Smiley

TITLE YOUR book "Mothers Who Think," and you are likely to start the same kind of fight that starts every time somebody refers to "mothers who work.""All mothers work," is the rebuff you face when you make that gaffe. And then you scurry to correct yourself by saying, "I mean, mothers who work outside the home."Camille Peri and Kate Moses could have bent to that kind of PC pressure in selecting the title to their book, and called it "Mothers Who Think Outside the Box." They would not only have been more correct -- because all mothers think -- but also more right.

Florida Marlins fans have had to suffer through the painful downsizing of last year's world championship team. Now, there appears to be a chance that their suffering will soon be over, if only owner Wayne Huizenga will agree to sell the club to Boca Raton, Fla., billionaire John W. Henry.Henry has offered Huizenga $150 million for the team, which is less than his $169 million asking price, but a lot more than the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals are selling for under similar circumstances.

At the end of 1963, Massachusetts-based State Mutual Life Insurance Co. was launching an in-house morale-boosting campaign. Harvey Ball, a commercial artist, was commissioned to create a design for 100 or so feel-good buttons. The design was a hit. Customers and employees started snatching them up, and pretty soon the company was ordering pins by the thousands. Ball had created a fad: the smiley face.Since then, Smiley has appeared on every imaginable cultural canvas, from lunch boxes and boxer shorts to Frisbees to salt and pepper shakers.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Normally -- with its full complement of players and coming off a 40-minute game -- Illinois State would be a potential upsetter today.But defending national champion Arizona is catching the Redbirds at a most propitious moment.Illinois State has four starters who played at least 40 minutes in Thursday's overtime victory over Tennessee. Arizona cakewalked past 16th seed Nicholls State.Not a deep team to begin with, Illinois State is likely to enter the West Regional's second round without the two guards who started most of the season, Skip Schaefbauer (broken leg)

Quote: "I've told our scouts that the next one who tells us some kid has McGwire-like power gets fired immediately. Nobody else has McGwire-like power." -- Reds general manager Jim Bowden, on Cardinals' Mark McGwire.It's a fact: Marlins reliever Matt Mantei had recorded 10 consecutive outs by strikeout before the Brewers' Jose Valentin grounded out in the eighth inning last night.Who's hot: Braves third baseman Chipper Jones is hitting .463 (25-for-54) this month with eight home runs and 15 RBIs.

PARIS -- April in Paris: the delightful time celebrated in song lyrics. Like "chestnuts in blossom." And "holiday tables under the trees."Starting this spring, Parisians have a few more things to sing about. Like lovers lolling on the grass in many of the city's parks.In one of those little revolutions that tell a lot about contemporary changes in French lifestyles, Paris authorities have been compelled to revoke long-standing regulations that made it illegal to walk on the grass in most of the city's 413 public gardens, parks and promenades.

PARIS -- April in Paris: the delightful time celebrated in song lyrics. Like "chestnuts in blossom." And "holiday tables under the trees."Starting this spring, Parisians have a few more things to sing about. Like lovers lolling on the grass in many of the city's parks.In one of those little revolutions that tell a lot about contemporary changes in French lifestyles, Paris authorities have been compelled to revoke long-standing regulations that made it illegal to walk on the grass in most of the city's 413 public gardens, parks and promenades.

Ten more days of checking price tags and comparing merchandise, 10 more days of trying to see what fits and what doesn't. The trade deadline is midnight July 31, and teams throughout both leagues are trying to plug holes.The Orioles are looking for young players in return for Bobby Bonilla -- some pitching, maybe an outfielder, maybe a catcher.Here's what some other teams are talking about as they prepare for the final two months of the season:Texas Rangers: They suddenly have problems with two spots in their rotation, with Kevin Gross on the disabled list and Bobby Witt going through another of his patented streaks of wildness.

Stacy Lynn Granruth never had the chance to be afraid in the instant before a friend is alleged to have put a .45-caliber pistol to her head and fired."

Washington -- With "Moo," her first novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning "A Thousand Acres," firmly on the best-seller lists, Jane Smiley can afford to be light-hearted about the critical reception it has received. She points out, for instance, that many critics have appreciated "Moo," a comic novel released last month about a large, agriculturally oriented Iowa university not unlike Iowa State University, where she teaches.Some people were not amused.One reviewer, Richard Eder of the Los Angeles Times, wrote: "If neither satire nor seriousness entirely work, it is because the author's hand grows heavy . . ."

