Slogan

Concerned residents have recently cleared the Back River and its tributaries of more than 10 tons of debris and are urging officials to address continuing problems with trash flowing into the eastern Baltimore County creeks. The same group, striving to clean up the waterway's image, has adopted a new slogan - "Scenic Back River -- Discover the Hidden Treasure." While that caption will soon appear on nearby bridges and roadways, group members say the waterway still needs much polishing before it achieves gem status.

When a Johns Hopkins University undergraduate used a samurai sword to kill an intruder last month, many people supported the student, who told police he acted in self-defense and expressed sadness that a human life had been lost. It was a tragedy, both for the 20-year-old from New Jersey and for the 49-year-old repeat offender who had just been released from jail a few days before he was killed. Fellow students and many city residents rushed to John Pontolillo's defense, which is perfectly understandable and reasonable.

News item: : The Ravens just completed an undefeated preseason and have a long week to prepare for their regular-season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs at M&T Bank Stadium. My take: : To quote Tom Petty, the waiting is the hardest part, especially when your opening act is the Orioles. Related news item: : The Chiefs fired offensive coordinator Chan Gailey just two weeks before the team's Week 1 matchup against the Ravens. My take: : The Chiefs also might be without starting quarterback Matt Cassel, who is sidelined two to four weeks with a knee strain.

Clever phrase Big E gets to drink for free because I liked one of his suggestions for an Orioles slogan the most: "Guthrie and Uehara and pray it rains tamarah." (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/cornersportsbar)

I'm always on the lookout for slogans, particularly advertising slogans because I used to get paid to write them. I even have one for "Janet's World" on my Web site: "Funny with a point." Looking over my columns for the past couple of years, it occurs to me that "Funny, what's the point?" might have been more accurate some weeks. But "Funny with a point" made the cut because it is my overarching goal to make people laugh, whereas it is my under-arching goal to make people think. not . Perhaps this weird nonassociation with BGE helps bring in new business.

Coventry Health Care's CEO, Wolf, is resigning Coventry Health Care Inc., a provider of medical benefit plans based in Bethesda, said chief executive Dale Wolf will resign. He will be replaced, effective Friday, by Allen Wise, who held the chief executive job before becoming board chairman in 2004, the company said yesterday. Coventry lost 74 percent of its value in New York Stock Exchange trading in the past 12 months, compared with the 49 percent decline in the six-member Standard & Poor's 500 Managed Health Care Index.

Our faithful Chestertown correspondent and longtime friend, Douglas R. Price, who in his younger days was a member of Dwight D. Eisenhower's White House staff, sent me a letter the other day explaining the history of "I Like Ike," which became his former boss' 1952 campaign song. Price said he has been annoyed that the two authors of the "I Like Ike" slogan have been more or less forgotten, and is determined to set the record straight. "The origin of the Irving Berlin 'I Like Ike' song dates back to a Broadway musical titled Call Me Madam, starring Ethel Merman with lyrics by Irving Berlin," wrote Price, who is finishing up his book, They Liked Ike, about Eisenhower's 1952 campaign.

The reviews are in on Microsoft's newest TV ads, which began airing Thursday night. Taking on Apple's "I'm a Mac. I'm a PC," campaign, in which the PC looks out of touch and clumsy, the Microsoft ads include celebrities such as Eva Longoria Parker and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, plus numerous Microsoft employees and regular people. With the refrain, "I'm a PC," each person adds something about themselves: I'm a PC, and I wear glasses. I'm a PC, and my name is Roger. The upshot: All kinds of human beings use PCs. My favorite is writer Deepak Chopra's, "I'm a PC and a human being.

Sports broadcasters who have no business relationship with the Orioles or Ravens say they can be more honest about the team. They can be - in the slogan of ESPN 1300 - "uncensored" (which can only lead us to believe the station was "censored" when it carried the Ravens). On the whole, no station in town logically would turn down the chance to carry one of our two major pro teams. So this whole "freedom" tag could be just a matter of spin. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/mediumwell)

For nearly three decades, Jack Luskin was "The Cheapest Guy in Town," which in turn became a household slogan for his Baltimore-based appliance and electronics chain. Luskin, now 80 and retired, splits his time between homes in Stevenson and Aventura, Fla. "I have the best of both worlds," he said. "I consider myself unemployed, but I check The Sun's classifieds every day to see what I can do, but no one seems to want me." Jack and his brother, Joe, established Luskin's Inc. in 1948, and turned the post-World War II demand for refrigerators and washing machines into a successful business.