Everyday People

It was Bobby Rydell who sang: "...every day's a holiday and every night is a Saturday night," and while he may have been talking about those Wildwood Days at the shore in New Jersey in his 1963 recording, the sentiment can be applied to many situations. For a teen spending the summer at the beach (Wildwood, N.J., in Bobby Rydell's case), every day is a holiday and every night is Saturday night because that's what they're apt to make of the situation. From a wider perspective, those who ponder the meanings of literature and lyrics can easily draw the broader conclusion that any situation is what you make of it. Such could be the case with events like last week's Harford County observances of the anti-crime National Night Out. This event, and others like it with themes like Take Back the Night, provide healthy and wholesome activities for children in neighborhoods where the temptation to engage in a criminal and antisocial activities, is great.

This weekend I visited all the usual hot spots in Ellicott City: the YMCA, the library, a grocery store, a gas station and a pharmacy. In each and every parking lot my car was the only vehicle with a Human Rights Campaign equality sticker. I can't possibly be the only person in Ellicott City who thinks it's wrong to deny one specific group of people their basic civil rights. I can't possibly be the only person in Ellicott City who thinks it's wrong to discriminate against others because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

"Everyday People," by Stewart O'Nan. Grove Press. 268 pages. $24. For the past decade, Stewart O'Nan has been turning out books bursting with catastrophes almost yearly. The tragedies that drive his novels "Snow Angels," "The Names of the Dead," "Speed Queen" and "A Prayer for the Dying" include, respectively, the murder of a young woman by her husband after their 3-year-old daughter drowns, a Vietnam vet's struggle with his past, the final confession of a drug-addicted murderer on Oklahoma's death row and an outbreak of diphtheria in the Midwest in the 1870s.

Baltimore's two-year commemoration of the War of 1812 began dramatically Saturday at the site of the British bombardment of Fort McHenry. Students from the Baltimore School for the Arts chose the fort for their open-air staging of "Fighting for Freedom," a three-scene play that looks at the war's impact on everyday life. They delivered thought-provoking plots to an audience of several hundred who spread across the grass, where a moat had once helped protect the fort. The sun shone on the actors and the sound crew adjusted quickly to the brisk winds.

It's not part of his job description as a parking agent to tackle purse snatchers and wrestle them to the ground, but Howard E. Nelson does just that.Thomas Finnerty is usually supervising workers for the marine operations unit of the Bureau of Water and Wastewater. But that didn't stop him from rescuing three people from a sinking boat.And Kim A. Dimick, who is usually busy keeping the Inner Harbor's waters clean, helped two co-workers rescue a man from the water.They're everyday people with everyday jobs, who dared to thwart crimes or to help others in life-threatening situations.

SEATTLE - When President Bush finishes the State of the Union address tomorrow, the Democrats will nudge to center stage a relatively obscure governor from the West to say that the drums of war should not drown out the worst economic crisis in a half-century for state governments. The governor, Gary Locke of Washington, already has a small niche in history as the first Chinese-American to hold a state's highest office. Now he will become one of few governors ever chosen to give the nationally televised response to the president's message to Congress.

Peter Kulsziski is not one to give up easily. Which helps explain why "Hometown Portraits," a series of four-to-five minute profiles debuting today on WMAR, Channel 2, are such a delight."

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - The view is decidedly different from airplane seats occupied by students of Walter Philbrick. Other passengers settling in for takeoff contemplate coffee, magazines, a nap. Graduates of Philbrick's civilian counter-terrorism classes here think zone defense. They know, for instance, that a typical airline beverage cart is 3 feet long - room enough to keep a knife-wielding terrorist on the other side of it at bay. A full can of soda weighs just less than 1 pound and can be a valuable weapon if thrown with force and accuracy.

Everyday People is a film about that horrible day in the lives of more and more Americans when they get to work and find out that jobs around which they have built their worlds are suddenly about to disappear. For all its public-relations talk about social relevance, television rarely takes on such tales from the dark side of the American Dream. So, before anything else is said, let us now praise HBO for making a TV movie that dares to remind us of the cost in human suffering that can accompany economic progress.

