Pleasure

IF YOU ARE fed up with the Puritan tyranny over modern America, boy, have I got a book for you!"Endangered Pleasures" is the title. It is by Barbara Holland, and its underlying philosophical question is, "If the carefully lived life is so good for you, how come the people living it spend so much time thinking about death?"Ms. Holland shamelessly advocates all the pleasures that have fallen into low repute since modern Puritanism cast its pall over the country. These include martinis, breakfast, wood fires, real coffee, loafing, lunching with lovers -- as opposed to big shots -- and doing your own gardening, among others.

John Waters opened his audience's eyes to a kind of film experience they'd probably never had before. Another writer-director raised in Maryland scared a late-night crowd silly. A movie about a sexual assault left some viewers heading for the exits early. Such were the pains and pleasures of the first two days of this weekend's 14th Maryland Film Festival. Running through Sunday night in and around the Charles Theatre , the festival showcases more than 100 films, including documentaries, short subjects and feature-length narratives.

Not all addictions live up to their advance press. In the past decade, it's become common to casually and humorously describe a favorite activity in the parlance of chemical dependency. People speak of being "addicted" to chocolate or high-fat foods, playing video games, buying expensive designer shoes, watching weekly episodes of "American Idol" to sleeping on high-thread-count sheets. But according to "The Compass of Pleasure," a new book by Johns Hopkins neuroscientist David Linden that is being released today by The Viking Press, just two of those pursuits -- eating fatty foods and shopping -- can become genuine addictions for some people.

From: California Price: $14 Serve with: Pasta dishes, grilled meat This lush, ripe blend of zinfandel, syrah, cabernet sauvignon and merlot is all about decadent pleasure. It's one of those smooth red wines that is so fruity it gives the impression of sweetness without being sweet. There's a lot of berry action - black, blue and wild - and hints of chocolate and coffee. There's no point in sitting on it. Drink now.  

Cheers to Donna Shalala for standing up for common sense. At the unveiling last week of the federal government's latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the health and human services secretary defended the idea of moderation -- not an easy thing to do in the face of ardent diet vigilantes.Just as admirable was her defense of the new recommendations which, she said, ''finally admit what many of us have known all along -- that food is not just fuel, it is one of life's great pleasures.''Only in AmericaOnly in America could a set of dietary guidelines produce such a flurry of interest-group lobbying, or be met with the harsh criticism of those for whom any compromise in dietary discipline seems tantamount to death.

'The Pleasure Raiders' When: Wednesdays to Saturdays at 8 p.m.; matinees Sundays at p.m. Through Oct. 28.Where: Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston St.Tickets: $10-$16.Call: 752-8558.... * 1/2 Last winter "The Pleasure Raiders" -- a socio-political sci-fi detective story by Baltimore's Impossible Industrial Action theater company -- debuted at Towson State University. Now a second production, billed as "a reworking," is playing a three-week run at the Theatre Project.It hasn't been reworked enough.

The Coast Guard was trying to determine why an unmanned 40-foot pleasure craft sank at a marina near the Inner Harbor early yesterday. The Miss Complextion was discovered underwater at the Anchorage Marina on Boston Street at about 5:30 a.m., said Petty Officer Steven Rogers of the Coast Guard Activities Office in Baltimore. A salvage company managed to raise the wooden vessel by 8:40 p.m. and anchor it at the marina. The boat spilled about 10 gallons of fuel into the harbor, leaving a light sheen that evaporated in the morning sun, Rogers said.

PARIS -- It is not the new currency that strikes this returning visitor's eye. The euro has been accepted, and the franc retired, without much fuss. Nor is it the mobile phone that hangs from nearly every French citizen like an earring. Nor is it the Benetton on the Champs-Elysees or The Gap on the Rue de Commerce that seem like icons of change and globalization. On this bright April day, as I leave the much demeaned and very crowded McDonald's where I have been allowed to indulge my great-nephew in not-so-French fries as a nod to his dual citizenship, I confront an image much more surprising: Crowds of young French men and women walking and eating their way down the street.

In "For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again," Michael Tremblay writes about his mother with that rarest of sentiments: love untainted by embarrassment. The play doesn't equivocate, hold back or glance away. Although the 100-minute show is quite funny, it doesn't hide its feelings behind a scrim of jokes. And it's not afraid to weave an extravagant fantasy when that's the best way of getting at the truth. If only the acting and staging were as wise and honest as the script. The show takes place in Montreal in the 1950s and 1960s, among the French-Canadian working class.

