WHEN THE Maryland School Performance Assessment Program scores were released recently, Harford Superintendent Ray Keech said this about his county's results: "I think that we are taking the risk to dare to make a difference." Our only question: Was English part of the exam?

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EVERY POLITICIAN has had the urge to sound off when a constituent gets out of line. Politeness -- and an eagerness to win reelection -- dictate otherwise. But here is what one congressman wrote to an especially nasty letter-writing resident of his California district 68 years ago:

"One of the countless drawbacks of being in Congress is that I am compelled to receive impertinent letters from a jackass like you in which you say I promised to have the Sierra Madre mountains reforested and I have been in Congress two months and haven't done it. Will you please take two running jumps and go to hell."

Shades of William Donald Schaefer?