Menace

THE SUMMER of 1998, with great planning and foresight, the Baltimore Orioles spent $73 million and won 79 ballgames. This means, using simple division, that it cost them $924,050 per victory. Now they've spent $65 million on Albert Belle, and wish to call it progress. And maybe it is.Belle arrived here Tuesday looking smaller than life. He was so rushed to leave Chicago, he left his sense of menace behind. He chased no kids down streets, threw no forearm shivers into second basemen blocking his path, cursed not a single reporter.

We haven't had gangs of youth riding dirt bikes in the central business district recently, but before that it was commonplace. City Circuit Court Clerk Frank M. Conaway Sr., however, apparently doesn't think that was a problem ("Don't penalize city kids for riding dirt bikes," April 26). A year ago groups of 25 to 35 youths on dirt bikes would routinely come into downtown in the evenings and wreak havoc on residents. The noise from these vehicles, whose engines are not muffled, was astounding because it was amplified by the walls of nearby buildings.

In the middle of the first movement of Dmitri Shostakovich's "Leningrad" Symphony, a barely audible, insipid tune - the "invasion theme" - starts worming its way into the picture to the persistent, steady tap of a snare drum. Ever so slowly, the volume and intensity increase, until the tune devours orchestra and audience alike, providing a musical metaphor for both the Nazi menace at the door of Leningrad and the Stalinist plague inside. There are few passages in music so striking and indelible.

Any resemblance would be hard for all but the most die-hard Orioles fans to notice. But it's there. The new Aberdeen IronBirds logo, unveiled Monday, was inspired by a furious, bat-wielding Orioles bird mascot introduced after the 1967 season. Billy Ripken, who turned 3 years old that year, remembered it well when he began thinking about refreshing the IronBirds logo. "He was mean-looking," Ripken said. "He had a bat in his hand and a had a little lean forward. " That bird's menacing look combined with inspiration from the recent Iron Man movies - since Ripken and his brother Cal, baseball's ironman, run the team together - form a slick new character that the duo hopes will continue to draw young baseball fans to games.

Washington.--Allen Hughes, one of the 21-year-old twin brothers who directed the movie, ''Menace II Society,'' says, ''Our intention was to have the audience turn away.''These two African-American prodigies have made a stunning, troubling movie that compels contemplation of this question: In a nation saturated with violence, can a portrayal of violence be valuable because it is therapeutic?The answer may be: Yes, if the portrayal is so relentlessly realistic that it nearly sickens viewers and strengthens their resolve to enforce domestic tranquility.

The debate over "bandit signs" is the most ridiculous thing I've heard. "Portable graffiti, harbinger of crime, a safety menace to drivers." I have yet to see a sign that is in graffiti style or promotes crime. It is not the person reading the sign that is a menace but the driver not paying attention because he/she is on the cell phone. Safety menaces are the people standing at every stoplight and corner begging for money. Those people are the safety threat! Let's do something about that instead of trying to hurt businesses that are trying to make a living.

Gore. Rhymes with (A) bore; (B) more; (C) roar; or (D) adore. Choose no more than two. Lieberman is very vice presidential in manner and speech, which leaves Al nothing to do but move up. Republicans want the world made safe for inherited money, but the Democrats hold out for inherited office. The final indignity for Pat Buchanan is that he is a figure no longer of menace but of fun.

LAUREL -- Nuniyajissive surged to the front in mid-stretch, then held off a belated run from Long Walk to win yesterday's $20,000 feature at Laurel Race Course.Nuniyajissive raced closest to early leader Sweet Slewsie, then was the first to go past her with a quarter-pole remaining. She won by 1 1/2 lengths and returned $5.60 as the favorite in a field of seven fillies and mares.Rick Wilson, on Long Walk, checked his mount sharply behind the tiring Sweet Slewsie, costing her several lengths.

Alongside "Aladdin," three new family movies have been released on video that are worth noting:"The Muppet Christmas Carol" (Jim Henson Video, $22.99, rated G) is the first Muppet feature since the death of creator Jim Henson, and the void is obvious. Gone are the witty zingers and the sense of cynicism toward convention. Charles Dickens' story would have been poked on all sides by Henson, while still managing to retain the warmth of the message and adding memorable original songs. Under the direction of his son, Brian Henson, the story is treated with kid gloves, as if the source material is too sacrosanct to needle.

Trueheart was a guy on my block who got into a fight every time we went to a party. He'd start swinging, the rest of us would pull him off, and in the end, all of us would get thrown out."Come on, man, Trueheart," one of us would complain. "We're trying to have a good time. Why you got to be like this?"Trueheart would grin. "Man, the dude stepped on my shoe."This was Trueheart's thing, his identity, his claim to fame: He was the guy who got into a fight at every party he went to. If someone messed with him, count on Trueheart never to back down.

