COAST TO COAST

"It's a weird concept, isn't it?" family physician Margaret A. Sun told the Providence Journal. "I'll give them a letter that it's okay for them to use . . . then they're going to some alleyway."

Few states have solved the conundrum of supply, and for now, said Helen Drew, legislative liaison for the Rhode Island Department of Health, "The folks who are getting it are going to sort it out."

-- Michelle Garcia

The National Anthem Is Music to Educators' Ears

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They shouted. They warbled. They shrieked.

"Oh, say, can you see . . ."

Under a tent in the tailgating area before the FedEx Orange Bowl last week, a couple of hundred contestants individually took the stage, grabbed a mike and took a stab at the national anthem.

Some of them even knew all of the words.

It was a kickoff event for the National Anthem Project, an effort by the National Association for Music Education to get Americans up to speed on their anthem and to push for music education. They cite a Harris poll showing that 61 percent of Americans do not know all of the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" -- and that of those who claim to know all the words, only 39 percent know what follows "whose broad stripes and bright stars." (Answer: "through the perilous fight." )

A spokeswoman for the project accentuated the positive.

"About a quarter of the contestants didn't look at the lyric sheet," Vanessa Mason said. "They were able to hold their heads up high and belt it out."