Oval

Bill Clinton probably didn't need another reminder that he's about to move into the world's largest fishbowl. But he got one anyway, in the form of a polite yet urgent petition from a group of American chefs who want him to set a national example as a consumer of healthful foods.Mr. President-elect, the chefs implored, would you kindly drop the much-publicized apres jogging refuelings at Mickey D's? We don't need a chowhound chief executive. A president whose shape matches that of the Oval Office.

I saw it with my own eyes -- Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley standing centerstage Tuesday in the Oval Office. Only it wasn't the one in Washington. It did, though, make for a light but fascinating kind of political-pop-culture-meta moment. O'Malley was in Harford County to visit the set of "House of Cards," the $100 million Netflix political thriller starring Kevin Spacey. The reason for the visit as the cast and crew settles in to film Season 2 was to highlight the success of a state film incentives program backed by O'Malley that has brought such award-winning productions as HBO's "Game Change" and "VEEP" as well as "House of Cards" to Maryland.

SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, I asked the question: Who should be our next president? Should we elect yet another member of what future historians, looking back on late 20th-century American political leadership, will refer to as "The Long String of Bozos"? Or should we have the courage and wisdom to boldly change course and place the future of our great nation -- and, yes, the world -- into the capable, experienced hands of a professional humor columnist?Imagine how totally shocked and surprised I was when many of you wrote to me, sometimes in crayon, and said: "Our next president should be YOU, Dave!

If you want to talk about street and road courses, Penske driver Will Power is the man to start with. Over his seven-year career, Power has won 14 races — 13 of them on the twisting roads. But the 30-year-old Australian says dominating the streets isn't something that comes naturally. It's a skill he's been working on for more than three decades. "It takes about a decade of just doing street races to perfect the skills," he said. "I grew up doing that. The U.S. is the only place for ovals.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's statement that ''way over 90 percent'' of political contributions are legitimate misses the point. It is equally true that way over 90 percent of us don't hold up liquor stores.Less obvious is whether the president is correct that there has been ''no pattern and practice here of trying to push our system over the brink into corruption.'' That is precisely the question that needs to be answered either by the Justice Department or the special Senate investigation.

If you're a kid and live in the Franklintown or Rosemont neighborhoods of West Baltimore and want to play a pickup baseball game, one of the few places you can go without getting scolded is here: a 1,000-foot-wide grassy meadow in Gwynns Falls-Leakin Park.Julian Thomas Jr. used to come here in the summer to play ball, fly kites and search for crawfish under rocks in the cool waters of Gwynns Falls.Now 44, Thomas still comes to the meadow occasionally to shoot baskets -- a little exercise to stave off the effects of middle age."

Gil de Ferran's voice is a mixture of joy and sadness as he answers a question about his Penske Team's move from Championship Auto Racing Teams to the Indy Racing League. "I am missing and going to miss, probably my whole life, road racing," he said, referring to leaving the versatile CART series, in which he won the past two season championships while competing on road, street and oval courses, for the purely oval-based IRL. "That's how I started racing. That's what I fell in love with.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. -- President-elect Bill Clinton too strikingly somber leave of his native Arkansas yesterday, recalling that Abraham Lincoln left his home state of Illinois 132 years ago and returned home only to be buried.Predicting some "harrowing" moments in his presidential "adventure," Mr. Clinton told an airport send-off rally in Little Rock: "I don't know when I'll be home again because of the incredible press of events. . . . I ask you to pray for us. I ask youto pull for us."

Rufus Wainwright, the literate singer-songwriter, has small roles in two new films: Martin Scorsese's The Aviator and the Merchant-Ivory production Heights. "In both of these movies, I have great entrances," he says on the phone from Los Angeles, "and that's all you really need." The 31-year-old musician, who will be playing at Johns Hopkins University's Shriver Hall tonight, has been making great entrances for a long time now. Consider his lineage: His parents are the legendary folk singers Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle.

WASHINGTON - President Bush gave the order to go to war last night shortly before 7 p.m. Soon after, he retired to the White House residence to have dinner with his wife, having made a decision that could define his presidency and change the United States' role in the world. Bush's order came toward the end of an Oval Office meeting with military advisers that lasted more than 3 1/2 hours, far longer than usual for a president who is sometimes short on patience and demands that advisers be brief and to the point.

