Barnes Noble

Tracy Hudson wanted no part in something she figured was yet another dressed-up scheme to exploit black women.Angelle Brooks balked at the idea of exposing her "chunky" hips and thighs for consumers around the country.But photographer Ken Townsend convinced all these women -- and 10 more -- that they were just what he and his partner, Brian Skyers, were looking for to grace the pages of their swimsuit calendar, "The Darker Image."And the result is a deft-enough balance of class and cheesecake to become the first black female swimsuit calendar to make it into national bookstore chains.

If local pharmacists could write the regulations, Marylanders probably wouldn't ever have been allowed to get their prescriptions filled at chain stores like Walgreens and Rite-Aid. Independent video stores probably would have liked to outlaw Blockbuster, just as small bookstore owners probably would have been just as happy if the state had a ban on Barnes & Noble. (For that matter, Blockbuster might like an injunction against Netflix and Barnes & Noble on Amazon.com.) And most of all, Main Street merchants everywhere would probably love a world where Walmart was illegal.

Click here to print out a coupon for 50% off one item in store at Barnes & Noble for non-members. I know, the coupon says it is good for anywhere from 10% - 50% off but this particular one will ring up as 50% off, just act surprised. This deal was posted on the Slickdeals.ne t forums by a user with over 7,000 posts and "grandmaster" status. Other people have already had success cashing this in, so I trust it. Also, watch the fine print for a full list of excluded products.

Barnes & Noble has teamed up with Microsoft to create a powerful competitor to the Amazon Kindle -- setting up a mano a mano battle for dominance of the e-reader market. The deal is built around the Barnes & Noble Nook and related digital business. Microsoft annonced a $300 million investment in a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary, which could be spun off as a separate public company. Microsoft will hold a 17.6% equity stake in the subsidiary, giving it a valuation of $1.7 billion.

Barnes & Noble said today that it may spin off the business for its Nook e-reader, the most serious competition for Amazon's Kindle. In a news release about holiday sales, CEO William Lynch said the company wants to “unlock" the value of the Nook franchise. “We have a large and growing installed base of millions of satisfied customers buying digital content from us, and we have a NOOK business that's growing rapidly year-over-year and should be approximately $1.5 billion in comparable sales this fiscal year.

The Johns Hopkins University has scrapped plans to open a Bibelot bookstore in renovated, university-owned apartments across from its Homewood campus because of strong objections from the operator of the on-campus bookstore.The university's decision has led Manekin Corp.to pull out of a deal to handle leasing of newly created retail space at Homewood Apartments in the 3000 block of N. Charles St.The Manekin company had intended to take over and manage the 18,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space in the first half of this year.

Donna's coffee is out; Starbucks is in. The pale wood and vibrant purples have been replaced by Barnes & Noble's trademark dark bookshelves. Two years after the popular Bibelot bookstore chain closed, the nation's largest bookseller has moved into the homegrown retailer's former flagship in Pikesville. Despite the differences with Bibelot, once a popular neighborhood institution, the new Barnes & Noble store occupying the vast space in the Festival at Woodholme expects to win over once-loyal customers.

Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Superstore will open in The Fitzgerald at UB Midtown apartment tower under construction near the University of Baltimore, university officials said yesterday. The 20,000-square-foot store, slated to open in fall 2010, will include a Starbucks-branded cafe and sections for University of Baltimore textbook sales. It will be similar to a Barnes & Noble in Charles Village near the Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University. The lead developer, the Bozzuto Group, started building the 275-unit market-rate apartment project in October on a university-owned site at West Mount Royal Avenue and Oliver Street and plans to complete the residential portion by spring 2011.

Dozens of books sat stacked on gleaming hardwood floors yesterday at the new Barnes & Noble at the Inner Harbor, as employees sorted titles and filled shelves. Plastic still covered the cushioned armchairs. And 55,000 compact discs and cassettes had yet to be stocked.But otherwise, downtown's first mega-bookstore appeared ready for its Oct. 6 premiere as the Power Plant's third major tenant. Fish swam in a 3,000-gallon freshwater tropical tank built into a wall; cafe counter workers served up lattes and tropical smoothies during a practice run, and two massive copper smokestacks -- from the days when the plant powered city streetcars -- rose through the store's two levels.

Nearly seven years after Six Flags Corp. closed its Victorian fun house at the Power Plant, the Cordish Co. is scheduled to announce today the first definite tenant of the planned entertainment complex -- a two-story Barnes & Noble book and music emporium.By next month, Cordish said, construction crews will begin transforming 28,000 square feet of dark and dusty space inside the three-building complex into a Barnes & Noble superstore, to open by spring 1998.But while the nation's largest bookseller becomes the first tenant to be publicly announced by Cordish, it will not be the first to open.

