Identity Crisis

High school may not be an experience everyone cares to relive, but Rob Nash leaps boldly back in time to re-create the horrors, embarrassments, heartbreaks and occasional heartwarming moments of those formative years in his two-part, one-man show, "Freshman Year Sucks" and "Sophomore Slump" at the Theatre Project.And, like many an adolescent who struggles through an identity crisis in high school, Nash's uneven show, which is still very much a work in progress, suffers from an identity crisis of its own.The two one-acts that make up the evening are the first installments of an intended tetralogy, each set in a different year in high school and each in a different decade.

Theirs is a name synonymous with success, one that is able to generate consumer excitement and boost mall property values in a glutted retail marketplace. Indeed, the name Nordstrom has for years translated into retail gold.How prized a merchant are they? Just ask Rouse Co., which last week succeeded in luring the Seattle-based chain to the Mall in Columbia after seven years of trying.But when Nordstrom Inc. debuts a two-level store there in three years, customers may find a much different retail emporium than they are accustomed to in Towson or Annapolis, where Nordstrom has outlets.

WASHINGTON -- For months, Republican Party National Chairman Haley Barbour has kept his head down, staying in the shadows while the presidential contenders fought it out for the nomination.But late last week he decided to abandon his low-profile stance. With the GOP picture scrambled by Patrick J. Buchanan's victory in the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Barbour went public with a major address "about what our party stands for, and why."That the national chairman felt compelled to give such a speech is itself a sign of what the presidential race has wrought: an identity crisis within the Republican Party.

I'M GLAD I'M NOT Hollywood, that crazy City of Dreams out there on the West Coast. What a life!First rocketed to Fame and Fortune and Glamour by Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford and Doug Fairbanks, then allowed to muck about with the wrong pharmaceuticals, the wrong guys and the wrong words by Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe and Lenny Bruce, and now pummeled by the sharks of the religious right, the political right and the cinematic right -- and not well...

Somewhere out there, someone is buying me a Christmas present, and it is probably clothes.They will probably fit. I have been the same size my whole life. But will these clothes be me?You know what I mean. Will they be my colors? Will they make a statement? Will they say something about me? Will they define me, my age, my lifestyle, my generation? Will they show my personal flair, my imagination, my good taste?Did the gift-giver see them on the department store rack and say, "My god, this is Susan.

WASHINGTON -- The United States' most important military alliance, a mighty machine that kept Europe peaceful for four decades, faces a post-Cold War identity crisis.Three years after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization celebrated the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the alliance is struggling over demands from Poland, Hungary and the other former Communist states for protection from a resurgent Russia.The problem pits the West's relationship with Central Europe's young democracies against the need to support Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and his reform government, under fire from nationalists resentful over the loss of empire.

Erik H. Erikson, the psychoanalyst who profoundly reshaped views of human development, died yesterday at the Rosewood Manor Nursing Home in Harwich, Mass. He was 91.He had a brief illness, said his daughter, Sue Erikson Bloland of Manhattan.A friend and disciple of Sigmund Freud, Dr. Erikson was a thinker whose ideas had effects far beyond psychoanalysis, shaping the emerging fields of child development and life-span studies and reaching into the humanities.He was best known for the theory that each stage of life, from infancy and early childhood on, is associated with a specific psychological struggle that contributes to a major aspect of personality.

Erik H. Erikson, the psychoanalyst who profoundly reshaped views of human development, died yesterday at the Rosewood Manor Nursing Home in Harwich, Mass. He was 91.He had a brief illness, said his daughter, Sue Erikson Bloland of Manhattan.A friend and disciple of Sigmund Freud, Dr. Erikson was a thinker whose ideas had effects far beyond psychoanalysis, shaping the emerging fields of child development and life-span studies and reaching into the humanities.He was best known for the theory that each stage of life, from infancy and early childhood on, is associated with a specific psychological struggle that contributes to a major aspect of personality.

At times what marks an important book is the author's capacity to upend our interpretation of things we thought we already understood.In January of 1990, on public television, Bill Moyers interviewed an almost unknown American poet named Robert Bly about Mr. Bly's interest in the identity crisis of the American man. That broadcast brought in a deluge of requests to PBS from viewers asking for transcripts of the interview. Later that year, Mr. Bly published his thoughtful book about men, ''Iron John,'' and it quickly became a best-seller.

Washington -- CONGRESS AND the president fight over a civil rights bill.The nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court sparks sometimes nasty debate about the best way for blacks to make progress. Educators and social critics debate the meaning of "multiculturalism." Others criticize "politically correct" behavior at colleges and universities.Americans are going through an identity crisis shaped by significant demographic changes and a loss of focus on what it means to be an American.

