Mainstream

Make no mistake: Mark Mayfield is no Marian McEvoy. Mayfield, the editor in chief of House Beautiful who replaced McEvoy in July, comes off as a down-to-earth guy who just happens to have really good taste. McEvoy never pretended to be down-to-earth. She partied with the "A" list and made the International Best Dressed List along with Halle Berry, Kate Moss and Queen Rania of Jordan. She came by it naturally -- her journalistic roots were in the fashion-focused world of Elle Decor and W magazine.

WASHINGTON -- The latest wrinkle in the latest womanizing (( charges against President Clinton is the disclosure that White House aides are considering forming a legal defense fund for him to which friends and supporters would contribute, possibly anonymously.There was a time when such an acknowledgment probably never would have been made in advance because legal defense funds resurrect memories of the legal scramblings of Watergate, Iran-contra and lesser scandals in which political figures have had to spend small fortunes trying to save their reputations or escape jail.

Forcing foundation to sell just isn't fair Lorraine Mirabella's article "Renewal project stalled in city" (May 29) describes a purported impasse between the Baltimore Development Corp. and one of Baltimore's most prestigious and philanthropic foundations, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. In 46 years of generous giving to the Baltimore community, first Harry Weinberg and later the trustees of the Weinberg Foundation have given millions of dollars in service to the most poor and most vulnerable among us. The foundation has funded a cancer center building at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and a state-of-the-art emergency department at the University of Maryland's hospital and provided funds for myriad other health-related projects.

From its post-Super Bowl debut in 1993 to its coming NBC-mandated get-better-ratings-or-die sixth season, "Homicide: Life on the Street" has earned every bit of its reputation as one of television's top dramas.Not that its run has been without problems. Despite its high-profile introduction -- not only did it debut in a time slot guaranteed to produce big ratings, but its executive producer was Oscar-winner (and Baltimore expatriate) Barry Levinson -- the show has never been a ratings smash.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- With the death toll mounting in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho, South Africa's first post-apartheid military operation on foreign soil ran into wide criticism yesterday as an ill-considered, poorly executed mission.There has been more bloodshed, destruction and disorder since South African troops entered the neighboring country Tuesday than in the previous four months of crisis in Lesotho over %J allegations of ballot-rigging in May elections.The death toll reached 49 yesterday, including eight South African soldiers, with dozens injured as the troops met stiffer than expected resistance from the Lesotho army.

Within a couple of hours of picking up his first ring, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was back on a football field, a champagne bottle in his right hand and his bride and his groomsmen crouched down in front of him like hulking offensive linemen. Flacco barked out commands to his tuxedo-clad teammates as he waited for his new wife to toss him the bouquet from underneath her lacy white dress. The steel bleachers at Audubon High School were empty, save for a few friends and family members.

In 2008, Ed DeRosa witnessed the infamy of the Preakness infield - the passed-out partiers, the chucking of full beer cans into crowds and of course, the "Running of the Urinals," where drunken infielders ran down a row of portable toilets. DeRosa, a horse-racing reporter from Lexington, Ky., who attended Preakness from 2005 to 2011, says nothing could have prepared a first-timer for the debauchery. "I was in Vegas for New Year's Eve a couple times, and until I had been to the Preakness infield, that was the craziest I'd ever seen people behave," DeRosa, now 33, said.

For about 20 years, I have been teaching a course at Towson University called "Media Criticism," which deals largely with alleged ideological media bias. The claims of liberal bias in the mainstream media go back at least as far as Barry Goldwater's campaign for the presidential nomination in 1964. Perceiving repeated negative interpretations contained in "news reports" on his candidacy, he pleaded with major newspapers to put at least one reporter on his campaign who would just report what he said.

By the eighth and final night of "Roots," movie theaters in many cities didn't even try to compete. They simply closed their doors.Eighty million viewers watched that last two-hour episode. Its 51.1 rating and 71 Nielsen share were a record that will likely never be matched.Mayors in more than 30 cities declared it "Roots" week.That's the kind of impact "Roots," the TV miniseries based on Alex Haley's book, had for one week in January 1977.In the weeks that followed, debate about the miniseries raged.

There was a sharp contrast between the two headlining performances at this year's Preakness InfieldFest. Frugal rapper Macklemore, an independent artist with two No. 1 hit singles to his name, won the crowd over Saturday with messages that were positive, compassionate and sometimes just silly. Pitbull, the stoic purveyor of Eurodance-inspired rap-meets-pop, bludgeoned the crowd with rib-cage-shaking bass. And though Macklemore performed to a dry crowd while Pitbull fought through the rain, the results were largely the same, with an approving crowd fist-pumping and dancing.