Barbershop

Kyriacos Demetriou, 80, a haircutter whose old-fashioned barbershop was re-created in the Museum of the City of New York when he retired three years ago, died Friday. Known by customers as Mr. Kay, he took over the Broadway Barbershop in the 1950s. The shop, with its old, shiny appliances and a radio tuned to a classical music station, was founded in 1904 and was the oldest in the city.Alfredo de Freitas Dias Gomes, 77, a soap opera writer who used his position in television to fight Brazil's dictators, died early yesterday in a traffic accident in Sao Paulo, authorities said.

New Windsor Mayor Jack A. Gullo Jr. stepped into the halls of Congress this week, airing successes and setbacks his town has encountered with government regulations.At the invitation of Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, a Western Maryland Republican, Gullo spoke before two House of Representatives subcommittees that are addressing small-business issues.Accompanied by Bartlett, Gullo also boarded the "members only" elevator to the tunnels connecting the Rayburn House Office Building to the Capitol.

A federal jury convicted John Baumgarten and his two sons yesterday of running a much-feared drug smuggling ring out of their Severna Park barbershop, which they used as cover to sell more than 60 pounds of cocaine in Anne Arundel County.The Baumgartens appeared stunned when the verdicts were read in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Moments earlier, John Baumgarten Sr. had given a big smile and a "thumbs up" sign to his wife.The defendants' wives and relatives wept when a clerk announced the guilty verdicts on federal drug-distribution charges.

It's about 10 a.m. and Waymon Le Fall is making his first cuts of the day at his barbershop in West Baltimore.Le Fall's shop, at the corner of Edmondson Avenue and Bruce Street, is a hub for talk about everything social, religious and political.Yesterday was typical and the topic was hot -- the recommendation of the General Assembly's ethics committee to strip state Sen. Larry Young of virtually all his legislative influence and for the Senate to call a vote for his expulsion.While opinions varied throughout the city and the state about the senator and the allegations -- some firmly in support of Young, others glad to see the senator under scrutiny -- those at Le Fall's barbershop, which is located in Young's 44th District, made their positions clear.

" 'Uncle Jed's Barbershop' by Margaree King Mitchell is about a girl's uncle who owns a barbershop. Every time she sees him they play a little game. She asked him to cut her hair. He does not. He pretends to cut her hair. My favorite part was when the girl was spinning in her uncle's barbershop chair. It is fun to see uncle and niece playing together. I just love it."Christen Phillips,Greenmount School"Most kids who like hockey will enjoy 'The Coolest Guys On Ice,' by Jeff Z. Klein and Karl-Eric Reif.

A federal jury convicted John Baumgarten and his two sons yesterday of running a much-feared drug smuggling ring out of their Severna Park barbershop, which they used as cover to sell more than 60 pounds of cocaine in Anne Arundel County.The Baumgartens appeared stunned when the verdicts were read in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Moments earlier, John Baumgarten Sr. had given a big smile and a "thumbs up" sign to his wife.The defendants' wives and relatives wept when a clerk announced the guilty verdicts on federal drug-distribution charges.

Maurice Blevins was sentenced yesterday to life plus 20 years for the fatal shooting of a 3-year-old boy who was waiting for a birthday haircut at a West Baltimore barbershop.Baltimore Circuit Judge John C. Themelis called the death of James D. Smith III "every parent's nightmare, which unfortunately has become commonplace in Baltimore City. Regrettably, it is no longer an unusual event, and that is what is so distressing."Themelis could have sentenced Blevins to two consecutive life sentences plus 45 years for all charges, but the judge combined some of the sentences.

Neighbors say the Fresh Cuttz barbershop in West Baltimore was a thriving drug market. But police say it was nothing more than a popular meeting place for drug dealers looking for a haircut.Yesterday the shop in the first block of S. Carrollton Ave. in the Hollins Market neighborhood was closed, the display window and sidewalk in front of the brick building transformed into a shrine for 3-year-old James Smith III, who was fatally wounded Thursday afternoon when a gunfight erupted in the shop.

A 3-year-old boy was shot in the head and two other people -- the boy's mother and a customer -- were wounded when gunmen burst into a West Baltimore barbershop yesterday and sprayed it with gunfire from semiautomatic weapons, a city police spokesman said.James Smith III, whose third birthday was yesterday, was reported in very grave condition last night at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, said Agent Robert W. Weinhold Jr., the spokesman.The child's 23-year-old mother, Cheryl Whittington of the first block of S. Carey St., was shot in the right arm and was being treated at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Weinhold said.

