Statue

Friends and fans of the late Alex Haley want to pay him tribute with a life-size statue at Annapolis' City Dock, where one of his ancestors, Kunta Kinte, was led ashore in chains in 1767.Mr. Haley, author of "Roots," the Pulitzer prize-winning novel that traced his family history and became a highly rated television mini-series, died in February.A few weeks after his death, family members and friends met with Annapolis Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins and proposed erecting a memorial statue. A simple plaque, often missed by tourists, marks the spot at the harbor where Kunta Kinte stepped ashore from the slave ship Lord Ligonier.

A few days ago, I asked Peter Magowan, owner of the San Francisco Giants, if he would consider building a statue in honor of Barry Bonds, the Giants' star left fielder, perhaps the greatest player of his generation. "I would like to think that one day there will be a statue of Barry here, and I think there should be," Magowan said. "He's the best player I've seen play the game since Willie; if you don't acknowledge the best player you ever saw, then why be in the market?" I had spent the first three days of the Giants' new season around SBC Park.

I see where some people already have declared Zurab Tsereteli's colossal statue of Christopher Columbus a monstrous eyesore that, if brought here from Russia, will harm the aesthetic appeal of Baltimore's glorious harbor entrance.Hold on now.I know people who love to take boat rides out of the Inner Harbor, down the Patapsco near the Key Bridge, just to see what's cooking at the chemical plant. Once, on an evening cruise that had a Hawaiian theme, Turkey Joe Trabert excitedly pointed out to everyone the Patapsco Sewage Disposal Plant near Wagners Point.

OCEAN CITY -- Everybody thought it was a great idea: a statue to honor surfers, inspired by a young local surfer who died of cancer two years ago.Then the picture of the nearly completed bronze statue arrived. The surfer was naked. No shorts. No swimsuit. Just a muscular man and his surfboard and nature, on a larger-than-life scale.And the project, endorsed by the City Council, embraced by local surfers, caught an unexpected wave of opposition."There's no naked surfing allowed in Ocean City," says Lois Popp of the local Downtown Association.

Neither his eyes nor half his face are blue, his hair doesn't fall below his shoulders and he doesn't look anything like Mad Max.Nevertheless, that is a statue of Scottish patriot William Wallace lording over the western shore of Druid Lake -- the very same William Wallace portrayed by Hollywood heartthrob Mel Gibson in the film "Braveheart."Rising more than 25 feet, the statue has been greeting visitors to Druid Hill Park since 1893. Cast in bronze and modeled after a figure atop Abbey Craig in Sterling, Scotland, Sir William is clad in armor, shield at his side, holding a sword aloft.

A Johns Hopkins University archaeological expedition in Egypt has unearthed a 3,400-year-old, life-sized statue of an Egyptian queen. The team found the statue Saturday in Luxor while excavating the site of what was a temple used about 1370 B.C., a period known as the Egyptian New Kingdom. Betsy Bryan, a Hopkins professor of Egyptian art and archaeology, and Fatma Talaat Ismail, a graduate student, found the statue while clearing a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Mut, Bryan said in an e-mail from Egypt.

They fought the Civil War here in Richmond, Va.In some ways, they are fighting it still.At the crux of a contemporary controversy is a statue and a street.The statue commemorates the life of tennis champion and activist Arthur R. Ashe Jr., a native Richmonder. The street is Monument Avenue, a leafy boulevard of Confederate dreams.Ashe, who died two years ago of AIDS-related pneumonia, would have been 52 years old yesterday, a date chosen to break ground on Monument Avenue for the installation of his statue.

A proposal to erect a larger-than-life statue of former Mayor Clarence H. Du Burns on the Inner Harbor shoreline failed to win approval yesterday from Baltimore's Public Art Commission, after several members voiced concerns that the city could be inviting more mayoral statues along the waterfront. The commission members said they have no objection to honoring Burns. But several said they were concerned that permitting a Burns statue on the Inner Harbor's west shore might not be enough because the panel gave preliminary approval two months ago for a statue of former Mayor William Donald Schaefer in the same area.

In a sweltering studio in Little Italy, Susan Luery hears the great public debate about Cal Ripken and tenderly strokes Ripken's hand. The Orioles may wish to move their all-star shortstop to third base occasionally. Luery reaches out to knead Cal's shoulders. Ripken seems to have misgivings about the move. Luery, 5 feet tall, wraps her fingers around Cal's neck. Ripken is 27 inches tall.Only months ago, Luery knew nothing about baseball. When she met Reggie Jackson and heard he was called Mr. October, she assumed he'd posed for a calendar.

RICHMOND, Va. - Two ceremonies were taking place yesterday with purposes as different as day and night, or North and South. One was the unveiling of a statue of Abraham Lincoln, the other a vigil in protest at the grave of Jefferson Davis. The statue of Lincoln, commissioned by the U.S. Historical Society, is in a park that was the site of Tredegar Ironworks, where tons of Confederate materiel were forged during the Civil War. The protest, by about 100 members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, was at Hollywood Cemetery, where many of the Confederacy's politicians and civic leaders are buried, as well as 18,000 Civil War soldiers.