Faint

NEW YORK / / Wouldn't want to miss Matt Lauer's 10th anniversary as host of the Today show. Had to get up early, hit 30 Rockefeller Center at 6:45 a.m. and still found scores of people already lined up next to the Today show picture windows. They cheered and waved colorful posters -- far too colorful for that time of day. "Happy Birthday, Stephanie." "Chicago Girls Love NYC." "Happy Anniversary from Big Easy to Big Apple." "We Love Al [Roker, the weatherman]." "We missed our flight to be on Today."

The physician's assistant was removing stitches from my head, one week after neurosurgery. Sitting upright, I suddenly got lightheaded, and the room began to fade away. "I think I'm going to pass out," I matter-of-factly announced to my husband. Faster than you can say "syncope," the medical term for fainting, I was out cold. When I regained consciousness moments later, I was still in the chair. My husband told me I had slumped backward and was unresponsive.

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.

ASHBURN, Va. -- Kili Lefotu, the Washington Redskins rookie offensive guard who was taken to a local hospital after losing consciousness in his dormitory room Wednesday night, was in stable condition yesterday, according to Bubba Tyer, the team's director of sports medicine. The chain of events regarding Lefotu's situation disclosed by Tyer differed from those initially announced after practice Wednesday night by Redskins coach Joe Gibbs. Tyer said that Lefotu called 911 after feeling ill and was conscious when a local EMT unit arrived, but then passed out. Gibbs had said that Lefotu had been found unconscious.

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

BOSTON - Given a clean bill of health, reliever James Baldwin returned to the Orioles yesterday and was available to pitch, two days after fainting on the team charter to Boston. Baldwin was discharged from Massachusetts General Hospital yesterday morning after spending the night there and undergoing more tests. He was taken to the emergency room Thursday night and released, but the team's medical staff insisted that he return as a precaution. "I didn't want to go back, but that was the only way I was going to get on the field," he said.

Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes fainted yesterday during a funeral service in New Jersey and was hospitalized for observation, a spokesman said. The cause of Sarbanes' fainting episode had not been determined, said Jesse Jacobs, his press secretary. Barring unforeseen changes in his condition, Sarbanes was to be released today from University Hospital in Newark, N.J., and return to Washington in time for morning votes, Jacobs said. He was in fair condition last night, said hospital spokesman Rogers Ramsey.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton fainted while giving a speech yesterday in Buffalo, N.Y. Her office said the episode was caused by a stomach virus she may have contracted over the weekend. Clinton, 57, collapsed shortly after telling the audience at Buffalo's private Saturn Club that she felt ill. The club's general manager told the Associated Press that Clinton was able to walk out on her own. She did not complete her planned remarks on Social Security. "It wasn't as dramatic as it sounds," Clinton, a New York Democrat, said at another event a short time later.

Can you get a buzz from these things?" we asked the only other customer at the Zeeba Lounge on a recent Friday night, as he sucked hard on his hookah, a water pipe filled with flavorings and tobacco. He certainly looked buzzed, his eyes at half mast, his face dreamy. "If you concentrate," he said. He had come to Zeeba to relax, he said, after a night working as a busboy in a touristy local restaurant. And what better place to escape all those customers, all that noise, all that food and drink, than a place that has almost none of the above?