There was no direct evidence showing that Vernice Harris was the person who gave her 2-year-old daughter a fatal dose of methadone. But with the promise of drug and mental health treatment instead of hard time, Harris pleaded guilty last year to manslaughter. She quickly failed out of the program, and now is serving 10 years in prison. Harris' lawyer, public defender Maureen Rowland, remains haunted by the result. Her client's right to a fair trial was overshadowed, she believes, by her agency's bent toward social work.

In an article titled "Stat Governor," the latest issue of Governing magazine ponders this: "Martin O'Malley ran Baltimore by the numbers. Can he make it work for all of Maryland?" Author Jonathan Walters observes O'Malley wresting stats out of criminal-justice bureaucrats and concludes that the answer is "a qualified yes." "The O'Malley team has made measurable progress in some key policy areas," Walters writes. "What has yet to be demonstrated, however, is the extent to which some of the most crucial outcomes of state government lend themselves to the practice.

The Washington Redskins' extreme makeover is in the midst of an identity crisis. Once regarded as the toast of the league for adding a revamped offense to complement a stingy defense, Washington's recent play has revived questions about the team's outlook for the season. Eagles@Redskins Tonight, 8:30, Ch. 20, ESPN, 1430 AM, 106.7 FM Line: Redskins by 3

I lament it often -- the fact that much of what I hear on the radio (especially urban stations) is so homogenous and predictable. Although some of my friends may disagree, I am not a musical snob. I swear. I can appreciate Beyonce's "Crazy in Love." (The first time I heard it at a party this summer, I was up and on the floor.) My head would automatically nod to the beat of Chingy's "Right Thurr." R. Kelly's "Step in the Name of Love" made me want to learn the moves: Step, step / side to side / round and round / dip it now ...Let me see you do the love slide ... And Kelis' "Milkshake" had to be one of my biggest guilty pleasures this year: My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard / And they're, like, it's better than yours ... But I got tired, so sick and tired of hearing those songs over and over and over.

Don't believe her. Shelby Lynne calls her new CD Identity Crisis, but the Grammy-winning artist knows who she is. And she knew precisely what she was doing in the studio as she produced what is surely the best album of her career. "I always knew I could make a record like this, really simple," says Lynne, who's calling from her home in Palm Springs, Calif. "Instead of doing a bunch of fancy production, I did it myself." Which is a good thing. Lynne, who plays Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis Saturday night, is a fiercely independent artist, a singer-songwriter of great depth and vision.

ISLE AU HAUT, Me. -- It's 10:32 and the moon is full. Out on the town-hall dance floor, grizzled lobstermen and their partners are howling the words to a famous party song. "Play that funky music, white boy!" the mass of gyrating plaid flannel and gray sweat shirts shouts as the band on stage delivers. In the middle of this Down-East-meets-Soul-Train gathering is the host, guest of honor and the tiny island's most famous resident, Linda Greenlaw. She's dancing her heart out, taking on all comers.

Small-town, heartland values clash with big-city ways. That's supposed to be the comic tension at the heart of the new CBS sitcom, "Welcome to New York," starring Jim Gaffigan as an Indiana weatherman who comes to work for a New York news program produced by Christine Baranski. Small-town values are resonating with viewers this year in dramas ranging from "Providence" to "Ed," the critical darling of the fall season. Furthermore, both "Ed" and "Welcome to New York" are from David Letterman's production company, and Letterman certainly knows something about the journey from Indiana to the land of network television.

RAMAPO, N.Y. -- Upstate New Yorkers think of Rockland County as downstate, while downstate New Yorkers think of it as upstate, if they think about it at all. Many know it simply as the first rest stop after they cross the Tappan Zee Bridge: Rockland, then New Jersey. At just 176 square miles, Rockland is the smallest county in the state (after the five boroughs of New York City) and one that is often slighted because of its precarious foothold west of the Hudson River above New Jersey.

SEATTLE -- There's trouble in the soul of Seattle. In the ringing of cell phones, the beeping of expensive car horns and the bleeping of e-mail, some denizens of this once sleepy seaside oasis that now harbors the instant millionaires of the Internet Age can hear the sound of community spirit lost. "We have world class-itis," said Eric Pollard, a merchant in the city's funky, 93-year-old Pike Place public market. Seattle's retail center, a few blocks south, has physically recovered from the mayhem of five months ago, when protesters and police made a spectacle of the World Trade Organization talks.

When Stephanie Pozzo moved to Baltimore from Argentina with her family four years ago, she couldn't speak any English and was getting ready to start school. Now the third-grader at General Wolfe Elementary School in Baltimore can speak English and Spanish fluently, helped by Saturday classes through Education-Based Latino Outreach (EBLO) in Canton. "I've learned a lot here," said Stephanie, who began attending classes at EBLO two years ago. "My favorite book is `How the Grinch Stole Christmas.