Beloved

"Tell me your diamonds."This is one of many memorable lines in "Beloved," the film adapted from Toni Morrison's book that opens in theaters on Friday. The title character, a strange, otherworldly girl, is asking her mother, played by Oprah Winfrey, to tell the story of a long-lost pair of shiny crystal earrings.But when Winfrey - who has spent 10 years bringing Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to the screen - recently met with the press in Chicago, she was not wearing crystal. She was wearing very real, very big diamonds that dangled voluptuously from her ears.

Gus Triandos, a brawny slugger who won the hearts of Orioles fans starved for someone to cheer for in the 1950s, died Thursday at his home in San Jose, Calif. He was 82. "My father died in his sleep," his daughter, Lori Luna, said. "He'd been dealing with congestive heart failure for 10 years. It was hard for him to get up. "His heart just gave out. " A catcher and four-time All Star, Triandos played with the Orioles from 1955 through 1962 and was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame in 1981.

Angle, Donald H. On February 5, 2003 DONALD HUGH ANGLE, of Elkridge, beloved husband of Dorothy Angle (nee Nagengast); devoted father of Sharon M. Cotter, Donna L. Wildberger, Bryan D. Angle and Nancy S. Brown. He is also survived by nine grandchildren, three step grandchildren, and one step great-grandchild. Relatives and friends are invited to call at the GARY L. KAUFMAN FUNERAL HOME at MEADOWRIDGE MEMORIAL PARK INC., 7250 Washington Boulevard, Elkridge (exit 6 off Route 100), on Friday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M., and where funeral services will be held in the Vermillion Chapel on Saturday, February 8, at 9 A.M. Interment Crestlawn Memorial Gardens.

Tears filled my eyes as I read Kevin Cowherd 's column this morning about the illness of Charlie Zill or Zillbilly, the "country boy" usher at Camden Yards ("Cancer-stricken 'Zillbilly' usher hopes to see 1 or 2 more games," March 18). Having taken zillions of photographs of Mr. Zill over the years during the 7 t h -inning stretch, I was sure Mr. Cowherd would need one of them to highlight his tribute to Charlie. I was completely wrong. Charlie's Zillbilly character has been so admired, loved and photographed by others, including The Sun's photographers, that any pictures I had were superfluous.

On August 21, 2005, RAYMOND LEE BOSLEY, beloved husband of Eileen A. Bosley (nee O'Byrne); beloved son of Frances G. Bosley (nee Baumgardner) and the late Thomas E. Bosley; devoted father of Kurt P. Bosley and Leila A. Gueydan and her husband Jay; loving brother of Thomas B. Bosley and his wife Mary Jo and William J. Bosley and his wife Beverly; dear uncle of Thomas G. Bosley, Jennifer R. Reinke, William J. Bosley, Jr., Marilee A. Walter, Amanda R....

On May 24, 2007, ANNIE LAURIE, of Oxford, PA, formerly of Baltimore; beloved wife of the late Maurice K. Graham, Sr.; loving mother of Barbara A. Schroeder, John S. Waters and the late "Jerry" A. Waters. She is also survived by three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren and a host of other beloved relatives and friends. Graveside Services for Mrs. Graham will be held on Saturday at 1 P.M. in Fort Lincoln Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Fulton-Seimers Memorial-Christ United Methodist Church of the Deaf, 1040 S. Beechfield Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21229.

OPRAH Winfrey calls "Beloved" the black equivalent of "Schindler's List." To be sure, every ethnic group has a right, and perhaps even a duty, to project its painful history onto the silver screen. If white southerners of generations past were entitled to "Birth of a Nation" and "Gone With the Wind," then surely the black experience in the South can be told in film, too, from "Cabin in the Sky" to "Rosewood."Once upon a time, Hollywood recreated history with regularity; wizened character actor George Arliss made a career in anachronistic costume, playing everyone from Benjamin Disraeli to Cardinal Richelieu to Baron Rothschild.

Elrod Hendricks, Oriole for record 37 years Elrod Hendricks, an affable and beloved sports figure in Baltimore who spent 37 of his 45 seasons in professional baseball in an Orioles uniform as a player or coach, died last night. Hendricks would have turned 65 today. Orioles executive vice president Mike Flanagan, a friend of Mr. Hendricks', confirmed the death but didn't want to comment until he had notified other members of the organization. Mr. Hendricks died at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, hospital spokeswoman Allison Eatough told the Associated Press.

