Witch

Long after the dogs and cats were called home last Friday night, after the curtains were drawn and the windows went dark - Roland Park fell silent. Except for the rustle of a slight summer breeze, everything was still. And everything, it seemed, was ordinary. Then, exactly five minutes before midnight, things in the leafy North Baltimore neighborhood took a peculiar turn. The doors of the Children's Bookstore on Deepdene Road flew open, and out of the tiny shop burst 17 men, women and teen-agers, arms filled with cardboard boxes and plastic bags.

The Memory Wars are over. The voices of sanity in psychiatric practice won. But while the wars lasted -- from the mid-1980s until the end of the 1990s -- they did much damage to innocent people and to the public standing of psychotherapy. The wars turned on a bizarre psychiatric opinion: that a child when sexually abused by a trusted parent or teacher could "repress" and forget the experience even while it was happening. These "repressed memories" could then produce unexplained mental depression later in life unless a therapist drew them forth with such procedures as hypnosis.

I would like to plant a witch hazel in my yard. Can you tell me the difference between the native plant and the Asian variety? Is one more suited to our area than the other? Actually, there are two species from Asia (Hamamelis mollis and Hamamelis japonica), and there is also a group of plants that are hybrids of these two species. The hybrids are some of the most popular in the nursery industry. There are two native species. Hamamelis virginiana is the witch hazel that is native to Maryland.

What would Halloween be without witches? Tonight, the classic old crone will be prowling our streets, dressed in a black cloak and matching pointy hat, sporting a long wart-covered nose and carrying a broomstick. Behind the familiar caricature lies a dark history of the witch hunts of the 15th to the 17th centuries: unjust accusations, confessions coerced through torture, church trials, and burning at the stake. Scholars have long tried to fathom the factors that led to the witch hunts.

ELKINS, W.Va. - Roaming the switchback tableaux of West Virginia, from teeming flea markets to still-life cemeteries, Gerry Milnes, a folklorist steeped in Appalachian discovery, traverses a paradox: Modern highways let him journey among the secrets of the mountain hollows far faster in the 27th year of his serendipitous mission. But so, too, do the roads speed the young generation away from their roots, endangering the chance to carry on the old, unwritten craft of johnboat building down in Gauley Bridge, for example, or the art of backwoods witch-doctoring still practiced hereabouts beyond the interstate.

To celebrate Halloween, Carroll County towns and shopping centers have planned trick-or-treating times and other activities, including: Westminster: Trick-or-treat- ing from dusk until 8 p.m. today inside city limits. Children age 12 and younger can make the rounds with a parent or adult guardian. Trick-or-treaters are encouraged to wear light-colored clothing for safety. Residents wishing to participate should turn on porch lights. Information: 410-848-9000. Sykesville: Trick-or-treating will be allowed from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. today.

NOTHING COULD be more destructive to the nation's spirit than indiscriminate jingoistic acts of revenge against Islamic believers in our midst, particularly people of Arab origin. Their national origin or religious beliefs do not automatically link them to terrorist activities. This should be self-evident. Apparently, it isn't. Arab-Americans and Muslims have been targeted in sporadic incidents that cannot be allowed to continue or spread. This nation faces a delicate dilemma. Mounting evidence points to Middle Eastern leadership in this week's unspeakable bloodshed.

Here's a movie you won't want to take grandma to see. Cannibal Holocaust, a film so grisly it was widely banned upon its 1979 release, is coming to the Charles tonight, courtesy of the Maryland Film Festival. The story of four filmmakers who vanished while making a documentary about South American cannibals holds little back. (The conceit - this is the footage they shot, found six months after they disappeared - sounds more than a little like The Blair Witch Project, doesn't it?) "This is not an imitation," the film's tagline promises.

Like a swarm of costumed locusts, scads of Harry Potters, Batmans, princesses and witches descended on Ellicott City's Main Street yesterday for the time-honored tradition of candy. Lots of it. Merchants, who have opened their doors to trick-or-treaters for at least a decade, were ready for the frenzy. Many were in costume themselves. They're not particularly surprised that as many as 700 children show up. It's safe, which pleases the parents, and the trick-or-treating is a kid's dream.

Most incorporated Carroll County towns allow trick-or-treating within town limits during certain hours Halloween night. New Windsor and Taneytown neither discourage nor condone trick-or-treating. The State Highway Administration in Westminster has safety vests that parents may borrow for tonight. The bright orange reflective vests can be worn over costumes to increase visibility during trick-or-treating. The SHA shop is at 150 Wyndtryst Drive, 410-848- 6565. Town regulations are: Westminster's mayor and Common Council will allow Halloween trick-or-treating from dusk to 8 p.m. today for children ages 12 and younger who are accompanied by parents or adult guardians.