Belly

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.

It's fine — for amateurs Chris Dufresne Los Angeles Times The most sleep-inducing word on the PGA Tour this year is "bifurcation," although the issue over whether the tour should break from USGA and R&A is hotter than Dubai. Golf's ruling lords have proposed banning "the anchoring" of a club (putter) to a player's body. The PGA Tour has suggested it won't go along. In a perfect world, this ban should have been initiated 40 years ago or at least before belly putting players won three of last five majors.

Where: Minas at 815 W. 36 St., Baltimore When: 5 p.m. Sunday Why: Because belly dancing is sexy and, as it turns out, quite difficult to learn. About 10 dancers will perform, wearing colorful costumes laced with gold bangles. It will be about an hour long, and the dancers will be accompanied by live drummers. Minas is a vintage clothing store and gallery. It sponsors monthly belly-dancing performances but not on a regular schedule - so you've got to catch them when they show up. Tickets: $5. Information: 410-732-4258 - Annie Linskey

Question: How do I train my adorable but irascible cat to let me pet her tummy? Answer: Just as not every person likes being tickled, not every cat likes belly rubs. But if your kitty isn't thrilled by your attempts at affection, there's hope. It will just take a bit of patience and simple classical conditioning. Don't ever forget that cats are sharp. Play these games when kitty is calm and happy, and don't push her to a point of discomfort. First, you'll need to find her very favorite treats.

KINGBelly (Sire/Reprise 45833)It's easy to understand why people have such great expectations for Belly. This quartet would seem to have all the ingredients for alternarock stardom: Obvious ambition; an attractive, mixed-gender lineup; an approachable, guitar-based sound; an impressive heritage, thanks to Tanya Donelly's days with Throwing Muses; and a solid track record, courtesy the 1993 hit "Feed the Tree." All Belly needs to complete the picture are great new songs -- something the group's second album, "King," just doesn't deliver.

Next to a flier urging a Coca Cola boycott, across the aisle from the garlic pills, stands the political agenda of The Belly food cooperative -- a holdover from the '60s back-to-nature movement that is struggling to survive the age of the microwave."

IT ISN'T ONLY children who return to classes in the fall. Adults have the opportunity to add something new to their schedules, too.East Columbian Elvy Zakaria is new to our neighborhood this year, but the dance she teaches -- called Raks Al-Sharqi -- has been enjoyed for centuries.Better known as "belly dancing," the Middle Eastern dance form can be traced to Indian merchants, who introduced it to countries they passed through in their travels."The dance nourishes a woman's femininity as well as improving her health," Zakaria says.

One is an award-winning international belly dancer, a woman who learned the craft from her mother and is noted for her awesome hip action. One is a woman with a biochemistry degree, now a Johns Hopkins University Ph.D. candidate who is studying human genetics while working in the field of mental retardation in children. Both, believe it or not, are one woman: Piper Reid Hunt, medical researcher and the recent winner of the Belly Dancer of the Year 2000 award. Can anyone say 21st century Renaissance Woman?

With a steady drumbeat reminiscent of ancient tribal rhythms pulsating from a boombox, Candy Ranlet, barefoot and bejeweled, raises her arms above her head and moves her hips back and forth, up and down, building from a slow, seductive sway to a fast shimmy. "Nothing else should be moving, just go back and forth with your hips," she says, introducing a class of 25 women in Eldersburg to belly dancing. "The upper body is as motionless as you can get, but unless you are a stick, things will shake, rattle and roll."

It's Monday night, 7: 30, time for stomach rolls, shoulder shimmies and hip lifts in a basement studio in Columbia's Long Reach Village Center.Bathed in the lilting sounds of Middle Eastern music, a small group of working women and suburban homemakers gathers for lessons in what is commonly known as belly dancing.Columbia is the unlikely hub in Maryland for such dancing -- more properly called Oriental or Middle Eastern dance. The planned ,, community, known more for its forested neighborhoods and youth soccer leagues, is also home to the Maryland Company of Middle Eastern Dancers.

