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Mel Gibson has been Hamlet. Kevin Costner has been Robin Hood. Woody Allen has been a romantic lead.Stranger things have happened in Hollywood than Demi Moore playing a Navy SEAL, as she does in "G.I. Jane." Director Ridley Scott's preach-athon doggedly insists women (especially surgically enhanced ones) can endure the military's most rigorous physical and mental program: Navy SEAL (sea, air, land) training.But the casting of Moore isn't what has retired SEAL Tom Hawkins up in arms about the movie.

It looks like an expensive bracelet, but the contraption laced in titanium beads gets placed around the esophagus rather than the wrist. The LINX Reflux Management System is a new treatment for acid reflux, a digestive order that causes heartburn, nagging cough and other chronic symptoms in 10 million to 20 million U.S. patients. The condition occurs when a weak valve where the esophagus meets the stomach, known as a sphincter, won't close properly, allowing bile and acid to wash up. Some doctors say the device, approved by the FDA last year, shows promise as an alternative for patients who don't find relief from drugs that reduce acid in the stomach, but don't want to get major surgery.

Don's now a dom. And, no, it's not as sexy as it seems. In 'Man with a Plan,' our antihero has one plan: To gain some semblance of balance by controlling everyone's lives around him. In doing so he lays down a path of destruction. He more or less imprisons Sylvia in a swanky hotel, and mortifies Ted by getting him rip-roaring drunk. This episode, the halfway mark of season six (yes, already), has two or so other subplots with Pete and Joan. But what's really prominent is Don's overwhelming lack of control in his own life, and how that intertwines with the RFK assassination.

"If I were in a battle, I would still rather have the governor with me than against me."Democratic Majority Leader D. Bruce Poole of Hagerstown"If you assume the position of party leadership -- whether it is governor, county executive, or mayor -- you no longer have the luxury of picking and choosing. . . . At least half the budget problems we have now in Maryland are the result of the failed economic policies of the president."Prince George's County Executive Parris N. Glendening"It will play well [for the Republican campaign]

Friends thought Paul Silber had bet the farm when he ditched a secure job as a toxicologist with Dallas-based Mary Kay Cosmetics, packed everything into a U-Haul van and headed for Maryland to start a company based on an obscure, yet promising, field of biotechnology.Five years later, Mr. Silber relishes the memory as his Baltimore-based company, In Vitro Technologies, announced that in 1995 it turned a profit for the first time on revenues of almost $1 million. And he's expecting big growth in the next several years.

You may make a fashion statement with that tattoo, but the FDA warns you could also put your health at risk. The regulatory agency issued a warning Wednesday about getting inked after a recent outbreak linked to the family of bacteria called nontuberculous Mycobacteria.  One species of the bacteria, spread through tattoo ink, can cause lung disease, joint infection, eye problems and other organ infections, the FDA said. The infections are difficult to diagnose and require long, intense treatment regiments.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- It has been an entertaining drama followed by millions, the show known as "The Nanny Murder Trial." But yesterday, as a 19-year-old British au pair was sentenced to life in prison for a murder she steadfastly disavows, and a pair of bereaved parents described their life of daily pain, there was a sense that the final reality of the case was: Everybody loses.A feeling of shock and pity permeated reactions around the country, as parents who face their own child care problems and young baby-sitters alike discussed the jury's guilty verdict Thursday night -- a verdict that defense lawyers said yesterday they would challenge immediately.

Machele Fredericks had to face her attacker every day. She was in the Air Force. He was a fellow service member on the base. And he said that if she told anyone what he'd done, he'd kill her. "You didn't hear much of people getting raped in the military back then," Fredericks said. "At least I didn't. So, you know, it was like fear every day: 'I hope he's not at the gate today.' "I wouldn't dare tell no one. I didn't think anybody was going to believe me anyway. " She drank instead.