Obvious

You think it's obvious. Everyone thinks it's obvious. There's no doubt the Orioles should trade some valuable assets for young players in the coming weeks and start playing for next season and beyond, right?Well, it was just as obvious a year ago, and the Orioles elected to keep an aging team together and try for a long-shot run at the playoffs. A hot streak after the All-Star break, rendered meaningless by September, changed the organization's mind.A year later, the Orioles are getting hot again in July after an abysmal first half that left them in last place in the American League East.

WASHINGTON -- As a substantive matter, the House Republicans' "Contract with America" is an obvious gimmick. As a political matter, it is probably even worse.The 350-plus Republicans, incumbents and challengers did get the immediate reward they were seeking -- coverage on both network and local television news programs -- as they lined up in front of the Capitol to sign the document promising all sorts of grand things if they can win the 40 seats that would give them control of the House and make Newt Gingrich the speaker next year.

American athletes and American teams are stinking it up on the world stage. That's obvious. What isn't obvious is why. Less obvious is whether this means more, or less, than what it is. Less obvious than that? Whether it really matters as much as many Americans are making it matter. Lots of people seem to have answers, but in reality, there are so many segments to this topic that no single one tells the entire story. This much we know: What appeared at the time to be an isolated incident - the men's basketball team coming home from the 2004 Olympics with only a bronze medal - evolved into a trend (in later disappointments at the Turin Games and in the World Baseball Classic)

John Oates showed us something last night.The temper tantrum he threw in the fourth inning -- the one that got him thrown out of the game -- was a major-league tantrum, the first we have seen from the rookie Orioles manager.Oates threw his cap. He pounded his fists. He screamed. After he was ejected, he came back out on the field, still capless, to argue some more.His performance would have been a credit even to a Hall of Fame tantrum thrower like Earl Weaver.My feeling is that the gentlemanly Oates has been a little too docile for a manager who had lost nine of his previous 10 games.

SEATTLE -- When Mayor Norman Rice spoke at a regional Democratic conference here the other day, he made a point of praising President Clinton's performance in office.There should be nothing noteworthy about that -- an ambitious Democratic mayor lauding a Democratic president. But Rice's praise caused a small stir among party activists from 13 states in his audience because -- except for Democratic National Chairman Don Fowler -- Rice was the only speaker who seemed prepared to do it.The incident was another small piece of evidence pointing to a particular problem vexing the president as he looks ahead to a campaign for re-election -- quite simply, that he fails to evoke much enthusiasm among fellow Democrats.

WASHINGTON -- Three new opinion polls quantify the obvious -- that most Americans are sick of special prosecutor Kenneth Starr and want him to wind up his investigations as quickly as possible.The White House is encouraging the idea, of course. President Clinton's flacks have been highly visible selling the notion that now that the Paula Corbin Jones case has been dismissed, it is time to wrap up all the investigations and "get back to the people's business."Mr. Clinton himself, in an interview with Time magazine, said the pending legal matters are keeping him from his appointed rounds.

If you're a dedicated preservationist, deciding which original features to retain in your old-house design is a simple process. You keep them all.If you're less ardent about the past, have a house that's in pretty bad shape, or are approaching an old-house project for the first time, you may wonder what parts of the original fabric are most valuable, or most feasible, to save.Sometimes the choices are obvious -- like stained glass transoms and fancy fretwork -- and sometimes not so obvious, like doorknobs.

*TC WASHINGTON -- In a speech to the electors of Bristol in 1774 Edmund Burke laid down this dictum: "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion."But that, of course, was before the telephone was invented and politicians started taking the temperature of their constituents daily by counting calls and conducting polls. Indeed, we have reached the ridiculous point at which the White House through the Democratic National Committee felt obliged to hire a telemarketing company to make phone calls to House and Senate offices supporting President Clinton's economic program.

ALTHOUGH SHE is a middle-aged mother, Cheryl Ann Battles is likely to become a poster child for the home schoolers of America.She has been charged with violating Maryland's compulsory education law. For 14 months, she has refused to enroll her child in school or to fill out the Anne Arundel County Department of Education's "assurance of consent." That is required of all Maryland residents who teach their children at home.The violation is a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to 10 ** days in jail.

Harbor Rickshaws?Never mind laying streetcar tracks around the Inner Harbor. Trolleys move slowly and complicate traffic.Why not, instead, rickshaws?They're cheap, light, easy to pull (I've done it), take up very little space, and could whirl tourists from the Fish Market to Rash Field with stops anywhere.Joggers could get their exercise, tourists would enjoy the exotic touch and the unskilled unemployed could earn a living.Or, if not rickshaws, how about pedi-cabs? Bicycling is perfectly respectable, isn't it?