Despite Sen. John McCain's three bouts with melanoma - including a surgery in 2000 that left his cheek visibly scarred - the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's doctors yesterday declared him cancer-free and in general good health. The Arizona senator's medical history puts him at increased risk for future skin cancer, so he sees his dermatologist at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., every three to four months. This year, he had a minor skin cancer removed from his lower leg. "At the present time, Senator McCain enjoys excellent health and displays extraordinary energy," Dr. John D. Eckstein, McCain's internist at the Mayo Clinic, told reporters yesterday.

Bob Sorensen Project coordinator Rink Management Services, Reisterstown Salary --$52,000 Age --40 Years on the job --20 How he got started --Originally from New Jersey, Sorensen started off as a skier, eventually landing a job at a ski facility in his home state. He began working with the owner of Rink Management Services, opening and managing ski facilities. About 10 years ago they also began managing ice rinks, then transitioned away from working with ski resorts to just specializing in rinks.

Surrounded by Ferris wheels and roller coasters, the racetrack at Timonium Fairgrounds resembles a carousel with live horses. It's a tiny oval with hairpin turns - a thrill for some jockeys, a not-so-merry-go-round for others. At five-eighths of a mile, Timonium is barely half the size of Pimlico Race Course. Thoroughbreds race here just seven days a year on weekends during the Maryland State Fair, which ends tomorrow. But that's long enough to give the track a feel all its own.For instance, the 100-foot Ferris wheel spinning near the far turn has scared more than one equine.

Hillary Clinton is trying to go where no woman has gone before - to the White House. Other women have run for the country's highest office - from Shirley Chisholm to Elizabeth Dole. But never has a woman had such a good chance first to capture her party's nomination, then to win the presidency. So this time it could happen - the United States could have a woman president. Is the country ready for that? Perhaps the most amazing thing is that in the 21st century, that question is even being asked.

When President Bush grants the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of Arts to 17 scholars, musicians, historians and others today, two Marylanders will be among those singled out. Eva Brann, a professor at St. John's College in Annapolis, and Walter Berns, a Bethesda historian, will receive the humanities prize during Oval Office ceremonies. Brann, a philosopher and intellectual historian, has taught at St. John's for the past 40 years, long ago emerging as a driving force at an institution The Weekly Standard once described as "the Great Books school ... where high thinking is carried on with democratic courtesies."

For the past seven years - whether it was blisteringly hot, freezing cold, raining or snowing - Rudiger Ruckmann left his Northwood home every Wednesday at the crack of dawn, carrying his water bottle and beat-up Adidas shoes, to run on the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood Field track. "We would meet there in any kind of conditions - 20 degrees below zero, three feet of snow," the 41-year-old Ruckmann said. "It would be driving rain, 90 degrees, but we're troopers, and that was always a great meeting place for us and other crazy runners and walkers in Baltimore."

Fish are vanishing from the oceans. Mammals that walk upright on land cannot be far behind.Everyone wants to put Hillary Rodham Clinton in her place. Whether that is in Arkansas, jail or the Oval Office, no one can agree.

Annapolis city council members continue to run circles around the contentious issue of building a competitive-running track, a week after approving a spending plan for the next fiscal year. Although the council voted 5 to 4 to expand the indoor track planned for the future recreation center at Truxtun Park, foes of the expansion - including Mayor Ellen O. Moyer - said they hope to revisit the issue when the council meets in July to discuss funding for the $5 million track. "We've not even approached the county and state yet to see if they are willing to contribute, and I intend to set up some meetings to see about additional money," Moyer said.

PRESIDENT BUSH told reporters last week he doesn't have much time to "wander, lonely, in the Oval Office, kind of asking different portraits, how do you think my standing [in history] will be?" He's so busy lately partly because he's trying to shape that legacy by moving ideological soulmates into positions to ensure his impact will be long felt. The latest of these appointments went to Paul Wolfowitz, the neoconservative deputy defense secretary, whom Mr. Bush has tapped to promote democracy through economics as president of the World Bank.