Kate Smith

From the moment Kate Smith introduced Irving Berlin's inspirational song, "God Bless America," we the American people and our political leaders have consistently used its title to inspire and sometimes to incite. This is especially true in times of crisis. Since Sept. 11 we have been inundated with the words: God bless America. Could this be seen as a form of insincerity that inspires the terrorist? Is this the reason why so many atheists are writing letters criticizing believers? The answer to both questions is a resounding yes!

Jay Stewart, announcer of the television game show "Let's Make a Deal," died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound outside the garage at his home in Hollywood, police said. He was 71. Officers were called to the home about 4 p.m. Sunday after neighbors and relatives reported hearing a gunshot, detective Russell Kuster said. "There was a last will and testament on his person, and some sort of a suicide note, but I can't give that to you," Kuster said.

John Beal, 87, an actor whose career spanned six decades in movies and television and on the stage. He began in Hollywood in the 1933 film "Another Language" with Helen Hayes and Robert Montgomery. A year later he played opposite Katharine Hepburn in the romantic film "The Little Minister." Beal was a student revolutionary in the original film of Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables," starring Fredric March and Charles Laughton in 1935.

Jean Holloway Tobin, whose writing career cut across three of the four major entertainment fields, has died, her longtime aide said Wednesday. Rebecca Gourlie said Mrs. Tobin, widow of character actor Dan Tobin, was 72 and died Saturday in Santa Monica after a stroke. As Jean Holloway she was a youthful and later frequent contributor to radio, beginning with "The Kate Smith Show" in the late 1930s. She got to network radio from then-San Jose State College after winning a poetry contest.

Andre Baruch, whose long radio career ranged from broadcasting Brooklyn Dodgers baseball games to announcing "Your Hit Parade," died Sunday at his home in Beverly Hills. His son, Wayne Baruch, said Monday that the Parisian-born airwaves pioneer was 83 and died of the complications of old age.

One man said it took away his "pain and sorrow." Another viewer called it "godly-like." Others said it is simply a reflection and one dismissed it as a trick of the light. Whatever it is, thousands have flocked to see what they say is a shining silver cross visible through an opaque window in the front door of the Wynne, Ark., home of Darlene Andrews. Andrews says the cross became visible a few hours after her husband, Jerry, died Oct. 17.

Over the last few years, the Barnes & Noble Catalogue has become the discerning couch potato's best friend. Though most video stores and catalogues offer collections of classic TV series, Barnes & Noble is one of the best and most economical sources for TV videos that feature offbeat and often obscure series, shows and specials from the Golden Age of Television. Abbott & Costello fans may want to check out a three-volume set ($10 each) culled from four live TV performances from the early '50s.

If you bought Jaclyn Smith as an undercover investigator, Florence Nightingale, Jackie Kennedy and Martha Washington, you'll buy her as a frigid Arkansas farm girl who becomes a Chicago cop. In "Settle the Score" (airing at 9 tonight on Channels 4, 36 and 39), she goes back to her Ozark home to find the man who raped her 20 years earlier. Executive producer-writer Steve Sohmer has an interesting little mystery for a while.