Handouts

Washington. -- Well, they've finally made me an advocate of ruthless welfare reform -- I mean for wiping out total programs without tears. I'm talking about the myriad federal schemes in which outrageous and incredible subsidies are given to the richest people and companies in America.Sharon LaFraniere reported in the Washington Post about the Agriculture Department's Market Promotion Program, which spends hundreds of millions of dollars helping some of the most prosperous businesses in America to hawk their wares overseas.

The South Baltimore Station homeless shelter aims to do more than give 40 men a warm meal and a bed at night. It also tries to get men to address the causes of their homelessness and to change their lives.Timothy T. Williams, 43, a former lawyer and bureaucrat, became executive director of the shelter in 1990. He says he finds contentment in the work despite the heartbreak of dealing with men whose problems often seem intractable. The shelter, housed in a former city firehouse at 140 W. West St., had its beginnings six years ago. Two neighborhood women, Jaye Burtnick and Gloria DeBarry, created a refuge from the winter weather for the street people of the Cross Street market area.

Chicago. -- Opponents of government handouts often talk as if welfare mothers are the only recipients of such help. But the government gives aid to many people with less pressing needs than a poor woman has in feeding her children.Take the Western land-use policy that lets people mine government territory, graze their animals over it, get trees sold from it, for less than market prices -- often far less. What makes these miners and farmers entitled to welfare?The policy did not begin as welfare, of course.

The score book lay at the very bottom of the cardboard carton, flattened beneath a crush of old press handouts and baseball media guides. I was down in the basement and the box felt damp, almost limp, smelling sourly of mildew and summer. I glanced at one of the handouts, headlined "News from the Orioles" and dated June 30, 1982. The O's, it said, had won six of their last nine games. It said Dennis Martinez would face Len Barker in the game against Cleveland tomorrow night. Len Barker? Talk about mildew.

SILETZ, Ore. -- Deep inside the coastal forest of Oregon, a small American Indian tribe is building the reservation of the future.After clearing a swath in the woods, the Siletz Indians have constructed a new community of big homes and broad streets. Unemployment is well below the national average. Drugs and alcohol are not allowed.And the budget, enriched by tribal businesses and a portfolio of outside investments, is showing a healthy surplus.But what is most remarkable about the Siletz is the simple fact that they exist, still holding millennium-old ties to this land.

It was a game with nooks and crannies and all sorts of sweet morals, a sweaty, 188-minute piece of ever-changing theater that left 47,000 fans with sunburns to doctor, a win to celebrate and much to discuss. Down at the bottom line, however, was this one little pearl: The Orioles won because, for a change, they let the other team hand over the game.Of course, the Orioles have usually been the ones doing the handing this season, employing numerous variations on the theme. You don't land 11 1/2 games out in major-league baseball's worst division without -- and please pardon the scratchy English -- blowing a passel of games.

War in Africa has been a primary cause and exacerbater of famine. But do not suppose that, because in the last few days the wars in Angola and Ethiopia have been wrapped up, the great hunger stories are over. Africa's agricultural problems are just too severe, its climate too harsh and erratic, its soils too poor, its governments too mismanaged and its population growth too uncontrolled for ready solution.Here in Hamlet's home town, agricultural ministers from most of the world's countries are holding their annual get-together under the auspices of the United Nations' World Food Council.

Some are young mothers who softly ask for a little food to tide themover another month.Others are newly laid-off workers struggling to pay their mortgage and car insurance bills.They're often embarrassed to have to ask for anything. But many of the people who walk through the Salvation Army's doors each day need much more than a square meal. They need a job.With the help of computer technology, the North County Salvation Army, at 7483 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd., is expanding its traditional services.

EASTON -- "Donahue" came to town today, turning this Eastern Shore community into part of the global electronic village, if only for an hour.The issue on the nationally syndicated television talk show was the distribution of condoms at Easton High School under a plan proposed by the Talbot County health director, John Ryan, which was eventually voted down by the school board.The setting was the 60-year-old, recently restored Avalon Theater, which was packed with more than 400 people, almost all Talbot County residents.

Glitter on LitterLean Rats on Fat CatsWhores on BoresSchlepps and PrepsArtist and TapperCool WhippersnapperPoet CantingPsycho Ranting,Tough Guys and FeyShoving One Way. . .Cars Bars Ships TarsDingy Dank AlleysSumptuous Galleys,Coke, Pot and HashWhite Collar Trash,Great LaughsMean Brawls,No Curtain Calls. . .China Sea FunkFlea Market JunkPiteous FacesHandouts . . . No Laces.Neon FlashingBottles Smashing,Music HowlingCerberus Growling,Moist Lips InvitingVaguely Exciting,Sappho EntwiningPhoebus Reclining.