Future

STANTON, Del. - Max Pearson's Lady of the Future posted an upset victory in the $100,000 New Castle Handicap at Delaware Park yesterday. With Mike McCarthy aboard, the 4-year-old daughter of Eastern Echo earned a three-quarter-length victory and returned $17 as the co-third choice in the field of six. The field was reduced to six after five late scratches. Salty You, with Ramon Dominguez aboard, finished second but was disqualified and placed third for interfering with the 2-5 favorite Calista, with Jose Santos aboard.

I READ ABOUT THE refrigerator of the future and began to worry. A news story out of Sweden told of a prototype, unveiled recently by Electrolux, that supposedly tells you what's inside the fridge without having to open the door. The fridge "knows" what's inside by reading bar codes, like the machines used at supermarket checkout stands. This fridge also can supposedly warn users if they are running low on any foods, like milk.Like most reports on the future, the smart-fridge prediction left me shaking my head with doubt.

Charles Carroll Elementary PTA is holding a community meeting tonight to discuss the future of the school, the oldest and smallest in the county. The 71-year-old school is being studied by a committee that will recommend to the Carroll Board of Education early next year whether to close or renovate the building. School officials lowered the rating of the school's condition from fair to poor this year, rocketing Charles Carroll up a list of construction priorities. The status change also triggered a formal site assessment and sparked a flood of concern from community members who cherish the history, tradition and charm of their tiny school, located about 10 miles north of Westminster.

Home to quiet, tree-lined streets, government offices and "honey bee" specials. Church capital of the county. A neighborhood of car dealerships and old-fashioned bakeries, an international airport and parks.When 22 community leaders and longtime Glen Burnie residents satdown to talk about their hometown, they quickly listed the same attractions.They came from every walk of life. They live in different sections of town, some in single-family homes in the older center of town, others in more modern subdivisions.

The proposal by Carroll County commissioner Donald I. Deli to extend Interstate 795 into the county has provoked a healthy public debate about the wisdom of such a road, but the discussion needs to be broadened. Instead of talking just about roads, the focus should be on Carroll's future.People sense that Carroll is on the cusp of change. Fields are turning into subdivisions. Quiet rural roads are becoming busy thoroughfares. New faces are showing up in schools, churches and grocery stores.

IT WASN'T YOUR imagination. The crowd at Camden Yards was more energized during the Orioles' loss to the Yankees on Monday night than for any other game this season. Not even a 4-3 loss could dampen the feel-good atmosphere. What made Monday night so different? A 22-year-old rookie, John Parrish, was pitching for the Orioles. A left-hander from Lancaster, Pa., he threw seven strong innings in his major-league debut, striking out nine Yankees with a wicked curveball. The crowd ate it up. At least the slim majority cheering for the Orioles did. If it wasn't obvious before, it certainly is now: That's all the fans want to see as the Orioles lumber toward a third straight losing season with an expensive, veteran team.

For someone who has counseled countless political candidates and predicted races for scores of news organizations, Brad Coker may seem strangely vague about his own future.The 35-year-old whiz kid and founder of the Columbia-based Mason-Dixon Political Media Research is mulling the possibility of packing it all in to enjoy pseudo-retirement further south of our border. Mr. Coker says a nagging ulcer is causing him to rethink his residency here. But his comments also suggest someone negotiating a premature mid-life crisis.

Igor Berenshteyn didn't want to come to America.But in the 18 months since emigrating from Russia with his parents, he had begun to shed some of his boredom and bitterness, while embracing a new life.The 23-year-old's modest apartment in Northwest Baltimore boasted a large-screen television and VCR. At his dining room table, he'd practice his English, using an electronic dictionary. And to earn money for a new car, he handed out fliers and folded boxes for a take-out shop called Pizza Deal on Park Heights Avenue.

The first week of free agency has been a curious one for the Ravens. Head-scratching? I think my fingernail cut through the skin and just drew blood. If there's a plan this offseason, it's difficult to decipher. Unless that plan is simply to defy logic, which is all we've seen out of these first few days. The latest in a series of suspect moves came yesterday, when the Ravens re-signed Jamal Lewis, the team's all-time leading rusher. Even more questionable, two team officials said Lewis would likely start the season over Anderson.

Sixty years ago today, Baltimore City College beat Polytechnic Institute, 2-0, in a charity football game attended by over 15,000 people.A movie called "The Champ," starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper, played at the Stanley Theater on Howard Street.A Baltimore man wrote The Sun complaining that women were becoming too flirtatious."What's wrong with women nowadays?" he cried in a letter to the editor. "They smoke our cigarettes, drink our booze, and take our jobs. Are they hard up? Can't they meet any decent young men by any other means than picking us up on the street?