Kamikaze

There surely was considerable consternation among President Clinton's Secret Service entourage over the apparent ease with which a deranged man bent on suicide managed to crash his two-seat training plane on the White House south lawn early Monday morning. Damage to the building was minimal and the president and his family were never in any danger. But the episode has sparked a noisy debate over the adequacy of White House security measures against airborne threats.Investigators are still trying to answer key questions.

William E. Wentworth, a retired W.R. Grace project engineer who survived the sinking of a Liberty Ship in a World War II kamikaze attack, died of cancer Jan. 22 at his Timonium home. He was 87. Born in Detroit, he moved with his parents to Carroll County and was a 1940 graduate of Hampstead High School. He later resided on Belleville Avenue and became an apprentice machinist with the old Bartlett-Hayward Co. in Southwest Baltimore before World War II. In an autobiographical sketch, Mr. Wentworth wrote that he joined the Navy as a machinist.

WASHINGTON -- When he heard the word "kamikaze," 14-year-old Geoff Hooper grinned. He knew he was about to become the nation's spelling champion.Geoff, an eighth-grader from Arlington, Tenn., beat 234 other youngsters yesterday in the 66th annual National Spelling Bee. The two-day competition, sponsored by Scripps Howard Newspapers, ran for 16 rounds and was so intense at times that some participants described it as if it were a war."Everybody's pretty much going for survival," said 12-year-old Taylor West of Altavista, Va., a four-year veteran of the bee who was eliminated in the sixth round.

The speaker at the investment seminar I sat through two weeks ago was trying to convince the audience to take a new approach. "You're not having life-changing success with your mutual funds, are you?" he asked. The woman sitting to my right shook her head and said, "I couldn't do worse if I were actually going out and trying to do badly." Alas, there's a good chance she really is investing in a way that is likely to blow up her portfolio. "Life-changing success with your mutual funds" is hard work, involving the emotional discipline to pick a strategy, stick with it and properly fund it over time.

AS THE FLAGS wave and crowds cheer, the phrase "valiant troops" has become a joyous oxymoron. So it is a particular irony that some 50,000 of our Persian Gulf heroes face a threat of official stigma and summary discharge.The plight of gay and lesbian military personnel has been aptly summarized in a letter to President Bush signed by 40 members of Congress, including Bethesda Republican Rep. Connnie Morella. Lesbians and gay men, write the lawmakers, "have risked their lives for our country while being told in no uncertain terms that "if the Iraqis don't get you, the U.S. military will.

William E. Wentworth, a retired W.R. Grace project engineer who survived the sinking of a Liberty Ship in a World War II kamikaze attack, died of cancer Jan. 22 at his Timonium home. He was 87. Born in Detroit, he moved with his parents to Carroll County and was a 1940 graduate of Hampstead High School. He later resided on Belleville Avenue and became an apprentice machinist with the old Bartlett-Hayward Co. in Southwest Baltimore before World War II. In an autobiographical sketch, Mr. Wentworth wrote that he joined the Navy as a machinist.

It was the calm before the storm last week in Baltimore County schools. Superintendent Stuart Berger was out of town while the media and talk show hosts, long since referring to Dr. Berger as "embattled," speculated about his future.The school board's annual evaluation of the superintendent is in the works (though slightly delayed), and three school board members need to be appointed by Gov. Parris N. Glendening.All of which leads to much excitement on the "Berger Watch." Has he already been given his marching orders?

James Hugh Cunningham, a retired financial consultant who during World War II flew a plane that sank an enemy destroyer, died of congestive heart failure Thursday at his Woodbrook home. He was 85. Born in Brookline, Mass., and raised in nearby Cohasset, he earned a bachelor's degree in political science at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. After twice failing an eye exam that prevented him from enlisting in the Navy as an aviator, Mr. Cunningham became a tower safety officer at LaGuardia Airport in New York and at airports in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa. Against his parents' wishes, he took private flying lessons and received a civilian pilot's license in 1941.

