Emotion

After some 200 years of women being prisoners to men's notions of beauty, do you know who freed them?Jane Fonda. And she did it with her workout videos.That's one of the suggestions of "A Century of Women" -- the three-night, six-hour special narrated by Fonda, which starts tonight at 8:05 on TBS, the cable channel owned by Fonda's husband, Ted Turner."A Century of Women" is an ambitious and often powerful production, with a virtual who's who lineup of talent talking about the struggles and accomplishments of women in the 20th century.

In ill health during the last years of his life, author William Manchester lamented his lost capacity to do what had once struck him as effort-less. Manchester, who died yesterday at 82, once said writing used to be as easy as breathing for him. Maybe he breathed better than most human beings, too. His writing wits muscular and lyrical, vMd in its imagery and often wrenching in its emotional import. From 1947 to 1954, he was a staff writer at The Evening Sun and The Sun. He left newspapering behind - eventually he would gain renown for his books, including classic biographies of Winston Churchill and Douglas MacArthur - but Man-chester remained a prodigious reporter, indefatigable researcher and penetrating observer.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Texas Rangers' clubhouse rocked after a comeback victory against Detroit. Manager Bobby Valentine ignored the joy to launch a long, blistering attack on a scoring decision that went against one of his players.That same clubhouse drooped after a losing streak reached eight games. Valentine, resisting the urge to brood in his office, made a loud tour of the clubhouse to tell players of his faith in them.Life is rarely placid with Valentine, the only manager in recent memory to be physically charged by an opposing player (Seattle's Dave Valle)

Researchers at Princeton University are using brain-imaging technology to study which parts of the brain - the ones that control emotion or the ones that control rational thought - essentially "light up" when someone makes economic decisions. They've concluded that when emotions win out over rationality abilities, people's choices often go against their self-interest. Such research is getting attention not only from psychologists, but also from economists, who traditionally have ignored emotion and have assumed that people make rational decisions.

When an English translation of "Gimpel the Fool" appeared in the Partisan Review in 1953, a number of American intellectuals and literary critics suddenly discovered that some of the most interesting 20th century fiction had been appearing for some years in the Jewish Daily Forward -- in Yiddish.Isaac Bashevis Singer, who died Wednesday at age 87, first came to America in 1935, the year after his first novel was published in Poland. He had been something of a fixture at the Forward ever since, with a number of stories and serialized novels appearing there.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A cell phone was pressed to Sen. Barack Obama's ear as he slouched down in a black leather chair in the front cabin of his campaign airplane. He leaned away from the headrest, where his name is spelled out in blue stitching. A few miles away, thousands of people streamed into JFK Stadium at Parkview High School for a late-night rally on Saturday. But Obama stayed on his chartered Boeing 757 as he spoke by conference call to thousands of his team leaders around the country, the volunteers who form the ranks of an army that he hopes will give him an edge in the waning hours of the presidential race.

These days, when young soul singers set out to work the groove, they seem to take the term literally. They grunt, they holler, they shout, they wail. And when they really want to show their stuff, they dress up the melody with all sorts of acrobatic ululation, as if under the impression that singing was some form of athletic competition.But when Luther Vandross works a groove, he barely breaks a sweat. His singing is so smooth and assured that it appears almost effortless -- as if he could toss off an entire album more easily than most of us could hum a melody.

Watching the sun set on an old ballpark, even if this one is far from an antique, creates a torrent of contrasting emotions, offering both torment and elation. Memorial Stadium was closed with proper dignity. It became reminiscent of a decommissioned battleship. Not to be detonated and blown to smithereens but, instead, temporarily stored in mothballs to await its final fate.The Baltimore Orioles delivered an appropriate eulogy and gave their field a formal farewell. It was different in that players onboth teams and a capacity crowd couldn't wait for the game with the Detroit Tigers to be over so they could see the grand ceremonial finale.

No. 2 Johns Hopkins (7-0) boasts a wide advantage in this series, winning 55 of 84 contests. But the Blue Jays are 4-10 against Virginia since Dave Pietramala became the head coach prior to the 2001 season. Making matters worse, the No. 1 Cavaliers (8-0) haven't lost in this series in Charlottesville, Va., since 1998. Virginia is looking for its fourth 9-0 start in the last five years. Here are a few factors that could influence the outcome at Klockner Stadium on Saturday. 1)

The howling and barking begin before the double doors swing open to unleash the Ravens for their short walk down the concourse and into the darkened tunnel. It's game time, and the team that has reached the playoffs on emotion as much as timely offensive plays and crunching defense is filling its tank. The biggest men, helmets already in place, lead the way, the clatter of their spikes lost beneath the wave of sound that rolls from the locker room and is met by a wave of sound from the field and the stands.