Recently the media reported on a story about dangerous homemade bottle bombs that were found in Baltimore County ("'Bottle bombs' dangerous pranks - and possible felony," May 13). Unfortunately this problem is but the tip of a much larger problem in the county, namely the routine detonation of loud, explosive fireworks in residential communities for personal entertainment, especially on summer weekends around dusk. Otherwise peaceful communities, including my community just north of Parkton, are repeatedly bombarded with what sounds like shotgun blasts and exploding mortar shells.

As a resident of Howard County and a member of the board of directors of the Horizon Foundation, I give three cheers for Nikki Highsmith Vernick's article on a health issue that will prove to be one of the most challenging of the 21st century ("A healthier way to snack," May 15). Her insightful and provocative article was an excellent complement to recent HBO special "The Weight of the Nation. " Her article is the product of months of research and study by the Horizon Foundation and the board's decision to tackle head on the "largest single source of added sugar in our children's diets and a major source of excess calories.

Last year, Maryland's Democratic-controlled General Assembly made short work of a Republican-sponsored bill that would have required voters to show a government-issued photo ID before being allowed to vote. The legislation, which closely tracked similar GOP-backed ballot security laws around the country, died in committee without ever coming up for a vote. But Del. Kathryn L. Afzali, the Frederick Republican who is the bill's chief sponsor, is back with a substantially revised version of her original proposal that she hopes will pass muster with her colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee.

I totally agree with letter writer Fred Medinger regarding fireworks ("Stricter laws for fireworks in neighborhoods," Jan. 5). On the evening of Jan. 1, the individual who lives directly across the street from me was setting off fireworks with small children in the audience. Those aerial fireworks were flying way above my house (not his house, of course), and the remains were falling directly on my residence. The next batch he had prepared to set off in the street (a county road)

At 68, Roy Hilton still enjoys fooling people. "They come up to me and think I'm an old basketball player. I like that," said Hilton, who, at 6-foot-6, was one of the tallest Baltimore Colts of his day. He fooled people in other ways, back then. The Colts' 15th round draft pick in 1965, Hilton surprised everyone by making the team at defensive end and lasting 11 years in the NFL. And in Baltimore's 16-13 victory in Super Bowl V, he surprised Dallas by roaring past its All-Pro tackle, Ralph Neely, and sacking Cowboys' quarterback Craig Morton twice before halftime.

I agree with Ron Wirsing's April 6 letter that bicyclists should be licensed. A day does not pass that I do not witness a bicyclist violate the 3-foot law by weaving through stopped traffic at an intersection, then run a red light or fail to even slow down, much less stop, at a stop sign. I have seen bicyclists ignore a school bus with flashing red lights and breeze by the flagman on a road crew. I have seen bicyclists riding at night with no headlights or taillights. Mr. Wirsing is right: The only solution is to require licensing and a safety course.

Washington. -- In a nightmare scenario from the debris of the Soviet Union, jobless scientists from the old empire are drawn by undreamed-of pay to clandestine military laboratories in rogue nations.The Cold War is thus succeeded by an appalling menace -- a proliferation of nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them.High-tech fiction? Not at all. Science and engineering, no less than other professions, possess a mercenary streak that's easily inflamed by hard times and professional opportunities.

WHAT'S THE allied strategy against the Iraqi army now hunkered down in and around Kuwait? The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell, explained it succinctly the other day: "Our strategy for dealing with this army is very simple: First we're going to cut it off, then we're going to kill it." By all reports, that is just what the allies are proceeding methodically to do.If there must be an advance overland, let's hope it will be against a pulverized, starved, and outflanked Iraqi army -- even if reducing it to that state takes a few weeks.

While it was a step in the right direction to ban texting while driving, it would be even more sensible to outlaw cell phone use altogether by drivers, including reading text messages while behind the wheel. There are enough problems on the roads already without drivers who clearly are cell-phone preoccupied and otherwise oblivious. Too many examples of this kind of behavior still exist, despite the so-called ban on cell phone use. I was recently in a fender-bender caused by a driver distracted by her phone.

No act of government is more essential to a democracy than the running of clean and honest elections. Voters have a right to expect their ballots to be counted accurately and for officials to take all reasonable and necessary steps to prevent fraud. That's why the notion that voters should present a government-issued photo ID sounds compelling. For most of us, it would pose no particular hardship, as airport ticket agents, store cashiers and the guy who hands out bowling shoes at the local alley regularly ask for it, too. But, in fact, it's a very bad idea that would harm the credibility of elections far more than help them.