Back To Baltimore

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Leonard "Boogie" Weinglass had dazzled the national media with one-liners during an afternoon news conference yesterday.But moments after the NFL had postponed a decision on Baltimore's expansion fate for another month, his one-liners weren't the funny kind."

In the quest to bring major league football back to Baltimore, local architects and designers drew a line in the sand yesterday.Or was that a toe?All kinds of foot- and football-themed shapes were on display yesterday at CitySand '92, the fourth annual Inner Harbor sand sculpture contest sponsored by the Baltimore Architecture Foundation and the American Institute of Architects.This year's theme was "FootBawlamer, Hon," in honor of Baltimore's bid to win a National Football League franchise later this year.

LOU CEDRONE, who was drama critic of this newspaper for 40 years, has retired. And if you are of "retirement age," the shows -- theater productions and movies -- he has attended and reviewed span your lifetime in Baltimore. His memories remind you of where you were and what was happening in your life when . . .* The Mechanic opened in 1967 with Betty Grable starring in "Hello Dolly." "I loved Betty Grable," says Mr. Cedrone. "She was my World War II pin-up -- beautiful legs. But her voice was not really good enough for the part.

RED DEER, Alberta -- The Baltimore Stallions practiced yesterday for the second straight day in Red Deer, a town of about 60,000 located halfway between Edmonton and Calgary. Approximately 80 locals watched the Stallions file off two school buses at Lindsay Thurber High School, where a two-hour workout featured another new face.The team signed Norris Thomas, a 6-foot, 190-pound defensive back who will serve as a backup in tomorrow's road trip finale in Calgary. Thomas, who was released by Winnipeg last month after playing a little more than a season with the Blue Bombers, played at Wisconsin-LaCrosse, where he intercepted 11 passes in 1992, the year that school won the Division III national championship.

When he was campaigning for the hearts and minds of Baltimoreans, Malcolm Glazer apparently knew he had his work cut out for him.Glazer, a Rochester, N.Y., native living in Palm Beach, Fla., faced suspicion he was just another mercenary in a city with plenty of reason to be wary of out-of-town sports team owners.So he went out of his way to compliment the city and assure his support and loyalty -- until he bought the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.In comments widely rebroadcast in Baltimore yesterday, Glazer said he's glad he didn't get a team here.

Sports teams enhance sense of community, help fill city coffers Thank you for the timely, insightful and totally correct editorial concerning the benefits of building a new basketball arena to bring the NBA back to Baltimore ("Pro basketball in Baltimore," Jan. 12). People are always complaining about wasteful uses of tax dollars; the problem is that so many of those same people complain about good uses of tax dollars as well. And even though our new baseball park and football stadium have generated astonishing financial returns and promoted a refreshing community spirit, we can nonetheless expect the whining over the idea of a basketball arena to begin immediately.

"Every home has a story ... my house has many of them," said Nancy Coradi about the Cockeysville home she shares with her husband, Ken, and their two dogs and cats. First, there is the story of how the couple found the 149-year-old home. After the two were married, they first lived in Mr. Coradi's home in Hamilton. They stayed there until his employer transferred him to Tennessee, where they lived for three years. In 1999, after learning he was being transferred back to Baltimore, she went house hunting in advance of their return.

Whenever your kid moves to a new place, your basement fills up with his belongings. It is one of the laws of the universe. I was reminded of it recently when I helped our 25-year-old son move from an apartment in Chambersburg, Pa., then lay over in Baltimore, before heading to his new home in Anniston, Ala. He, too, is a newspaper reporter. Having worked a year for The Public Opinion in Chambersburg he has taken a job with The Anniston Star. From north of the Mason-Dixon Line, he is moving deep into Dixie.

Friends came for a spring visit. They wanted to see Baltimore in bloom, and a bit of Maryland countryside, too. So we drove around a lot -- from Hereford to Annapolis, from White Marsh to the Eastern Shore.We saw a lot of beautiful and interesting things over three days, and each day ended with the 11 o'clock news. The news was ugly -- maybe even uglier than usual. And though it might have served to provide my guests with a "complete picture" of life in the Land of Pleasant Living, it also made everyone feel weird, as if a few minutes of TV canceled out all the good feelings about the day about to end.Is such a thing possible?

Give Jack Kent Cooke his roads. Give him his utilities. Give him whatever else he needs. Just make sure he reserves 20,000 tickets for Baltimore, and then welcome the Redskins to Laurel.Yes, the Redskins. The hated Redskins.The rather-sell-your-children-to-the-Gypsies Redskins. Enough dreaming. Enough romanticism. This is Baltimore's best chance of getting a team.No one should believe Cooke is actually moving to Laurel until the opening kickoff at his new stadium, but the odds of it happening are better than Baltimore's chances of luring an existing NFL franchise.