Ed Mcmahon

The first thing to understand is this: I'm as torn up and red-eyed as the next person about Johnny Carson retiring.But it seems to me we're overlooking something important here: What about Ed?Doesn't anybody care that Ed McMahon is also coming to the end of a long and distinguished career as Johnny's groveling sidekick?Where's the fawning cover story in People, with Ed tearfully reminiscing about such personal "Tonight Show" highlights as Eydie Gorme spilling coffee on his loafers or the time his fly was open during a Carnac the Magnificent sketch?

Crowds of people went to the Maryland State Fair yesterday to lick an ice-cream cone, twirl on the Ferris wheel or pet a Holstein, and 240 of them went because they want to be famous.One was Strawberry, a 28-year-old Northwest Baltimore woman who had 30 seconds to prove herself as a comedienne during an audition for the TV show "Star Search," with Ed McMahon as host, which is seen locally on WNUV TV 54.Sheila Gaskins -- who explained her stage name saying, "As in vanilla, chocolate and . . ."

On The Weekend Watch:A STATE OF MIND -- Gov. William Donald Schaefer's annual "State of the State" address to the General Assembly, delivered earlier today, will be rebroadcast in its entirety tonight by Maryland Public Television, at 7:30 p.m. And with another legislative session under way, MPT's weekly state government coverage show, "State Circle," returns for an 11th season at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Dave Durian hosts, with reporters Sue Kopen, Nate Howard and Jeff Salkin, and this week's show is a preview of the dire economic conditions facing the new session.

THE CIA has been taking a bad rap for alleged spy Aldrich Ames who was arrested for whispering U.S. secrets to the Russians. Critics of the intelligence agency maintain that the chaps out at Langley should have known Aldrich was up to no good from his lifestyle, which was far more lavish than anything a CIA counterintelligence officer could afford.One of the people assigned to investigate what went wrong was Ted Tarr. He told me, "In retrospect, there were signs that Ames was not exactly what he appeared to be. But we had to take his word that he was straight, because he had taken an oath that he would uphold the law of the land."

One man sends updates about native Hawaiians battling federal agents. Another wants to sell a book called "Design Your Future." Still another is promoting a new international auto mall.This may sound like a typical junk-mail horror. But it's worse, much worse. Because this is junk e-mail.The long period of relative respect for private electronic mailboxes is collapsing. Unsolicited, undesired messages are a growing menace on the Internet and commercial on-line services.This is not an entirely new phenomenon, of course.

Hoping to involve residents in a comprehensive plan to guide growth in Sykesville, town officials have invited a national expert in land use and preservation to lead a public hearing tonight. Ed McMahon, director of land-use programs for the Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit organization based in Arlington, Va., will speak on preserving community character at 7 p.m. in the Sykesville Middle School cafeteria. "I will show the relationship between conservation and economic development," McMahon said.

Voting suspense The Baltimore County Council may be home of the 7-0 vote, but it likes to maintain at least the air of suspense. Monday's meeting was the annual election of a council chairman. One person was nominated, Democrat Stephen G. Samuel Moxley of Catonsville, and after his name had been seconded, the body's lone Republican, T. Bryan McIntire, began to congratulate his colleague. "I'd like to welcome Mr. Moxley to the chairmanship," McIntire said. The outgoing chairman, Pikesville-Ruxton Democrat Kevin Kamenetz, cut him off, noting that the vote had not taken place.

WASHINGTON -- Using clever marketing and aggressive promotion, lotteries have become the most visible form of gambling in America, as states trade Monopoly-like dreams for $35.8 billion in citizen income.State governments spend $378 million a year trying to convince people that a lifetime of riches might be as near as a dollar and a splash of luck. But how far should states go when the odds of winning a jackpot are so extreme?This week in Boston, the National Gambling Impact Study Commission will hear from lottery experts about who plays these games of chance and the role of advertising in getting people to play.

After awarding 27 promotions in the past two months, Howard County Police Chief Wayne Livesay should be feeling a bit like Ed McMahon of the American Family Publishers Sweepstakes. But Livesay said being the bearer of so much good news can have its drawbacks. "It's actually the most difficult, gut-wrenching thing I do as chief," he said of promotion decisions. "There are lot of good people who I can't promote because there's not enough room." Livesay said he remembers both feelings - being passed up for a promotion and being awarded one. The chief chooses the officers to be promoted from a list of the top 10 candidates generated by their assessment test scores.