Nuclear Winter

The NBA's place in the sports world is in jeopardy. On Monday in New York, the whole "collective bargaining" situation blew up. The National Basketball Players Association has dissolved, claiming unfair labor practices by the NBA and its owners. NBA commissioner David Stern responded to this announcement by saying the union's decision to dissolve was a "magic trick" that certainly wouldn't work in the courts. Stern also dropped some hyperbole after hearing about the union's actions.

STING REMEDY. If you're going to the beach or the park, take along some meat tenderizer. Not for the picnic foods - ordinary meat tenderizer can help relieve the pain of insect bites and the sting of such sea creatures as jellyfish and coral. "Just mix the tenderizer with water and put the paste on the painful spot," advises Ricardo Martinez, clinical director of the Stanford University Hospital emergency department. He warns, however, that those allergic to insect or similar venom need special treatment to prevent life-threatening anaphylactic shock.

We would like to express our deep concern for the insensitivity of trying to measure everyone's worth by dollars and cents. Not only is a woman's worth in the home managing the care and development of the next generation of spouses and parents beyond money-terms of importance, even the husband's salary or earnings do not come close to measuring his vital value as a spouse and father to his children. The American nuclear family is not made up of expendable manufactured products with built-in obsolescence, nor does it consist of corporate mergers or political parties or entitlement lobbyists between "superiors and inferiors.

As a Soviet nuclear accident sent a radiation cloud spewing into the world's atmosphere, the bishops of the United Methodist Church were meeting in Morristown, N.J., to consider the consquences of the intentional use of nuclear weapons. In the end, they took a step beyond their Roman Catholic brethren, who in 1983 published a pastoral letter opposing the arms race, but reluctantly accepting a short-term U.S. policy of "nuclear deterrence. " The Methodist bishops declared that such a doctrine "has too long been revered as the idol of national security," noting that the nuclear threat is only as good as the intention to use it - a move they rejected out of hand.

The documentary "Pripyat" takes its name from the radioactive Russian town evacuated, sort of, after the Chernobyl nuclear accident. "Pripyat" visits the community 14 years after the explosion, and finds that Russia is managing the aftermath about as well as it managed the nuclear plant itself. Squatters still live in the region, refusing to leave. Others have yet to be evacuated, and authorities seem to be in no particular hurry to move these radioactive people into the general population.

The new studio DreamWorks prides itself on innovation, and broke new ground by hiring the woman who used to make "China Beach" to direct its big, blockbuster action movies. She's certainly left her mark on "Deep Impact," the story of a comet slamming into the East Coast, and a movie that is short on gratuitous destruction and long on people talking about their feelings. Director Mimi Leder (she also worked on "L.A. Law") is right to make us care about the characters in the path of the gigantic comet, but there is so much character sensitivity in "Deep Impact" that viewers may begin to wonder, uneasily, if they're watching a sequel to "How to Make an American Quilt.

So this may be how the world ends: with a thud, then a whimper. In a Jan. 27 piece in The New Yorker that's as well-crafted as it is chilling, Timothy Ferris reports that the notion of a comet slamming into Earth, our island home, isn't utterly outlandish. In other words, what might have done in the dinosaurs could do us in, too. As our planet cruises through space, it shares the road with millions of pieces of space flotsam: asteroids, comets and such. Fairly often, bits of such debris escape incineration in the atmosphere and pepper the earth's crust, like bugs on the windshield.

Dostoyevsky should have been there the day the House Democrats voted to trust Rep. Les Aspin, D-Wis., one more time. It all read like a 19th century Russian novel, with a lot of soul-searching and a lot of snow. The climax came during a blizzard, which in the federal city produces the functional equivalent of nuclear winter - Washington's mayor, Marion Barry, being as reluctant to call out the snowplows as a president would be to push the button for the bomb. On Thursday, Democratic members struggled through the unplowed streets and unshoveled sidewalks into the House chamber at such a slow rate the showdown was almost called off. Once there, they listened to hours of impassioned oratory about sin and redemption and amazing grace.

When Rosalind Snyder flies her single-engine plane over the Limerick II nuclear power plant, she is filled with fear and anger. She says she is equally fearful when she pictures what could happen to her garden. What she fears is a nuclear accident that would expose the area to deadly radiation or nuclear waste. The fear has grown into an anger that motivates Snyder to engage in a battle to "try and change people's perceptions on a vital issue of our times. " In an effort to inform others, Snyder has taken her cause to the Warrington supervisors, attempting to persuade them to pass a township resolution for a comprehensive nuclear-test ban. Although the resolution met with mixed responses from board members, who twice tabled the proposal, Snyder persisted.

