Familiar

LANDOVER -- It hurt like the blazes, but there was nothing like a bunch of perfect scores to ease the pain.Brian Boitano, skating on an injured hip he reinjured in his first number of the night, scored six perfect 10s and a 9.9 to win his third straight NutraSweet World Professional Figure Skating title at the Capital Centre."

THIS IS a song I sing almost every year at this time because it's A Thing with me, the idea that if we are to spend - it's a patriotic duty, don't you know - gobs of money on holiday shopping, let's do some of it right down the street. Pardon the repetition, but here's my credo: I'm going Main Street for holiday shopping again this year. I'll patronize businesses that are not part of large chains, that are owned and operated by people with long and healthy roots in the community - the ones who take out ads in our kids' soccer yearbooks and the programs for the high school plays - businesses that must not die. OK, there I said it. It won't do much good, but I said it. You'll probably go to the malls and the outlets anyway, and thousands of you will flood into that massive place called Arundel Mills, formerly a perfectly nice swath of trees down by the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

NEW YORK -- To the familiar sound of applause and the familiar sight of a standing ovation, Monica Seles, 21, strode into the twilight on the Stadium Court and accomplished a familiar feat last night.With a comforting wad of bubble gum squirreled away in her cheek, the better to chew away her opening night jitters, Seles took just 56 minutes to dismantle 44th-ranked Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania 6-3, 6-1, in her Grand Slam return.This was a match she'd dreamed about for months. This was the deliverance she sought from the nightmarish stabbing 28 months ago in Hamburg, Germany, where a fan of Steffi Graf sank a kitchen knife between Seles' shoulder blades in mid-match.

Picture Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in black tie and gossamer gown gliding across the silver screen at the height of the Depression.Or think back to 1968. American cities were engulfed in race riots, and the only depiction of black life on TV was the middle-class predictability of "Julia." Body bags were arriving from Vietnam, and "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." was TV's prime-time picture of military life.Escapism. Sugar-coated versions of reality. Old, familiar faces and old, familiar formulas.

Toby's Dinner Theatre has done a smart thing in scheduling Meet Me in St. Louis as its holiday attraction. It is a show for the family, about a family, offering colorful period costumes and plenty of familiar songs. Based on the familiar movie musical, the show introduces us to the Smith household of St. Louis. Some of its members are familiar figures: the autocratic father, the understanding mother, the kindly grandfather, the Irish cook who speaks her mind. There are also two daughters interested in marriage named Rose and Esther, two prepubescent daughters, Tootie and Agnes, and a college-age son, Lon. The action begins in the summer of 1903.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- This city's time in the sun is fading fast. The man who brought it unusual fame and fortune --President-elect Bill Clinton -- is about to leave for a capital more familiar with both.Not since Plains, Ga., became the unlikely focus of national attention when Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976 has a city like Little Rock been on such a roller coaster ride."We have seen a government formed right here. Yes, sir, right here in Little Rock," said a taxi driver, born and bred here and still amazed at what has been happening before his very eyes.

It was a scenario familiar to bereaved parents like me: the shock, the anger, the bottomless grief, the vain wish that the universe, just this once, would turn back time to give us a do-over with a different outcome. The tragedy was universal: Young people were dead, allowing all of us a glimpse of the randomness and indifference of a world that routinely crushes our fondest dreams and dearest loves. The avalanche of media attention, drawn by the sheer numbers of the dead Monday at Virginia Tech, forced those directly involved to wonder if this would be the defining moment of their lives.

As one of the world's finest classical guitarists, Manuel Barrueco is quite accustomed to exotic ports of call. Faraway places with strange-sounding names are part of his everyday life.Forgive him, then, if he confesses to a twinge of home-turf nervousness as he prepares to guest solo with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at the Meyerhoff.Even though the program -- Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez -- is a familiar one and no great challenge for an artist of Mr. Barrueco's magnitude, the native Cuban who now calls Baltimore home says he will be a bit edgy until actually beginning to play.

Jidda, Saudi ArabiaHe is a Saudi economist, educated in the United States, where he vacations each year, and he sits at a desk papered with charts and surrounded by computers, telephones and a fax. Judged by appearances, a thoroughly Westernized man in a luxuriously Westernized land.Appearances can deceive. The economist talked about the kingdom's priorities for national development (education first, military hardware a likely second), its revenues (they are steeply up, since a crisis that doubles the oil price doubles the kingdom's income)

Time's up.If you're one of those die-hard dialers still using the 301 area code despite the fact that half the state officially moved into the 410 area code a year ago, the game is up.Starting at midnight tonight, everybody must use the proper area code.Misdialers will hear that familiar -- and oh-so-irritating -- screech that precedes wrong or discontinued numbers. That will be followed by a recording that instructs callers to check the area code and dial again. (In case you're stumped, recordings will also offer the correct area code.