Family Matters

Los Angeles --Once upon a prime time in the Land of Television, there was a place called the Family Viewing Hour.It was a special place, that 8 p.m.-to-9 p.m. hour -- because that's when children were known to be watching. So the networks refrained from airing shows with sex or violence. Instead they filled the time with friendly aliens, like ALF of "ALF"; with loving families, like the Huxtables of "The Cosby Show" and the Seavers of "Growing Pains"; and with lots of kids, like the Tanner twins of "Full House."

Asking a TV critic to review "Family Man" is like asking a food critic to give a considered opinion on Jell-O.It has no discernible taste, either good or bad. It is neither offensive nor inoffensive. It is just there, sitting on the schedule. It wiggles a little bit when you touch it with your spoon.Like Jell-O, "Family Man" is the type of show that can be the staple of pleasant childhood memories yet still be without any apparent nutritional content.This new CBS sitcom, which debuts tonight at 8:30 on Channel 11 (WBAL)

OLD DEFINITION (de-vors) noun. legal and formal dissolution of marriage. generally painful, humiliating and messy process. [see related: divorce lawyers, accusations, bitterness, acrimony, hefty fees] NEW DEFINITION (de-vors) noun. cooperative process where two parties reach agreement to dissolve a marriage with less red tape, hostility and harm to children. [see related: mediation, arbitration, collaborative divorce] When David and Ilene Zeitzer of Columbia decided to divorce after 31 years of marriage, they found they could agree on at least three things: No lawyers.

The National Center for Family Literacy has researched and published some staggering facts about the ways parental involvement can make a difference in a child's learning. For example, when parent involvement is low, reading comprehension levels of fourth-grade students average 46 points below the national norm. When involvement is high, fourth-graders score 28 points above the national norm. That is a gap of 74 points.Family literacy is a concept that includes the home environment and home activities as contributors to the child's literacy.

The old man will not make it to the Preakness. He is 76 now and does not travel well, not after all those years on the road."That week at the Derby just about killed me," Lyle Whiting said yesterday from Hot Springs, Ark., where he finally retired three years ago. "I got tired, emotionally drained. I forgot to take my blood pressure pills. I came home in bad shape."He is the father of the trainer of the Kentucky Derby winner, a remarkable circumstance if you go all the way back to the beginning, to those county fairs in the windy, sparse Nebraska of the Depression.

When he has needed help running the Orioles, Peter G. Angelos often has turned to someone he knows well, someone he trusts, someone who even looks a little like him.His son John.The younger Mr. Angelos, a 27-year-old law student, doesn't officially work for the team. He isn't on the payroll and doesn't show up in the Orioles offices every day.But in the nine months since his father took over the team, John P. Angelos has been key to a number of the team's baseball and business decisions.On the baseball side, John and his younger brother, Lou, 25, also a law student, have been influential advisers to their father, a role that has raised eyebrows among the club's veteran baseball staff, led by general manager Roland Hemond.

It was crowded in my parents' Northwest Baltimore dining room on the first night of Passover. My two older sisters, with their husbands and children, were together at home with my parents and me that night in the late 1950s. I squeezed in near my mother's end of the table, my back against the breakfront, facing Gischa, the oldest sister. This is supposed to be a solemn holiday dinner marking the hardships of the ancient Jews in Egypt and their escape from slavery, and the pre-dinner service featured lengthy prayer readings.

It was time to face my fear and pick up a glue gun. The name itself was troubling enough for someone who didn't dare light a match until an embarrassingly advanced age. And all the glue-gun fans I know have spoken of the burns they had received while wielding this handy tool. I didn't want to get burned. But how can you write about a glue gun without trying it? Leafing through Wild With a Glue Gun: Getting Together With Crafty Friends, by Kitty Harmon and Christine Stickler (North Light, $19.99, 2004)

THEY CALL mononucleosis "the kissing disease," but I think that has less to do with how you contract it than it does with the fact that once you get it, you can kiss your social life goodbye. At least that's how my teen-aged daughter reacted to the diagnosis. A persistent sore throat sent us to the doctor Friday afternoon of Labor Day weekend, and when the mono test came back positive, I pulled the plug on Jessie's holiday plans. For a child who had just been told she had a viral illness most often characterized by listlessness and extreme fatigue, she had plenty of energy to throw a fit. Frankly, that's what I feared most after hearing the doctor's report.