Wedge

LOS ANGELES -- California is known for creating "wedge" issues -- measures that can divide the electorate for political effects. In the recent past they have included ending affirmative action and denying welfare to immigrants, each driving a wedge between racial minorities and whites.Another such wedge issue was supposed to be Proposition 227, which would essentially end bilingual education in the state.The expectation was that most white, English-speaking voters would approve of the proposal to immerse all students totally in English-language instruction for all their subjects, while non-English-speaking parents, particularly Spanish-speaking Latinos, would object.

WASHINGTON -- August, when time's winged chariot usually slows perceptibly, is occasionally eventful (1914, 1939), and this year is enlivened by President Clinton's nomination of William Weld as ambassador to Mexico, by Sen. Jesse Helms' opposition, and by Governor Weld's feistiness.Normally it would require surgery to implant in the public an interest in an ambassadorial nomination, but this little pebble rolling downhill is producing an avalanche of fascinating facets.Because two Republicans are at daggers drawn, many journalists who normally consider the Republican Party too primitive an organism to have a soul are calling this "a fight for the soul of the party."

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Rain or shine, Laura Davies seems to own the DuPont Country Club golf course.She has won three of the last four events played here, finished second in the other, and rain interferred with all of them. Conditions were so bad last year that the first round was canceled, and the second suspended by rain and sleet.The conditions for yesterday's LPGA Championship opening round, in which Davies took a one-stroke lead with a 4-under-par 67, were in sharp contrast as it was sunny, breezy and mild.

To a casual television viewer on Sunday, it may appear that New Orleans has been invaded by giant hors d'oeuvres.Fans of the Green Bay Packers, denied a championship for 28 years, will be out in force in the Big Easy for the Super Bowl. On their heads will be the sports world's most endearing, and conspicuous, regalia: hats in the shape and color of an oversized wedge of cheese.The Velveeta-colored, foam-rubber headgear, which had languished for a decade in the fashion backwaters of Wisconsin, hit prime time with the Packers' drive to the Super Bowl.

Chip Altholtz and Barry Faldner now accept that some people are repulsed by their invention, the LifeClock."Some people think it's morbid," admits Mr. Altholtz.That's certainly one way to look at it. Even though the digital LifeClock displays short, inspirational messages -- "Give yourself permission to win!," "See time as a gift," and the first message that appears, "Hello, (your name here), you are now looking at your future" -- at the rate of one a minute, it also inexorably counts down the hours, minutes, seconds and tenths of seconds until the end of the user's life based on standard actuarial tables (the average man will live to be 75, the average woman, 80)

Be patriotic. Lose more money on keno.Bill is starting to drive a wedge between the people of Serbia and the Serbian demagogues of Bosnia, and why weren't we doing that a year ago?Instead of sending women into combat, they ought to be dropped on the Pentagon to straighten out the books.

SAN DIEGO -- You knew the game was over when the pitcher had to bat in the top of the first, which was a beautiful sight.Not beautiful because it meant the American League was going to win the All-Star Game for the fifth straight year. That wasn't so important, was it?Beautiful because no one could remember the last time an All-Star batter resembled a 65-year-old just learning to swing a tennis racket.It was not quite Dan Quayle at the spelling bee, but what do you want from a sport in which the commissioner is moping around saying, "I don't know, things just look so bleak."

A dozen scientists from Sweden, Australia, France, Japan and the U.S. stood in a meadow in northern Harford County yesterday and pondered a 6-foot deep pit carved out by a backhoe.Did bathmat-sized wedges of red dirt in opposite walls of the pit represent a scar from the last ice age, when glaciers crept as far south as Allentown, Pa., and Maryland was as cold and barren as Siberia?Bloomsburg State University geologist Duane D. Braun and Maryland state geologist Emery T. Cleaves, who found the wedge during a routine soil survey June 1, argued that it was a crack caused by freezing and thawing of the ground toward the end of the last ice age, about 25,000 years ago.The wedge appears to be the long-expected but never previously found proof, said Dr. Cleaves, that Maryland's piedmont was part of a periglacial area, or region bordering a glacier.

