Impostor

"Grosse Fatigue" isn't too clever by half, only about a sixth or an eighth. Opening today at the Charles, it's one of those zippy Pirandellian constructions that turns amusingly in upon itself and its creator's life until it comes to seem almost claustrophobic. Fortunately, Michel Blanc is lovable enough to send you out of the theater after an hour and a half's immersion in the total Michel Blanc experience without wanting to strangle him.And I don't want to strangle him. I just want to beat him up a little.

OPERATION SHYLOCK: A CONFESSION.Philip Roth.Simon & Schuster.398 pages. $23. Here it is, Opus 20 by the author of "Patrimony" (supposedly a memoir), "The Facts" (ostensibly an autobiography) and a passel of semiautobiographical novels, such as "Deceptions," which defy the reader to call them fiction. Here is yet another book straddling the line, refusing to tell its readers quite how it wants to be read. Is it, as the subtitle alleges, "A Confession," Philip Roth's honest recounting of some personal responsibility?

Anna Quindlen, minus 50 IQ points." That was the verdict of the editors of Baltimore's City Paper not long after I started writing an opinion column for this newspaper. Anna Quindlen, minus 50 IQ points. It has been a lot of years, but it still stings. I was simply trying to do what Ms. Quindlen, then a New York Times op-ed page columnist, and Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe were doing: taking their experiences as women, wives and mothers and telescoping it to reflect on the larger issues of the day. But I didn't need the City Paper to make me feel self-conscious.

They conned the con artist yesterday when the Baltimore County man accused of assuming a slain man's identity walked into a trap baited with $3,300 at a Maryland Automobile $l Insurance Fund office.When Brian James Everett, 20, arrived at the MAIF office at Parole, near Annapolis, to collect a $3,300 settlement for what investigators now believe was a fraudulent insurance claim, state police arrested him.Troopers took Mr. Everett to the Annapolis barracks where state and Baltimore County police, state Motor Vehicle Administration investigators and U.S. Secret Service agents questioned the young man, who has eluded police for nearly two weeks.

At least 20 elderly Baltimoreans have been robbed in recent months -- in some cases losing thousands of dollars -- in a scheme by con artists claiming to be Social Security officials, and demanding the return of purported overpayments.The scam usually begins with a telephone call in which the victim is told of the overpayment and the need for immediate repayment to prevent a cutoff of future checks, according to David W. Richardson, Baltimore district manager for the Social Security Administration.

A Baltimore County man charged with impersonating a slaying victim to obtain a driver's license is on five years' probation for an armed robbery conviction in Howard County and now also is being sought as a probation violator.The filing of charges against Brian James Everett, 20, is sufficient to charge him with violating his probation, said Leonard A. Sipes Jr., spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Service.State Motor Vehicle Administration officials charged Everett in a warrant Wednesday with making a false entry in a public record and with causing illegal access to the MVA computer database when he obtained the license Jan. 29 in the name of John Kenneth Temple.

I STARED AT THE tiny TV camera mounted over the monitor and nodded from side to side while a green circle wandered over the image of my face on the screen. Less than 30 seconds later, the circle disappeared, the computer beeped and it was all over.I had been scanned.My face had been recorded in a database on a PC's hard drive. Henceforth, whenever I sat down in front of the screen, the computer would chirp, "I recognize Mike." Every time my colleague Steve sat down, the computer said, "I recognize Steve."

A man posing as a security guard stole $330 from a Glen Burnie Dunkin' Donuts restaurant Saturday by claiming he was checking for drug money, county police said.Arvn Patel, an employee of the store in the 7100 block of Ritchie Highway, told police a man dressed in a security guard uniform walked into the store shortly before 11 p.m., said he was an agent of the "Federal Security Agency" and needed to record the serial numbers of all the $10 and $20 bills in the cash register as part of an investigation into drug money in the neighborhood.

A man posing as a county police officer tried to solicit money from a Linthicum businessman Wednesday afternoon for a bogus law enforcement magazine, authorities said.Todd A. Williams, 33, the manager of Maryland Video Systems in the 800 block of Barkwood Court, told police a man who identified himself as Steve Thomas called about 4 p.m., claiming he was a representative of the county police department selling advertising in a new magazine called The Law Officer.Mr. Williams said the man quoted rates and asked him to send a check by Federal Express.

NEW ORLEANS -- As law enforcement officers looked for Ron Weaver yesterday, his family offered insights into why the 30-year-old impostor assumed another man's name to earn a spot on the Texas football team.Weaver, who played in 12 games for the Longhorns under the name Ron McKelvey, left the team's hotel Saturday after reports surfaced that he was a fake. Texas officials have supplied the FBI with information, including what they say is a fraudulent Social Security number.Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds said the school is considering filing suit against Weaver for taking state funds, in the form of a scholarship, through fraudulent means.