Taking Risks

As a punt returner, Stefon Diggs rarely signals for fair catches. It seems not to be in his nature for Diggs - Maryland's amped-up electron of a player - to play it safe. The freshman receiver-returner, who often bounds around the field exhorting teammates during timeouts, seems barely able to stand still. Through five games, Diggs' energy and boldness have been among Maryland's chief assets - but also occasionally a liability. Saturday's 19-14 victory over Wake Forest provided a case in point.

It is not enough to have faith; you must also have the courage to risk action on that faith, to risk failure upon that faith: the faith that one person can make a difference and that each of us must try. - Mayor Martin O'Malley This may be the essence of Martin Joseph O'Malley's campaign for governor. The Democratic candidate has issue papers and television commercials and bus tours, of course. But his argument for wresting control of government from Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is based on a far more ambitious view of what government should be. He boils it down to this: We're all in it together.

BRIAN LE GETTE is working up a sweat. Crouched like a speed skater, he blasts down Pratt Street during the morning rush hour on a pair of in-line skates. Then this CEO - seven months away from turning 40 - launches himself off a curb near the World Trade Center, catching about three feet of air and snapping his knees into a mule kick. "That," the perfectionist in him says, "was a little sloppy." Watching all this, you wonder whether the head of 180s is fearless, unrealistic or just nuts.

"My late husband bought MFS High Income Fund when it was paying 12 percent," a reader writes. "It is now down to 8 percent, and I have a feeling that it may go lower."I have heard of funds that are paying 10 percent to 13 percent, but the people that are talking about them won't give out names. I know nothing about investments. My husband always took care of it. Now I'm on my own, and I don't know which end is up."If you, too, have inherited or bought shares of a "high income" fund that you don't fully understand and whose dividend checks have been shrinking, don't worry.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- With his presidential candidacy at stake, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton last night denied on national television that he had an affair with a woman who claims they did."That allegation is false," Mr. Clinton said on CBS' 60 Minutes.Mr. Clinton took the risky step of appearing on television because news coverage of the woman's allegations had effectively paralyzed his campaign for the Democratic nomination.He has been leading in opinion polls in New Hampshire, but a new poll indicates the issue is undermining the support for him in the state's Feb. 18 primary.

TWAS THE WEEK before Christmas, and I was cruising Baltimore's streets in my 1994 Fixed Or Repaired Daily Escort. I was on no particular mission, just driving around, because I'm funny that way.While using a pay phone at a 7-Eleven store, a woman walked up and stood beside me. I cut the conversation short, figuring she was waiting to use the phone."

DES MOINES -- The conventional wisdom is that African-American and Latino voters will find it easy to support either Vice President Al Gore or former senator Bill Bradley against the Republican nominee in the general election campaign next fall. No one questions the proposition that both Democrats are fully committed to economic and social justice for minorities. That was obvious when they confronted one another here in what was called a brown-black presidential forum limited to discussion of questions of particular relevance to minorities.

We applaud Gov. Martin O'Malley for his bravery in standing with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Marylanders as he throws his support behind marriage equality ("O'Malley to back same-sex marriage, July 23). In doing so, Governor O'Malley risks the scorn and abandonment of his church, as well as marriage opponents of all stripes throughout Maryland and beyond. Our prayers and gratitude are with him as he stands up for what is right, in the face of potential personal repercussions.

I don't have time for a full review, but I do want to alert viewers to the premiere tonight on HBO of director Martin Scorsese's "George Harrison: Living in the Material World. " This is one of the most ambitious and daring biographical films that I have ever seen on TV. I am not a big Beatles fan. And of the Beatles, Harrison was my least favorite. But Scorsese helped me understand, appreciate and ultimately care more than I expected to for Harrison and the challenging journey the guitarist chose to make of his life.