Mankind

Most people can remember the names of the first two humans to set foot on the moon: Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr., members of the Apollo 11 mission of July 1969. But howmany other men went to the moon, and over how many missions?You may be surprised to learn that 24 American astronauts flew in nine Apollo flights, beginning with the first orbital trip in December 1968, through the final moonwalk mission in November 1972. And they all took pictures!Fascinating film footage from all nine missions is nicely blended into "For All Mankind," a movie making its cable debut this weekend.

Paging Mr. Fezziwig. One might get the notion that Charles Dickens' good-hearted fictional employer was back in business after the announcement this week by a private equity firm, Cerberus Capital Management, that it intends to sell Freedom Group Inc., the company that manufactured the Bushmaster rifle used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Was this a sudden case of moral conviction? Meanwhile, Dick's Sporting Goods has suspended sales of semiautomatic rifles at its stores.

Sure, it's irreverent. But is it funny? Sadly, when the question concerns "God, the Devil and Bob," the answer is not particularly. "God, the Devil and Bob" is an animated half-hour from executive producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, the same folks who brought you that other one-joke wonder, "3rd Rock From the Sun." (That's wonder as in, I wonder how it's managed to hang on this long?) "God" stars God and the Devil as two bored deities whose main sport is making small wagers with each other and Bob as the put-upon human who's usually the one they're betting on. In tonight's premiere, a despairing God (voice of James Garner)

Thursday marks the start of Baltimore Beer Week, so we asked our staff what they think about the brew's invention. •••• If the beer is made by Brewer's Art, then somewhere between the airplane and the microchip. If it's one of the diet beers from BMC, then somewhere below the ShamWow.  Luke Broadwater, reporter, The Baltimore Sun •••• It's maybe not quite as essential as fire, but I'll definitely take it over the wheel.  Anne Tallent, editor,  b •••• Somewhere in between soap and the Dyson Ball vacuum.  Wesley Case, reporter,  b •••• Is there really a question about beer being No. 1?

Mozartiana, collected by Joseph Solman (Waller & Co., 201 pages, $12). An enchanting, provocative and perhaps instructive little book for anybody who loves music of any variety at all. Solman is a very significant artist, a New Yorker who was an original member of the American expressionists. His sketches, mostly of Mozart's head, are a delight, running through more than half the pages of the book. But the substance is quotations, delightfully culled, from the master himself and from almost anyone else you might think had something to say about him. Not all agree.

This is the 52nd presidential election.The 28th was held in 1896. The Republicans were relatively united and nominated Gov. William McKinley of Ohio on the first ballot. While in Congress, he had drafted the highly protectionist tariff of 1890. This had hurt consumers and was an issue in the campaign, but was subordinated to the fight over the currency. McKinley and the Republicans favored a hard, gold-backed dollar; the Democrats, especially Westerners and laborers, favored easy money based on silver.

WHILE IT WAS no Los Angeles earthquake, the ice storm and frigid weather that settled on the Northeast last week was also a reminder of mankind's helplessness when Mother Nature decides to become Mommie Dearest. The record-setting storm wreaked havoc on the homeless, on families whose loved ones were killed or injured in weather-related accidents, on the demand for power and on the ability of the resolute letter carriers to deliver the mail. Bad weather is a perennial topic of conversation, but this was something worse, something more frightening.

All David Sington set out to do was interview the nine men, still living, who walked on the moon. That in itself - bringing together members of perhaps mankind's most exclusive club, men who have visited another world - would be reason enough to make a film. As Sington notes, the astronauts are not big into reunions and rarely gather together to share their experiences. But it didn't take long for the award-winning British filmmaker to realize that In The Shadow of the Moon was more than simply a bunch of old men reminiscing.

A recurring complaint heard during the 25th anniversary commemoration of the first moon walk is that this country has lost the will to explore outer space.Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who was on the historic Apollo 11 voyage, put it this way:"For one crowning moment we were creatures of the cosmic ocean, a moment that a thousand years hence may be seen as the signature of our century."Yet an eerie apathy now seems to inflict the very generation who witnessed and were inspired by these events."The past quarter-century has seen a withered capacity for wonder and a growing retreat to delusions of risk-free society."

IN 1854, JOSIAH NOTT, an Alabama physician, and George Gliddon, a businessman-turned-expert on Egypt, published the "Types of Mankind." The 800-page book said different colors of human beings represented separate species, with different intellectual capabilities. They said they proved with "practical facts" Nott's long-standing feeling that "the Mongol, the Malay, the Indian and the Negro are now and have been in all ages and places inferior to the Caucasian."Gliddon bragged that his writing on black inferiority "would draw plenty of customers."

