Upfront

Island taste Take a quick trip to the Caribbean Islands - not by plane, but by taste. Stop by Judy's Island Grill and Bake Shop for a taste of authentic Jamaican cuisine. Family owned and operated, Judy's Island Grill has been serving the Park Heights community since October 2004. "I love cooking," said owner Judy Smith, who is originally from Clarendon, Jamaica, but has lived in the United States for 24 years. "I love what I do. I do everything from scratch." Her menu features smoke-flavored St. Thomas Jerk Chicken and savory curry chicken (her two top dishes)

So this is the Ravens' new "profile": Control the clock. Have the quarterback manage the game. Play defense. Force turnovers. Make plays on special teams (particularly 44-yard field goals in overtime). And if at all possible, get the other team to use its third-string quarterback. The Ravens have put just about all those pieces together twice this season - including that last piece - and have won both times. Talk about taking what a team gives you. The Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday gave them Tommy Maddox, instead of Ben Roethlisberger or Charlie Batch, or, for that matter, Antwaan Randle-El or Hines Ward, two ex-quarterbacks who couldn't have done any worse behind center than their overmatched teammate.

IT IS MORE of Rafael Palmeiro's bad luck that Jamal Lewis picked yesterday to face the public, again. Well, "luck" isn't the right word. After all, Palmeiro will have you believe that bad luck got him into the mess he's in, that of all the nutritional supplements in all the packages in all the GNCs in all the world, Winstrol got inadvertently slipped into his. No, Palmeiro's problem was bad timing. As the stench surrounding his failed steroid test spreads, the disgraced Orioles slugger didn't need to have the disgraced Ravens running back step before the cameras and explain himself.

Movie marketers will tell you that the only place where their ads are guaranteed to reach proven moviegoers is not on television or in newspapers, but inside a darkened theater - preferably one where the weekend's hottest movie is reaching the most pairs of eyes. Woe to the trailer that runs first, when many people are buying their popcorn. The coveted spot is right before the feature, when the theater is full. As the lucrative holiday movie season gets under way, studios are under even more pressure to get the right trailers in the right spots before the right movies.

When a Rahsaan Patterson album drops, you can bet your last dollar that it's going to be among the best R&B releases out that year, an inspired set of tunes ablaze with attitude and feeling. But here's the sad thing: You probably won't hear it. Patterson doesn't fit the mold for today's popular black male singers: No hyper-masculine posturing, no hip-hop flourishes anywhere in the music. And he doesn't overplay sex in his image or lyrics. The New York-born singer is seemingly too thoughtful a songwriter, too eccentric a vocalist to garner real attention from the mainstream.

When buying mutual funds, I always used to buy Class B shares or Class C shares, the type that do not levy an upfront sales charge. These always seemed to make more sense to me; they looked like the cheaper way to go. Then my financial adviser opened my eyes. He explained why Class A shares, which require an upfront sales fee, often are cheaper to own than Class B shares or Class C shares. I think your readers should know what I just learned. Can you please relay this message? - B.S., Titusville, Fla. With so many variables, it's impossible to say that one particular share class always has a clear-cut cost advantage over another.

The coming week marks what used to be among the most exciting in television. Each day, one or two networks will parade their fall schedules for buyers, in this case, Madison Avenue. The frantic few days are dubbed "the upfronts," because it's when TV networks get advertisers to commit billions of dollars up front to sponsor programs that won't appear until fall. The networks wine and dine sponsors, and bring their biggest stars to New York to schmooze. Every new comedy is the next Friends, every new drama the next CSI or Law & Order.

Why isn't Vladimir Guerrero an Oriole yet? Blame his back. With negotiations between the team and the free agent right fielder still moving at knuckleball speed yesterday, Orioles insiders said the major sticking point has been the length of a potential contract. The Orioles have offered Guerrero a five-year, $65 million deal, and they have expressed deep reluctance to offer a sixth year to a player who spent 39 games on the disabled list last season with a herniated disc in his lower back.

As Americans continue to spend money on improving, expanding and upgrading to larger homes, the driveway has become a featured element of landscape design. Big houses often call for grand driveways - in courtyards, estate-like curves and grand circles - with price tags from $10,000 to $100,000. For some homeowners, large driveways provide a surprising measure of seclusion and the pride of visual presentation. For others, the end of a long driveway signals a grand welcome, like rolling out a red carpet that leads visitors to the front door.

When Dorothy arrived in Oz, she was flummoxed by the question, "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" "I'm not a witch at all," she proclaimed. And at the lavish network "upfront" presentations last month where the shiny new fall shows were first announced and glimpsed, there was a similar, new distinction for its upstart genre: Is it a good reality show or a bad reality show? As recently as January, executives were positively giddy about reality TV's unscripted formats, comparing their effect on ratings to crack cocaine.