Big Picture

It was very nice of Bob Leffler to paint his big picture of what many of us call the mistake in progress at Towson University regarding eliminating the 91-year soccer program ("The big picture for TU," April 16). As an alumnus who has a consecutive giving record since graduation in 1957, as a player on the soccer team for four years, as a member and former officer of the Towson University Hall of Fame, and as an activist on behalf of the institution through the years, I still very much care about my school.

My business is located at 309 Main St., in Laurel. Outback Leather is a one-stop leather shop. We do everything from custom fitting boots and saddles, to the horse and rider, to while-you-wait shoe repair. Outback Leather has been on Main St. for over 20 years, 15 years in the formally Gayer's Saddlery Building. I just wanted to thank the Laurel Leader for its article, "20th century marathons found a starting line in Laurel" (April 4). It was very generous of the Leader to put a big picture of my building that covers almost half the page, and then give credit to another business, instead of a business that has been running for 20 years, as the building in the background.

Wim Wenders' spectacular image of the Australian outback, on view at C. Grimaldis Gallery, presents an enormous panorama of rust-colored rock, jagged mountains and pale-blue sky 6 feet tall and more than 14 feet long - a picture so large it nearly fills an entire wall of the gallery. Only a few years ago, such a gargantuan image would have been a rarity - indeed, a near physical impossibility - for most photography shows, where the idea of big used to be anything larger than 8-by-10 inches.

It was very nice of Bob Leffler to paint his big picture of what many of us call the mistake in progress at Towson University regarding eliminating the 91-year soccer program ("The big picture for TU," April 16). As an alumnus who has a consecutive giving record since graduation in 1957, as a player on the soccer team for four years, as a member and former officer of the Towson University Hall of Fame, and as an activist on behalf of the institution through the years, I still very much care about my school.

The Sun has given prominent coverage to the most dramatic aspects of the BGE rate increase story: legislation passed by a special session of the General Assembly that caps the initial increase at 15 percent instead of 72 percent, fires all current members of the Public Service Commission, which oversees utility regulation, and restructures the commission. The newspaper also has paid close attention to a public hearing on the bill that was chaired and tightly controlled by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., and to the governor's subsequent veto of the legislation.

PRINCESS ANNE -- Fang Mitchell paced in front of Coppin State's bench. He wiped his face with his hands, waved his arms, stomped his feet and hollered. And this was during the first minute of the game.By the end, Mitchell had covered more ground than a marathoner. But he had more to show for it, too -- his 400th career win.Not that he enjoyed it much. Coppin rallied in the last six minutes to defeat UMES, 69-60, at Tawes Gymnasium, but if that were reason to celebrate, Mitchell couldn't see it.His vision was locked on what he calls "the big picture."

Aberdeen had just beaten rival Edgewood on its home court by 37 points, avenging three losses to the Rams last year - including a 36-point drubbing in the state playoffs. But on the mind of Eagles junior forward Erin Henderson, who registered 14 points and 12 rebounds in Aberdeen's 84-47 victory before 850 at a sold-out Rams' gym on Friday, was the big picture, not the big payback. "This feels good, but this is just another step to where we want to be," said Henderson, the brother of University of Maryland All-American linebacker E.J. Henderson.

Dishing out sports media notes while waiting for the next episode of the new summer series on Fox News, The Greta and Brett Show: *The hiring of Bob Papa as the NFL Network's play-by-play voice - a long-anticipated move announced this week - means a switch in outlook on the games from the perspective offered by Bryant Gumbel. That's according to the man sitting behind the analyst microphone for the Thursday night package, Cris Collinsworth. "With Bryant, I was always interested in his take on the games because Bryant has a way of seeing a very broad picture of the NFL and big picture of where the NFL fits in the world, obviously with all his news background and such," Collinsworth said, according to highlights of a conference call.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh made it abundantly clear to reporters on Monday that he had no interest in talking about letdowns, psychology and the big picture. He just wanted to talk about football, which explains why he said "football" nine times in 30 seconds during his press conference. [ via Baltimore Sports Report ]

My business is located at 309 Main St., in Laurel. Outback Leather is a one-stop leather shop. We do everything from custom fitting boots and saddles, to the horse and rider, to while-you-wait shoe repair. Outback Leather has been on Main St. for over 20 years, 15 years in the formally Gayer's Saddlery Building. I just wanted to thank the Laurel Leader for its article, "20th century marathons found a starting line in Laurel" (April 4). It was very generous of the Leader to put a big picture of my building that covers almost half the page, and then give credit to another business, instead of a business that has been running for 20 years, as the building in the background.

