Mankind

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.

W. R. Carr, 80, 'Godfather of Nightlife'Walter R. Carr, the founder of the Nitelifer magazine who was known as the "Godfather of Nightlife," died Sept. 22 of heart failure at Maryland General Hospital. He was 80.In 1960, he founded the Nitelifer, a lively weekly guide to Baltimore's inner-city clubs and bars. He used the editorial space to comment on issues of importance to blacks."You can stick it in your hip pocket or in an inside jacket pocket," Mr. Carr said of the Nitelifer in a 1981 interview.

Catholic Charities and the goodness of mankindAt a time when so much seems to be going wrong in Maryland -- rapid growth of homelessness and unemployment, high rates of teen pregnancy, record-breaking murder rates and excessive drug use -- it is hard to recognize the good that is still going on in our communities.I was recently asked to participate in Project College Aware, a program sponsored by Catholic Charities to make Marylanders more aware of its services. As a college senior with the month of January off, I participated with 17 other college students in the same situation, and I must say that not one of us was disappointed in our decision.

Ask a typical comics fan how he or she feels about Marvel's Uncanny X-Men, and nine times out of 10 what you'll hear is unstinting praise.And no wonder. The X-Men -- atomic mutants who are spurned and discriminated against even as they apply their "X-Factor" powers to save mankind -- are among the most popular characters in comicdom. Yet what attracts readers to the mighty mutants isn't their amazing power, but the fact that there are complex and compelling characters beneath those bulging muscles and skintight supersuits.

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.

Washington -- To remind himself of how far he's come, Congressman Sonny Bono may be tempted to rise from his polished desk and stare out the window at the spectacular view of the Capitol. The problem is, there is no spectacular view of the Capitol.Instead, from the fifth floor of the Cannon House Office Building, the view is decidedly less inspiring: sandstone walls the color of dishwater, and a dreary courtyard down below, which looks like a pleasant place to eat lunch only if your last meal was in a subway tunnel.

Even if I didn't know the title of the exhibition -- "Jesus 2000" -- I would have known the minute I entered the small gallery: I was surrounded by images of Christ. One painting depicts Jesus standing against a royal blue sky amid shafts of sunlit clouds. His coat, made of colorful flags from many nations, billows behind him as he beckons with his right arm. In another image, Jesus, bare-chested and wearing blue jeans and baseball cap, is a carpenter. And from still another work, a collage comprising digital images of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a somber Jesus seems to gaze directly into my eyes.

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

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.

It is tempting to believe the global village is so completely linked now that every outrage against democracy everywhere will be played out in real time before the eyes of the world, and so be defeated by popular opinion.What happened when tanks rolled in Moscow this week was a far cry from what happened in Budapest 35 years ago this fall, when the Soviet army crushed the Hungarian rebellion. The most stirring memory of that resistance is of the state radio announcer, still broadcasting as Soviet troops broke into the building, who finally went off the air begging for help from the West.