Having just spent a very busy weekend with adorable, 4-year-old twin girls who were visiting with my nephew, I was extremely interested in the sight-seeing tips from Jill Smokler, the Baltimore-based Scary Mommy blogger who recently released "Confessions of a Scary Mommy. " Smokler provided the Baltimore Sun with her Top Five best -- and worst -- places to take the kids . I missed all of them over the weekend, instead falling back on the National Aquarium , which I've found to be a very entertaining, if very expensive, spot for kids of all ages.

Barnes & Noble said today that it may spin off the business for its Nook e-reader, the most serious competition for Amazon's Kindle. In a news release about holiday sales, CEO William Lynch said the company wants to “unlock" the value of the Nook franchise. “We have a large and growing installed base of millions of satisfied customers buying digital content from us, and we have a NOOK business that's growing rapidly year-over-year and should be approximately $1.5 billion in comparable sales this fiscal year.

Power Plant's Rock the Dock Holiday Bash Phillips Seafood - crab vegetable; Dick's Last Resort - broccoli cheddar; Barnes & Noble - chicken and wild Rice ; Houlihan's  - chicken tortilla; Blu Bamboo - wonton soup; Joe Squared - risotto eekend stuff

The news that Borders, the nation's second-largest book chain, is giving up the ghost and closing its doors after 40 years came as no real surprise to anyone. The Wall Street Journal observed last week that Borders' exit was the "'first major casualty of the digital era in buying and reading books. " The Borders empire, which was founded in 1971 in Ann Arbor, Mich., by Tom and Louis Borders, had grown to 500 stores nationwide, while its chief competitor, Barnes & Noble, is No. 1 with 717 stores.

Click here to print out a coupon for 50% off one item in store at Barnes & Noble for non-members. I know, the coupon says it is good for anywhere from 10% - 50% off but this particular one will ring up as 50% off, just act surprised. This deal was posted on the Slickdeals.ne t forums by a user with over 7,000 posts and "grandmaster" status. Other people have already had success cashing this in, so I trust it. Also, watch the fine print for a full list of excluded products.

The Walt Disney Co.'s announcement Wednesday that it will close the ESPN Zone in Baltimore and four other cities next week brought a sense of loss but also hope that a new attraction would quickly replace it and help keep the Inner Harbor fresh for visitors. Next Tuesday will be the last day of business at Baltimore's location, which opened 12 years ago as the first store in a chain that spaciously blends sports-bar dining with arcade-style entertainment. The venue is an anchor of the Power Plant, a mid-1990s redevelopment that helped spread retail and entertainment venues further east along the harbor.

Not long ago, big booksellers in downtown Baltimore seemed destined to go the way of Hutzler Bros., Hochschild Kohn and Stewart's, the department stores that once reigned over Howard Street. The "city that reads" lost two downtown Encore Books stores in a matter of weeks last June, and Gordon's Booksellers had long since packed up the last of its volumes.Now, the business of selling books in the city seems poised for a dramatic rebound.Even as Barnes & Noble unveiled plans yesterday for its vast music and book emporium to open in the Cordish Co.'s $25 million Power Plant project, Pikesville-based Bibelot confirmed its intention to open two city stores.

After being stalled for months, redevelopment of the long-vacant Hutzler's building -- a key component of Towson's economic rebirth -- is moving forward, with the signing of a Barnes & Noble book and music store.The two-level, 30,400-square-foot bookstore is the first retail tenant of Towson Circle, the name the developer has given to the old department store at the busy corner of York and Joppa roads.The restoration, by Towson-based Heritage Properties Inc. and Cordish Co. of Baltimore, coincides with a $4.3 million county-state project to spruce up Towson's sidewalks with brickwork, lamp posts and planters, and to ease traffic congestion along the busy corridor with a roundabout.

Foxworth demonstrates true community spirit Thank you for your profile of Domonique Foxworth ("Foxworth has his head in the game, other interests, too," Dec. 25). My story about him will add another dimension, which from the point of view of our city is very appealing. I am the elementary coordinator at Paul's Place Outreach Center in Pigtown, and although I have never met Domonique Foxworth, the children of our after school program, "After 3," have. On Dec. 22, 24 of our youngsters, ranging in age from 6 to 11, were hosted by Jared Gaither, Tom Zbikowski and Mr. Foxworth at the ESPN Zone.

To get the chance to meet her favorite author, Sally DeWitt had to overcome more obstacles than, well, a character in a Stephen King novel. The 60-year-old woman woke up at 3 a.m. Wednesday so she could drive from her home in Aberdeen to Dundalk, where the best-selling novelist was scheduled to appear that evening. And it really was a dark and stormy night. "I'm an avid horror fan," she says. "My boyfriend woke up, and it was raining, so he thinks I'm totally nuts." DeWitt secured her wrist band - number 116 of the 400 who were guaranteed signed books - but her adventures had barely begun.