I Swear

"Tell me your diamonds."This is one of many memorable lines in "Beloved," the film adapted from Toni Morrison's book that opens in theaters on Friday. The title character, a strange, otherworldly girl, is asking her mother, played by Oprah Winfrey, to tell the story of a long-lost pair of shiny crystal earrings.But when Winfrey - who has spent 10 years bringing Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to the screen - recently met with the press in Chicago, she was not wearing crystal. She was wearing very real, very big diamonds that dangled voluptuously from her ears.

Did he, or didn't he?Did the late David Ruffin sing on the Temptations single "Cloud Nine," as my appreciation last Sunday said? Or was it Dennis Edwards doing the singing, as the "Cloud Nine" album notes (and many Sun readers) claim?And why would there be any doubt over who sang what in the first place?To answer the last question first, let's go back to Saturday afternoon when I first heard that Ruffin had died of an apparent overdose. Given two hours to write my article, I turned to my reference library - in particular to Nelson George's "Where Did Our Love Go?"

It really pains me to admit this, but I'll confess it anyway: I like Jaime Lannister. Yes, he pushed innocent 7-year-old Bran Stark from a window, paralyzing him. And, yes, he very-grossly has sex with his own sister. And, yes, he's deceitful, traitorous and completely untrustworthy. But Season Three of “Game of Thrones” has taken Jaime Lannister from a villain and changed him, undoubtedly, into a hero. In the books, George R.R. Martin accomplishes this feat by choosing to make Jaime a point-of-view character in the third book.

The question came at Buck Showalter a few minutes after the Orioles' shaky 8-4 loss to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday, when it seemed the only bright spot at Camden Yards all afternoon was the white-hot bat of Manny Machado. "Is the way Manny's hitting even starting to amaze you guys?" a reporter asked. Showalter grimaced like a man who'd just dropped a brick on his foot. Then the Orioles manager put a finger to his lips in the classic "Shush" sign and looked around the room and said: "What else?"

Yay! It's Stevie Wonder night! I'm pretty stoked about this. The show starts with Stevie at the top of the stage in front of an elaborately fantastic backdrop. There are dancers, but we get A LOT of extended Stevie close-ups. I guess it's easier to do that when the singer can actually, you know, sing. Then Hunter Hayes comes out and I'm sure he's a nice kid and all, but next to Stevie Wonder ... eh. I mean, not a lot of people are going to come off well in that comparison.  I'd say even for a guy that was a Beatle and IS a knight had a rough go of it. Tom joins Stevie and Hunter on stage and Tom says, “We are so happy to have you here on Stevie Wonder night.

Jeremy Guthrie will be on the mound tonight as the Orioles look to kick off their season with a victory over the Rays. I've read plenty of guesses at the Orioles' win total in 2011, but I don't care about those. I want your predictions. I'll make mine later today (I swear). Vote in the poll on your left, and if you want to get specific, leave a comment below. Feel free to make any bold predictions down there, too, like the Orioles winning the wild card, Brian Matusz winning 20 games or Vlad Guerrero hitting 50 home runs.

On May 15, my hero died. He was a 6 foot 1 black man with deep, dark eyes and broad, striking facial features. For many years, he was a heroin addict, and he died at 53 of heart failure caused by that addiction.He was also arguably the greatest basketball player who ever lived.But you won't find him in the National Basketball Association Hall of Fame, nor his jersey hanging from the ceiling of any arena. You won't see highlight films or his card in any shoebox collection. Despite what some people might regard as a waste of talent, Earl "The Goat" Manigault left his mark on the streets and playgrounds of Harlem and the rest of New York City, and he gave to basketball what no other player, even the greats like Jordan, Magic, and Chamberlain, could ever give.

The Book of the Year: A Brief History of Our Season Holidays, by Anthony F. Aveni. Oxford University, 192 pages, $25. Professor of Astrology and Anthropology at Colgate University and a respected authority on time and the physical universe, Aveni has put together an enchantingly readable, sophisticated yet utterly accessible tracing of major holidays and why and where they arose. Noting that the word "season" means "time due" in Greek, his introduction declares, "We punctuate the seasons with rites, formalities, or ceremonies.

Q. I've had high blood pressure since 1985 and have taken many drugs, including Vasotec, Maxzide and others. All of them have side effects such as dry mouth or hair loss, and none has been effective at getting my lower number below 90. About two years ago, I heard about taking garlic for blood pressure. I take two pills a day. For more than a year, my blood pressure has been around 135 / 80. I swear by garlic, even though the doctors say it's not very effective. A. Preliminary research in animals and humans suggests that garlic may have a modest effect, especially on diastolic blood pressure (the lower number)

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Seattle Mariners owner Jeff Smulyan said Wednesday that his $70 million sale of New York-based radio station WFAN was unrelated to his baseball operations and a possible team move to the Tampa-St. Petersburg area."I'd swear my life on it," Smulyan said.Smulyan, who put the Mariners up for sale last Friday, sold the sports-format station Monday for a $55 million profit.