SEVERAL YEARS ago, I asked dozens of mutual fund experts to devise a game called "suicide fund investing." The idea was to pick strategies that would lose money, to intentionally make the kinds of mistakes that would lead an investor to ruin. They had to avoid the weird and the obvious - like buying some high-risk fund invested entirely in the stock market of Cameroon or buying some all-time horrific loser like the American Heritage fund - and stick with concepts that turn ordinary investors into losers.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - An 86-year-old man drove his car the length of the Santa Monica Farmer's Market early yesterday afternoon, apparently hitting freeway speeds as he plowed through a crowd of peak summer shoppers. At least eight people were killed, one of them a 3-year-old child, as the driver sped for more than two blocks through a market renowned as one of the region's culinary treasures. In addition to the dead, nearly 50 people were hospitalized, 15 of them with critical injuries.

James Hugh Cunningham, a retired financial consultant who during World War II flew a plane that sank an enemy destroyer, died of congestive heart failure Thursday at his Woodbrook home. He was 85. Born in Brookline, Mass., and raised in nearby Cohasset, he earned a bachelor's degree in political science at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. After twice failing an eye exam that prevented him from enlisting in the Navy as an aviator, Mr. Cunningham became a tower safety officer at LaGuardia Airport in New York and at airports in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa. Against his parents' wishes, he took private flying lessons and received a civilian pilot's license in 1941.

The Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory has grown and changed since opening in 1942, but much of what it does remains the same. APL first began when the United States was in the midst of World War II, helping defend against the kamikaze air threat in the South Pacific. More than 60 years later, APL continues to work on security projects and in other areas. Based in Laurel, APL has 3,300 employees and annual funding of about $540 million. It performs about 79 percent of its work for the Department of Defense, with the additional 21 percent for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - An 86-year-old man drove his car the length of the Santa Monica Farmer's Market early yesterday afternoon, apparently hitting freeway speeds as he plowed through a crowd of peak summer shoppers. At least eight people were killed, one of them a 3-year-old child, as the driver sped for more than two blocks through a market renowned as one of the region's culinary treasures. In addition to the dead, nearly 50 people were hospitalized, 15 of them with critical injuries.

SEVERAL YEARS ago, I asked dozens of mutual fund experts to devise a game called "suicide fund investing." The idea was to pick strategies that would lose money, to intentionally make the kinds of mistakes that would lead an investor to ruin. They had to avoid the weird and the obvious - like buying some high-risk fund invested entirely in the stock market of Cameroon or buying some all-time horrific loser like the American Heritage fund - and stick with concepts that turn ordinary investors into losers.

CALL THIS one A Farewell to Arm -- or, at least, farewell to a tiny piece of the left arm I was unabashedly attached to until my car crash six weeks ago.I'm writing about it because so many of you have been kind enough to call or write following several notices in this newspaper written by editors who, with their customary care for specificity of language, have referred to my "illness." I wasn't ill, just recuperating.Also, it may be worth relating the story for the little lesson it's taught me about perspective.

One glaring mistake was all Tyrell Peters needed to realize the importance of special teams in the NFL.Trailing San Diego last Sept. 28, the Ravens received a second-half kickoff. Jermaine Lewis sped in and out of traffic on the right sideline, beating several defenders en route to a game-turning touchdown -- which was followed by a momentum-killing penalty flag.Peters, called for clipping on the play, recalled the sting of that moment."I won't forget it. I think I took it harder than anyone else, and I learned from that mistake," said Peters, a second-year linebacker who played in four games before being waived and eventually signed to the Ravens' practice roster.

CALL THIS one A Farewell to Arm -- or, at least, farewell to a tiny piece of the left arm I was unabashedly attached to until my car crash six weeks ago.I'm writing about it because so many of you have been kind enough to call or write following several notices in this newspaper written by editors who, with their customary care for specificity of language, have referred to my "illness." I wasn't ill, just recuperating.Also, it may be worth relating the story for the little lesson it's taught me about perspective.

ARE LEGISLATORS from Montgomery County finally going to figure out how the game is played in the State House? Or is this group of upscale lawmakers from the state's most affluent jurisdiction going to use this General Assembly session as a launching pad for one more kamikaze attack that ends up hurting their own county?For decades, the Montgomery delegation has been ridiculed by seasoned pols as too high-minded and idealistic to be effective in Annapolis. And the pols were right. Over the years this is a group that, too many times to count, has fallen on its sword to defend a principle.