Grind

I HAVE HAD MORE pepper mills than Madonna has had boyfriends. Big ones, small ones, fat ones, skinny ones. They arrive good-looking and full of promise. They leave, their gears stripped, their performance diminished, a shadow of their former selves.I have had pepper mills made of clear plastic and shiny metal. I have had multistory mills that had salt in their penthouse and peppercorns in the basement. I have had a series of pepper-only mills including the much-touted Unicorn Magnum, a sleek, side-loading model from a Maine outfit called Tom David.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The Republican presidential race has the explosive issue (abortion), the unpredictable character (Patrick J. Buchanan), the romantic insurgent (Gary Bauer), the alluring mystery man (George W. Bush), the methodical grind (Lamar Alexander), the innocent underdog (Dan Quayle), the unreconstructed warrior (John McCain), the whimsical Wunderkind (John R. Kasich) and the unconventional outsider (Elizabeth H. Dole).But it's the Democratic race, with the two boring and balding, middle-aged and moderate, respectable and responsible, pensive and pedantic guys that's really interesting.

This time each year, Michael Rock leaves work smelling like pine needles, weary from a repetitive chore that signals the final curtain for the Christmas holiday.Rock and a dozen other Baltimore County highway workers spend the last three weeks of January shoving Christmas trees -- stripped of their lights and tinsel, thank you -- into chippers that grind the trees into mulch."When I go home, I smell like a pine tree," said Rock, 33, of Parkville. "It just stays with you."The daily grind is part of a winter rite this month at landfills throughout Maryland, as jurisdictions collect thousands of Christmas trees and turn them into mulch.

Through the first eight weeks of the NFL schedule, the most impressive comeback story of the half-season -- next to Doug Flutie's, of course -- is the return of CBS to the weekly grind of televising games.The Eye network, which was out of the game for four years, has come back quite well with a pretty decent plan of attack for covering games that blends four decades of tradition with a newfangled conference, the AFC, and a '90s sensibility.The formula is working. CBS' AFC ratings are up slightly from this time last year, when NBC was in the AFC mix. And the NFL success has had a positive effect on the network's prime-time ratings, which are also up.All but one of CBS' six broadcast crews have been seen here to date, and all but one, the noxious pairing of Don Criqui and Beasley Reece, have been fairly entertaining.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- In the dozen seasons between Ray Miller's managerial runs with the Minnesota Twins and the Orioles, the truism never changed that the best managers always plan at least two innings ahead. With only 12 days remaining before the March 31 season opener against the Kansas City Royals, Miller is thinking six months ahead.The defending American League East champions arrived in camp facing few unknowns. As proof of an uneventful spring, they have created none for themselves since.

Will dream become a nightmare?Your article on March 15, written by Richard O'Mara, broughto the forefront the impact of continuing program cuts led by the Republican Party.Mayor Kurt Schmoke's "worry" over Republicans' efforts to eliminate the federal summer jobs program is justified, and is shared by many of us.There is concern about the validity of political practices aimed toward deficit reduction and tax breaks at the expense of disadvantaged young people.The Republican Party's support for further cuts in welfare and financial assistance programs for the elderly, the handicapped and disabled is also worrisome.

The new Umberto Eco, "THe Island of the Day Before."It's excellent.David KeyOwner, the Daily Grind coffee shop, Fells Point

They do it this way because they do it this way, because they've done it this way forever. But you're the one who does the actual work, and you know there's a better way."Management sets policy, but they don't handle customers. I do -- and I know we're turning them off with our cumbersome, outdated procedures for distributing information to them and shipping their merchandise," wrote a frustrated victim of the status quo from Easton this week."But each time I mention the changes we obviously need to make, I either get a patronizing pat on the back, or stony silence from my bosses."

WASHINGTON -- You wouldn't think you could find the little boy in someone who's 6 feet 3 and 285 pounds, and then you mention mud.Mark Schlereth, who's big enough to need mud flaps, loves mud. course he does. He's an offensive lineman. This is someone who enjoys it when people call him a hog. He doesn't think he's had a good day unless his uniform looks like it had to be cleaned with a jet spray, which means he likes to roll in mud. To belly-flop in mud. To exult in mud.Just ask him about the, uh, inclement weather at RFK yesterday, and the Redskins guard smiles down on you like sunshine.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- It sounds like a dream job for a typical weekend hacker: Spend eight months at one of the prettiest spots in the country, improve your game at one of the world's best courses and oversee everything but the golf at the U.S. Open.For Frank Bussey, a transplanted Baltimorean, being director of operations for the 92nd Open has been both a grand assignment and a terrific grind. It's a great thing to have on the resume, but it takes a toll on his wife, Cynthia, and their 11-year-old son, Evan, back in Towson.

