Limelight

The microphone is seldom quiet on Karaoke night at Sneakers Pub and Restaurant in Long Reach.Male and female patrons -- solo, in duets or groups -- grab a moment in the limelight. Even the waitress belts out a Janis Joplin "Me and Bobbie McGee" that's so good it raises goose bumps.Any Karaoke night in the county has the same basic ingredients: machine, masters of ceremonies, variable raw talent and guts.Its concept is simple: Each performer reads the lyrics off a screen and sings along with the music.

When his first Kentucky Derby horse, Orb, was named the favorite Wednesday, Stuart S. Janney the III was not there to raise his hands triumphantly for the cameras. He won't be in Louisville at all in the days leading to the race. A short phone call with his trainer each day is all the northern Baltimore County resident requires. The rest, he'd rather avoid. "There's a lot of silliness that happens this week," he said Monday. "And I've got paperwork to catch up on. " Janney is instead in New York, where he spends much of his time at the 5th Avenue headquarters of the Bessemer Trust, the wealth management firm of which he is the chairman.

Three months after setting a franchise record for wins and falling one game short of playing for the AFC championship, the Ravens are enjoying the limelight. With the release of the 2007 regular-season schedule by the NFL yesterday, the Ravens were rewarded with four scheduled prime-time games, including three Monday night appearances that are guaranteed. NFL Inside Team-by-team schedules. PG 6E

Social studies, a subject that had been demoted in Maryland schools in recent years, will regain some of its past educational stature under a bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Martin O'Malley. Under the legislation — one of hundreds of bills O'Malley signed into law — high school seniors will have to pass an assessment in government to be able to graduate starting with the Class of 2017. The Maryland State Department of Education dropped the test last year. Advocates said the test was eliminated as the result of a de-emphasis on social studies stemming from passage of President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind bill, which threw federal support behind the instruction of reading and math at the expense of other subjects.

To answer the letter about Gov. Martin O'Malley being a despicable politician ( "O'Malley is among America's most despicable politicians," Readers respond, Oct. 28): How more despicable can you be, when you bus homeless people in from another state and pay them to wear a Bob Ehrlich shirt, to pretend they are voting for him, when in fact, they cant even vote in this state because they were from Philadelphia? How more crooked and despicable can you be? Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. loves to hog the limelight, needs to be in charge and wants nothing more, than to have a title.

Maryland's most important politician turns 70 today. Gov. William Donald Schaefer has dominated the state's limelight -- as Baltimore's best mayor and as Maryland's most colorful governor. Once he blows out the candles, though, Mr. Schaefer will likely forego the usual festivities and get back to running the state. That's the Schaefer style.Few politicians have been so totally dedicated. Mr. Schaefer tends to state functions without letup. There are no nights or weekends off.The relentless Schaefer drive created Baltimore's renaissance.

The president's father isn't often in the limelight anymore. But George Herbert Walker Bush is almost used to it. "I'm going through a bit of an identity crisis. I used to be the president of the United States. Suddenly I realized somewhere along the line that back in '91 or '92, I was being referred to as Barbara Bush's husband," Bush said. Hmm. What's it like now? "It's gotten even worse. Now I'm referred to as the father of the president, or ... as the father of the governor. I'm not called by my name."

An open letter to Ray Lewis, middle linebacker, Baltimore Ravens: Dear Ray, This is a word of advice from a loyal Baltimore Ravens fan: Shut up and play. You've been doing quite a bit of talking lately, Ray. Everybody knows your opinion about Ravens head coach Brian Billick's play-calling ability. And, frankly, I'm with you on that one. Billick came here being hailed as an offensive genius. During his tenure as head coach, we've seen very little offense, and we sure as heck haven't seen any genius.

For years after she left the White House, Thelma Catherine Ryan Nixon -- Pat -- refused to pose for a White House portrait. Daughter Julie Nixon Eisenhower argued, "Mother, don't give those who would be happy if Daddy's and your portraits never hung in the White House a victory by default." She replied -- "matter-of-factly" in Julie's words -- "Why not? They won, didn't they?"In a way that summed up her life as a politician's wife, who died yesterday at 81. She suffered the same wounds he did. In a way, she was more victimized than her husband, because she would have preferred not to be in that arena.

DALLAS -- Ten weeks after his third-place finish at the national polls, Ross Perot has returned to the limelight -- marshaling his former campaign troops and sounding a warning to President-elect Bill Clinton.The week before Mr. Clinton is sworn into office, Mr. Perot summoned news media to a Dallas hotel, announcing a nationwide membership drive for his non-profit United We Stand, America Inc.Mr. Perot vowed the group would act as a "blowhorn" to amplify the causes of reducing the federal deficit and enacting government reforms.

