Reactions

ATLANTA -- When Bob Blazak rises before a group of geniuses today, he'll take on a topic that taxes the most awe-inspiring minds among us.You're thinking cold fusion? The riddance of world hunger? Eliminating the federal budget deficit?Think again.Rather, Mr. Blazak will give lessons in "Car Buying 101" to an estimated 120 Mensans expected at the "regional gathering" being held here this weekend."It's a primer on how to buy a car," says Mr. Blazak, an automobile-buying consultant who teaches classes on the subject at Kennesaw State College.

Experimental experiences Budding scientists take note: someone actually wants you to create chemical reactions indoors! There will be no moms or dads there to tell you to "quit making a mess" or "don't touch." Instead, on Wednesday, children's librarian Brenda Conaway, a 25-year veteran at the Westminster Branch Library, will teach you how to do simple kitchen experiments using household goods. The "Adventures in Chemistry" presentation shares stories and ideas from the Magic School Bus book and video series and makes chemistry seem as easy as pie. (After all, it's a chemical reaction that makes dough rise.

Q: I've read reports that LSD use among teen-agers in parts of Maryland is on the rise. I thought the drug went out of style in the '60s.A: Although government statistics show an overall downward trend for drug use among high school seniors, such a trend is not so evident for lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Since 1984, the percent of teens using this drug has gone up: 1.9 percent of high school seniors answered they had used it in the last 30 days. Reports of increased use have been noted throughout the country.

It's a high school classroom right out of a movie. Bored students stare out a window or doze off while their teacher drones at them from her desk. But the Hollywood stereotypes end when a girl charges into the room with the news that two planes have crashed into the World Trade Center twin towers in New York. The scene is from a video. This month, River Hill High School students are taping a public service video about teen reactions to Sept. 11. English teacher Heather Hooper is the project's faculty sponsor.

MOSCOW -- More than a half-dozen types of cheese disappeared from behind deli counters. Small bottles of chili powder, garlic seasoning and lemon pepper - indeed, every spice with the blue Santa Maria label - vanished from supermarket shelves. Old Tallinn liqueur, a sweet staple in a punchy cocktail called the hammer and sickle, suddenly was harder to come by. The word had come down from on high: Estonian products are no longer welcome in Russia. The row over the removal of a Soviet-era war monument and the remains of soldiers from a central square in the Estonian capital first prompted a diplomatic war of words, even looting and civil unrest.

When George Chkhenkeli (pronounced Chen-kelly) first came to the United States from Georgia, a country just south of Russia, he got a lot of stares. "American style is very conservative. Pretty much 90 percent of men in Baltimore wear light-blue, button-down shirts with khakis," says Chkhenkeli, who's lived in the city for nearly seven years. "It doesn't take much to stand out." Especially not if your style falls into the bold European category and you have a penchant for the absurd, like zebra-striped pants or red angel wings (granted, the latter was for a Mardi Gras bash)

I GET SOME of the strangest reactions when I mention that I like Charlie Feaga personally. These reactions come mostly from people who despise the West Friendship Republican's politics and his frank expression of antiquated ideas.Mr. Feaga has plenty of political baggage from his decade on the Howard County Council, and there are serious concerns about whether voters could trust him with the reins of county government. But I have always considered him a decent, down-to-earth man. As one local political observer described, he's Howard County's Bob Dole.

WASHINGTON -- In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the Bush administration faced many choices. Among the most fundamental was whether to treat terror as a criminal or a foreign policy problem. Having chosen the latter, the administration then sensibly decided to pursue a policy of offense rather than defense. But while the focus on offense is very sound, this administration appears to have neglected homeland defense and surrendered to political correctness and timidity in its pursuit. Our airport security system is not serious, and everyone knows it. In this, President Bush has apparently given his one Democratic Cabinet member, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, the lead, and Mr. Mineta is politically correct down to his fingertips.

Houston. - The Thomas hearings featured that notorious device, the polygraph, which emerged, alas, with its image more battered than ever. Anita Hill volunteered for an examination, which indicated she was truthful; Judge Thomas refused one. Senate (and popular) opinion in effect discredited the results.Three groups are implacably opposed to polygraphs: those who resent having their word questioned, those who regard it as an invasion of privacy -- and those with something to hide. Opponents have been numerous enough to bar its use in court cases or for job applications.

WASHINGTON - Reactions to the two men who want to be president come January could not have been more dissimilar. On one day, Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry won standing ovations and warm cheers at a conference of minority journalists. On the next, President Bush received polite applause, some snickers and a heckler's rant from the same group. The disparate responses to Bush and Kerry by a hall filled mostly with newspaper reporters, broadcasters, photographers and editors have raised the specter of press bias and partiality, with academicians, critics and journalists themselves condemning both reactions, raucous and rude, for putting the media in an unflattering light three months from Election Day. A crowd, which filled roughly three-quarters of a 5,000-seat hall, applauded 18 times for Bush during his speech and a question-and-answer period yesterday morning, while a similar-size audience interrupted Kerry with applause on more than three dozen occasions on Thursday and rose to its feet in appreciation more than once.