patterson and Erik Bedard are the only Orioles still eligible for arbitration. Must be nice to know you're getting a raise - win, lose or settle. ... This week's best quote, courtesy of Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman: "I'm realizing how ignorant you guys [reporters]

Enter Nancy Carsey's North Baltimore co-op and you're in a parallel universe, one that's decorated in infinite hues of purple, (even her piano is purple) and peopled by larger-than-life-size statues from Africa, Oceania and other faraway places.The effect is a bit overwhelming. And so is Carsey. The director of Very Special Arts Maryland, a non-profit arts program for people with disabilities, is herself a vision in purple, plum and fuchsia. Save for the occasional detour to black, Carsey, who would prefer to discuss her "experience" rather than her age, buys clothing based on purpleness.

EASY IS an adorable little bichon-poodle who lives at the Crofton Convalescent and Rehabilitation Center. For months, he has wandered the halls, visiting patients, cuddling, playing and adding cheer to the days of the residents. But Easy had a problem.When he was brought to the Center from the Anne ArundelSociety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, residents noticed he seemed to have difficulty walking. Anne Marie Molster, the center's director of therapeutic recreation, brought Easy to a veterinarian, who diagnosed a kneecap problem that could be treated only through surgery.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- It's not supposed to be this easy, and for a while in last night's Mideast Regional semifinal, it wasn't easy -- for the top-ranked and unbeaten Tennessee women's basketball team.The two-time defending champion Lady Vols were given a bit of a challenge by a scrappy Rutgers team, which earlier this season had ended Connecticut's 53-game Big East winning streak.But Tennessee showed the poise and patience that has fueled a 42-game win streak, along with quite a bit of emotion in turning back the Scarlet Knights, 92-60, before a regional record 14,711 at Vanderbilt's Memorial Gym.As per usual, All-America forward Chamique Holdsclaw provided the principal source of poise and patience -- as well as 25 points and 10 rebounds -- along with freshman Tamika Catchings, who had 23 points.

CHICAGO -- For three starts Jimmy Key had pitched without a compass, his exact mechanics skewed by fractions that felt like miles. Yesterday, with his team facing its third straight loss against the Chicago White Sox, Key rediscovered the precision that has made him the major leagues' winningest left-hander.Locked in a duel with White Sox starter Danny Darwin before 24,089 at Comiskey Park, Key painted by numbers. He struck out a season-high nine, walked one and allowed six hits, none for extra bases.

Brett Favre doesn't seem at home in today's corporate era.The colorful, outspoken Green Bay Packers quarterback is a throwback who would have been comfortable dueling Bobby Layne on the field a generation ago and then tossing down cold brews with him afterward.Favre has the habit of saying what he really thinks.When he arrived in training camp last week, he admitted he felt last year's march to the Super Bowl was easy. He even conceded that the Packers coasted through the playoffs."It was tough, but it did seem kind of easy.

MicroCarb Inc. officially changed its name yesterday to Antex Biologics and is trading under a new ticker symbol.The Gaithersburg-based company's common stock now is quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board under the ticker symbol ANTX.Dr. Vic Esposito, chairman and chief executive officer of the 5-year-old biotechnology company, said the company changed its name because MicroCarb no longer describes the technologies that the company is working to develop."We wanted to more accurately reflect our mission of developing and marketing products based on our anti-infective technologies," he said.

It's easy to buy CDs for some people. They like the big hits, don't often go to the music store, and aren't likely to have the latest release by their favorite artist. So shopping for them is easy -- just pick up the new album by Bush (or Reba McEntire, or Kenny G, or Toni Braxton or Rod Stewart) and you're done.Other people aren't so easy. You know they love music, but you also know they're among the first in line when a new album by one of their favorites comes out. So as much as you'd like to give the gift of music, you're really not sure what to buy.Boy, are you in luck.

Miami. -- Mike Tyson scowled from behind the iron bars, his face tight with menace. You got the sense that your safety was an illusion, your faith in the power of iron sorely misplaced. ''I'll be back,'' he said. You shuddered and had no doubt that he would.That T-shirt seemed to be selling at a brisk pace when I saw it on a street vendor's table in Harlem a couple of years ago. Most of the buyers, not surprisingly, were young, black and male.Now the T-shirt's prophecy is about to come true.

What fun to find Vanity Fair refraining from its usual star worship. The gusher runs dry for Ralph Fiennes, the pale British actor who played such a convincing Nazi sadist in "Schindler's List." During his two-hour interview in the November issue, Mr. Fiennes is a model of chilly reserve: "Not that one expected a teddy bear," writes Leslie Bennetts. "Maybe an infinitesimal bit of charm, perhaps -- would that be too much to ask?" Indeed, Mr. Fiennes declines eye contact with the reporter, who is left to theorize about the murky depths lurking beneath the 32-year-old actor's "aristocratic exterior," depths that have electrified his performances -- in "Hamlet" onstage, in Robert Redford's "Quiz Show," in the futuristic "Strange Days."