Most of Lutherville resident Brooke Kuhl-McClelland's day is spent in a dance studio in Howard County. When this veteran dance teacher's students give a public performance, she prefers to be off to the side - watching as her students bask in the applause. But last month the spotlight and applause were for this teacher, who instructs dance students at Hammond High School. Kuhl-McClelland's career earned her one of the four Howie Awards, handed out at the 15th annual "Celebration of the Arts in Howard County" on March 24 in the Peter and Elizabeth Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center at Howard Community College.

To answer the letter about Gov. Martin O'Malley being a despicable politician ( "O'Malley is among America's most despicable politicians," Readers respond, Oct. 28): How more despicable can you be, when you bus homeless people in from another state and pay them to wear a Bob Ehrlich shirt, to pretend they are voting for him, when in fact, they cant even vote in this state because they were from Philadelphia? How more crooked and despicable can you be? Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. loves to hog the limelight, needs to be in charge and wants nothing more, than to have a title.

Years from now, or maybe merely hours from now, they'll merge into one indiscernible blob, the collagen-ed lips of one blurring into the coy glances of another, their slightly funny names interchangeable. We won't remember exactly which scandalette belonged to which eager face splashed for a time seemingly everywhere. Was Jamie Jungers the White House party crasher, or a Tiger Woods inamorata? Was Balloon Boy's mom Michaele Salahi or Mayumi Heene? And which one was trying to get on "Real Housewives of Washington, D.C.," and which one already had been on "Wife Swap" but was hungering for another reality show gig?

Flash back to the '70s, with emphasis on the flash. That's one way of describing the "Limelight Gala" at The Hippo. Several hundred guests crammed the nightclub to see four "disco divas" strut their stuff and belt out their hits from that era - all to raise money for Light Health & Wellness, a nonprofit that helps Baltimore youth and families who are affected by HIV/AIDS. The cause is particularly near and dear to one of those "divas," Debbie Jacobs-Rock, the organization's executive director.

An open letter to Ray Lewis, middle linebacker, Baltimore Ravens: Dear Ray, This is a word of advice from a loyal Baltimore Ravens fan: Shut up and play. You've been doing quite a bit of talking lately, Ray. Everybody knows your opinion about Ravens head coach Brian Billick's play-calling ability. And, frankly, I'm with you on that one. Billick came here being hailed as an offensive genius. During his tenure as head coach, we've seen very little offense, and we sure as heck haven't seen any genius.

Bundled in thermal underwear, a wool sweater and a heavy coat, Roderick Wolfe cranked back the seat in his old Toyota hatchback and closed his eyes. Sleep and morning would come soon enough. The 17-year-old Edmondson High athlete was oblivious to the snow that fell around him and the cold that gripped his bones. He was homeless, drifting from house to house, neighborhood to neighborhood, staying with friends and relatives, teammates and coaches. For four nights in the winter of 2002, the inside of that hatchback was Wolfe's bedroom.

THE FBI building in Washington presents a sobering perspective from which to evaluate the broad new investigative powers that the Bush administration has entrusted to the FBI in the war on terror. The stark unfinished concrete structure looks forbidding, but what should truly frighten us is the name still engraved beside the main entrance: The J. Edgar Hoover F.B.I. Building. By 1976, the mounting revelations of Mr. Hoover's egregious abuses of power led the Justice Department to forbid the FBI to surveil or infiltrate religious and political organizations unless it had evidence of a crime.

Baltimore City Hall is his second home, he's certainly not camera-shy, and he is front-and-center in Maryland's gubernatorial race. No, it's not Mayor Martin O'Malley. It's his 8-year-old son, William. Over the past two weeks, William O'Malley has emerged as the (baby) face of his father's bid to unseat Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., with a starring role in the mayor's latest television campaign ad. Using children and family in campaigns is an old political maneuver. Ulysses S. Grant, a two-term Republican president from 1869 to 1877, used his children to greet visitors during whistle-stops.

Three months after setting a franchise record for wins and falling one game short of playing for the AFC championship, the Ravens are enjoying the limelight. With the release of the 2007 regular-season schedule by the NFL yesterday, the Ravens were rewarded with four scheduled prime-time games, including three Monday night appearances that are guaranteed. NFL Inside Team-by-team schedules. PG 6E