London

All those parades, guest performances at National Football League games and public concerts have contributed to the Baltimore Colts' Band creating a reputation as a remarkable unit, a force for entertainment. Also possessing an unchallenged distinction.This is the only band in history that marches in behalf of a nonexistent team. It's also why the band, like no other, holds such a revered place in the character of Baltimore.The presence of the Colts band brings happiness and applause when it comes into view along a parade route.

LIKE MANY FAMILIES on vacation, mine spent much of our recent two weeks in London debating how we would spend our holiday. My wife, the culture vulture, was fond of touring museums. My younger son, 18, preferred visiting castles and checking out nightspots with his older brother, 22, who has been studying in London this summer. Meanwhile, I kept slipping away to the pubs, learning the beer-drinking habits of Londoners. Of the half-dozen London pubs I visited, my favorite was the Nags Head at 53 Kinnerton St. in the Knightsbridge area just south of Hyde Park.

LONDON -- British officials said yesterday that a response to Soviet interest in having President Mikhail S. Gorbachev invited to July's economic summit here would have to come jointly from the Group of Seven industrial nations.They suggested it was too early for a formal decision on the Soviet leader's attendance at the meeting of the West's richest nations.More time was needed to assess the Kremlin's commitment to economic reforms and their success, said an aide to Prime Minister John Major.

LONDON -- While Queen Elizabeth II sent Christmas greetings paying tribute to those seeking peace in Northern Ireland, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson created a controversy here yesterday with an alternative holiday message in which he compared the Conservative government and party to racist and fascist regimes.The speeches by the queen and by Mr. Jackson aired at the same time, on separate television channels. In remarks on independent Channel 4, Mr. Jackson said that living conditions for the poor in Britain were deteriorating.

London -- Shrugging off its granny's attic image, the Victoria and Albert Museum leapfrogged into the past-post-modern late 20th century with the opening yesterday of its new glittering gallery of glass.Entering the new Glass Gallery is like stepping inside the shimmering facets of a chunk of diamond-cut crystal. Mirrored at both ends, the long, narrow gallery seems to extend more or less to infinity.Brilliant wonders from across the 4,000-year history of glass glisten in chaste, state-of-the-art Glasbau Hahn cases from Germany.

Paris. -- Don Cook,who died in late March in Philadelphia, was the very model of an American foreign correspondent. There will be few such in the future. American journalism no longer wants them.News coverage has been transformed by television or, more exactly, by the degradation of television, since network television news in the 1950s and 1960s was entirely serious. Now, of course, television is driven by image and emotion and by Washington's political agenda; and most newspapers are driven by what television covers.

Two couples are looking for a flat in London for four or five days next summer. How can we find a rental? There are several companies that offer short-term rentals of homes or apartments in London, usually near Underground stations and within walking distance of tourist sights and shopping. Always check to see what the minimum stay is. Here are a few worth checking out: Emperors Gate Short Stay Apartments (www.apartment-hotels.com) has one-bedroom suites in the southwest section of central London near several Underground stops.

London -- The secrets of Freemasonry used to be exposed in little blue books published by obsessive authors writing from obscure corners of Kansas.The brethren once guarded the mysteries so closely that the penalty for revealing a secret was to have one's tongue "torn out by the root and buried in the sand of the sea at low water mark." Whether any tongues ever vanished beneath the surf is problematic, but the secrets prevailed.The Freemasons here are more relaxed these days. They invite you into the inner chamber of their Grand Lodge, where they're likely to show you the worn brocade work on the arms of the throne of Grand and Worshipful Masters.

LONDON -- The Irish Republican Army stepped up its campaign of terror on the British mainland yesterday with another bomb attack in the heart of London's tourist and theater district.Five men were wounded when a bomb went off in The Sussex, an ornate pub in Upper St. Martin's Lane near Covent Garden.It was the eighth bombing in London in the past six days.Less than 10 minutes before the blast, a London radio station received a call from a person who gave a code word used by the Provisional IRA.But the caller said only that the bomb had been planted "in the Leicester Square area," too broad an area for the police to clear.

London -- There's something you've got to understand about television in Great Britain:It can never be too dull.Gardening is a prime-time hit in the land of four over-the-air TV stations. An antiques show is very big on Sundays. And besides scoreless soccer games and cricket matches that go on for days, British viewers adore something called snooker, a sport that combines the drama of pro bowling with the aerobic exertion of billiards. Naturally, it's played by guys in formal wear.One other thing: "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" outdraws "ER."