Bandits

Opponent: Carolina Monarchs Site: Baltimore Arena Time: 5 p.m. Radio: WITH (1230 AM), WAMD (970 AM) Outlook: Four days ago, the Bandits made commoners out of the Monarchs here, 6-1. In the middle of a string of home games (four more this month), the Bandits are on a tear, posting a 3-1-1 record the past two weeks. @

Mark Harvey, the Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium streaker, didn't get the same deal that Morganna Roberts, a stripper and exotic dancer who was known as "The Kissing Bandit," did in 1988, when she ran onto the field at Memorial Stadium and bussed Cal Ripken Jr. as he came up to bat. Harvey, 26, a Severn truck driver dressed in a Batman cape and underwear, took to the field at Camden Yards on Opening Day in April. In September, once again dressed in his Batman outfit, he jumping onto the field during the second quarter of the Ravens's game against the New England Patriots.

Your recent article about the Hostess Inc. bankruptcy stated that the company blamed its closure on striking workers, but it failed to mention what else was happening as the company was trying to cut bakery workers' pay ("Hostess' shutdown prompts snack rush," Nov. 17). Indeed, while it was filing for bankruptcy, Hostess tripled its CEO's pay and gave significant salary increases to its top executives. That's some bad HoHo. Randi Hogan, Crownsville

Nikki Yancey knew that no pictures had been released of Osama bin Laden after the terrorist leader was killed this week in a lightning raid by U.S. commandos in Pakistan. So she was surprised when a friend reported that Yancey's Facebook account had tried to entice her 600-plus friends to click on a link that allegedly would bring up photographs of the dead al-Qaida leader. In reality, no such images were available. What happened? Yancey's social networking identity had been hijacked.

They posed as friendly female employees eager to help older women visiting from out of state, guiding them, police said, into bathroom stalls at rest stops along Interstate 95 in Harford and Cecil counties, and possibly others in New Jersey. But authorities say the good-will ambassadors were conspirators in an elaborate theft scheme. Police said one participant diverted the women's attention while another hid in a neighboring stall and plucked wallets and credit cards from purses hanging on hooks or stuffed behind toilets.

The Orioles play at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter a total of six times this spring, which should provide ample opportunity for me to sneak away and visit the Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum. The museum, which is located on U.S. 1 in Jupiter, is a shrine to the television and movie star who had such terrific range that he dated Oscar winner Sally Field and was married to comedienne Judy Carne and television actress Loni Anderson. Burt's a pretty good actor, too, with well-regarded roles in Deliverance and Boogie Nights as well as the lovable rogue he played in several Smokey and the Bandit movies.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can easily put off a lot longer than that. Not, perhaps, the wisest words to live by. But they worked out well for Piers Steel. The University of Calgary psychology professor spent 10 years studying procrastination before he finally got around to publishing his findings in this month's Psychological Bulletin. "I had to read a lot of papers," he says. Steel was on a mission. He wanted to figure out what the reams of past procrastination research really added up to. Now, after pooling the data from 216 earlier studies - and incorporating results from hundreds more - he has compiled a comprehensive report that includes, among other things, findings about the damage procrastination can do to health, happiness and bank accounts.

Cephas Richardson wanted to refinance a house along Lorraine Avenue in Charles Village. But instead of calling a bank, he called a number he saw on one of the "We Buy Houses" signs in the neighborhood. Richardson was told he could get a $100,000 refinance. All he had to do was show up at a building on Mulberry Street with $5,000 in cash. "I never went," said the vice bishop of Greater Jerusalem Church in Waverly. Richardson eventually got a $65,000 loan from a reputable lender and didn't let his house slip through his fingers.

Culture Bandit is Vanessa Hidary's self-portrait of the artist as a racially envious young woman. Growing up Jewish in a mixed section of New York's Upper West Side, Hidary finds herself drawn to the Hispanic and African-American cultures of her friends and classmates. She is, in her own words, "young, gifted and bat mitzvahed," at the same time that she's a fan of salsa, pork and Michael Jackson. A veteran of HBO's Def Poetry Jam and a grand slam finalist at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Hidary tells her story in the form of a series of spoken-word riffs, directed by Mariana Hellmund.

NOGALES, Mexico -- They had made it across the border, 20 of them, through a hole in the barbed-wire fence in the dark Arizona desert. Juan Carlos Reyes Hernandez, 25, with two children at home and a third on the way, was among them. He planned to work in construction and send his earnings back home. He had promised to pay the "coyote," or smuggler, two months' wages to lead him safely to Tucson. Instead, he walked into a trap. The group was less than a mile into the United States when three men with pistols set upon them.

WASHINGTON -- If you've been following the news, you may think as I do that the most fascinating caper around the nation's capital in recent days does not involve politics, national security or a White House aide called "Scooter." It involves a young woman famously known as the "cell phone bandit." You've probably seen the grainy bank surveillance photos of the young and determined woman with sunglasses on top of her long dark hair and a cell phone tucked under her ear as she presents a shoebox with a note stuck on top that tells the teller to fill the box with cash.