Beast

This is the third installment of the fourth Grammarnoir serial. The final installment will be posted on National Grammar Day, March 4, a Sunday, because grammar never takes the day off. You can read Part 1, "A Belle in the Night," here . Part 2, "The Mission," is here.   Part 3: The belly of the beast The Greyhound bus nosed through a darkened landscape as flat and barren as a corporate vice president's conscience.

Calling all beauties and all beasts. The Artistic Children's Theater is holding auditions for ages 5 to adult on March 28, 29 and April 2, 3 and 4 for its production of "Beauty and the Beast" The performances will be held at St. James Academy, in Monkton, on Oct. 19, 20 and 21. Auditions on all five days will be held at the home of ACT's director and founder, Chris Ginder, 19908 York Road, Parkton, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Auditions at...

The Hippodrome 's 2012-2013 Broadway Series will have tried-and-true crowd pleasers such as "Wicked" and "Beauty and the Beast" alongside newer musicals "American Idiot" and "Billy Elliot. " "From a consumer perspective, this is a juggernaut season," said Jeff Daniel, president of the Hippodrome at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center. A show likely to generate particular buzz is "American Idiot. " Based on the 2004 concept album of that name by the punk-rock band Green Day, the musical looks at three male friends seeking something better than life in suburbia.

For the last 20 years, the charming Grover Norquist has been perhaps the most successful of American political entrepreneurs, having used a letterhead and small office to secure "no tax" pledges from a near-majority of Congress members and myriads of state legislators, and holding well-intended Wednesday meetings to spread the gospel. He would not be distressed to be credited with a Leninist capacity for political organization. He has, to a large extent - as demonstrated by the supercommittee debacle - been successful.

Digital Harbor coach Patrick McDonald told his players prior to Saturday night's game against Riverdale Baptist that they would likely not run into a more difficult opponent the rest of the season. The Lady Crusaders are ranked in the top five in several national polls and have five players who have been offered Division I scholarships. And their size and quickness were simply too much for the No. 3 Rams to overcome in a 74-33 Riverdale Baptist victory at the Beast of the East showcase Saturday night at St. Frances.

The schedule for next weekend's girls basketball Beast of the East Showcase has been revised after a few teams dropped out. The event features some of the best local teams -- Archbishop Spalding, Aberdeen, Digital Harbor, Fallston, McDonogh, Roland Park, St. Vincent Pallotti, South River, Meade and host St. Frances -- as well as teams from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington, New York, New Jersey and Colorado. Following is the revised schedule: Beast of the East Showcase Friday, Dec. 9 At St. Frances Meade vs. Woodlawn, 5 Aberdeen vs. Peddie, NJ, 6:45 MATHS vs. Oak Hill, Va., 8:15 Riverdale Baptist vs. Regis Jesuit, Col., 9:45 At Carmelo Anthony Center Hill School, Pa. vs. Princeton Day, 6:30 Coolidge, DC vs. West Branch, Va., 8 Germantown Academy, Pa.  vs. Grassfield, Va., 9:30 Saturday, Dec. 10 At St. Frances Elizabeth Seton vs. Grassfield, Va., 8:30 a.m. Archbishop Carroll, D.C. vs. Damascus, Va., 10 a.m. Holy Cross vs. Robert E. Lee, Va., 11:30 a.m. Forest Park, Va. vs. St. John's-CP, 1 Frederick vs. Regis Jesuit, Col., 2:30 Oak Hill, Va. vs. H.D. Woodson, D.C., 4 Digital Harbor vs. Riverdale Baptist, 5:30 At Carmelo Anthony Center MATHS vs. Hill School, Pa., 9 a.m. South River vs. John Carroll, 11 a.m. City vs. West Branch, Va., 1 Fallston vs. Princeton Day, 3 National Christian vs. Peddie,...

The Breezy Bishop Schowcase has a new name and a new location, but the girls basketball competition should be just as fierce in the Beast of the East Showcase scheduled for the second weekend in December at St. Frances and at the Carmelo Anthony Youth Development Center. This year's event features 44 teams, mostly from Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania, competing in 33 games over three days. Among the top local teams participating: Archbishop Spalding, Aberdeen, Digital Harbor, McDonogh, Roland Park, St. Vincent Pallotti, South River, Meade and host St. Frances.

This deal was pulled directly from Target's weekly circular . Even if you aren't into video games, $240 is not bad for a Blu-ray playing, Netflix streaming, internet surfing, beast of a machine. Looks like this deal is only good in store. 

You know you're in a fancy restaurant when the filet mignon isn't even the best item on the menu. The Big East is a five-star steakhouse in that case. No. 8 Connecticut edged No. 7 Villanova on Monday afternoon, but it wasn't even the featured game. That came when No. 5 Pittsburgh downed previously-unbeaten No. 3 Syracuse 74-66 later in the evening. Nine of the conference's 16 teams are in the Associated Press Top 25 this week, as West Virginia made an appearance at No. 21, Georgetown is No. 23 and Cincinnati hung on at No.25.

Baltimore ranks 20th in The Daily Beast's "America's Smartest Cities" list, down 10 positions from last year, according to the site. The Daily Beast ranked the country's 55 largest metropolitan areas with 1 million people or more, looking at the number of residents over the age of 25 with bachelor's degrees and graduate degrees, compared to the overall population over age 25, which accounted for half of the ranking. The site also identified the number of nonfiction book sales, the ratio of colleges and universities and the number of libraries per capita.