Someone with a lot of belly fat has a higher risk of death than those who are obese, a new study suggests. "We knew from previous research that central obesity is bad, but what is new in this research is that the distribution of the fat is very important even in people with a normal weight," said Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, senior author on the study and a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic , in a statement. "This group has the highest death rate, even higher than those who are considered obese based on BMI. From a public health perspective, this is a significant finding.

The OC Blog is back again with another spot check for you and your hungry palettes. If you are looking for one of the best local eats in Ocean City, go no further than Belly Busters Seafood & Deli on 45th Street and Coastal Highway. With a surf shack feel, "Belly's" serves up the good eats, including excellent steamed crabs and seafood, wraps and beers. It also serves up huge sandwiches that at times are so big they serve as two meals. And there's no need to stop at the store to grab yourself a few brews for the evening, Belly Busters has carry out beer for you right in the restaurant.

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.

When Nawal Qalbi enrolled in a belly dancing class at the Carroll County YMCA five years ago, she never dreamed she would find her calling. Qalbi discovered the ancient dance form offered not just exercise, but camaraderie. "I was curious, really," said Qalbi said about signing up for that first class. "I thought I would be going in and be one of the oldest. There were so many women of different shapes, sizes and age groups. "It was very refreshing to see such a mixture of women in this classroom, and everybody enjoying each other's company.

Since mid-September, lots and lots of bars in town have been touting specials and tie-ins in observance of Oktoberfest, the 200-year-old celebration of Bavarian culture and huge excuse to drink lots of beer. But few places in Maryland have a right to these promotions quite like Blob's Park in Jessup, a nearly 80-year-old resident that claims to be home of America's first Oktoberfest. Blob's is Maryland's very own Valhalla, a beer hall as big as an airport hangar where German culture is celebrated year-round, though with especially distinguished gusto during these few weeks in the fall.

In a recent episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" called "The Bare Midriff," Larry David is disgruntled that his new secretary is wearing a shirt that exposes her tummy. When he confronts her, she tells him she's proud of her body and wants to flaunt it. "You can flaunt two-thirds of the day outside the office and then you have one-third non-flaunt," he tells her. "Why not take a break in the flaunt?" In white-collar offices across Maryland, "the flaunt" has become an issue and a distraction, particularly when it comes to interns who, professionals say, perennially show more daring than sense in their work wardrobes.

Can garlic and crosses protect us from awful, pretentious vampire movies like Queen of the Damned? This kind of fiasco turns movie critics into so many Night Stalkers. You want to tell the public to beware of movies that begin with classy shots of ancient statuary and a voice moaning on and on about the intolerability of eternity. The notion behind the movie is that a rock 'n' roll culture filled with tattoos, body piercing, androgynous promiscuity and doomy proclamations would re-energize an 18th-century super-vampire like Lestat (Stuart Townsend)

Instructor Erissa Castro stands in the middle of Latin Palace's dance floor and pauses for a beat. The moment ends. "Let's do it from the beginning," Castro says. "Tempo! Five, six, seven. ... " The five students behind Castro begin to mimic her moves. At first, their facial expressions vary: lost, hesitant, nonchalant. A half hour later, they look much more confident. Offered every Wednesday, Castro's classes are among many in the city and county. Here's a sampling of dance studios and lessons in the greater Baltimore area.

— Until last weekend, I had never caught a northern pike or judged a barbecue contest. Within 24 hours, I accomplished both, a surf-and-turf daily double that made the July 4th holiday one to remember. Weirdly, I couldn't have done one without the other. And I had to eat about a gazillion pounds of chicken, ribs and steak over the course of seven hours to get to the fishing. Oh, the sacrifices we make. We'll take the fish first, even though chronologically it came second.

The East Columbia 50 Plus Center will offer a new belly dance class from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays. Instructor Camila Karam will teach hip movements, stretches, arm and hand technique, and veil dancing. The cost is $25 a month. A new yoga class with Karam is being offered from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays. The cost is $24 a month. A class on Food and Herb Supplements, with nutritionist Rona Martiyan of the Howard County Office on Aging, is planned from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Feb. 23. Refreshments will be served.