Faint

"In the Cut," by Susanna Moore. Knopf. 180 pages. $21Sex sells, as the saying goes. If that's the case, "In The Cut" should be a hit. It is a stark, stylish, and graphic erotic thriller - quite a departure for Susanna Moore, whose previous books "Sleeping Beauties" and "The Whiteness of Bones," were far more quietly literary affairs set in Hawaii.Frannie, "In The Cut's" dispassionate narrator, lives in Manhattan. A New York University linguistics professor obsessed with slang, she defends herself from the world with words and arch humor.

The politics-by-the-numbers game we play has been quirkily friendly to Mitt Romney. He was able to waltz into New Hampshire a week before its Republican presidential primary boasting of being a winner in the Iowa caucuses. He could do so despite the fact that he beat former Sen. Rick Santorum, a mere asterisk in the standings a week earlier, by the infinitesimal margin of eight votes. In doing so, and after spending millions in an 11th-hour effort to make up for his near-absenteeism in Iowa, he actually won six fewer votes than he had garnered in his second-place finish there four years ago. Until that late gambling surge, the former Massachusetts governor had pretty much kissed off Iowa as unwelcome terrain.

Over a quick cup of coffee at their kitchen table, Ray and Louise Barnes do an inventory to make sure they have all the supplies they'll need for their workday.Body bags? Check.Disinfectant spray? Got it.Latex gloves? Packed.Solution for digesting blood and odor? Two jugs, ready to go.Containers for infectious medical waste? In the truck.A stretcher? Just in case.The Barneses have just been called to the scene of a murder-suicide in South Baltimore -- an elderly man shot his sister and then turned the gun on himself.

Arizona Cardinals defensive backs coach Donnie Henderson was taken to a hospital after fainting before the game Saturday night against the Dallas Cowboys, the Associated Press reported. Henderson, a former Ravens assistant, fainted while driving down the ramp into the team's parking lot and then hit a cement post, but he was alert and conscious as he was taken to an area hospital. Henderson, 53, who was born in Baltimore, began his NFL coaching career with the Ravens in 1999 as the assistant defensive backs coach until being promoted in 2000 to coach defensive backs.

On March 21, 2003 JULIA LORRAINE (nee Faint), wife of Russell Klos; mother of Toni Lynn Klos; sister of Richard C. Faint Jr., and aunt of Richard C. III and Darcy Anne Faint. Family will receive friends Thursday 6 to 8 P.M. with the service following at 8 P.M. at HARRY H. WITZKE'S FAMILY FUNERAL HOME INC. 4112 Old Columbia Pike Ellicott City.

THE ISSUE: -- Merriweather Post Pavilion hosts Wine in the Woods this weekend, then the HFStival on May 27-28. Talk about diversity. Isn't this what Columbia is all about? Diversity? Maybe a faint echo Columbia was originally about ideals of diversity that go a bit deeper than Wine in the Woods and the HFSestival. Columbia is/was about diversity in housing, employment, and education. Diversity in cultural events also played a part in the original concept of Columbia. There may be a faint echo of that ideal in these two events.

The cops thought they were going to help someone who was hurt. Instead, they found Bad Santa." MICHAEL LEHR, who lives in a Manhattan, N.Y., building where a suspected burglar tried to flee down a chimney; police officers found him after a resident called to report that she heard whimpers and faint cries for help

Sequoia Software Corp. of Columbia announced yesterday that it has purchased Radian Systems Inc. of Arlington, Va., for an undisclosed amount of stock and cash.Privately held Sequoia makes Web-based software to manage corporate information using the computer language XML. Radian makes software that converts data into XML."Putting the two products together is a powerful solution," said Sequoia Chief Executive Officer Richard C. Faint Jr.Faint said the companies entered into a business partnership this year and began planning the acquisition in May. In October, Sequoia will release new software, Sequoia XML Portal, that will combine the two companies' products, he said.

Cline Cotes d'Oakley Vin Rouge ($8.49).Cline, which routinely gives consumers excellent value, does it again with its nonvintage California red wine blend. This isn't one of those fluffy little wines that aims for subtlety. It's your basic Road Kill Red -- a burly, earthy, flavor-packed wine that isn't for the faint of heart. Too bad there aren't more of them out there at this price.Pub date: 12/08/96@

Watch for a close conjunction of a slim crescent moon and the brilliant planet Venus, high in the western sky after sunset this evening, if skies are clear. Just three days past new, the moon may show some "Earthshine" - a faint illumination of the dark portion of the moon, courtesy of sunlight reflected onto the moon from the day side of the Earth. With luck and clear air, you might also be able to spot tiny, star-like Mercury, well below Venus and to right, close to the horizon.

