Farewell

While most of America's eyes are expected to be on ABC and its interview with Monica Lewinsky tonight, NBC will be the overall winner in viewers when the February "sweeps" ratings battle ends at midnight.Such big-ticket productions as "Alice in Wonderland" and "The '60s," along with the farewell episode for George Clooney's Dr. Douglas Ross from "ER," are the main reasons for the victory, NBC Entertainment president Scott Sassa said in a teleconference yesterday. "Alice" was the most-watched TV movie of the year, and Clooney's farewell brought millions of viewers back to the networks on Feb. 19, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Congress will miss voice of a veteran I'd like to add my voice to those saying farewell to Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest as he leaves Congress. But in my case, I do so as a fellow Vietnam War combat veteran ("For Gilchrest, a peaceful farewell," Jan. 5). With his departure, the Maryland congressional delegation has not a single wartime veteran. Does that matter? I believe it does, especially as our country faces economic woes that could become the next Great Depression. The last depression was only ended by a world war, and this one might end up that way, too. That must be prevented at all costs.

AS THEY wrote finis to the history of college basketball at Cole Field House the other night, they did everything but play the theme from Field of Dreams. It felt like the closing of Memorial Stadium all over again. And it felt like another farewell to youth. I think I spent half of mine in that building: as a student at the University of Maryland (covering so many basketball games for The Diamondback school newspaper, and taking a few final exams in the place, too -- now, that was pressure)

1783: Washington's work is done It's one of the most famous and oft-told tales in Annapolis history: 222 years ago, on Dec. 23, 1783, Gen. George Washington resigned his military commission before the U.S. Congress at the State House. Annapolis was then the capital of the young republic. There were not many dry eyes in the State House when Washington appeared before Congress and a hushed group that included fellow Virginians and future presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe.

There's just the two of us. It's man on man. One of us is going to win and one of us is going to lose.It's me and the pie.The pie is lemon meringue smothered in a strata of whipped cream. I figure maybe 9,000 calories. You could support India on this pie.Eat it today, wear it forever. Farewell waist, farewell bluejeans, farewell mirrors.Not gonna eat it, not gonna eat it, not gonna eat it, I tell myself. I look across the table.There's Jennifer Connelly, 20, pert, young, beautiful, perfect.

Don't you just hate show-biz goodbyes? This week in New York, Barbra Streisand will say goodbye to live performance with two shows at Madison Square Garden. Even though tickets were priced as high as $2,500 a seat, all 25,000 were sold within two hours. Besides the New York shows (which take place Wednesday and Thursday), there were two shows at the Staples Center in Los Angeles last week. And that's it. As her manager, Martin Erlichman, said in July, "Ms. Streisand has chosen to conclude her public performance career in the two cities most associated with her work."

CALL THIS one A Farewell to Arm -- or, at least, farewell to a tiny piece of the left arm I was unabashedly attached to until my car crash six weeks ago.I'm writing about it because so many of you have been kind enough to call or write following several notices in this newspaper written by editors who, with their customary care for specificity of language, have referred to my "illness." I wasn't ill, just recuperating.Also, it may be worth relating the story for the little lesson it's taught me about perspective.

An encounter with the art of Romare Bearden (who died in 1988 at 75) can be jarring, confusing and even distracting at first, like entering a room to find six people all talking at you at once. There's so much going on, some of it seemingly self-contradictory, that it's hard to sort it out and find out what this work is really about. But as it turns out, it's about a lot of things, among them what it's like to be an American.A tour of the major Bearden retrospective, "Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden 1940-1987," at Washington's National Museum of American Art throws all of him at you, and it's a lot to take in. Consider:The influences range from Dutch genre paintings to abstract expressionism and include cubism, the cutouts of Matisse, the faceting of stained-glass windows, African art, the women of many painters, including Titian, Manet and Matisse, music (especially jazz)

Only five weeks ago, Rod Langway handed the captain's "C", which he had worn on his uniform for 10 years, to teammate Kevin Hatcher. Yesterday, he said he was taking an early vacation and announced he "will no longer be a playing member" of the Washington Capitals.Of course, Langway attached a rider to the statement. He will take the next two months to access his physical condition and determine if he still can contribute on the ice -- either for the Capitals or another team."I just look at it as my playing career is over right now," Langway said.

The Naval Academy graduated 918 midshipmen yesterday, men and women tested by academics, the conduct of classmates and a leader's recent suicide, who leave a college campus for service at sea.As the sky filled with "midshipman covers," the service hats graduates threw high in the event's hallmark ritual, parents cried, friends stood to applaud and the new officers clustered in celebration, their dress whites stark against the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium's...