Kind Of Thing

Maybe you have to make a speech, confront someone who intimidates you or handle a difficult situation. Whatever it is, you doubt you can do it: You're not good at this kind of thing. Maybe you should duck it.Maybe you shouldn't. Ducking the things you're afraid of only increases the chance you'll be more afraid the next time.But what if you bomb out? Won't that reinforce the idea that you can't handle it?Sure. But since you believe that anyway, what's the difference? Instead of letting your fear be in charge of you, take a risk and give it a go, keeping the following in mind:* Be realistic in your expectations.

I'm normally a very laid-back person. Where do you want to go to eat? Somewhere good. What movie do you want to see? Almost anything, though subtitles are a bonus. What music do you want to hear? Anything but thrash. But when it comes to dating, I sometimes fear that I have Seinfeld-like tendencies. Taste in movies and music, hairstyle and clothes, tone and inflection all have been reasons for me to stop seeing someone. In my defense, they're not The Reason for ditching my date, but they definitely have been part of the "Do I Stay or Do I Go?"

As foolish as it may seem to criticize matters over which mere mortals have no control, we know we speak for millions when we say it's just ludicrously hot and humid outside. Drat, even complaining is not helping relieve the discomfort. But anything is worth a try when the heat index tops 100 as it did yesterday - and likely will again today. Baltimore is really not at its best when it's hot enough to fry a crabcake on a lawn ornament. We admit there are more productive responses to our meteorological misfortune than expressing our displeasure with it. We can stay indoors in the afternoons when things are at their hottest.

The first thing that comes to mind when you watch the new Viagra commercial is: Who knew ED could be so much fun? If you haven't seen this gem yet, picture a bunch of middle-age guys with musical instruments sitting around some sort of roadside cafe. Suddenly, they launch into a snappy little ditty called -- you can't make this up -- "Viva Viagra." And it's sung to the tune of "Viva Las Vegas," the old Elvis Presley song. Yep, that sound you heard was the King pushing aside the Sara Lee wrappers and spinning in his grave.

The milk of human kindness must run thick in the veins of National Football League owners. In recent years, they have forgiven football players arrested for assault and domestic abuse, charged with murder, caught drunken-driving and flunked by testers for all manner of drugs. A criminal conviction won't necessarily get a player kicked off a team - as long as he can serve his sentence in the off-season. The NFL is not unique among professional sports organizations in this regard, but it has left fans to wonder: What is unforgivable?

James "The Amazing" Randi has spent most of his 69 years insisting that the only thing psychics are expert at is fooling the gullible and taking advantage of the bereaved.James Van Praagh, Randi insists, has shown him nothing he hasn't seen before."These are all people who have lost someone dear to them, and they're hoping to hear something from him that will comfort them," says Randi, a frequent guest on TV talk shows and news programs. "People need that kind of thing."The Fort Lauderdale-based debunker says the spiritualists' best trick is to ask a lot of questions, preferably broad ones, then turn whatever the answer is to their advantage.

MEMO FROM: Clete Clevenger, Pres., A Home is Not a House Realtors, Inc.TO: The StaffRE: Carpe Diem!So NASA's going back to the moon to look for water 25 years after Neil Armstrong first looked in on the place. It's about time!That property's been sitting up there undeveloped for just too long. Maybe 4.6 billion years.There it is, night after night, just staring the real estate profession in the face. What's it telling us? Come and get me! That's what.It's enough to make any Realtor worth his salt check his date book and water at the mouth.

THINGS HAVE loosened up considerably in the Soviet Union during the past couple of years with the result that citizens are getting exposed to a lot more Western culture than they did before.The Soviets seem especially fascinated by old American movies and television shows, many of which are being shown in the Soviet Union for the first time. This means a lot of extra work for the translators, whose job it is to convert the strange English dialogue into terms understandable to the Russian-speaking populace.

GEORGE MITCHELL says firmly that he doesn't "have any plans to run" for president next year.The Senate majority leader does concede the question comes up more often these days than it did a few months ago -- repeatedly in questions from reporters, sometimes in suggestions from his colleagues. He is, says Mitchell, "especially flattered" when other Democratic senators urge him to run.But none of that means he plans to run. No sir, not on your tintype. "I don't intend to run," he says. "I'm not trying to be coy."

MINNEAPOLIS -- Right-hander Rick Sutcliffe didn't have any trouble finding the positive side of the injury that will keep center fielder Mike Devereaux sidelined for the next five to six weeks."

