Acme

The old Acme Market building in Woodbrook, once a bustling part of the community, may soon undergo a face-lift and regain its vitality.Nancy Schaffer, co-owner of Eddie's Super Markets of Roland Park and president of Roland Park-Victor's Market Inc., has purchased the nearly 17,000-square-foot building for an undisclosed amount from its previous owner, Giant Food Inc.The building, in the 6200 block of N. Charles St., was closed in 1982 as part of Acme's 20-store...

The final stage direction in Samuel Beckett's “Play” is “repeat.” The Acme Corporation, one of Baltimore's experimental theater companies, is taking that instruction very seriously. Last Friday, the one-act, three-character, roughly one-hour work was performed on a kind of continual loop from noon until midnight in a high-ceilinged, balconied hall at St. Mark's Lutheran Church. But that's just a warm-up. This week, the production's length will double, running continually from one noon to the next.

"Coyote v. Acme," by Ian Frazier. FSG. 121 pages. Everything in popular culture is amusing if you observe it through a monocle. And no publication has squinted with more arch detachment - at least until Tina Brown took over as editor - than the New Yorker, which, for 50 years, has made an art of magnifying the smallest blips on the zeitgeist screen until they appear to be big, silly blobs and then winking, "Good Lord, what do you make of this?" In turn, this patented ironic spin on the desperately un-ironic has spawned a thousand college humor magazines, 25 years of "Saturday Night Live," five nights a week of David Letterman, and an army of imitators, all of whom think that if you skewer presidential candidates and labor-saving kitchen devices and throw in a few references to dead philosophers, you're ready for a cool gig writing for "The Simpsons."

Moving to expand its online sale presence, Acme Paper & Supply Co., Inc., a Savage-based distributor of packaging, office and janatorial products, has acquired ReStockIt.com, a supplier of office supplies and electronics. Financial terms were not disclosed. ReStockIt.com, based in Davie, Fla., reported revenue of $25.6 million in 2011. It has 30 full-time employees. Acme was founded in Baltimore in 1946 by the Attman family and moved to Howard County in 1979. ReStockIt.com was founded in 2004.

Acme Foods Co. of Baltimore, a distributor of meat products, has been acquired by Goodmark Foods Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., for an undisclosed price.Acme is a regional marketer of meat snacks with annual sales of about $7 million, according to Goodmark.Goodmark's brands include Slim Jim, Penrose,and Pemmican meat snacks, Rachel's brownies and Andy Capp's snacks.Acme, which is located in the Holabird Industrial Park, distributes Magic Chef pickled meats, Eagle Canyon beef snacks and Big Mama pickled sausage.

One of Havre de Grace's biggest eyesores is getting a face lift.Renovation work has started at the former Acme grocery building, at the corner of Revolution Street and Bloomsbury Avenue, to transform the structure into a shining, modern office.When the center opens in November, it will be the headquarters for the Eye Care Center, a joint venture by The Hirsch Eye Group and Vision Associates Inc., which formed the Sight Center Limited Partnership for the project.The renovation has also become a catalyst for other area upgrades, said Stan Ruchlewicz, director of the city's department of planning.

Giant Food Inc. launched a Delaware Valley supermarket war last month by opening its 158th store, a shiny, upscale mart in Bear, Del., near Wilmington.Landover-based Giant has grown into the country's 12th-biggest grocery chain by flooding the Baltimore-Washington area with its stores and getting local consumers to buy more food in them than anywhere else.But fish gotta swim, and publicly traded corporations gotta get bigger. Giant can't build many more Baltimore-Washington stores without hurting itself.

Paul E. Lehman, a retired grocery store executive who was active in church affairs, died of multiple myeloma Monday at Franklin Square Hospital Center. The former Cockeysville resident was 76. Mr. Lehman was born in Lewisberry, Pa., and was raised there and in Collingdale, Pa. He attended Drexel University and served in the Army during the Korean War. He began his grocery career in 1944 as a stock boy for the Giant Tiger store chain in Philadelphia that eventually became part of Acme Markets.

