Squeeze

In late June, as we were driving along the Dordogne in Perigord, southwest France, we came upon the tiny town of La Roque-Gageac. It is squeezed between limestone cliffs and the river, with just enough room on its narrow main street for two cars to pass. In January 1957, a huge mass of the cliff came crashing down on the village (toward the far end of the photo), killing three and destroying a dozen homes. With that exception, the town is much as it was three centuries ago. Gary Vikan, Baltimore The Sun welcomes submissions for "My Best Shot."

PANCEVO, Yugoslavia -- This is what ground zero of NATO's air war against Serbia's industrial heart looks like:Balls of fire and plumes of blue-gray smoke rise from a smoldering oil storage depot, darkening the skies of this area along the Danube River on the northern outskirts of Belgrade.Scorched concrete outer walls and the embers of a small fire are among the remnants of the nitrogen fertilizer plant that no longer has windows or a roof.The air is filled with an acrid, chemical odor that is so noxious, visitors place handkerchiefs over their faces to try to stop the burning in their throats.

Should Halloween be observed on the last Saturday of October? Some think so. When Oct. 31 falls on a weekday, children and parents must squeeze trick-or-treating and festivities in after school and work, often after dark, raising a safety issue. Celebrating on Saturday would allow earlier trick-or-treating and give families time to schedule other events, such as parties. What do you think?Let us hear from you, in 30 seconds or less, on our comments phone line, 410-715-2830. Or write 50 words or fewer and e-mail howard.

Should Halloween be observed on the last Saturday of October? Some people think so. When Oct. 31 falls on a weekday, children and parents must squeeze trick-or-treating and festivities in after school and work, often after dark, raising a safety issue. Celebrating on Saturday would allow earlier trick-or-treating and give families time to schedule other Halloween events, such as parties. What do you think?Let us hear from you, in 30 seconds or less, on our comments phone line, 410-715-2830.

Should Halloween be observed on the last Saturday of October? Some people think so. When Oct. 31 falls on a weekday, children and parents must squeeze trick-or-treating and festivities in after school and work, often after dark, raising a safety issue. Celebrating on Saturday would allow earlier trick-or-treating and give families time to schedule other Halloween events, such as parties. What do you think?Let us hear from you, in 30 seconds or less, on our comments phone line, 410-715-2830.

It's about time somebody came along with a new way to distract us from that tedious business of driving a car.Sure, there's always the cell phone, books on tape, the dashboard television (and VCR). Also, the old standbys, such as eating, drinking, eyebrow tweezing, mascara applying, spring purse-cleaning, breaking up fights in the back seat, saying the rosary, karaoke (also known as singing along with the radio) and reading the newspaper.But, wisely noticing a void in the diversions available to today's motorist, a savvy entrepreneur has come up with another option, and it goes like this:"Shimmy shake shoulders to the front.

Meet Warrick DunnTampa Bay Buccaneer running back Warrick Dunn is only 5' 8" tall, but so what! "If you're faster than everyone on the field, you can overcome size with speed," he says.Warrick was unstoppable last season. He rushed for 978 yards and earned Rookie of the Year honors.Warrick is also unstoppable when it comes to helping others. He talks to students about the importance of education and has helped buy homes for low-income single moms.Warrick is a small guy with a very big heart.

BOWIE -- D. C. Conner's bases-loaded, one-out squeeze bunt in the eighth inning lifted the Bowie Baysox to a 5-4 Eastern League victory over Trenton last night at Prince George's Stadium.The hit off knuckleballer Jared Fernandez scored Tommy Davis, who had led off the inning with a double -- his third hit of the game -- to set up the rally.Ryan Minor was intentionally walked and Danny Perez reached on an error on a potential double-play grounder to fill the bases.Ryan Kohlmeier pitched a flawless ninth to save the win for Aaron Lane (1-0)

WASHINGTON -- When Congress fills in the details of the budget deal struck by President Clinton and Republican leaders, there is likely to be less of everything than its backers expect -- less tax relief, less deficit reduction, less spending for social programs.Clinton and the GOP leadership made so many promises to build bipartisan support for the broad outlines of the agreement, announced Friday in Baltimore, that it may be impossible to redeem them all.Thus, while Congress is expected to easily approve the nonbinding budget resolution endorsing the spending blueprint by Memorial Day, there are likely to be some nasty fights ahead as the various factions who supported the deal try to collect their chits.

THIS IS weird. A little friend and I are watching a children's videotape starring Barney, the purple dinosaur.No, that is not the weird part. Nor is the fact that my friend laughs at the appropriate places, sings along, tilts his head to and fro, waves his arms, makes random comments such as "He said 'Please!' " and generally behaves like an uninhibited 3-year-old. The weird part is that my friend is actually a plush, animated Barney doll a bit over a foot tall.The idea of a robotic couch-potato buddy might be old hat in dystopian novels, but it is utterly new in the real world.

