Millennium

Are you still trying to make sense out of the year 2000? In actuality, the "new" millennium starts on Jan. 1, 2001. However, it is the entrance into the new century that people will celebrate on New Year's Eve. When you buy a car, it typically has a few tenths on the odometer, but you still celebrate when it turns to all zeros.These are some of the interesting facts developed in the literature, craft books and tradebooks for children that revolve around this new hot topic -- the millennium.

Power Plant Live's bars and clubs seem to have fairly short life spans. In the past several years, the downtown entertainment district has gone through a couple of comedy clubs and a handful of bars. The newest addition is Luckie's Tavern, which replaced the Lodge Bar, which replaced McFadden's, an Irish pub. Luckie's, which opened last month, is a far cry from the Lodge Bar. True to its name, the Lodge Bar had lots of wood and deer heads on the walls. It was an inviting spot but cluttered.

WASHINGTON -- Computer jocks chuckle at the case of a 104-year-old patient who was directed by his health care provider to a pediatric specialist because the age field on his medical forms could handle only two digits.A similar trap awaits old and young alike three years hence. While purists may argue whether or not Jan. 1, 2000 marks the first day of the third millennium, it clearly is a day of reckoning for the world's software systems.If you're not yet marching in the computer parade, why should you care?

The Prime Time Society of First Lutheran Church and St. John's Episcopal Church will sponsor a talk at 11 a.m. tomorrow by Anita Sharma, director of the Millennium Campaign for North America, on the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals: eight goals adopted in 2000 by 189 nations, to be achieved by 2015. The goals address extreme poverty and hunger; education; gender equality; child mortality; maternal health; HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; environmental sustainability; and global partnership of developing and developed countries.

OK, OK. So the next millennium doesn't really start until Jan. 1, 2001. Try telling that to all the folks marketing millennium fever by hyping New Year's 2000.If you've reached the point where it's "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," you might want to consult "The Millennium: A Rough Guide to the Year 2000" -- a pocket-size, 264-page guide from the travel gurus at Rough Guides.Along with information on festivals, projects and mega-events, author Nick Hanna tries to offer advice about the dreaded "Y2K" computer chaos some fear might occur on Jan. 1, 2000.

Comcast Cable has withdrawn its offer to purchase the assets of Millennium Digital Media in northern Anne Arundel County, where Millennium has 40,000 cable subscribers, Comcast said yesterday. Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, did not say why it backed out of the agreement, which Anne Arundel County officials approved in June. Comcast was awaiting Federal Trade Commission approval, but the FTC had not yet ruled. "The purchase agreement between Millennium and Comcast for cable system assets in Anne Arundel County has been withdrawn," said Jeff Alexander, a Comcast spokesman.

ON FRIDAY, the student body of Clarksville Elementary School assembled in the school cafeteria for a millennium celebration. The children wore millennium T-shirts they had made with the help of art teacher Laurie Basham. Each grade wore a different color, creating a rainbow of neon green and yellow, orange, with accents of light blue, navy and black on the floor where they sat. Several children from each grade presented their grade's millennium project, which involved collecting 1,000 items to benefit a community group.

Maryland's countdown to the millennium began yesterday with drum rolls, trumpet blasts and a big Oriole Bird smooch on former Gov. William Donald Schaefer's head as a digital clock ticked away the remaining seconds to 2000.With 485 days, 11 hours, three minutes and 29 seconds left until the big date, state officials unveiled Celebration 2000 plans, a temporary 9-foot clock placed in front of the State House in Annapolis and an as-yet-unnamed female mascot dressed in a tunic and star-spangled top hat.The state will sponsor millennium events involving the arts, education, the environment, historic preservation and, naturally, New Year's Eve celebrations across Maryland.

ON NEW YEAR'S Eve, seven students from Mount Hebron High School played 55-gallon oil drums with the British group Stomp. The young people from Ellicott City were like Cinderella at the ball. Waiting to perform in front of an audience of thousands at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, the students mingled with celebrities. And once on stage, they were seen by television viewers across the country. "[It] was the most amazing experience I've ever had," said sophomore Aimee Fukuchi, 15. She was excited to see Tom Jones, she said.

SECURITIES REGULATORS are slow and distracted, but they are not comatose. Goof once on your financial reports, they might not notice. Goof twice, they might cock an eye. Goof up several times in various ways that overstate income and capital by tens of millions of dollars, and you will soon have an enduring relationship with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Hunt Valley-based Millennium Chemicals, maker of titanium dioxide paint pigment and pending merger bride of Lyondell Chemical Co., just took its third shot at reporting financial results for the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Comcast Cable has withdrawn its offer to purchase the assets of Millennium Digital Media in northern Anne Arundel County, where Millennium has 40,000 cable subscribers, Comcast said yesterday. Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, did not say why it backed out of the agreement, which Anne Arundel County officials approved in June. Comcast was awaiting Federal Trade Commission approval, but the FTC had not yet ruled. "The purchase agreement between Millennium and Comcast for cable system assets in Anne Arundel County has been withdrawn," said Jeff Alexander, a Comcast spokesman.