The crime lab technician, Evana Hebb, fingerprinted India Mouton, a 10th-grader from Dunbar High. All five fingers on her right hand rubbed in black ink and pressed hard onto a white sheet of paper in a garage at the headquarters of the Baltimore Police Department. It's part of a monthlong lesson for teenagers at city recreation centers on the criminal justice system - they are following a mock murder from corpse to trial - but for this 15-year-old student, it's the start of what she hopes will be a career as a scientist investigating crime.

HOLLYWOOD - It's not often a show about modern "dating" brings to mind the quiz show scandals of the 1950s, but watching Bravo's new reality series Date My Ex, which begins tonight, I found myself inexplicably flashing back to Ralph Fiennes as scholar turned disgraced contestant Charles Van Doren in Quiz Show. No doubt this was, in part, a subconscious attempt to remain awake, to relieve the utter tedium of Date My Ex, in which Jo De La Rosa, formerly of The Real Housewives of Orange County, engages in an upscale dating game with - oh, what will they think of next?

WASHINGTON -- Next week's Republican presidential debate in Baltimore, which has been shunned by the party's leading contenders, is getting an added starter: Alan L. Keyes. The conservative activist, a former U.S. Senate candidate in Maryland and Illinois who said last week that he is running for president again, is "definitely participating," said a campaign spokeswoman, Carla Michele. Keyes, 56, would be the lone African-American candidate at the Morgan State University forum, which will focus on issues of importance to minority voters.

WASHINGTON -- Former Sen. Fred Thompson left supporters hanging for months before joining the presidential contest. Now he's got them wondering when he'll make his debate debut. The next Republican debate is Sept. 27 in Baltimore, but Thompson's participation appears to be in doubt, in spite of an announcement yesterday from the event's organizers that he would be there. At least three other Republican contenders, including front-runners Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mitt Romney, have balked at attending.

What makes Tavis Smiley run? That question has intrigued me ever since I met him 11 years ago in Los Angeles. He was 31 and a failed City Council candidate but a popular radio commentator, often the last refuge of failed politicians. Back then, he had just written a book of commentary and Time magazine had named him one of "50 Young Americans to Watch." Yet he was seeking my advice. "How do you do it?" he asked, wondering how I juggled a newspaper column, TV appearances, radio commentaries, my family and my sanity.

A strong community doesn't need a leader, talk-show host and author Tavis Smiley has said. It just needs everyday people who want to make a change. More than 1,200 of those everyday people, including babies and octogenarians, poured into Sharon Baptist Church in Baltimore yesterday to hear Smiley speak and to participate in a town hall meeting that was part sermon, part rally, part therapy and part call to action to African-Americans. The crowd, which filled the sanctuary to capacity and then some, read aloud in unison, yelled out, repeatedly stood to clap, held hands and silently bowed their heads.

WHEN TAVIS SMILEY, television and radio journalist par excellence, started his Talented TENth HBCU Tour, he probably didn't figure he'd have to spend part of his five-college jaunt talking about one of the worst disasters in American history. Smiley figured he'd talk about how developing black America's leadership from a "talented tenth" - an idea first espoused by the noted activist, scholar and author W.E.B. DuBois - isn't elitist at all. Ten percent of America's black population, Smiley would have told them, amounts to about 3.2 million people.

On Friday, August 19, 2005, RACHEL E. SMILEY, beloved wife of James S. Smiley, Sr. Also survived by her stepchildren, grandchildren, brothers and their families. A memorial service will be held at the Back River United Methodist Church, 544 Back River Neck Road, Essex on Wednesday, August 31 at 1 P.M. Condolences can be offered to the family starting at 12:30 P.M. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Back River United Methodist Church.

NEW YORK - Moving swiftly to replace departed talk show host Tavis Smiley, National Public Radio said it will launch a new daily public affairs program aimed at the black community with journalist Ed Gordon as host. News and Notes With Ed Gordon will start in late January. Gordon, who, like Smiley, previously hosted an evening show on the BET cable network, will be based in New York, where he is also a contributing correspondent for CBS News' 60 Minutes. Gordon will have a yet-to-be-named co-host on the West Coast.

If the Ravens address offense with their first pick, it likely will be a lineman rather than a much-needed receiver. Interior offensive linemen historically get pushed down into the second round, and two top-rated guards - Alabama's Justin Smiley and Boston College's Chris Snee - could be the highest-graded players available at the Ravens' 51st overall pick. On a team that returns its entire starting line, the choice would be based more on value than need. "In my mind, I don't know of anybody that would jump out and beat one of our guys out," Ravens offensive line coach Jim Colletto said.