Lake Erie

CLEVELAND - The latest threat to the fragile health of Lake Erie doesn't come from chemical spills, algae blooms or raw sewage.It comes from a gray, 6-inch fish.This is a fish with an appetite - for the eggs of other fish and for mussels that clean the water.It's a fish that reproduces faster than a high-tech photocopier - capable of spawning every 20 days and overwhelming similar species that provide key links in the food chain.It's a fish that wasn't supposed to be here - but hitched a ride on a transatlantic freighter from the Black or Caspian Sea.Meet the round goby, an aggressive, bottom-feeding fish with buglike eyes and thick lips that make it look as though it's smiling.

TILLSONBURG, Ontario -- Joe Strobel dreams marijuana dreams.It's not what you think.In Mr. Strobel's dream, the tobacco fields sloping up from the north shore of Lake Erie -- his fields and those of his neighbors -- are patched with dense stands of cannabis sativa ruffling in the wind. And it's all legal.The Canadian government is poised to make Mr. Strobel's dream come true, perhaps as early as this summer.For Mr. Strobel's marijuana -- or hemp, as he prefers to call it -- would be so low in tetrahydrocanna binol, or THC, the active ingredient in pot, that no one could get high smoking it. Instead, Mr. Strobel and the 11 other Ontario farmers in his consortium plan to sell their hemp fiber for processing into paper, rope, building materials and maybe even shirts and caps.

Dear Baltimore,Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here.Oh, wait, you are here. Thought we'd get away from it all by taking one of those $19 flights out here, but great minds apparently think alike -- the streets are overrun with people wearing the orange-and-black, you know, that hometown stuff that you only wear away from home.The natives are making us feel right at home. They've pointed us in the direction of their new ballpark -- which will open next year -- and told us it was patterned after Camden Yards.

LOS ANGELES -- Besides being the Los Angeles Raiders' resident father figure, Art Shell is also the team storyteller. Each week, he considers the team's pre-game circumstances and selects an appropriate story from the vast Raiders legacy.This week's will be rather chilling.In preparation for the worst kind of weather Sunday in Buffalo for the AFC title game, he'll undoubtedly recall the Jan. 4, 1981, Ice Bowl, a playoff game in Cleveland that the Raiders won, 14-12, en route to the Super Bowl title.

'Welcome Home,Roxy Carmichael'Starring Winona Ryder and Jeff Daniels.Directed by Jim Abrahams.Released by Paramount.Rated PG-13.... ** If I wanted message, I'd get Western Union. But I got "Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael," which hit me over the head with message. And it's a great message.Here's the message (mark it and live by it and you'll be perfect): Get a life. Don't harbor illusions. Take responsibility for your own existence. Just do it.But they should have gotten a movie before they started issuing moral instruction.