When "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" posted a casting call for "Hardcore Eddie," every muscleman-actor on the way up in Hollywood went out for the part. They knew the character would be on-screen during crucial, cataclysmic action, right alongside Shia LaBeouf and Tyrese Gibson, who plays Epps, the leader of Eddie's good-guy mercenary crew. Baltimore-born Lester Speight walked into the audition and knew he'd nail it. "A lot of times, guys make jokes — they see you walk in and they say, 'Well, we might as well go home now.' For this one, I thought to myself — yeah, you might as well go home.' " He was right.

Regarding Thomas Schaller's commentary ("The problem is not Islam but orthodoxy," Aug. 24), religion is, has been, and will forever be, the bane of mankind's existence. Toni Jordon, Severna Park

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Sixteen years ago, I tried to answer a perennial question about American politics: Does the United States look more like the country predicted by Thomas Jefferson or by his rival, Alexander Hamilton? Jefferson asserted that ordinary people with sufficient education and virtue can govern themselves wisely, that liberty is the natural desire of all mankind, and that the world's monarchs and dictators would ultimately be overthrown. Hamilton, on the other hand, claimed Jefferson's view was folly, based on wishful thinking, because human nature itself precludes the kind of wisdom necessary for self-government.

All David Sington set out to do was interview the nine men, still living, who walked on the moon. That in itself - bringing together members of perhaps mankind's most exclusive club, men who have visited another world - would be reason enough to make a film. As Sington notes, the astronauts are not big into reunions and rarely gather together to share their experiences. But it didn't take long for the award-winning British filmmaker to realize that In The Shadow of the Moon was more than simply a bunch of old men reminiscing.

WASHINGTON-- --Later, the video replay would confirm it: Indeed, Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Ronny Paulino had just made a face that had only been made once before in the history of mankind -- about three seconds earlier, in fact. It was only by virtue of baseball geography that first baseman Adam LaRoche managed to make the face first. In either case, the look was undeniable, the contorted features, confused eyes and maybe even a hint of fear. It was as if neither man had ever seen a 10-foot tall dead president barreling down on him before.

A new year. A clean slate. A time for toting up the pluses and minuses of the just-completed pass around the sun and predicting the contents of the balance sheet during the next orbit. A time for celebrations and resolutions. In essence, a time for time. In some ways, it is completely arbitrary and capricious. There is no start/finish line in the circular track that the Earth runs each year, no celestial being standing in the assigned spot, waving a checkered flag and firing a starting gun at the same time.

In an interview on a recent episode of "WWF Smackdown," World Wrestling Federation superstar Mankind spoke with typical bluster and braggadocio about how he had just decimated his competition.But it wasn't a typical WWF foe such as the Rock or the Undertaker that he was running down. Instead, Mankind was talking about the literary leg-lock he'd recently applied to such authors as former President George Bush, former Sen. John Glenn, the Dalai Lama and Frank McCourt.Last Sunday, Mankind, also known as Mick Foley, wrestled his way past McCourt's "Tis" to the top of the New York Times best-seller list with his autobiography, "Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks"(Regan Books, $26)

THIS IS THE TIME of year when Americans make a sincere effort to care about the World Series, which determines which baseball team will be the champion of the entire world, except for the part of the world located outside the United States and southeastern Canada. But the heck with that part. This is OUR national pastime, and that's why the World Series arouses our passion, even if we stopped paying attention to pro baseball some years ago, when it started adding mutant teams with names like the Tampa Bay Area Fighting Seaweeds.

Dr. Nawal M. Nour practices the kind of medicine that leads to intense discussions about culture and politics, rather than pesky questions about aches and pains. In 1999 she founded and became the director of the African Women's Health Practice at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Most of the women are treated for conditions related to female circumcision. Although the clinic is unique in the United States, Nour's rewards have come from acclaim in her field and patient gratitude, rather than from fame or fortune.

THE HOPE DIAMOND, on display at the Smithsonian Institution, is attracting quite a crowd. Hopefully, the visitors are not so blinded by the glitter that they lose sight of the Smithsonian's broader mission of increasing and disseminating scientific knowledge. On Jan. 7, the Smithsonian Science Commission, 18 scientists appointed by the institution's Board of Regents, released a report arguing that the Smithsonian's scientific mission is faltering, in large part due to the erosion of funding for long-term research.