Frank Sinatra

They called him "The Voice." It seemed an unremarkable description -- after all, what singer didn't have a voice? -- until you heard him. Then it all made sense.When he sang, he didn't just deliver the melody but animated it, filled it with passion and power, longing and loneliness. The voice revealed how the singer felt and let listeners share in those emotions. It touched untold lives' and brought him unimagined success.The voice was stilled early Friday morning when Frank Sinatra suffered a heart attack in Los Angeles.

WASHINGTON -- Frank Sinatra and Kitty Kelley are at it again, locked in a bitter squabble that has all the makings of a grudge match: pugnacious, press-hating crooner vs. celebrity-stalking biographer. He sued her even before she pulverized him in print.This time, though, their battle is being played out in the halls of the Capitol, where "Old Blue Eyes" has no shortage of fans. His admirers are rushing to honor the ailing, 81-year-old singer with a Congressional Gold Medal before the final curtain falls on his half-century career.

It's a good thing nobody ever told Mickey Light that the way to be happy is to just be yourself. Mickey was himself for 55 years and something always seemed to be missing.He got a better deal from life when he started being somebody else. When he started being Frank Sinatra."How many people do you know who just hate to go to work?" he asks. That's the way it used to be with him when he was lugging wire at Bethlehem Steel, or tending bar. But today, as he puts it, "I'm just tickled to death."

Happy 80th birthday, Mr. Sinatra.* "Saved by the Light" (8 p.m.-10 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45) -- Once a young actor of considerable promise, now known primarily as Julia Roberts' older brother, Eric Roberts stars in this story of a disagreeable sort who changes his ways after being struck by lightning and spending 30 minutes clinically dead. In films from "Star 80" to "Runaway Train" to "The Coca-Cola Kid," Mr. Roberts has almost invariably played two characters, either a dangerous creepazoid only one step above pond scum or a guy who attended one too many acting classes.

Remember how some people went bonkers last week to get 3-cent stamps to go with their leftover 29-cent stamps to meet the new 32-cent price for first-class postage? Long lines were reported all over. Now I hear that people bought so many sheets of 3-cent stamps they're back this week looking for more 29s.Jake's brainchildI'm getting some good buzz from musicheads in the Annapolis-College Park-Baltimore triangle about WRNR-FM (103.1), the progressive free-form rock station that is the brainchild of Jake Einstein, at 77 "the oldest hippie in America" and the man who enjoyed the status of radio cult god as creator of the old WHFS.

It was once my privilege to be challenged to a public duel by Frank Sinatra.He was upset because I questioned the wasteful assignment of several Chicago cops to guard his hotel suite while he performed this city.In doing so, I made a fleeting reference to what appeared to be his splendid hairpiece.Angered by the suggestion that his tresses had been purchased, he sent a lunk over with a letter in which he called me a pimp and offered to let me pull his hair.The deal was, if the hair moved, he would pay me a large sum of money.

Even if you didn't watch the Grammys show, you heard about it. They gave Sinatra a lifetime achievement award. And in the middle of his rambling acceptance speech, they cut to commercial, like Sinatra was Jerry Vale or somebody.They dissed Frank.A few years ago, Frank would have broken some knees for less. But Frank is 78 now, and he doesn't exactly evoke terror anymore.He does occasionally evoke confusion though. Sometimes, he rambles. Sometimes, he even forgets the words to the songs he defined.

What does it mean to speak of Frank Sinatra these days?Merely utter the name, and a host of conflicting images crowd in, each one vying with the others to define who the man is. Is he Frankie, the skinny young crooner who drove the bobby-soxers wild? Is he Ol' Blue Eyes, the eternal saloon singer forever awaiting the wee small hours of the morning? Or is he the Chairman of the Board, the self-made music mogul and undisputed ruler of American popular song?To the romantic, he's the essence of a love affair, a man who understands the glory of new love and the agony of heartbreak, and sings about both with a voice smooth as whiskey and just as intoxicating.