Richard Dreyfuss

For months now, people have been saying to me, "Do you really think they're gone?" "Is it finally over?" "Is the coast clear?" The questions have been in response to Sen. Barack Obama's supposedly yeoman service in putting an end to the Clintons in public life. My response to those who believe our long national nightmare is over has always been: "Have you seen no monster movies?" Freddy Krueger always comes back. Jason re-emerges from the pond one more time. Dracula had so many comebacks that nobody was surprised to see him hanging with Abbott and Costello.

PLAYWRIGHT ISRAEL Horovitz, the son of a Boston truck driver who later in life became a lawyer, feels a strong affinity for blue-collar workers, a class he believes is shrinking in this country.In a series of eight plays focusing on working-class lives in Gloucester, Mass., his adopted home town of 20 years, Horovitz addresses the gritty problems of ordinary people struggling to find their niche. "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard," opening tonight for a pre-Broadway run at the Mechanic Theatre, is part of the eight-play cycle.

Where were you in '73 when you first saw him? You may not remember, but you remember him. He seemed so unlike any actor of his generation, he beamed with intelligence, passion, compassion. He seemed vividly real -- a high school intellectual who'd actually read some books, who was self-aware and insanely likable, boasted an ironic laugh and was spending himself in the pursuit of a blond sex goddess who, even he understood, he would never get.That was Richard Dreyfuss in George Lucas' "American Graffiti," on the verge of stardom.

MONTREAL -- They come from the fashionable west end, and from the western provinces, making a pilgrimage of sorts.Back to the old neighborhood, back for a taste found nowhere but Mile End.Bagels.White seed or black seed. Or, these days, cannelle (cinnamon) et raisin.But always made the old way, rolled thin by hand and baked in wood-burning ovens that provide a distinctive flavor."Whether you're French or English, bagels are Montreal food. They're a bridge, a meeting point," says Michel Zampa, a former Mile End resident who recalls buying dozens of bagels and putting them on a bus bound for relatives hundreds of miles west, in Windsor, Ontario.

TV harks back to its first Golden Age at 9 p.m. today on WJZ, Channel 13, with a live, black-and-white broadcast -- an adaptation of "Fail Safe," the 1964 Cold War drama about a potential American nuclear strike on Moscow. Sidney Lumet directed the original film in which, thanks to a faulty transmission of orders, U.S. bombers are sent to the Soviet capital -- and make it past the point of no return before horrified military leaders can stop them. The original starred Dan O'Herlihy, Walter Matthau, and Fritz Weaver, with Henry Fonda as the president who must assure Soviet leaders it's all a terrible mistake.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil This documentary about the blip and fall of a Canadian heavy-metal band conveys more strength and breadth and depth of emotion - more of the stuff that translates into art-and-entertainment staying-power - than most movies about painters or writers or classical composers. The big-haired bruisers of Anvil! have great heart and good humor - and so does this movie. *** 1/2 ( 3 1/2 STARS) Opening next Friday Every Little Step: (Sony Pictures Classics) This documentary follows dancers auditioning for A Chorus Line on Broadway and tells the musical's history as well.

What is your favorite horse racing movie of all time? "Let it Ride." The characters resemble the regulars at any track. Their quirks and personalities are hysterical. The dream day every racetrack fan lives for. Chris Kessler Reisterstown It's "Seabiscuit: An American Legend." It had a horse, owner and jockeys, with great heart and a Baltimore connection - Seabiscuit vs. War Admiral - in 1938, at Pimlico. Bill Hughes Baltimore The 1989 film "Let It Ride," starring Richard Dreyfuss as Trotter.

Poseidon fails to provide even the dubious excitement of seeing a handful survive and hundreds of passengers and crew drown when a rogue wave overturns a cruise ship. Working from the broad outlines of Paul Gallico's 1969 novel and its 1972 screen adaptation, The Poseidon Adventure, director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, In the Line of Fire, The Perfect Storm) proves himself the latest artistic loser in Hollywood's continuing game of Wheel of Fortune. He can't buy a decent, workable cliche from screenwriter Mark Protosevich, who must have been suffering from nonwriter's block when he took the job. Instead of archetypal characters from the 1972 version, like Gene Hackman's rogue minister, who espoused a muscular Christianity as he saved his tiny flock, Protosevich provides clumsy hybrids.

Eating dinner in an Ocean City restaurant eight years ago, James Wharton had an inspiration that would change Maryland high school music."I was sitting listening to the Baltimore Trinidad and Tobago Steel Drum Band perform, and I thought, 'This would be perfect for my students,' " said the Catonsville High School music teacher. "So I went and learned about steel drum bands, applied for a grant from the Baltimore County public schools, and then started the first high school steel drum band in Maryland."

Sykesville gets a tiny taste of Tinseltown this week with the filming of an as-yet-untitled movie at Springfield Hospital Center. The flick stars Richard Dreyfuss, Linda Hamilton and John Lithgow.Filming is being done in the Lane Building on Springfield's grounds."It was picked because the facility was vacant and has been vacant for a while," said David Linck, unit publicist for Morgan Creek Productions."We're here because we needed a mental health facility."Morgan Creek Productions is run by James Robinson, who is the producer of the movie and a Maryland native.