Cringe! You're on kiss camera     WASHINGTON -- As the
University of Maryland and University of Virginia basketball
teams gathered by their benches late in the first half Sunday, a
few middle-aged men in Room 0427 -- the "Video Scoreboard
Control Room" -- tried to inject some mid-afternoon romance into
a basketball gymnasium.  "Salute the Troops, then Kiss Cam,"
Scott Youngblood, Maryland's game-day director for 10 years,
called into his headset. "Start looking for people."  Kiss Cams
have been a game-day scoreboard staple at college and
professional arenas for decades. They can provide cheap laughs,
as when two players from a visiting team are shown together.
They can provide oohs and ahhs when grandparents smooch. There
are occasional marriage proposals and occasional exaggerated
gropes.  Mostly, though, there are camera operators and
directors and nervous couples trying to create five seconds of
lovin' in front of thousands of sports fans in about the least-
romantic setting imaginable.  "It's not scripted.