Sand

TO STROLL TOWARD the northernmost tip of Assateague Island is to approach an unusually stark and instructive dividing line. There, the Ocean City Inlet -- a 200-foot-wide path of powerful sea -- firmly separates a beach on steroids from the virtually undeveloped barrier island. To the north loom the resort city's signature Ferris wheel, its parade of beach-fry stands and its seemingly endless succession of high-rises. To the south, well into Virginia, are some 35 miles of open sand, waving seagrass and wild ponies, a beach often considered among the nation's very finest.

This casino and resort offers hotel accommodations with more than 300 rooms, event packages and discounts for special occasions, many dining options, venues to enjoy live music and drinks, new games and old favorites and the Shoppes of Sands. Casino hours: 24 hours a day. Games to play: Along with poker, blackjack, craps and roulette, Sands has many other table games, including mini and midi baccarat, sic bo and pai gow tiles. A 30-table poker room is also provided.

State officials said the Ocean City sand dune replenishment program did its job when the resort city was hit by a northeaster on Saturday. Federal and state funds financed the project, and plans called for jointly spending $12 million to $13 million every four years or so repairing "normal" erosion.The Evening Sun wants to know if you think money should continue to be spent on this program.Call SUNDIAL, The Baltimore Sun's telephone information system, on a Touch-Tone phone. The call is local, and answers will be registered between 10 a.m. and midnight.

Who knew the serene beaches in Cape May County, N.J. – The Jersey Cape — are laden with downy white sand that rivals the sugar-sand beaches on exotic tropical islands? You don't learn this stuff from watching Snooki and her gang, who hang out on those taupe-colored dense sand beaches 100 miles north. A gleaming, 30-mile ribbon of powdery-white sand beaches connects the resorts of Ocean City , Sea Isle City, Avalon, Stone Harbor, the Wildwoods, and Cape May. Each town radiates a distinctive vibe, while abounding with superb beaches, fabulous foodie indulgences, boundless outdoor pursuits and exquisite accommodations.

Though it's a cool day for late spring and not even the weekend, vacationers' cars are pouring across the bridges into Ocean City. Dennis Dare, the resort's town manager, is feeling good about the state of his beach. "Clean and safe," he says, when asked the first words that come to mind to describe the 10-mile sand spit. To keep it that way, O. C. spends more than $1.5 million a year on lifeguards and nightly trash pickup and sand grooming.If Mr. Dare wanted to make a bad pun, he might say his town is feeling "pumped" about its future.

An Edgewater property owner has proposed building seven stone groins -- low walls to reduce shoreline erosion -- and dumping 95 cubic yards of new sand along the South River waterfront adjacent to the Londontowne Public House.Harikant C. Shah, who owns property in the 800 block of Londontown Road, has asked the Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to disturb the waterfront. The Corps will accept public comment on potential environmental or navigational impacts until Oct. 18.For more information, call Rebekah Hicks at 962-6012.

OCEAN CITY -- Inclement weather during the past week has once again delayed completion of a $12.5 million beach-replenishment project."We had severe northeast winds and torrential rain," said Nancy Howard, a state Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman. "We couldn't get anything done."The weather forced crews to stop pumping sand from the ocean for the resort's beaches, which were ravaged by a winter storm, Ms. Howard said.Pumping is expected to resume in several days and the project should be finished by September, Ms. Howard said.

Baltimore County schools and parks can obtain sand for play areas tomorrow, the day after customers and local celebrities demolish Westview Mall's 40-ton sand sculpture of Oriole Park at Camden Yards.Public institutions can pick up sand from 7 a.m. until 10 a.m. Monday. Arrangements: 744-5650.

Think you're pretty good at making sand castles? Pretty confident with that little plastic shovel and bucket, are you? Well, how about seeing some real pros take to the sand? Eight teams of architects will compete to build awe-inspiring sand sculptures at "City Sand 2002" at the Harborplace Amphitheatre Saturday. Their goal will be to build creative and imaginative sculptures in celebration of our nation's flag. The public is invited to watch the architects build from start to finish.

Ocean City -- They say it's all in fun, that they're just in it to have a good time. But you don't spend six hours of your vacation sweating like a pig, getting sunburned and lugging buckets of water on the beach without some dreams of glory."