They rounded up some of the usual suspects the other day, 24 purported illegal aliens who were among the usual crowd of day laborers who gather at an East Baltimore 7-Eleven, waiting for contractors and other employers to drive onto the lot and hire them. On Tuesday, though, several of the cars that pulled in bore immigration agents. Using one widely accepted estimate, the arrests of the Baltimore 24 reduced the number of illegal aliens still at large in the country to about 11,999,976.

As foolish as it may seem to criticize matters over which mere mortals have no control, we know we speak for millions when we say it's just ludicrously hot and humid outside. Drat, even complaining is not helping relieve the discomfort. But anything is worth a try when the heat index tops 100 as it did yesterday - and likely will again today. Baltimore is really not at its best when it's hot enough to fry a crabcake on a lawn ornament. We admit there are more productive responses to our meteorological misfortune than expressing our displeasure with it. We can stay indoors in the afternoons when things are at their hottest.

Melvin Mora is new to the option year concept, but he's learning a little more about the business side of baseball every day. Over the weekend, for instance, he found out that talk is cheap. He met face-to-face with Orioles owner Peter Angelos on Friday and showed up at RFK Stadium that night with a big smile on his face -- all but certain that he had established a rapport with his employer that would lead to an improved offer from the team. That probably would have been a fair assumption in any other organization, since Mora and agent Lon Babby took the unusual step of bidding against themselves and knocking another $3 million off their asking price.

The milk of human kindness must run thick in the veins of National Football League owners. In recent years, they have forgiven football players arrested for assault and domestic abuse, charged with murder, caught drunken-driving and flunked by testers for all manner of drugs. A criminal conviction won't necessarily get a player kicked off a team - as long as he can serve his sentence in the off-season. The NFL is not unique among professional sports organizations in this regard, but it has left fans to wonder: What is unforgivable?

WASHINGTON -- The endorsement of House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt is but another stop on what seems to be Vice President Al Gore's inexorable march to the Democratic presidential nomination next year.Even before he has declared his candidacy in a formal way, the vice president has taken de facto control of all the party's machinery and won the endorsement of key players at all levels of the party. He is enjoying the kind of run experienced by Sen. Edmund S. Muskie in 1972 and by former Vice President Walter F. Mondale in 1984.

HERE WE ARE, only two months into the new year, and already I'm sick to death of 1999.I'm sick of Monica Lewinsky's new book, and it's not even out yet.I'm sick of Barbara Walters shilling for her coming "20/20" interview with Monica, and ABC News president David Westin gushing about how "educational" the interview will be.Right, Dave. I'm sure SAT scores will shoot up all over the country.And I'm sure they're making plans over at Johns Hopkins University to tape the whole thing and play it for their graduate programs.

WASHINGTON -- The endorsement of House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt is but another stop on what seems to be Vice President Al Gore's inexorable march to the Democratic presidential nomination next year.Even before he has declared his candidacy in a formal way, the vice president has taken de facto control of all the party's machinery and won the endorsement of key players at all levels of the party. He is enjoying the kind of run experienced by Sen. Edmund S. Muskie in 1972 and by former Vice President Walter F. Mondale in 1984.

Melvin Mora is new to the option year concept, but he's learning a little more about the business side of baseball every day. Over the weekend, for instance, he found out that talk is cheap. He met face-to-face with Orioles owner Peter Angelos on Friday and showed up at RFK Stadium that night with a big smile on his face -- all but certain that he had established a rapport with his employer that would lead to an improved offer from the team. That probably would have been a fair assumption in any other organization, since Mora and agent Lon Babby took the unusual step of bidding against themselves and knocking another $3 million off their asking price.

Choosing a Christmas gift for a fitness buff seems daunting, especially if you're a couch potato whose idea of exercise is to send someone else to the Krispy Kreme doughnut store. After all, bikers already have a bike and weight-lifters have weights, right?Even if you do make your way to the alien world of a sporting goods store, what do you look for?We asked some of the people who have been profiled in The Sun's Health and Fitness section this year what they would like to find under their trees on Christmas morning.

James "The Amazing" Randi has spent most of his 69 years insisting that the only thing psychics are expert at is fooling the gullible and taking advantage of the bereaved.James Van Praagh, Randi insists, has shown him nothing he hasn't seen before."These are all people who have lost someone dear to them, and they're hoping to hear something from him that will comfort them," says Randi, a frequent guest on TV talk shows and news programs. "People need that kind of thing."The Fort Lauderdale-based debunker says the spiritualists' best trick is to ask a lot of questions, preferably broad ones, then turn whatever the answer is to their advantage.