It may be an art-world first: An art collector is suing a sculptor for reproducing her own work.Dallas collector Frank Ribelin filed the suit last month against artist Beverly Pepper. In it, Mr. Ribelin claims that "Ternana Wedge," a cast-iron sculpture he commissioned from Ms. Pepper and for which he paid $90,000, lost value when she created a copy of the piece for the Smithsonian Institution.Ms. Pepper's New York gallery owner, Andre Emmerich, who is also named in the suit, says the pieces differ in size and texture -- that, in fact, they are variations on a theme, a concept that artists, including Degas (with his ballet dancers)

Don't throw away hardened brown sugar.* Put a wedge of apple into the box or bag of sugar and reclose it, then microwave on high power for 20 seconds per cup of sugar; let it stand for five minutes; repeat if necessary.* Put it, in its bag (but not box), in a 350-degree oven. By the time the bag is warm, the sugar should be softened or delumped.@

Dina Klicos is always well-dressed in her style, which is "conservative with a flair." It doesn't matter whether it's for work, as director of major gifts for the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, or at play - say, when she goes to shows by Fire in the Hole, a popular local band in which her son Michael plays lead guitar. "I like simple. It's more classic. Simple is better. I like a cleaner look," says the 49-year-old Hampton resident. But Klicos knows how to add some interest to her outfits with her accessories.

Brendon Ayanbadejo has crashed into football's dreaded wedge formation on more kickoffs than he can count during six NFL seasons. There has been pain, pride and self-preservation in every impact. "Probably half the time I've been a wedge guy," the Ravens' Pro Bowl special-teamer says. "I'm not too fond of going against the wedge. I'm not too fond of it just because the wedge is a thing you have to honor. So I can't just run around it or run by it. I have to engage." The wedge has long been the NFL's ultimate test of courage and/or sanity.

The fans who suffered through the Orioles' 7-1 loss to Cleveland on Wednesday were robbed by Indians manager Eric Wedge of seeing a little baseball history. Indians history, anyway. Scott Lewis, 24, had thrown 96 pitches in eight shutout innings when Wedge brought in reliever Masahide Kobayashi to start the ninth. If Lewis had remained in and completed a scoreless inning, he would have become the first Indian to throw a shutout in his major league debut since Luis Tiant blanked the New York Yankees on July 19, 1964 - 44 years ago. Now that would have been something special.

ORLANDO, Fla. --Fred Couples made four birdies in his opening six holes, shot 5-under 65, and golf finally felt fun. Tiger Woods couldn't hit the green with a wedge, struggled to shoot even par, and he finally looked human. The Arnold Palmer Invitational delivered a few surprises yesterday, none bigger than Couples, 48, booming tee shots, taking only 23 putts and finishing atop the leader board with J.J. Henry. "This doesn't make me the guy to beat," Couples said. "If I can play like that, it makes it a lot easier.

ATLANTA -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's illegal immigration dilemma has drawn widespread attention since a Democratic debate in Philadelphia last month. By waffling on the issue of driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, she opened a contentious conversation that she and her rivals had been trying to avoid. Some consultants, fearing a backlash, have cautioned Democrats against speaking out on behalf of illegal immigrants, suggesting a blurred stance less easily dismissed as "amnesty."

For newcomers who don't know better, Raffy's seems to promise culinary disappointment. First, you notice the smell of stale smoke in the air. Then you see televisions everywhere, even embedded in the floor. Fun seems more important than food at this enormous bar and restaurant, and your waitress doesn't convince you otherwise. She recites the drink specials, even though it's barely noon, and belatedly remembers you wanted "some kind of fruit" in your club soda (a lime wedge), then still fails to bring it. Poor:]

Giving it up Steve Trachsel had repeatedly gotten out of trouble through five innings, but neither he nor the suddenly struggling bullpen was able to repeat that feat in the sixth inning. Trachsel issued back-to-back two-out walks and Jeremy Guthrie turned a 1-0 lead into a four-run deficit in just four pitches. Guthrie, a one-time top prospect who was released by the Indians this offseason, hit pinch hitter David Dellucci, allowed a two-run single to Josh Barfield and then a three-run, inside-the-park homer to Grady Sizemore.

The Sun last Sunday published an article, "Edge from a wedge," about how "wedge" issues - those that can sharply divide voters and motivate larger that expected turnout - might affect the U.S. Senate race in Maryland. The writer, Melissa Harris, attempted to send emails or phone messages to the 29 declared candidates in that race asking whether they favored or opposed possible congressional action on three wedge issues currently in the news. Harris asked the candidates to respond yes or no to these questions.

Last week Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley sent a letter to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. asking him to support a minimum-wage increase - and then immediately told the press about it. It was a textbook dare, straight out of the Democratic handbook for this election season. Many Democrats across the nation are convinced that George Bush was elected President in 2004 thanks to a single wedge issue: gay marriage. They believe ballot initiatives aimed at banning gay marriage in several states drew large numbers of social conservatives to the polls.

BOSTON -- So once more we reach into the right-wing toolbox, a political chest so spare that it holds almost nothing but a wide assortment of wedges. Who would have believed that the wedges used so successfully to divide America would end up dividing conservatives? That they would finally expose the differences between the right and the, um, loony right? The latest of these wedge issues is stem cell research. But it's not the only one. Gradually, over the past year, we've begun to see daylight emerge between common sense and nonsense.