For years, the wastes from burning coal and producing copper have enjoyed a second life, used in sand-blasting to remove paint, rust and grime from ship's hulls, storage tanks, bridge trusses and other surfaces. Painting contractors, shipyard workers and thousands of others in Baltimore and across the country are said to use the black, gritty material called slag. Now, though, questions have been raised about whether those who do blasting with ground-up coal or copper slag may be unwittingly exposing themselves to toxic contaminants that could damage their health.

Much of the country has probably paid scant attention to the debate over the 1,700-mile pipeline known as Keystone XL, which is proposed to connect Alberta, Canada, with Texas refineries. But in Washington, State Department review of the $7 billion project has become a messy affair, and the Obama administration is clearly torn over whether to support or reject it. On the one side are jobs, potentially thousands of them, tied to the construction of the pipeline, as well as the prospect of tapping Canada's tar sands to help meet America's energy needs.

As you read this, two starkly different visions of Maryland's energy future are clashing on a sidewalk outside the White House. One vision embraces the idea of developing clean-energy wind farms off the coast of Ocean City . Those wind farms could one day power millions of electric cars in our state at a price three times cheaper than gasoline - forever. The other vision embraces a massive, 1,700-mile pipeline from Canada to Texas full of "tar sands oil," the dirtiest petroleum fuel.

John Houser III has shown his kitchen ignorance yet again ("Drink Up," LIVE, June 17). First: A kitchen getting "slammed" can most certainly overcook a dish. In fact, when a kitchen (even a home kitchen) is overloaded, the first thing that goes wrong is that things get overcooked. Second: I can't believe for a moment that Mr. Houser visited One-Eyed Mike's more than once. Professional restaurant reviewers visit an establishment at least three times to determine the quality of the kitchen.

The Sun believes that Republicans are being irresponsible for insisting that any increase in the federal debt ceiling must be matched by similar cuts in federal spending ("Debt ceiling: Republicans stand by their ultimatums," June 5). I suggest that it is better to play chicken than it is to play ostrich, i.e. bury your head in the sand and hope it goes away. The current U.S. debt exceeds $14.5 trillion. The federal government spends over one-third more than it obtains in revenue.

SMITHFIELD, N.C. — This used to be tobacco country. Still is, but the demand for tobacco is down, the demand for soybeans and sweet potatoes is up, and the farmers have adjusted accordingly. This is not a land of pretense. On the highway leading into town, a small green sign celebrates a hometown star. The star is not Ava Gardner — the Hollywood glamour girl who was born nearby and was buried here, the legendary actress and onetime wife of Frank Sinatra. The star is a guy who made it to the major leagues and hit .230.

Lured by a sweeping, unobstructed view of the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Patapsco River, relatives looking for a dramatic eternal resting place have been littering the beachfront at Venice on the Bay with the cremated ashes of loved ones.Residents of the little waterfront community don't like it.Six times in the past six weeks, they say, people have thrown ashes -- a human's cremated remains usually fill a gallon jug -- in the water residents swim in, sometimes while they are swimming.

BIRMINGHAM, England -- Romance collided with mathematics. And for a change, romance won.That's the simplest way to explain how American pairs skaters Jenni Meno and Todd Sand found themselves on a victory platform last night with matching World Championship bronze medals draped around their necks."

On summer weekends, the Ocean City beach can entertain a veritable sea of humanity as waves of tourists spread out across the sand on blankets and towels. The throngs of beachgoers are squeezed in so tightly, it's easy enough to discern a neighbor's brand of sunscreen by smell alone. Aside from rock concerts and frat parties, rarely are so many so densely packed. But in the midst of such a swelling crowd, smokers are, at best, an irritation on the order of sand flies and thunderstorms — but represent a far more serious health hazard.

A steadfast component of conservative gasbaggery has been the primacy of the common man of action, versus the "elites," the "pointy-headed intellectuals" and the "academics" in their "ivory towers." The gist of conservative posing is that frivolous girly-men spend years in college, slipping ever further away from the real world, losing sight of the "common sense" that holds all solutions to our modern problems. It is that Bushian swagger that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal doubtless practiced before the full-length mirror before taking the stage during the poisoning of the Gulf to proclaim his intention to ignore the red tape, bureaucrats, and professorial pansies.