Nameless

After hundreds of marchers flooded the state capital in February to protest a Ku Klux Klan rally, a fired-up Annapolis group put together a petition with 861 signatures to name the planned traffic circle on West Street Unity Circle.Alderman Cynthia A. Carter, a Ward 6 Democrat, introduced the resolution in March, and Mayor Dean L. Johnson referred it to a citizens committee working on the circle.After nine months, a handful of meetings and other bureaucratic workings, it seems that naming the city's fourth circle isn't going to be easy or quick.

Marianne Thomas of Bend, Ore., writes that she remembers the Depression years and a spicy cake that was "our favorite." It was a nameless cake that had "chocolate (maybe cocoa) and nuts. The frosting was fluffy and contained coffee as well as chocolate. Can you find such a recipe?"Kathy Dallam of Bel Air sent the response chosen by tester Laura Reiley. Dallam wrote:"My mother-in-law, Louise Ackerman, always made this cake for my husband's birthday when he was growing up. Here's her recipe, unchanged.

NEW YORK -- Ronnie Lott, TV broadcaster and former Hall of Fame defensive back for the San Francisco 49ers, takes the elevator down from Room 1806 and walks out onto Central Park South. He wears a black beret and a dazed look. Good evening, Mr. Lott: Tired from the flight? Blinded by the bright lights of nearby Broadway? Or is that a permanent look, from too many Sundays spent smashing helmets with Dallas Cowboys?"Something's weird with the hotel," he says, shaking his head.Weird, indeed.

An article in yesterday's Today section about ceremonies at Gettysburg National Military Park misidentified a pair of widows of Civil War veterans. Daisy Anderson, 96, of Denver is the widow of Pvt. Robert Anderson, a Union soldier, whom she married when he was 79. Alberta Martin, 90, of Alabama is the widow of Pvt. William Jasper Martin, a Confederate soldier, whom she married when he was 81.The Sun regrets the error.GETTYSBURG, Pa. -- They don't know who he was. They don't know where he came from.

The alternative high school that opens today in Crownsville will remain nameless until later this year, after students and faculty members make recommendations.County school officials said that after a spate of complaints, some from local members of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and prominent families, they decided against using the temporary name they had chosen this month.Board members and school officials had agreed on the name Arundel Academy for the high school for disruptive students.

WHEN I SAW my nephew Rudi dressed in uniform for his junior ROTC ball and looking for all the world as if he were leaving on the next troop carrier for Bosnia, I said what would probably be considered the wrong thing. Especially because I said it in front of his date."Oh my God! I used to change this boy's diapers."He was all shoulders and gold braid, all epaulets and brass buttons and not at all the little boy in sleepers to whom I would read stories while his parents slept in.During recent trips to the hometown where my three sisters live, I have seen with fresh eyes my nephews, who appear to have done nothing but eat and grow since I saw them at Christmas.

Amid the quiet elegance of McCafferty's restaurant in Mount Washington, near the baby grand piano polished to a high gloss, they have built a shrine to Johnny Unitas.Hanging on the wall is the Hall of Fame quarterback's autographed Colts jersey, an oil painting of him barking signals at the line of scrimmage with that familiar, round-shouldered stoop, another painting of him dropping back to pass against the Buffalo Bills. There is also a photograph of him accepting the 1971 Super Bowl trophy with all the solemnity of a priest accepting a communion chalice.

The jungles have been plundered. The nation is hypersensitive to political appropriateness. And sports leagues are adding teams left and right, gobbling up names as quickly as they can be conceived.So where does a nameless football team go for identity?"We're running out of names," said Bruce Burke, vice president and creative director of NFL Properties, the league unit charged with developing and marketing team names and logos.Although he won't talk specifically about the names being considered for Baltimore's new team, he said the league has been at work for about a month researching the city and working with the team to come up with a moniker to replace "Browns."

He was beaten in Indianapolis, hammered in Chicago, rejected in Baltimore.But even if Jim Speros lost courtroom battles in each of those legal settings over use of the Colts name, the owner of Baltimore's Canadian Football League team still might give the fans what they want most.That's the right to call the team the Colts -- no matter what the courts or the NFL's lawyers say."One option we have is Baltimore with no name," Speros said yesterday. "Just Baltimore and the horse logo."That's what the fans want.