O Brien

LOS ANGELES -- So tell us, Dan O'Brien. How did you feel the first time you competed in the pole vault after the stunning no-height debacle that kept you out of the Olympic decathlon competition?4 Nervous, O'Brien says. How do you think he felt?O'Brien felt especially nervous when, at an invitational decathlon meet in Talence, France, last September, he failed to clear his first vault at the opening height. Could it be happening again? Was he about to embarrass himself for the second straight time?

ATLANTA -- The disappointment stayed with Dan O'Brien for most of the past four years. First it caused him to drink, then to burn.Last night, he found a way to chase away the ghosts of New Orleans forever.He won an Olympic gold medal in the decathlon.With more than 81,000 fans at Olympic Stadium cheering his every step in the last of the 10 events, the 1,500-meter run, O'Brien, 30, added to his legacy that included three world championships and the world record.The disappointment of not making the U.S. team four years ago evaporated as O'Brien crossed the finish line and raised his arms in triumph.

In a solemn and symbolically rich ceremony, Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien was installed yesterday as leader of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, vowing to draw men to the priesthood, intensify the fight against abortion and help the vulnerable who live in the city. And he began humbly. "I come to you no genius, and with limited talents and abilities ... but I pledge to you before God and his people: Whatever I am, and all that I have, I give to you," he said in his homily. O'Brien became the 15th archbishop of the nation's first archdiocese in the two-hour Mass of installation at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in North Baltimore, taking over for Cardinal William H. Keeler, who held the post for 18 years.

America, it's time to request a mercy killing.The question America asked last September: Why Conan O'Brien?Now, five months and 102 shows later, the question is: Why Conan O'Brien?OK, you probably don't care. You're tired of the Talk Show Wars, and you don't stay up late anyway. Or, you don't stay up that late anymore.You might have watched the debut of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" Sept. 13. It was awkward and amateurish. But, hey, Mr. O'Brien had been a writer-producer of "The Simpsons," the hippest series on network television, so you harbored some expectations.

In an article in Wednesday editions, the name of the husband of the newly designated president of St. Mary's College of Maryland was incorrect. He is James A. Grube.The Sun regrets the errors.Trustees for St. Mary's College of Maryland yesterday named energetic college executive Jane Margaret O'Brien to carry on the work of President Edward T. Lewis, who will retire next summer after 13 years."At a time when the broader community is looking for a rebirth in higher education, St. Mary's responds to the clamor," Dr. O'Brien, currently the president of Hollins College in Roanoke, Va. said yesterday.

Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien will be spending Christmas a little differently this year. But it's not just that this is his first Noel as archbishop of Baltimore. Every year for the past decade, he's marked the holiday overseas. "This is the first Christmas I've been in the states in 10 years," he said. Formerly the archbishop of military services, O'Brien would travel to celebrate Mass with the troops at different bases on Christmas. Last year he was in Kuwait, and the year before that he went to Bosnia and Kosovo.

NEW YORK -- For those who tune into track and field once every four years, remember this name: Dan O'Brien. His event is the decathlon, and his destiny may be to become a Wheaties cereal box cover boy.Yesterday, before a crowd of 1,500 that included past Olympic champions Bruce Jenner and Daley Thompson, O'Brien accumulated the second-highest point total in the 80-year history of the decathlon.He won the gold medal at the USA/Mobil Championships by recording 8,884 points, only three points shy of Thompson's world record of 8,847 set at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

The nation's oldest archdiocese welcomes Archbishop Edwin O'Brien as its 15th leader this afternoon, a Bronx native and former military chaplain who has led seminaries and guided Catholics in the military all over the world. Last night, the future archbishop of Baltimore began the festivities for his installation by praying for those who came before him and with those who will go forward with him. Early in a prayer service for the archdiocese's priests, nuns, deacons and seminarians, he knelt in front of the tomb of John Carroll, the first archbishop of Baltimore, in the Basilica of the Assumption's crypt.

WASHINGTON -- Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien had barely moved in before he got orders to ship out. The Archdiocese of Military Services opened its new headquarters in Washington in May, and the prelate still had boxes of books and mementos to unpack from a 42-year career as priest, seminary rector, military chaplain and close aide to two cardinals. But there's no need to empty them now. O'Brien, whose appointment as the new archbishop of Baltimore was announced Thursday, will move into the residence at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Roland Park before his October installation.

NEW YORK -- In a beige brick Gothic church on an East Bronx thoroughfare, the future archbishop of Baltimore found a home that he never really left. Our Lady of Solace on Morris Park Avenue became the spiritual center for Edwin F. O'Brien, who prayed here with his parents and brothers, served as an altar boy, studied at its now-shuttered grammar school and received confirmation in the Catholic Church with the saint's name of James 57 years ago.