Maurice Blevins took the stand yesterday in his murder trial but offered no explanation of who killed 3-year-old James Smith III, instead testifying that he did not start the gunfight in the West Baltimore barbershop where the boy was shot in the head."

A Baltimore City homicide detective and a Baltimore County sheriff's deputy have been charged with assault after a man was beaten until he was unconscious last September outside of a Govans barbershop while off duty. Prosecutors charged Terry W. Love Jr., a nine-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, and Deputy Sheriff Michael Herring with second-degree assault, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, as well as reckless endangerment and use of a deadly weapon with intent to injure.

THE COUNT Homicides since Jan. 1: 235 THE VICTIM A man was shot in the head about 8:50 p.m. yesterday at a barbershop in the 1100 block of W. Baltimore St. LAST YEAR: Baltimore had recorded 216 homicides as of Oct. 11, 2006.

Robert Leon Seay III, a World War II veteran, Bethlehem Steel engineer and barbershop quartet singer, died of Alzheimer's disease May 11 at his Dundalk home. He was 88. Born in Charleston, S.C., Mr. Seay moved to Atlanta as a child. He received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1939. After working briefly with the Seaboard Air Line Railway, he joined the Army in June 1941. He met his future wife, Helen McMillen, while he was being processed at Aberdeen Proving Ground, where she was a payroll clerk.

Filmed in Baltimore two years ago, The Salon sets out to be Barbershop, only with women. But it turns out to be Barbershop lite, a chance for a bunch of gals to sass one another within an inch of coming to blows, safe in the knowledge that everything will turn out OK. Vivica A. Fox plays the Ice Cube role; her Jenny owns the salon, and naturally, she has assembled quite the Cast of Characters: There's big, sassy Lashaunna (Kym Whitley), who's quick with the putdown; tough-talking Trina (Taral Hicks)

When Richard E. Kagan began working as an attorney in Baltimore's City Hall in 1977, he asked a fellow lawyer where to get a good haircut. The colleague demanded that they leave work immediately to go to the city's best barbershop. "But we're on city time," Kagan recounted yesterday. "He said, `It doesn't matter. Your hair grew on city time.'" Once at the barbershop, his friend recognized a man getting a haircut as Richard A. Lidinsky Sr., Baltimore's deputy comptroller at the time. "He said, `Let's leave,'" Kagan said.

FREDERICK -- Thomas Hill never wanted to leave West All Saints Street. He was born and raised on the byway when it was the thriving commercial and cultural hub of the black community, and it is where, for 13 years, he operated a three-chair barbershop. But a developer purchased the building where Hill cut hair to convert it to condominiums, and Hill couldn't afford the rent increase. So Hill, whom everyone knows as "Frosty," took his old-fashioned barber chairs and boxing photographs and moved into a nondescript office building a short drive away.

The Heart of Maryland Barbershop Chorus will give two performances at River Hill High School in Clarksville for its annual fundraising concert at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sept. 17. Audiences will be treated to a program of barbershop classics, show tunes and patriotic songs. The program will also feature a number of quartets, including the Ringers, All in Accord and the River Hill High School barbershop quartet. The Heart of Maryland Barbershop Chorus has entertained audiences at Orioles games and Flag Day festivities at Fort McHenry, and it is to compete at the Mid-Atlantic Division of Barbershop Choruses in October in Wildwood, N.J. Tickets for the Sept.

Barbershop, which premieres tonight at 10, is Showtime's sitcomization of the film franchise of the same name. It's an obvious move - the films on which it's based are half-sitcom already, taking place mostly on a single set full of colorful characters who talk a lot. But though the TV version catches some of the tone, replicates the topicality and shares executive producers of the big-screen originals, it lacks their grounded reality, as well as their...

Beauty Shop wastes an awful lot of talent, both by settling for the ordinary when it should be striving for something more, and by failing to resolve an apparent disconnect between those making the movie and those acting in it. Queen Latifah, reprising the role she originated in last year's Barbershop 2: Back In Business, is Gina, a hairstylist recently relocated from Chicago (where, presumably, Ice Cube and his Barbershop franchise are still holding forth)...

With Barbershop and Barbershop 2, Ice Cube has shown that his production company, Cube Vision, can create an "urban" franchise that's grittier and fresher than pink-and-white comedy series like, say, Legally Blonde. But Are We There Yet? gives off a stale odor. You can smell it from the trailer. Ice Cube stars as a Portland bachelor who loathes kids - too many tykes shoplift from his sports-collectible store. So naturally he falls for a fetching upscale party-planner who also happens to be a divorcee and single mom (Nia Long)