I Knew

TAMPA, Fla. - Super Bowl week for New York Giants quarterback Kerry Collins means more than preparing for the biggest game of his career. It also means he has to open up about his sordid past. So Collins met the challenge head-on yesterday in what turned into an emotional news conference where he discussed his problems with alcohol, accusations of being a racist and the difficulties he had growing up. Collins said he had his first drink at age 13 and became a binge drinker while at Penn State and later with the Carolina Panthers.

He knew that voice. Art Sims did an aural double take when he walked into the Cockeysville antiques store a few days before Christmas. That voice, that face - that voice. The memory continued to nag him long after he left, until he got in the car and turned on his radio - and heard former U.S. Rep. Helen Delich Bentley reminding people to shop at her husband's longtime business. "I knew I knew you," the Hunt Valley man said triumphantly when he returned to Bentley's Antiques for some last-minute Christmas shopping.

IT BEGAN months ago when a small pension check didn't arrive. Inquiry revealed that the Maryland State Pension and Retirement System thought I was dead. The information came from the Social Security Administration, which had gotten it from a funeral establishment in a small town in Carroll County. With an affidavit and countless phone calls, I was able to get it all straightened out and everything was back to normal. Oddly, the SSA, which apparently started the nasty rumor, did not stop their own checks from coming to me. But a funny thing happened about six months later.

ROANOKE, Va. -- Maybe it was just one more attack of the bad case people say I've had for 46 years. This time it took the form of getting up before 6 a.m. on a Saturday to drive 300 miles north to visit an abandoned, weed-filled structure in a fair-sized city on the eastern seaboard. My family, had they known I'd snuck away in the pre-dawn, would have cited previous episodes. My mother would talk about an 8-year-old boy who suddenly, in the spring of 1954, became obsessed with the name of his hometown -- telling her it fit with the word "Orioles" to make the best two words he knew.

THIS YEAR, I really want to go back to school, to elementary school. Not for the pristine saddle oxfords, all perfectly black and white with no creases. Not for the five cotton plaid dresses, one for each day and each in a different combination of the autumnal palette. And not for the box of crayons, all lined up in their proper space, tips perfectly flat. No, I want to go back this year because finally, at age 48, I have material for the "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" essay. I can remember agonizing over the topic, writing and erasing, writing and erasing, and then finally conceding that not much exciting had happened to me since the last class before vacation.

The first curve thrown by Aaron Sele was aimed at the team most prepared to sign him, leaving the Orioles scrambling for another starting pitcher before heading to Florida and the early promise of spring training. Losing Sele after coming to agreement on a four-year, $29 million deal, club officials must dip into a shallow pool of remaining free agents or take their chances on unproven talent within the farm system. Left-hander Darren Oliver is available. So are Steve Trachsel and Hideo Nomo, although a club official last night saw Trachsel going to Colorado for one year and Oliver headed for either Texas or St. Louis for two. Even if available, none offers the appeal of Sele, an 18-game winner last season who abruptly signed a two-year, $15 million contract with the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.

MY BEST SHOT Moon over Moscow By Nancy L. Held, Towson Moscow lay gray with massive buildings during the day. At night, though, red stars blazed above the Kremlin's spires, guiding its populace to beautifully lit fountains and shops. Interlocked arms of lovers and children with parents still heralded romance and hope in a struggling country. In this picture, the moon snuggled itself between the domes of St. Basil's Cathedral and then sat atop the pines outside the Kremlin. A MEMORABLE PLACE The classroom of London By Jennifer Walker Special to the Sun Spitting rain that never ends, gray overcast days and a five-pound cup of frozen yogurt.

It was a laugher for the Kansas City Chiefs in more ways than one last night.Coach Gunther Cunningham said he talked to James Hasty before the game about picking off a Stoney Case sideline pass because the Tennessee Titans almost intercepted the same pass 10 days ago, and he figured the Ravens would eventually throw it again."

"I'M TOO OLD TO make a new best friend," Nancy said, almost wailing in pain.Nancy's best friend moved to New Jersey, relocated by her husband's job. Mary took with her not only the children who had been the best friends of Nancy's children, she also took Nancy's lifestyle support system. It was as if Mary had ripped the cords out of the wall."I didn't lose one friend, I lost five," Nancy says. "The one I talk to about books. The one I car-pool with. The one I call if I want to go to lunch."