The "test kitchen" sign has been taken down. Taverna Corvino (1117 S. Charles St., Federal Hill, 410-727-1212) is officially open. This is the restaurant that replaced Juniors Wine Bar, which closed suddenly earlier this year. The new owners and executive chef Chris Paternotte decided to keep serving food while they were making cosmetic changes and creating the menu. Juniors had a core group of customers they didn't want to lose. So, they put up a "test kitchen" sign, and used customers as guinea pigs (in a good way)

Spurs@Lakers 9 p.m. [TNT] The Lakers - leading the Western Conference finals 3-1 - will try to finish off the defending NBA champions at home tonight. The Spurs' grind-it-out style and Big Three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili have been unable to keep up with the league's Most Valuable Player, Kobe Bryant.

Life isn't easy for America's vintage movie houses. Competition from gigantic multiplexes, booking practices that give the big, money-making movies to the chain theaters and tend to pass over the struggling independents, aging structures and bureaucratic red tape all seem stacked against them. In the case of the Senator Theatre, the last of Baltimore's classic single-screen movie palaces still operating as such, overdue payments on a $1.2 million bank loan threaten its future. Owner Tom Kiefaber has until Feb. 21 to make good on $90,000 owed to 1st Mariner Bank.

The all-in-one grind-and-brew coffee maker -- a machine that, with one press of a button the night before, has a hot, brewed pot of coffee waiting for you in the morning -- is a coffee lover's dream. But, like all utopian promises, you have to wonder if it's really possible. So we decided to put the three grind-and-brew machines on the market -- Melitta, Cuisinart and Capresso -- to the test. Only the Capresso offers the advantage of a burr grinder, which crushes the beans between rotating cones (rather than shredding them with a single blade)

Jerusalem Mill On August 13, 1772, millwright Isaiah Linton signed a Bond of Agreement with his partner David Lee to operate Jerusalem Mill. The Mill got its name from an adjoining tract of land, Jerusalem, which was patented in 1687. The first mill on the banks of the Gunpowder River, "Bonds Water Mills" was a sawmill. In the 1770s, Bucks County, Pennsylvania flour millers discovered and colonized the valley of the Little Gunpowder. Linton was one such, who built eight mills in the valley, one for himself, the others for clients.

PHILADELPHIA -- Maybe their march to perfection started on this same field a year ago, when Johns Hopkins broke their hearts in an overtime thriller. Maybe the Virginia men's lacrosse team limped out of Lincoln Financial Field galvanized by that crushing loss in the national semifinals, knowing this edition of the Cavaliers, led by a driven senior class, would make things turn out differently this spring. From the opening weeks of the 2006 season, it was clear that Virginia had something special going for it, starting with an offense that was all about sharing and shooting the ball better than anyone else.

Grand Central A fixture on the local gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) nightclub scene, this surprisingly large entertainment complex has a high-tech industrial dance floor, video bar, pub and leather club serviced by six bars. Where --1001-1003 N. Charles St. Web site --centralstation pub.com Call --410-752-7133 Notable --The wet underwear competition, held every Sunday after 11 p.m. on the dance floor. If that's not your style, $5 manicures and $5 martinis are offered in the pub Wednesdays after 7 p.m. Or try Tia-Oke with Tia Chambers, an eight-week, crowd-decides karaoke competition (pub side, Monday and Tuesday nights 10:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m.)

As Greg Cantori speeds down South Hanover Street and begins the gentle climb over the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge, he looks like a banana in motion: He's wearing a bright yellow shirt, bright yellow gloves, bright yellow socks, and bright yellow bicycle helmet. "That's my ride-to-survive color," says Cantori. "Here's my rule: The weirder you look, the safer you are." Despite (or maybe because of) his garish appearance, Cantori would make a worthy poster boy for Baltimore's annual Bike to Work Day, which -- for all you oblivious automobile junkies -- is today.

Cheap Date, LIVE's new feature in which we recommend an inexpensive entertainment option for two, continues this week with another local suggestion. As always, it's our aim to provide fun and different date ideas that will keep your schedule (and your wallet) full during this and every season. So read on - we'll continue to figure out most of the details each week; but who you step out with, as always, is up to you. What: The Second Sunday Antique Market Where: Broadway Market Square in Fells Point, 800 block of S. Broadway When: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday Why: Because the outdoor sale will give you a chance to shop and enjoy the late-spring sun all at once.

If certain flavors sing of the holidays -- nutmeg and cinnamon, ginger and cloves, a dash or two of good bourbon -- cardamom is certainly not on the list. But, dear baker, this is a mistake. Take a chance, just once, with a batch of butter cookies or maybe a dish of ice cream. Cardamom adds a powerfully sweet, somehow magical note to the simplest pastry or dessert. It's deeply, transportingly aromatic; somehow, cardamom seems celebratory. In Scandinavia and Germany, cardamom traditionally is used in cakes and breads and cookies.