Who do people "most identify as the voice of the Republican Party?" Last Thursday, Gallup released a survey showing that among all respondents - as well as subsets of admiring Republicans and scornful Democrats - the answer to that question was: Rush Limbaugh. At one point during his show the next day, the conservative radio host explained to his audience that the reason President Barack Obama is so popular - and, for that matter, the reason liberalism will always be popular with American majorities - is that conservatism is tough and requires thinking, while liberalism is easy because it merely requires "feelings."

$20 for Nintendo DS. Rated Everyone 10-plus (cartoon violence) ** 1/2 ( 2 1/2 STARS) games For an unassuming handheld game about boxing animals, Animal Boxing sure covers some ground. It's brilliantly clever, yet fundamentally broken. It's impossibly easy and unnecessarily difficult. Finally, depending on the quality and proximity of your friends, it's both easy and impossible to recommend. As touch-screen boxing goes, Boxing, which stars you as a custom-designed human fighting some 50 not-so-innocent anthropomorphic pugilists, nails it. The game uses the touch screen as the top screen - you play Boxing by holding the DS upside-down - and your punches are registered through corresponding gestures: Tap to jab, swipe horizontally to hook, swipe vertically to uppercut.

When radio personality Bob Lopez died in May 2005, after 27 years on 98 Rock, his bosses knew finding someone to fill his shoes wouldn't be easy. "We had lost a guy who had been on the air almost since the birth of the radio station," said Dave Hill, at the time three years into his tenure as program director at WIYY-FM (97.9). "After Lopez died, by just playing music and highlights of Lopez's career, it gave the audience time to reflect. It also gave us the chance to step back for a second.

Good morning -- Ravens -- You're like Tina Turner: You don't never, ever do nothing nice and easy.

"I can talk about myself all day. That's easy." James Blake Tennis player and author of Breaking Back, on writer's block

The groundhog didn't see its shadow yesterday, which means six more weeks of Bruce Chen on the free-agent market. ... Nobody said it was going to be easy for the Maryland women's basketball team to repeat as national champions. No, wait ... everybody said it was going to be easy. Guess again. ... Corey Patterson and Erik Bedard are the only Orioles still eligible for arbitration. Must be nice to know you're getting a raise - win, lose or settle. ... This week's best quote, courtesy of Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman: "I'm realizing how ignorant you guys [reporters]

College Park -- It's very easy to look at the schedule the top-ranked Maryland women's basketball team has faced so far this season and declare it, well, very easy. The Terps have won their first 16 - tying a school mark for most wins at the start of a season, while averaging 86.9 points, the second best in the nation. The defending national champions lead the country in field-goal percentage and team assists per game and are second in rebounding margin. Michigan State@Maryland Tomorrow, 2 p.m., chs. 13, 9

Ravens fans, this isn't about you. You're going to be pulling for Steve McNair this afternoon in Nashville anyway. It's not about Titans fans, either, because you can't help but want your former hero to look good in his homecoming. This is about every other sports fan in America. You should want, hope and pray for Steve McNair to beat the Titans today, and beat them badly. It's your obligation to root for him, even if you've never felt any passion for either team. That's because a win by McNair is a victory over the cold, harsh, bottom-line business mind-set of big-time sports.

As the Maryland Terrapins begin their 2006 season against William and Mary today at Byrd Stadium, the prevailing fan sentiment is that coach Ralph Friedgen needs to get the team back to a bowl game after consecutive 5-6 seasons. But frankly, that's the least he should do. Yes, the Terps' 2006 schedule includes a spate of tough games, and yes, life in general in the 12-team Atlantic Coast Conference will never be as easy as life in the old nine-team league was - but with all due respect, getting a team to a bowl game in 2006 is hardly the challenge of a lifetime.

Food: *** 1/2 (3 1/2 stars) Service: *** (3 stars) Atmosphere: ** (2 stars) Rob Wecker, one of the owners of the Iron Bridge Wine Company, says he thinks of his wildly successful wine bar and small-plates restaurant as a "Cheers with wine," referring to the Boston bar in the 1980s TV show of the same name. By that, he means he and his brother Steve had in mind a place reasonably enough priced that people could come three times a week, instead of waiting for a special occasion. The Iron Bridge caters to regulars, and the staff will probably greet you by name if you eat there more than occasionally.