Yelling

Two-thirds of the Baltimore Orioles' Ripken connection was ejected from last night's 2-1 loss to Detroit after Bill Ripken was called out on strikes by plate umpire Rich Garcia.The brouhaha occurred in the bottom of the sixth inning, enlivening an already-tense battle in which neither team had scored.Garcia banished Bill Ripken and his father, Cal Ripken Sr., who was held back from the umpire by first manager Frank Robinson, then coaches Johnny Oates, Tom McCraw and Al Jackson.The incident began when Bill Ripken was headed back toward the dugout and lasted through nearly 10 minutes before the game resumed with Cal Ripken Jr. lacing Steve Searcy's first pitch to center field for a single.

So there I was, sitting under the hot lights, when suddenly Vicki Lawrence leaped to her feet and started yelling at me about the death penalty. This happened in Los Angeles, on the TV show "Politically Incorrect." People yell a lot on that show. One time I was on there with Mickey Dolenz; he yelled at me, too. Back when I used to watch the Monkees on TV, I never dreamed that one day, one of them would be yelling at me personally regarding current events. This is a great nation.Guests are encouraged to express strong views on "Politically Incorrect," because it makes for better entertainment.

PHILADELPHIA -- Despite our best intentions, we break New Year's resolutions as fast as we make them. After studying this phenomenon for 30 years, I can tell you exactly why. For the vast majority of resolution-makers, there is simply no mental space to get that good behavior implanted. The answer is to free up space in your mind by removing the bad pattern that controls you before you can have room to implant the good pattern. This is the psychological version of "out with the bad air, in with the good."

ON THE JORDAN-IRAQ BORDER - Had the gun fired as the American soldier intended, perhaps no one would have heard the shot anyway, not with all the car horns blaring and the incessant yelling back and forth in English and Arabic. Some of the yelling came from the U.S. soldiers stationed on the Jordan-Iraq border. They were given orders this week not to allow men ages 20 to 45 to enter Iraq, but nobody trying to cross into the country had heard about it until after traveling 4 1/2 hours from Amman, or farther.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Getting yelled at never sounded better to Duane Simpkins."It meant things were back to normal," he said, smiling. "There's no doubt we needed it as a team."The yelling occurred in the Maryland Terrapins' first two NCAA tournament games last weekend in Salt Lake City. Terps coach Gary Williams repeatedly chewed out Simpkins from the sidelines, as he always does.Simpkins' blistered ears were the surest sign yet that Williams had recovered from his recent bout with pneumonia and was ready to become the Terps' emotional fuse again.

He was getting out of a cab near a nightspot on Chicago's Rush Street when a woman who wanted the cab started to brush by and bumped into him hard."Oh, I'm so sorry," she said, smiling apologetically and putting her arms out to steady him.Because she was uncommonly pretty, he just smiled and said: "That's OK, take it easy."But then he sensed that something wasn't right, and he reached for the pocket where he kept his wallet. The pocket was empty.He stared at her for a moment. Her smile faded, and she glared back.

COLLEGE PARK - As freshmen last year, Rob Armstrong and Conrad Bolston got yelled at. A lot. Some of it was deserved - Maryland needed Armstrong and Bolston to contribute immediately, and there were plenty of rookie mistakes to correct - but most of the yelling was simply the coaching style preferred by Terps defensive line coach Dave Sollazzo. Sollazzo, you see, yells when he wants to encourage, yells when he wants to teach and yells when he wants to discipline a player. As far as he's concerned, if he isn't yelling at someone, he's just not trying hard enough.

Clyde Shover pounded the dirt down around a sprig of newly planted ornamental grass yesterday to the beat of 20 people in the distance shooting guns, five rounds every four seconds.The Anne Arundel County Police Academy shooting range is 800 yards down the slope of his back yard, but he's not complaining about the noise, not anymore.Leaning on his shovel, he listened hard and evaluated: It sounds less what's the word?Loud?No, dangerous. It sounds less dangerous, he said.Flying bulletsStover, like many of his neighbors who have complained for years about noise levels and stray bullets flying into their yards, was excited yesterday at the opening of the Anne Arundel Academy police firing range in Davidsonville.

NEW YORK -- Andre Agassi walked off the court at the U.S. Open yesterday and into the waiting arms of girlfriend Brooke Shields, who immediately planted a victory kiss.It's New York. It's the Open. It's show time. And Agassi is back in the Sweet 16 here for the first time in three years.He's also back entertaining.Is he happy to have Brooke here?"I like having Brooke, period, at the match or not," Agassi said. "She knows that."Yesterday, in front of a packed Stadium Court, Agassi charmed the masses with a 7-5, 6-1, 7-5 victory over No. 12 seed Wayne Ferreira and set up a much-anticipated match with No. 6 seed Michael Chang.

On paper, Lisa Scottoline is a little intimidating. She's got more than 30 million copies in print of her books, including 20 best-selling novels. She writes a weekly column, with her daughter, for The Philadelphia Inquirer. She's a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and taught a class at the latter called "Justice and Fiction. " But ask her about any connections she might have to Baltimore, where she'll be visiting May 20 as a featured author in the Baltimore Sun Book Club, and you'll quickly discover her self-deprecating sense of humor.