Identity

WASHINGTON -- To "mainstream" or not to "mainstream"? That is the question that energizes student and faculty protests at Gallaudet University. The return of protests at America's only liberal arts university for the deaf and hearing-impaired has been obscured by other big stories in Washington these days. But in many ways, the complicated and emotion-charged politics of Gallaudet reveal a much larger story. It is a saga about identity, the many ways we humans see ourselves as individuals or as groups, and how far we will go to keep our groups intact.

Last month, one of those guys on the other end of the phone at a software company -- the ones who talk you in off the ledge when your computer goes berserk -- was arrested for selling information on at least 30,000 people to a group of financial criminals who were not, I'm just guessing here, looking to expand their Christmas card list. Headlines screamed that it was the biggest bust in the short history of the fastest growing crime in this country, and a new phrase was added to our lexicon of personal nightmares -- "identity theft."

A 35-year-old drifter, caught after a foot chase on Old Westminster Pike near Sandymount Road about noon yesterday, was held at the Carroll County Detention Center overnight when he refused to verify his identity to a court commissioner.The man, who would identify himself only as "Buster," is alleged to have stolen produce from a roadside stand on Old Westminster Pike, police said. They said he ran into a field and through the yards of several homes nearby and attempted to hide in a truck parked in a driveway.

LEVIATHAN.Paul Auster.Viking.275 pages. $21.7/8 There is a well-known lithograph by M. C. Escher of a hand drawing the hand that's drawing it. Such an enactment of artistic creation, paradoxical as it is, succeeds in excluding its "real" artist by more than just clever design; it has to be true to itself.When a work of art works by becoming its own originator we get that nearly mystical feeling that art does breed art, and ideas ideas, and that no matter what rein the artist (writer) thinks he has on the work, it does have a life of its own. As Peter Aaron, the novelist/narrator of Paul Auster's latest novel puts it: "No one can say where a book comes from, least of all the person who writes it. Books are born out of ignorance, and if they go on living after they are written, it's only to the degree that they cannot be understood."

Ten strangers find themselves trapped at an isolated hotel. Lethal nastiness ensues. Soon there are nine strangers, then eight, then seven, and so on. The plot of Identity has been around at least as long as Agatha Christie (Ten Little Indians), and when done well, it's easy to see why. There's tension, suspense, paranoia, colorful characters interacting with one another and plenty of chances for the audience to try and outguess the screenwriters ... and then be pleasantly surprised when they're proven wrong.

Dr. John Money, one of the nation's pre-eminent sex researchers who pioneered the study of gender identity and helped establish Johns Hopkins as the first hospital in the country to perform adult sex-change operations, died Friday. He was 84. The controversial scholar, who coined the term "gender role," died a day before his 85th birthday at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson of complications from Parkinson's disease, which he had battled for several years. Dr. Money did groundbreaking research as director of the Psychohormonal Research Unit at Johns Hopkins University Hospital.

Whatever happened to German-Americans? Now as in the past, there are more individual Americans with German ancestry of some degree than citizens of any other ethnic background in the United States. Yet the term "German-American" seems nostalgic today. Other than Oktoberfests sponsored by breweries for tourists, the few remaining signs of German communities are hardly flourishing. It was not always so. German language schools, newspapers, churches, clubs and businesses thrived from the Colonial era until the world wars.

Baltimore County police are investigating the death of a man found in woods near a Dundalk gas station Saturday. The body was behind the Exxon gas station in the 1300 block of Merritt Boulevard, near German Hill Road. It appeared to have been there for some time, police said. The victim's body was sent to the state medical examiner's office for investigation. The identity of the man is not known, police said.

Maryland's highest court overturned yesterday a Howard County man's conviction on identity theft charges, ruling that the state law is ambiguous and can't be used to prosecute someone who takes the identity of a fictitious person. The law prohibits someone from assuming the "identity of another" -- which is what police charged Kazeem Adeshina Ishola with doing in 2003 when they said he tried to open bank accounts under two fictitious names. But a majority of judges on the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that the law hadn't properly defined what "another" meant, and that state legislators hadn't explicitly banned the use of fake names in the statute.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the cause of a Marine's death in his Fort Meade barracks room Wednesday afternoon. Emergency medical teams that responded to the call pronounced him dead at the scene. The name of the Marine, who was assigned to the Marine Corps student training detachment, is being withheld pending next of kin notification. More information will be posted as it becomes available.