It's an elegant little word that ends any number of dramas, from Othello to the Merchant of Venice to - who knows - maybe even High School Musical. Exeunt. The common stage direction, the actors' cue to exit a scene, is Latin for, "They go out." In real life, though, exits tend not to be so simple. Lights don't fade to black, curtains don't fall with finality, the dramatis personae may go rogue and simply refuse to exit, stage left or right. So it went on Wednesday, when the long-running drama of Baltimore's Senator Theatre headed not necessarily toward its final conclusion, but at least the end of one act. Having teetered on the brink of closure for years as a result its owner's mounting debt, the Senator was going to auction.

Once again, it appears the Orioles have overplayed their hand in seeking a spring training site, assuming they had enough leverage to squeeze whatever they wanted out of one of the cities that recently lost its major league tenant. They might be able to go back to Vero Beach next month and resume negotiations, but it appears they might be doomed to a lesser deal than they could have gotten if they had been more decisive. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/schmuckblog)

I'll ask whether you think Alex Cintron or Freddie Bynum should get the majority of starts for the Orioles at shortstop. And yes, those are your only two choices. In other words, is offensive production from the position more important than defense? Cintron swings a better bat - at least he does at the moment. From everyone I've talked to, and from what I've seen, he might be a notch below Bynum with the glove. It sounds as if manager Dave Trembley is thinking platoon, though he went with Cintron on Thursday night against a right-hander and kept the left-handed hitting Bynum on the bench.

Retailers aren't the only ones counting on your holiday spirit to put them in the black. So are charities. Half of all the individual donations from Americans each year are made in the handful of weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve, Charity Navigator says. Thank the combination of general good will toward man, holiday bonuses and the end-of-year deadline for tax deductions. Charities, squeezed by rising costs and greater competition for government grants, are more eager than ever to get your support.

New city police chief sends right signals We were very pleased to read of Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III's recognition that the arrest policies of the so-called drug war have been a failure ("Bealefeld poised to lead," Nov. 19). As members of the clergy, we know these policies have resulted in the police targeting youths and young adults from the city's most distressed neighborhoods and binding a disproportionate number of young black men and juveniles with prison sentences and lifelong criminal records.

In late June, as we were driving along the Dordogne in Perigord, southwest France, we came upon the tiny town of La Roque-Gageac. It is squeezed between limestone cliffs and the river, with just enough room on its narrow main street for two cars to pass. In January 1957, a huge mass of the cliff came crashing down on the village (toward the far end of the photo), killing three and destroying a dozen homes. With that exception, the town is much as it was three centuries ago. Gary Vikan, Baltimore The Sun welcomes submissions for "My Best Shot."

ESPN.com's Keith Law wasn't impressed by Orioles pitching prospect Pedro Beato at the Futures Game. During a phone interview on The Anita Marks Show yesterday, Law said Beato's fastball was clocked at 87 mph, and the right-hander appeared to be throwing with maximum effort. Not the power arm that Law anticipated. Because one of you asked: Major League Baseball is expected to return to alternating host cities for the All-Star Game between the two leagues. Commissioner Bud Selig doubled up on the National League to squeeze in more new ballparks.

I was misunderstood growing up and have often been misunderstood since, but then so is everyone else. People are busy, and you can't expect them to drop everything and try to understand you. If you want to be understood, practice kindness and mercy. Kindness is seldom mistaken for anything else. Small kindnesses reverberate a long time in people's hearts. A woman checking IDs at the airport saw me coming the other day and said, "Good morning, sunshine." She didn't know me from Adam. She glanced at my driver's license and said, "Have a good flight, darling."

A movie's end credits offer all sorts of wonderful opportunities: to sit quietly and think about what you've just seen, to read the names of those men and women responsible for it, to catch the name of that very cool song that was playing in the background about halfway through the film. Apparently the geniuses who program our TV stations disagree, however. To them, a movie's credits are something to be raced through as quickly as possible, something to be shoved to the side so we can see a teaser for what is coming on next, a chance to maybe earn a few more bucks in advertising dollars.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Some night soon, a couple of lucky fans could score a financial windfall by catching the home run balls that propel San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds into a tie - and past - Babe Ruth's milestone of 714 career homers. Sports memorabilia experts estimate that the ball tying Ruth's record will likely fetch about $100,000 at auction, while No. 715, pushing Bonds into second place behind Hank Aaron's 755, could bring $250,000. But if it weren't for Bonds' surly persona and the whiff of steroid scandal that clings to him and many of baseball's recent home run kings, those two balls could fetch as much as $1 million each, according to one expert.