LIKE MILLIONS of Americans, I'm pumped for the new season. Who wouldn't be? The scouting report promises another year of murder and betrayal, of greed and retribution, of lust and larceny, and of course all this makes me warm and tingly inside. That's right, The Sopranos, HBO's mega-hit series about the Jersey wise-guy life, returns Sunday after a 16-month hiatus, and if that isn't a reason to grab the remote and tear open the Doritos, I don't know what is. There's a school of thought that says what makes The Sopranos so compelling is that it deals with the ups and downs of ordinary life, portraying Tony Soprano as a sort of suburban Everyman, minus the Craftsman riding mower.

THE SHRILL, whistling sound followed by a noticeable ka-boom you heard as 1998 came to a close was the sound of Oprah Winfrey's movie "Beloved" bombing."

Liz Bowie usually provides balanced and informative coverage of education issues, but she presented an absurdly rosy perspective on the national Common Core standards for K-12 English and math that start kicking in this fall ("Schools hear call for more 'rigor,'" Aug. 27). To say that a "near-national consensus" has formed in support of these one-size-fits-all curricular guidelines ignores the fact that many state legislatures adopted the Common Core in an unseemly rush to qualify for federal Race to the Top largesse, without public hearings or school board votes.

Employees atNASA'sGoddard Space Flight Center, a group accustomed to looking skyward, have been forced to focus a bit more on the ground after last month's powerful storm ripped a large, low branch from an iconic tree on the Greenbelt campus. The nearly 200-year-old willow oak, known to Goddard workers as the "Tree of Life," had been spared from destruction three years ago when architects decided to make it a prominent landscaping feature of the new Exploration Sciences Building.

Davie, FLA -- The body of murder victim William Norman was to be shipped today to his native Maryland, where former students and colleagues remembered him as a beloved high school principal with the Anne Arundel County public schools. Scholarship funds in Norman's name are being set up, and plans are underway for memorial ceremonies, according to former student Kimberly Smith. "He was a gentle giant," said Smith, who attended Chesapeake High School in Pasadena in the early 1980s when Norman was principal.

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar. " It either could be a charming children's movie, or the caterpillar could be made into a giant human-eating caterpillar and it could be a bloody, campy horror. Luke Broadwater, reporter, The Baltimore Sun I'm very interested in the cinematic possibilities for "Go the F--- to Sleep. " Especially as directed by Zach Snyder or Darren Aronofsky. Anne Tallent, editor, b "The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junkfood" is one of my favorite children's books.

You're smitten with your valentine, but not with the idea of a mass-produced card or a pricey trinket. Then why not give the objection of your affection a handmade gift? While crafting was once the domain of your grandmother, these days do-it-yourself projects are hip and retro-chic. And thanks to such popular websites as Etsy - a marketplace for handmade and vintage items - and fun reads like Suzie Williams' "The Complete Book of Retro Crafts," it's now a cinch to go "crafty. " And there's sentimental value.

At the height of its popularity, "Soul Train" felt like a religion in Baltimore. The Saturday daytime show hosted by the late Don Cornelius was not to be missed - like church or the early seasons of "Saturday Night Live," according to Tim Watts, a longtime Baltimore disc jockey. "It was like 'SNL' with John Belushi, where everyone had to go home to watch TV Saturday nights," Watts said. "On Saturday mornings, people in Baltimore would clean the house and put 'Soul Train' on. It was the soundtrack of our youth.

PITY THE POOR KITTY or pooch whose bereaved owner refuses to let nature take its course. The announcement this week that Texas A&M University has successfully cloned a housecat inspires the conflicting reactions of fascination and dread. To be sure, the technology amazes while it raises ethical questions and entrepreneurial speculation. Opponents of human cloning and many humane societies are screaming: Dolly the sheep opened Pandora's box, but CC the cat drags the evil right into the living room.

Arigesta Harris, a factory worker and mother of five who was a beloved figure in Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood, died March 5 at the University of Maryland Medical Center of an aneurysm. She was 60. She died a week before she was to wed Tearan Melvin, her companion of 20 years. A graduate of Baltimore's Southern High School, Mrs. Harris worked for 15 years on the assembly line at Carr Lowery glass company. Later, after taking time off to raise her children, she became an employee at B&W Optical Co. She was at work the morning she became ill. Mrs. Harris, whose marriage to Arthur Harris Sr. ended in divorce, was a lifelong member of Mt. Sinai Holy Church in Cherry Hill.

Dr. Harry L. Knipp, whose family had been associated with family medicine in West Baltimore and Catonsville for 110 years and who treated generations of families, died Friday of an intestinal disease at his home in Hedgesville, W.Va. The former longtime Ten Hills resident was 87. Dr. Knipp was born at his grandfather's house, at Fremont Avenue and Lanvale Street, where his father George A. Knipp and grandfather Harry E. Knipp practiced medicine together. The Knipps have been practicing medicine — 11 family members have been physicians —since pre-Revolutionary War days.