Police logPasadena: Someone broke into the Kurtz Pleasure Beach club overnight Saturday and stole two cases of beer, valued at $45.Pub Date: 1/28/97

It was a great pleasure to read Sunday's edition of The Sun. For the first time in a while, the pleasure of reading your newspaper didn't stem solely from the sports section but from the editorial pages as well. Though well written, articulate, and amusing, the usual Sun editorial page articles come stamped with the Maryland Democratic Party's seal of approval. Editorials are structured around the author's opinion, and readers are well aware of this. However, editorials gain credibility and respect if facts and figures are brought to bear before the author states his or her claim.

Nicole McAllister, a longtime Johns Hopkins Club waitress whose grit and determination to see that her daughter received a college education paid off earlier this year when she had the pleasure of seeing her daughter receive her bachelor's degree, died Dec. 16 of a stroke at Sinai Hospital. The Northwest Baltimore resident was 44. The daughter of a construction worker and a teacher's aide, Nicole McAllister was born in Baltimore and raised on Newton Avenue. After graduating from Walbrook High School in 1985, Ms. McAllister worked as a teller for almost a decade at the old Union Trust Co., later Signet Bank, until she was laid off from her job In 1994, she took a job as a waitress at the Johns Hopkins Club, which is on the university's Homewood campus, where she quickly built a loyal and dedicated following.

For the nearly 100 residents of Dundalk Mobile Court who went without power for a week, the return of electricity couldn't come on soon enough — and everybody had a plan for what to do when it did. Dolores Moakley, 70, a retired home health care nurse, couldn't wait to wash up in comfort. "The first thing I'm going to do is take a warm shower. I'm tired of a week's worth of cold showers," she said, standing in the yard of the mobile home where she has lived for the past 12 years The people at the trailer park were among the last people to have their power restored in the Baltimore area.

Great article Sunday on tubing on the Gunpowder ("Tubing tiff," July 31). As both an avid fly-fisherman on the Gunpowder and someone who utilizes it during the hot summer months to take a tube down, I can appreciate the conflicts that occur between residents, fisherman and the business owners renting tubes and shuttling folks to and from various access points. Just last weekend, I was among the 600 folks per weekend who take a tube down the Gunpowder River. A couple of thoughts: •If the shuttles did not exist, I think everyone can agree the alcohol levels would decrease exponentially considering most folks would not want to walk a cooler full of beer 20 minutes up the bike trail only to float back down.

On behalf of the Bel Air Lions Club and the volunteers who supported our effort, it was our pleasure to serve you breakfast. This year we served more than 2,100 customers, who ate regular or blueberry pancakes along with sausage and beverage of your choice. It took 29 Lions and nine spouses along with 41 Scout volunteers to accomplish this feat. Planning for this event started in late August and continued until the breakfast. Later this month we will start planning for next year again.

TV baseball has been one of the great pleasures of my adult life. Coming home at 8 or 9 p.m. after a long day of covering a media world that has gone nasty and mad, I would click on MASN's coverage of the Baltimore Orioles the way some folks might pour themselves a glass of wine. Hearing analyst Jim Palmer explain for the 10,000th time that "baseball is game of adjustments" had the same soothing effect for me that I expect hearing the litany of the saints or the saying of the rosary has for some devout Catholics.

The news on children's reading from the National Assessment of Educational Progress isn't good. The evidence:45.7 Percentage of fourth graders who read daily for pleasure24.4 Percentage of 12th graders who read daily for pleasure59 Percentage of fourth graders who use the library once a week10.2 Percentage of 12th graders who use the library once a weekPub Date: 4/05/98

Pleasure Cove Club adds two PersonsPleasure Marina's Management recently announced the addition of Alex and Judy Persons to its management staff at the Pleasure Cove Yacht and Beach Club in Annapolis.Mr. Persons has joined the staff as general manager; Mrs. Persons is the new office manager.Both have backgrounds in the marine industry and have worked in Annapolis and Washington, D.C.Blake named director of PSA Financial IncPSA Financial Center and Affiliates named Randel M. Blake the director of PSA Financial Inc.Mr.

If getting arrested and spending some time in a Klingon jail is your idea of a good time, then don't miss this weekend's Shore Leave 33. It could be the place your dream comes true. "People love it," says Michael Schilling, a spokesman for the three-day science-fiction and fantasy convention opening Friday in Hunt Valley. "People get arrested by Klingons in full costume, they throw you in jail. I think they do things like sing the 'Barney' song to torture you. " Sounds painful.

Brandon Lutz, Bobby Ward Liberty The Lions swept the Carroll County, region and Class 2A state titles thanks to a group that the team's coaches said never stopped working hard. "It certainly was a pleasure coaching this group," Ward said. "They were deep, they had potiential, and the best part about that potential is they were working to achieve that potential. " Liberty's hard work paid off in the state meet when it had to rally from nearly 20 points down midway through to pull out a 3.5-point victory over North Hagerstown.