There is an unspoken covenant between the professional baseball team of Philadelphia and the raving lunatic loyalists who support it with what can only be described as impassioned, unconditional tough love. And that covenant is this: As long as you are trying, really, really, really trying to build a winner, we will support you. We will put up with those $20 beers (not yet but inevitable, along with the $30 parking, etc. etc. etc.). And we will continue to snap up those bobbleheads and those Hunter Pence tees (instant memorabilia)

The NBA's place in the sports world is in jeopardy. On Monday in New York, the whole "collective bargaining" situation blew up. The National Basketball Players Association has dissolved, claiming unfair labor practices by the NBA and its owners. NBA commissioner David Stern responded to this announcement by saying the union's decision to dissolve was a "magic trick" that certainly wouldn't work in the courts. Stern also dropped some hyperbole after hearing about the union's actions.

Arms pact may not be cause for celebration George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin were all smiles over the treaty they say will cut nuclear arsenals by two-thirds ("Arms deal reflects shift in priorities," May 24). But only time will tell if there's real cause for celebration. The treaty does not require the destruction of even one nuclear weapon. Instead, the United States and Russia are set to store thousands of warheads because U.S. war planners want the "flexibility" to be able to have more than 2,200 nuclear weapons.

The documentary "Pripyat" takes its name from the radioactive Russian town evacuated, sort of, after the Chernobyl nuclear accident. "Pripyat" visits the community 14 years after the explosion, and finds that Russia is managing the aftermath about as well as it managed the nuclear plant itself. Squatters still live in the region, refusing to leave. Others have yet to be evacuated, and authorities seem to be in no particular hurry to move these radioactive people into the general population.

The new studio DreamWorks prides itself on innovation, and broke new ground by hiring the woman who used to make "China Beach" to direct its big, blockbuster action movies. She's certainly left her mark on "Deep Impact," the story of a comet slamming into the East Coast, and a movie that is short on gratuitous destruction and long on people talking about their feelings. Director Mimi Leder (she also worked on "L.A. Law") is right to make us care about the characters in the path of the gigantic comet, but there is so much character sensitivity in "Deep Impact" that viewers may begin to wonder, uneasily, if they're watching a sequel to "How to Make an American Quilt.

So this may be how the world ends: with a thud, then a whimper. In a Jan. 27 piece in The New Yorker that's as well-crafted as it is chilling, Timothy Ferris reports that the notion of a comet slamming into Earth, our island home, isn't utterly outlandish. In other words, what might have done in the dinosaurs could do us in, too. As our planet cruises through space, it shares the road with millions of pieces of space flotsam: asteroids, comets and such. Fairly often, bits of such debris escape incineration in the atmosphere and pepper the earth's crust, like bugs on the windshield.

STING REMEDY. If you're going to the beach or the park, take along some meat tenderizer. Not for the picnic foods - ordinary meat tenderizer can help relieve the pain of insect bites and the sting of such sea creatures as jellyfish and coral. "Just mix the tenderizer with water and put the paste on the painful spot," advises Ricardo Martinez, clinical director of the Stanford University Hospital emergency department. He warns, however, that those allergic to insect or similar venom need special treatment to prevent life-threatening anaphylactic shock.

A DIFFERENT PLEDGE Because my recent letter criticizing George Bush and his positions as regards the Pledge of Allegiance has brought the ire of many down upon me (and I fear for the country if the criticism is representative of the majority), I have been mulling over another pledge. The recent letter that appeared chastising me was the last straw. People just don't seem to understand, and I certainly can't change my views. So here's what I've come up with, and perhaps it would be to everyoe's satisfaction so as to alleviate any need for a law mandating its recital.

Dostoyevsky should have been there the day the House Democrats voted to trust Rep. Les Aspin, D-Wis., one more time. It all read like a 19th century Russian novel, with a lot of soul-searching and a lot of snow. The climax came during a blizzard, which in the federal city produces the functional equivalent of nuclear winter - Washington's mayor, Marion Barry, being as reluctant to call out the snowplows as a president would be to push the button for the bomb. On Thursday, Democratic members struggled through the unplowed streets and unshoveled sidewalks into the House chamber at such a slow rate the showdown was almost called off. Once there, they listened to hours of impassioned oratory about sin and redemption and amazing grace.