Not so long ago left for dead, the movie musical is showing renewed signs of life this year, even if filmmakers are still trying to figure out what form that life will take. Hairspray, the film version of the Broadway play based on sleaze auteur John Waters' ode to integration and other weighty matters on Baltimore's early-'60s dance floors (whew!), was one of the summer's surprise hits. With a total box-office take so far of $116.4 million, it's the fourth-highest-grossing movie musical ever, behind only The Sound of Music, Grease and Chicago.

The Anne Arundel County Council voted to approve a deal this week that allows struggling Millennium Digital Media Services to hand over its 38,000 cable customers to Comcast Corp. The agreement between St. Louis-based Millennium and Comcast needs federal approval. Kelvin Westbrook, chairman of Millennium, said endorsement by the local government is one factor federal officials consider. Westbrook said he has received "all sorts of assurances that [Comcast] will maintain the same level of service."

Three Millennium Chemicals properties here are being sold again, this time to a foreign owner. In all, more than 400 workers in the Baltimore area would be affected. Lyondell Chemical Co. of Houston has signed a deal to sell its Millennium inorganic chemicals business, which includes a titanium dioxide plant in Hawkins Point, offices in Hunt Valley and a research facility in Glen Burnie, to National Titanium Dioxide Co. Ltd. of Saudi Arabia for $1.05 billion in cash. Including some liabilities, the deal is expected to be worth about $1.2 billion and close during the first half of the year, pending regulatory approval.

A Baltimore County man with muscular dystrophy was unable to enroll this year at Towson University because the campus failed to provide him with adequate wheelchair-accessible housing as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal District Court. Filed on behalf of Mark Kuchmas, 28, the suit alleges that virtually none of the 108 units at Towson's Millennium Hall apartments - a privately owned student residence hall on university land - meets the handicap-accessibility requirements of the federal Fair Housing Act. "What makes this case really odd, or surprising, is that the developer and owner are big, national organizations in the business of student housing," said Kuchmas' attorney, Andrew Levy of Baltimore.

Often compared to London's fashionable Bond Street, Maryland Avenue in downtown Annapolis got even better with Saturday's grand opening of Gallery Third Millennium Designs. Along the first block of this historic street leading from State Circle, a restaurant offering live classical jazz and a distinctive array of established galleries featuring excellent traditional art provide an appealing ambience. Now Maryland Avenue also offers a splash of contemporary art. Michael Allen, the owner of Gallery Third Millennium, hopes his business can add more diversity to the art district.

The Prime Time Society of First Lutheran Church and St. John's Episcopal Church will sponsor a talk at 11 a.m. tomorrow by Anita Sharma, director of the Millennium Campaign for North America, on the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals: eight goals adopted in 2000 by 189 nations, to be achieved by 2015. The goals address extreme poverty and hunger; education; gender equality; child mortality; maternal health; HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; environmental sustainability; and global partnership of developing and developed countries.

The days of the state's new count-down-to-the-millennium clock are numbered -- and not in the way its designers intended.Nine feet tall, green and garish, the digital scoreboard-like contraption has drawn complaints and disapproving comments almost from the minute it went up with great fanfare in front of the historic State House on Lawyer's Mall Wednesday.It will come down within a month, vows Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller.The clock obstructs tourists' view of the 222-year-old building and mars the postcard picture of crab apple trees, the Governor's Mansion and the Justice Thurgood Marshall statue.

SEATTLE - The Algerian man who plotted to blow up Los Angeles International Airport at the height of millennium celebrations five years ago was sentenced to 22 years in prison yesterday. Ahmed Ressam, 38, flashed a brief grin as he was sentenced to the midrange of what attorneys had requested. Defense lawyers had asked for 12 1/2 years; prosecutors wanted 35 years. He will get credit for the five years he has spent in custody. Ressam, who had for a period cooperated with authorities in tracking down other terrorists, said nothing in court, but federal public defender Thomas Hillier said his client had given U.S. District Judge John Coughenour a note before the sentencing.

WHAT WOULD it take to wipe out illiteracy, hunger and diseases such as malaria around the world? Surprisingly little, it turns out, for the world's richest nations to help its poorest. According to a recent report sponsored by the United Nations, an annual investment of less than $200 billion from rich nations over the next decade could reverse the poverty, hunger and disease that plague more than a billion people. The report comes from the Millennium Project, an ambitious effort to save millions of mothers and children and to accelerate development to help close the gap between industrialized and underdeveloped countries.