Baltimore Ii

THIS HAS to be a science teacher's all-time dream assignment.You join the Pride of Baltimore II on its first visit to the Far East. Using a laptop computer and a digital camera, you transmit daily logs and pictures by satellite to the Pride's Internet site (www.pride2.org), where they augment a curriculum designed for older elementary and middle school children.You're no longer a teacher at Westlake High, Waldorf, Md., USA. Now you're a teacher in any classroom in the world with a computer and modem.

ABOARD THE PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II -- "Let's shoot all four of them!" called Capt. Jan Miles, to the ship's eager gunner, John Paul Hope, who scurried into place."

The man who runs many of Baltimore's marinas, a former captain in the Israeli navy, prefers the sky to the sea. The only boat he owns is a gondola, which he keeps tied up at his marina in Canton. "I love aviation; that's my passion," said Dan Naor, 47, chief operating officer of Baltimore Marine Centers, as he stood next to a cherry-red helicopter on a recent weekday. He flies it - not as often as he'd like - from Pier 7 in Canton, the base of another business he runs, Baltimore Helicopter Services.

In Maryland Winter's first snowfall forecast for area today The Baltimore area can expect its first snowfall today, thanks to a storm making its way from the Gulf Coast. National Weather Service forecasters said they expect 1 to 3 inches of snow to accumulate in Baltimore by midnight. North and west of the city could get between 2 and 4 inches. The storm should begin by late morning as rain, forecasters said, then mix with or change to snow by afternoon. In Baltimore City Pride of Baltimore II gets new executive director The Pride of Baltimore II, the topsail schooner that serves as a goodwill ambassador for the state and Port of Baltimore, has a new executive director.

Aloha, Hon!A friend and I have just returned from a month-long vacation in Hawaii. We spent the first week on Oahu and flew to the Kona side of the big island for the second week. It was there that we saw on television that the Pride of Baltimore II had been in Honolulu the previous week and we were so sorry that we had missed seeing her.We flew to Maui for the remaining two weeks and on May 19, while driving north along the coast toward the beautiful old town of Lahaina, we saw this magnificent sailing ship heading in the same direction.

Daniel S. Parrott, who swabbed the decks of the original Pride of Baltimore and met his wife on the second one, rejoined the schooner this week to skipper a leg of its yearlong voyage to Asia.The Pride of Baltimore II appointed Parrott, 36, interim captain for 5,000-mile stretch from Panama to Hawaii. The trip amounts to a tryout for Parrott, the leading candidate to become one of the ship's two permanent captains."I'm delighted to be aboard," Parrott said yesterday, speaking by satellite phone as the Pride sailed in a warm, windy Caribbean about 240 miles east of the Panama Canal.

HOLIDAY EVENT THANKSGIVING PARADE Usher in the holidays with the Best Buy Thanksgiving Parade downtown Saturday. This year's 55th annual parade includes marching bands from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Randallstown High School and Dulaney High School, as well as the Baltimore Westsiders, Charm City Challengers and USA Cheerleaders. Other participants include Miss Maryland 2006, Mrs. Maryland International, the Baltimore City Mounted Police and performers from the Night of 100 Elvises.

The Carroll County Public Library has announced the winners of its Summer Reading Program, in which 4,100 students around the county participated.During Summer Reading Program Celebration Day on Aug. 22 at the Carroll County Farm Museum, names were drawn for special prizes. The winners were:* Kerri Grachik, winner of a one-day sail for herself and three guests on the Pride of Baltimore II.* Beth Mahla, winner of a one-day sail for herself and one guest on the Lady Maryland.* Yvonne McConville, winner of free admission for herself and her family to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

Last night it was an umbrella. Tonight it'll be a set of baseball cards. Tomorrow night, a print of Pride of Baltimore II.The Orioles are celebrating the club's final 33 dates at Memorial Stadium with a different giveaway item each night. For each of the final 33 "Memorial Days," a corresponding number of items will be awarded to selected fans at that game. The winners, determined by random seat selection, will be flashed on the scoreboard during the game.Last night, for example, 33 umbrellas were given away.

The Pride of Baltimore Memorial, which had been marred by 26 years' worth of exposure to the elements and recent vandalism, has undergone substantial repairs just in time for the city's commemoration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812. TheBaltimore Development Corp.has teamed with a local contractor to bring about the fixes, most of them to the granite portions of a site honoring the four crew members who died aboard the Pride of Baltimore, an ambassador for the city that sank during a May 1986 storm in the Bermuda Triangle.