For full disclosure's sake, I am a 1968 graduate of what is now Towson University (and a 1974 graduate of Morgan State University). I taught high school for 14 years and founded an advertising agency that has a sports specialty. Our company has done sports ticket sales campaigns for 43 university programs in 24 states over a 30 year period - including Towson - as well as several pro teams, including all of the local franchises. To say that specializing in college athletics is not a way to build a big media billing agency is an understatement.

The Windy City is engulfed in a stormy teachers' strike that has gathered front-page national attention. But will it turn out to be just more hot air in the national debate over school reform? I'm afraid so, even though the issues at stake in Chicago are not irrelevant. First, it's noteworthy that the stumbling block is not teacher pay. That's a vital lesson: We must work harder to understand other factors that count more in the all-important recruitment and retention of good teachers.

It's 11 p.m. when Dean Pees arrives at his Reisterstown home, after 16 hours of hatching game plans as the Ravens' new defensive coordinator. Tired? You bet. Sleep? Not yet. Pees, 63, heads for the study, sits at the digital piano, dims the lights and tickles the ivories. The music - mostly self-penned, easy-listening stuff - could calm a manic Ray Lewis. Not Pees. Each note fires his football imagination. "Oftentimes, this is when he does his best thinking and scheming of defenses," said Melody Pees, his wife.

Granted the program's first ranking in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll, Washington will test that No. 15 ranking this Saturday when No. 17 Gettysburg visits Roy Kirby Jr. Field in Chestertown. The Shoremen (8-2 overall and 5-0 in the Centennial Conference) own a half-game lead over the Bullets (7-3, 4-0), who have captured the league championship 13 times. But Washington, winners of eight straight, is riding its own wave of confidence. “It's one of those things where that can absolutely work in our favor,” coach Jeff Shirk said Monday.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh made it abundantly clear to reporters on Monday that he had no interest in talking about letdowns, psychology and the big picture. He just wanted to talk about football, which explains why he said "football" nine times in 30 seconds during his press conference. [ via Baltimore Sports Report ]

Derrek Lee, who had been an Oriole for all of 31/2 months, summoned his struggling teammates together and delivered a message that was a mix of encouragement, insight and advice. With the Orioles in the midst of an eight-game losing streak in mid-April, Lee urged his teammates to relax, acknowledged that he needed to start doing his part and concluded there was too much talent in the home clubhouse for the lineup to be performing as it was. "He thought it was appropriate at the time, and so did everybody else," Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis said.

The Contemporary Museum's "The Big Picture -- Take II" seemed quite the party at which to see and be seen. Many big names in the art world were there -- William Wegman, Connie Imboden, Andy Warhol, Grace Hartigan and Alexander Calder, to name a few -- names, that is, gracing some of the artwork being sold at the museum's second annual benefit auction and exhibition at its home at 100 West Centre St. And then there were the names of the 135 art aficionados present,...

The Big Picture. The New Logic of Money and Power in Hollywood By Edward Jay Epstein. Random House. 381 pages. $25.95. Each week, most newspapers publish the movie industry's Top 10 weekly box office grosses. To the press and to most consumers, this chart is the barometer of financial success for films. But as well-respected journalist Edward Jay Epstein writes in his meticulously reported new book, The Big Picture, the size of those box office receipts has little to do in defining success in today's Hollywood.

Big picture: smart move Steve Svekis Sun Sentinel Over the course of a single game, the rules change will spare players a half-dozen or so of the most violent, collision-filled sequences that occur in the NFL, as it will be a shock if the vast majority of kickers can't routinely get the ball deep into the end zone. So, it is a prudent move as evidence continues to pour in regarding the grievous post-career lives to which so many of these crippled men are relegated.

From Jay Hancock's Blog: I can't reproduce the Zillow graph, apparently because it's a flash chart. But it says my house is worth $491,000, which is about $5,000 more than we paid for it in late 2003. I know Zillow values aren't gospel, but they're a rough and interesting indicator of where house values have been and are going. We paid $485,000 for the Howard County house in November 2003. According to Zillow it was worth $670,000 by 2006, and as recently as last summer it was worth $540,000, according to the Web site.