Keg

Despite a legal drinking age of 21, surveys of Maryland young people find time and again that consumption of beer and wine far outstrips their use of any other illegal substance. Underage drinking is a widespread problem that will be controlled only through a wide variety of approaches. But legislators have a chance this session to close one especially troublesome loophole by requiring a simple registration procedure for kegs of beer.Keg parties are a popular way to fuel underage gatherings with alcohol.

Keg parties are the target of a proposal aimed at curbing teen-age drinking.Parents of teen-agers, the Governor's Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, and police officials testified yesterday in favor of legislation that would require the registration of beer kegs.The bill would make adults who purchase beer for underage drinkers accountable by enabling police to track down the person who bought the keg, proponents say. Currently, they say, kegs are untraceable.The proposal, one of 37 liquor-related bills considered by the House Economic Matters Committee during a five-hour hearing, met strong opposition from the liquor industry, which argued the measure was unnecessary and burdensome.

Take a peek inside the Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup, home of too many inmates and too few guards.Behind the fences and razor wire, inmates are jammed in two-man cells so narrow the warden can spread his arms and touch both walls. Others live in the gym, where 90 bunk beds take up half the basketball court. The wing where the men used to learn trades is deserted. Classrooms are often empty.Most teachers and social workers are gone, as are all of the recreation workers and drug treatment counselors.

BARCELONA, Spain -- Dave Johnson trained for the decathlon by throwing rocks at cars, breaking into buildings, hauling away beer kegs and leaping over bushes as he was being pursued by police.The man bidding to become the world's greatest athlete was once a bush-league juvenile delinquent. Nothing real serious. Just a little weekly theft from a beer distributor in his hometown of Missoula, Mont."Pre-decathlon training," he said. "I didn't even know it."From beer to Barcelona, Johnson has pulled himself up by his Reeboks, and enters the 1992 Summer Olympics as the favorite for the decathlon gold.

Threats of a trip to the steam pot worked about as well in yesterday's Media Crab Derby as threats of a trip to the glue factory might work in the real Preakness.The fact is: Blue crabs can't race.They can pinch. They can blow spit bubbles. They can steam up red.But make 'em race, as the Lexington Market did for its second annual Preakness Week crab derby, and the Chesapeake's finest tend to make like deadbeats. Nonetheless, about a dozen local radio, television and newspaper personalities each picked a live crab from Faidley's Seafood, then proceeded to shout, clap and otherwise cajole their crabs -- however s-l-o-w-l-y -- toward the finish line.

Threats of a trip to the steam pot worked about as well in yesterday's Media Crab Derby as threats of a trip to the glue factory might work in the real Preakness.The fact is: Blue crabs can't race.They can pinch. They can blow spit bubbles. They can steam up red.But make 'em race, as the Lexington Market did for its second annual Preakness Week crab derby, and the Chesapeake's finest tend to make like deadbeats. Nonetheless, about a dozen local radio, television and newspaper personalities each picked a live crab from Faidley's Seafood, then proceeded to shout, clap and otherwise cajole their crabs -- however s-l-o-w-l-y -- toward the finish line.

WASHINGTON -- Attacked by health groups and the U.S. surgeon general, the beer industry and its allies are evoking history to defend their brew.In a news release, an industry-backed group called the Beer Drinkers of America asserts that "beer helped shape civilization as we know it.""Ancient Egyptian wedding engagements -- beer was there. Religious rites in 6000 B.C. Babylonia -- beer was there. The Mayflower's voyage to the New World -- beer was there. Name the occasion, beer was probably there," says Bill Schreiber, president of the group.

Aberdeen's Demont Blackmon is proof that bigger isn't necessarily better, even in high school football.The Eagles' pint-sized powder keg has exploded for 22 touchdowns this season -- almost twice as many as anyone else in the Harford County prep league. He has scored 133points to lead the Eagles (9-1) into the state championship Class 3Aquarterfinals.When Blackmon gets his hands on the ball, he'll do anything to score."He's like catching a greased pig," North Harford coach Lauren Lydic said.

SARAJEVO, Yugoslavia -- The republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is perhaps the most dangerous ethnic flash point in the Balkans, epitomizing the reasons for the region's historical reputation as the "powder keg" of Europe.It was regional struggle for the control of Bosnia, as the republic ,, is known for short, that led to World War I, with the immediate pretext being the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in this lovely city nestled in a valley 1,500 feet above the sea.During World War II, Bosnia was the site of the worst internecine massacres in the war.Now trouble looms again, and if Bosnia explodes, there are those who think that the violence could far exceed what has happened in Croatia.

Amherst, Mass. Without the mighty arsenal of sophisticated weapons supplied to Iraq over the past decade -- mostly by permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Saddam Hussein would be little more than a footnote to history. Instead, he is about to go down as the author of a chapter that President George Bush has compared in significance to that of World War II.The difference in Mr. Hussein's fate has been provided by the $46.7 billion worth of arms and military equipment that Iraq was able to purchase from foreign suppliers between 1981 and 1988 -- the largest accumulation ever of modern weapons by a Third World country.