In addition to his many other character flaws, it now turns out that Gov. Bill Clinton is a thief.This shocking information comes to us from -- of all people -- the Bush-Quayle Re-Election Committee.It was revealed in a commercial that has been running on Illinois radio stations. In it, a doomsday-voice announcer says that Clinton has been "stealing jobs" from Illinois.And they present an actual case of job theft: "Gov. Clinton stole jobs from workers at Acme Frame Products. . . . Acme Frame Products closed down, fired its workers, and moved to Arkansas."

Philip Thomas Clark Sr., a retired jack operator who had worked for the Acme grocery store chain for more than three decades, died Sunday of complications from diabetes at Seasons Hospice at Northwest Hospital. The longtime Baltimore Highlands resident was 83. Mr. Clark was born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton. He attended city public schools. He enlisted in the Navy at the end of World War II and did not see action, family members said. After leaving the Navy, he went to work in the 1950s for Acme, where he was a jack operator, moving pallets with an electric forklift.

Well before the first performance last week of Lola Pierson's latest work, "Office Ladies," it was advertised as a "hit play. " That's the sort of cheekiness you might expect from a young, DIY-type theater company that calls itself the Acme Corporation, inspired by all the not-so-safe-or-reliable products packed in boxes stamped "Acme" that appear in classic Looney Tunes cartoons. "We just know the play's going to be a hit," said Stephen Nunns, one of the forces behind the company, which has ties to Towson University, where he teaches and directs the MFA program in theater arts.

Philip Thomas Clark Sr., a retired jack operator who had worked for the Acme grocery store chain for more than three decades, died Sunday of complications from diabetes at Seasons Hospice at Northwest Hospital. The longtime Baltimore Highlands resident was 83. Mr. Clark was born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton. He attended city public schools. He enlisted in the Navy at the end of World War II and did not see action, family members said. After leaving the Navy, he went to work in the 1950s for Acme, where he was a jack operator, moving pallets with an electric forklift.

Acme Paper & Supply Co. has a name more befitting its past than its present. When the company started in 1946, it specialized in paper products such as drinking cups. Today, Acme is a much different company — so much so that the tagline "more than paper" has been appended to its name. Plastics are now the predominant part of the business. The company also has helped the U.S. House of Representatives switch to more environmentally friendly products. If you've ever used hand sanitizer at a hospital or restaurant, it was likely supplied by Acme.

Paul E. Lehman, a retired grocery store executive who was active in church affairs, died of multiple myeloma Monday at Franklin Square Hospital Center. The former Cockeysville resident was 76. Mr. Lehman was born in Lewisberry, Pa., and was raised there and in Collingdale, Pa. He attended Drexel University and served in the Army during the Korean War. He began his grocery career in 1944 as a stock boy for the Giant Tiger store chain in Philadelphia that eventually became part of Acme Markets.

HADDON TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- In the glory days, Stanley Darrow recalled with a wistful sigh, they were as popular as shoe stores. "Back in the '50s and '60s," he said, strapping on a 21-pound, gleaming, black Titano and giving it a squeeze, "every town had an accordion school." Now, Darrow's Acme Accordion School is among the last of its kind. Founded in 1952 and last remodeled in 1960, the low, white building is a throwback to a time when Lawrence Welk and his champagne bubbles were floating at the top of their popularity.

Now that Maryland's top lawmakers are marching stoically toward ethics reform, some senators and delegates may be feeling the first pangs of change in their stomachs.Among the reforms passed by both houses this week is a requirement that legislators can no longer let lobbyists pick up the tab for those delicious -- and often expensive -- meals that Annapolis restaurants are so famous for.Instead, they will be given a total of 30 bucks a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If the tab runs higher, it comes out of their own pockets.

"Coyote v. Acme," by Ian Frazier. FSG. 121 pages. Everything in popular culture is amusing if you observe it through a monocle. And no publication has squinted with more arch detachment - at least until Tina Brown took over as editor - than the New Yorker, which, for 50 years, has made an art of magnifying the smallest blips on the zeitgeist screen until they appear to be big, silly blobs and then winking, "Good Lord, what do you make of this?" In turn, this patented ironic spin on the desperately un-ironic has spawned a thousand college humor magazines, 25 years of "Saturday Night Live," five nights a week of David Letterman, and an army of imitators, all of whom think that if you skewer presidential candidates and labor-saving kitchen devices and throw in a few references to dead philosophers, you're ready for a cool gig writing for "The Simpsons."