What's the point? -- Always felt you've had a knack for putting outfits together? Or do you just like to admire other people's creative style? Wardrobe Remix, a community on the photo-hosting site Flickr, was created for everyday people to share their original outfits. Though most outfits posted are of the hipster variety, Wardrobe Remix is a good place to pick up style tips - as long as you avoid the few outfits posted that are, how shall we say it, not exactly fashion friendly. What to look for --Under each photo, most people also list where they bought each piece of the outfit.

What's the point? -- Always felt you've had a knack for putting outfits together? Or do you just like to admire other people's creative style? Wardrobe Remix, a community on the photo-hosting site Flickr, was created for everyday people to share their original outfits. Though most outfits posted are of the hipster variety, Wardrobe Remix is a good place to pick up style tips - as long as you avoid the few outfits posted that are, how shall we say it, not exactly fashion friendly. What to look for --Under each photo, most people also list where they bought each piece of the outfit.

Everyday People is a film about that horrible day in the lives of more and more Americans when they get to work and find out that jobs around which they have built their worlds are suddenly about to disappear. For all its public-relations talk about social relevance, television rarely takes on such tales from the dark side of the American Dream. So, before anything else is said, let us now praise HBO for making a TV movie that dares to remind us of the cost in human suffering that can accompany economic progress.

SEATTLE - When President Bush finishes the State of the Union address tomorrow, the Democrats will nudge to center stage a relatively obscure governor from the West to say that the drums of war should not drown out the worst economic crisis in a half-century for state governments. The governor, Gary Locke of Washington, already has a small niche in history as the first Chinese-American to hold a state's highest office. Now he will become one of few governors ever chosen to give the nationally televised response to the president's message to Congress.

Dust Bowl Refugees, Nancy Linden's latest show at Resurgam Gallery, continues the artist's earlier work on the theme of marginalized people while pointing out the problematic relationship between photography and truth. The show's title piece, an installation of paintings and collage that fills the entire front room of the gallery, is based on a famous Depression-era photograph by Dorothea Lange of six tenant farmers who have been thrown off their land. In Lange's picture, the men stand stolidly in front of an old-fashioned country store with their arms folded across their chests or hanging loosely at their sides as they stare into the camera.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - The view is decidedly different from airplane seats occupied by students of Walter Philbrick. Other passengers settling in for takeoff contemplate coffee, magazines, a nap. Graduates of Philbrick's civilian counter-terrorism classes here think zone defense. They know, for instance, that a typical airline beverage cart is 3 feet long - room enough to keep a knife-wielding terrorist on the other side of it at bay. A full can of soda weighs just less than 1 pound and can be a valuable weapon if thrown with force and accuracy.

One of the more predictable results of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 is that so many ordinary, everyday people in this country have suddenly become military and intelligence experts. People who couldn't have found Afghanistan on a map two weeks ago if you highlighted it in Magic Marker suddenly know exactly how a ground assault by U.S. troops should be conducted in that hostile, mountainous country. People who couldn't tell Osama bin Laden from Col. Sanders now know precisely what the master terrorist is thinking, and what immediate moves he's planning to make.

From shelving books to writing them Amy Hest, the author of "In the Rain With Baby Duck" and "The Purple Coat," visits two Howard County libraries Saturday to read from and talk about her work. Hest spent years working as a children's librarian and then in children's book departments in various publishing houses before finally realizing she wanted to be the one writing the books, rather than handling them. "I never thought that my life was exciting enough," she says. "I didn't have fantastic adventures.

This weekend I visited all the usual hot spots in Ellicott City: the YMCA, the library, a grocery store, a gas station and a pharmacy. In each and every parking lot my car was the only vehicle with a Human Rights Campaign equality sticker. I can't possibly be the only person in Ellicott City who thinks it's wrong to deny one specific group of people their basic civil rights. I can't possibly be the only person in Ellicott City who thinks it's wrong to discriminate against others because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.