Mother S Day

Every family has its own Mother's Day traditions. Mable Brown gets pampered by her nine children. Lydia Ruppert goes on a picnic. And Jeanne Litvin is treated to a lunch and a musical performance. But it isn't the gifts that mean the most - it's spending time with her children, Litvin said. "Being a mother is the most important thing that I will ever do in my life," said Litvin, who doesn't give her age. "People without children miss out on a lot. There's nothing like hearing from your children, not just on Mother's Day, but any day."

MIAMI - I didn't truly appreciate the ghetto until I left it. It's a paradox that comes back to me every time I encounter someone struggling to "understand" Allen Iverson. Which, over the last few weeks of the just-concluded NBA playoffs, has become quite the popular parlor game among us media hacks. Seems like every which way you turn, some scribbler is contriving to explain the diminutive star of the Philadelphia 76ers. It's a game whose implications transcend sports, raising fascinating questions about class, culture and the black men who frighten us. Certainly, if you called central casting and ordered up the stereotypical scary black man, you'd probably get someone much like Mr. Iverson.

THIS MOTHER'S Day, I could be in.Or I could be doomed, consigned to a cruel, unrelenting hell of silence and bruised feelings.It could go either way at this point.Here's the story: Like every other guy in America, I was feeling enormous pressure with Mother's Day approaching.What to get my wife? I always blow this. Whatever I get her, she returns.One year, I bought her a blazer. She returned it. The next year, I bought her a blouse. She returned it."What are you, stupid?" a buddy of mine said.

IN THE days before Mother's Day, the country got some good news: Teen birthrates have continued a downward trend that began in 1991.The decline is across the board, but it is most pronounced among African-Americans, with the rate of births in that group reaching its lowest recorded level.Given the alarms raised about teen pregnancy and childbirth since rates began a sharp climb in the mid-1980s, the historical perspective might surprise many people: The '80s teen birthrates that created a social crisis were substantially lower than such rates in the 1950s and '60s.

The first 13 days of May were bad luck for garden store owners. Rain fell every day, driving customers indoors and muddying anticipated Mother's Day profits.Since then, the weather has been dry -- and the cash drawers have been as green as the flower beds, gardening merchants say.The month's streaks of downpour and dryness balanced each other out. Despite the wet start, the month ended with almost the average amount of rain for May, Scott Wendt, a meteorologist with Weather Central Inc. of Madison, Wis., said yesterday.

THE original Mother's Day, like all our best holidays, is of pagan origin. It was a celebration in Asia Minor in honor of Cybele.Known as the mother of the gods, Cybele was associated with some pretty repellent rituals, which eventually caused the banishment of her followers in Rome.The poet and classicist Robert Graves believed the battle between the pagan goddess and the Hebrew and Christian God to be fundamental to the development of Western civilization.In his book "King Jesus," Graves argued that Jesus declared war on "the female," or the White Goddess of birth, love and death.

A smile spread across Mikaila Ward's face as she started telling a story about her mom. "I dance after school. When I had my last recital, my brother and sisters couldn't attend. I felt really bad they couldn't make it. So my mom brought my stuffed monkey, Sheila, to the recital. She took pictures of Sheila looking at the program and sitting in the seat next to her. It helped me dance better because I knew my mom and Sheila were there for me," the 9-year-old from Fallston said of her mother, Susan Ward.

Today dads all over Maryland will be opening gifts of socks, books, tools and, if we are lucky, a package or two containing something bad for us.It is Father's Day. If you have forgotten, don't panic. There is still time to run around the corner and get Dad a card, a hunk of meat, or a bottle of his favorite liquid, which probably isn't sparkling water.Virtually any gift is OK for Dad, as long as it is not pink or aimed at "reforming" him. On Father's Day, dads don't want to think about self-improvement.

OTTAWA -- Scientists tell us it won't be long before medical technology makes it possible for men to bear children. In fact, Robert Winston, the British researcher who pioneered in-vitro fertilization, recently claimed that existing techniques enable a man to have an embryo implanted in his abdomen, carry it to term and deliver it by Caesarean section.The thought makes me, well, cringe.It's not simply that I'm queasy at the hubris of overturning millions (billions?) of years of evolution or uncertain at the ethical dilemmas of all those daddy dearests suddenly wanting seating priority on the bus.No, it's even more basic: I just can't think of dad as mom because, as any woman will tell you, being a mother is more than giving birth.