Pity poor Jimmy Stewart, the retired police detective in Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" whose fear of heights causes him to lose the woman of his dreams not once but twice in the same movie. The bell tower of San Juan Bautista mission church outside San Francisco was the culprit in those memorable scenes, but now a popular travel magazine says our unlucky hero would have been just as terrified by an encounter with Maryland's Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Travel + Leisure magazine has listed the Bay Bridge as one of the 27 scariest spans in the world, right up there with Japan's tremulous Musou Tsuribashi Bridge, the Mackinac Bridge connecting Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas and the rickety bamboo crossings through Colombia's National Archeological Park.

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said "everything's fine" after he collapsed at practice Friday and was taken off the court on a stretcher and to Baylor Medical Center. Mavericks President Donnie Nelson said Carlisle was "lightheaded and fainted" on the court at American Airlines Center. Carlisle was released from the hospital later Friday. "I got to feeling a little lightheaded," Carlisle told a Dallas radio station, "fainted and, before I knew it, they were pulling me out of there on a stretcher.

If you walked into the Swedish horror movie Let the Right One In midway through, you might see the 12-year-old boy hero chastely embrace a girl his own age and think, "How sweet." When she asks him if he'd love her if she weren't a girl, you might think, "How interesting," then under your breath start muttering, "Ah, youth. Ah, Sweden. Ah, nuts." But she isn't a girl; she's a vampire. And this boy is not just experiencing a surging crush but a life-defining bond. Most contemporary horror films derive shocks from mere torture.

Moments after the 32-year-old former music director of West Baltimore's Bethel AME Church was sentenced yesterday to seven years in prison for having sex with a 12-year-old parishioner, he collapsed in the courtroom, setting off a screaming match between two families that ended with the defendant's mother unresponsive and shaking on the hallway floor. Timothy D. Price III of Owings Mills was revived moments later and heard Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert B. Kershaw's final post-sentencing remarks about his conviction for second-degree rape of the girl.

JERUSALEM -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned to Israel yesterday for the third time in six weeks, seeking to nudge the Israeli and Palestinian sides closer together in advance of a U.S.-sponsored peace conference. But Rice, after a day of meetings with Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, acknowledged that her two-day visit is unlikely to produce agreement on a hoped-for joint pre-conference statement of mutual goals. "They're still working. And like with anything of this kind, you know, they're going through some knotty discussions," Rice said.

BOSTON -- In retrospect, it was probably not the best way to reassure the faithful. When James Dobson, child psychologist turned political kingmaker, rose to speak at the Values Voter Summit dinner, he first complained about media reports that the religious right was dead. Then he cheerily announced, "Welcome to the morgue." Yes, well, not yet. The much-reported news from last weekend's gathering was that the honchos of the religious right are still wanted by the Republican candidates.

It's a kid's dream: a whole afternoon of dinosaurs and bugs. Barnes & Noble in Ellicott City presents dinosaur stories geared toward the under-seven crowd. Starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, the show features the giant creature's habitats and habits. Expect some growling, a little fighting and some very, very big appetites. And later, the big guys make way for puny pests when Joanne Settel, author of "Exploding Ants," hosts a 1 p.m. slide show that workers at Barnes & Noble are calling "not for the faint of heart."

DON'T KNOW HOW IT IS IN your house, but one of my children is always telling one of the parents, "Just don't tell Mom." Or, conversely, "Just don't tell Dad." They seem to do just fine with this set of rules at the CIA and the FBI. ("Just don't tell Justice" or "Just don't tell the Pentagon.") But it is causing a lot of confusion in my house because my husband and I aren't sharp enough to maintain our deniability or keep our stories straight. Add to that the fact that we can't remember what we said to each other the last time we talked and you have a web of unspoken truths or downright lies that would snare a small aircraft.

We know about the housing market. Now soothsayers worry weakness will spread from Realtors and mortgages to the broader economy. In that light, Acuras and Impalas may be trying to tell us something. Maryland auto dealers sold 1,965 fewer cars and trucks in August than they did the year before - a 5 percent decline, according to the Motor Vehicle Administration. This year through August car and truck sales have fallen 4.4 percent compared with the same span in 2006. That's hardly the degree of damage we're seeing in housing.

Watch for a close conjunction of a slim crescent moon and the brilliant planet Venus, high in the western sky after sunset this evening, if skies are clear. Just three days past new, the moon may show some "Earthshine" - a faint illumination of the dark portion of the moon, courtesy of sunlight reflected onto the moon from the day side of the Earth. With luck and clear air, you might also be able to spot tiny, star-like Mercury, well below Venus and to right, close to the horizon.