Blue

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

Brendan Fowler won more than 55 percent of his faceoffs and scooped up at least 34 ground balls in each of his first two seasons at Duke, but still was not making much of a dent in terms of playing time. Then again, considering that C.J. Costabile - who won 53 percent of his draws and collected 376 ground balls en route to being named Division I's top midfielder - was atop the depth chart, Fowler was not fretting about his opportunities. “C.J. just brought a different dynamic as a faceoff guy,” Fowler recalled Wednesday afternoon.

I'm confused about choosing a color to paint my kitchen. I've heard that green is the color of the year. And then I hear about gray being the new neutral. What are the best colors to paint the kitchen? A kitchen should be an inviting gathering space, so warmer or brighter tones are ideal, such as deep ivories, rich coppers, luscious reds, golden yellows and yellow-greens. Be sure to take countertops, appliances and floors into consideration when selecting your color. You'll want something that complements these accents and flows naturally into the surrounding rooms of your home.

He saw his first Blue Angels show in Detroit at age 6, and Thomas Frosch says the experience inspired him to want to become a pilot. He saw four more performances while attending the Naval Academy, including one the "Blues" put on before his graduation in 1992. Now commander and flight leader of the Blue Angels, Frosch, a Navy commander, was looking forward to returning to Annapolis this week, where he would have led his team through its traditional jaw-dropping show as part of the Academy's graduation week.

Nobody asked me, but someone — and it might as well be me — ought to tell Martin O'Malley to curb his enthusiasm over the blue crabs making a comeback. It's great that the count is the best in more than a decade, but the Chesapeake Bay is still a mess, and the last thing we need is a governor crowing about a resurgent resource. Next thing you know, there's a battle with watermen over extending the season and increasing the catch. When something's in abundance, the human instinct is to fully exploit it. Been there, done that.

The biggest hit of the night during Friday's Orioles-Athletics game at Camden Yards came during the seventh-inning stretch, when a bare-chested fan ran onto the field. He ran around as the Baltimore City Police closed in on him. He ran down the third-base line and slid face first into home plate. He got up to the cheers of fans. And then he went down just as quickly - a blind-side tackle from plate umpire Jeff Kellogg. The fans erupted again.

On July 26, 2004, WILLIAM J. BLUE, SR. On Friday friends may call at the VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICE, 4101 Edmondson Avenue from 3 to 8 P.M. On Saturday, Mr. Blue will lie in state at Garden of Prayer Baptist Church, 1148 Homestead Street where the family will receive friends from 10 to 10:30 A. M with services to follow. Inquiries to(410) 945-2700.

TELEVISION coverage of the Orioles' games these days finds the camera reaching out beyond the stadium to make the point that the stadium is, happily, located downtown, well within the old city. Frequently, the camera finds its way to, and comes to rest at, the old Bromo Seltzer Tower building -- sans the "blue bottle." All of which has been leading to suggestions from fans (and this newspaper) to the city fathers that they "bring back the blue bottle."That's not a bad idea, but it will take some doing.

On June 9, 2005, EDNA R. Friends may visit the James A. Morton & Sons Funeral Home, 311 Main St., Turners Station, MD., on Monday 4 to 7 P.M. On Tuesday Mrs. Blue will lie in state at New Shiloh Baptist Church. The family will receive friends 10:30 to 11 A.M., followed by services.

Has Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Maryland overstated its net worth by as much as $100 million? Has it squandered millions on new, poorly-managed subsidiaries? Has it hidden money-losing ventures from state regulators and even from its own board of directors?These are now critical questions. The U.S. Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations issued a scathing report in September accusing Maryland's largest health care insurer of doing all of those things and more.According to the Senate report, Marylanders covered by Blue Cross-Blue Shield have received bad service while their premiums have jumped more than 25 percent a year.

Now that Johns Hopkins has opened the door for conferences to woo the illustrious program, the most pressing question centers on if there is one league that best suits the Blue Jays - and vice versa. If coach Dave Pietramala and athletic director Tom Calder are steadfast in retaining traditional rivalries, the Atlantic Coast Conference would appear to be the best fit. Joining that league would allow Johns Hopkins to maintain traditional series with North Carolina, Syracuse and Virginia, and the team would simply have to carve out space for Duke and Notre Dame.

The Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse program plans to surrender its status as an independent and join a conference, the university announced Friday. The Blue Jays have competed independently for 130 years, winning nine NCAA championships and qualifying for 41 consecutive NCAA tournaments before getting left out of the postseason earlier this month. In a letter to the Johns Hopkins community and posted on the school's website, president Ronald J. Daniels said he accepted the recommendation of a seven-member special committee that proposed that the program pursue a conference affiliation.

The nation's debt to men and women who serve in uniform can never be fully repaid. But Jane Kramer believes every little bit helps. She said that's why the Howard County Garden Club undertook the project to install a Blue Star Memorial marker, honoring present and former armed forces members, in the heart of Ellicott City. At the Howard County Welcome Center at 8267 Main St. in Ellicott City, a formal dedication was held Friday at 10 a.m., with live music, military ceremonies, presentations and comments from local elected officials.

In her column ("An Annapolis tradition, grounded," May 13), Susan Reimer writes that Congress should be ashamed that because of sequestration the Blue Angels will skip the U.S. Naval Academy graduation this year. Really? How about President Barack Obama, shouldn't he be ashamed? After all, sequestration was his idea, and Congress wanted to give him the power to decide where the cuts would take place, which Mr. Obama refused to do. Lets see, if the president agreed to that it would have required him to take responsibility for one of his polices, which he never does.

In her column "An Annapolis tradition, grounded" (May 13) Susan Reimer laments the fact that the Blue Angels flyover at the graduation ceremonies for cadets was canceled, and she thinks Congress should be ashamed for cutting funds for such a trivial "carnival act. " Meanwhile, the Obama administration has apparently sicced the IRS on tea party groups for political reasons, the very groups who are fighting to keep such frivolous expenditures off...

My town, Annapolis, is a special kind of college town. The students at the Naval Academy are distinctive not for their backpacks, ear buds and school T-shirts, but for their crisp summer whites and their somber dress blues. The midshipmen take off their hats - their covers - when they enter a building, and they say "sir" and "ma'am" when you greet them. At this college, you don't pay anything unless you quit or get kicked out. About 1,400 arrive every July, but only about 800 will graduate four years later.

Members of the Riviera Beach Volunteer Fire Co. roll through the streets of Pasadena playing St. Nick, de livering not only Christmas gifts to people in need but also installing smoke detectors, leaving behind a trail of smiles.

Visiting Loyola trails, 15-10, in its series with Duke, which has won six of the last seven meetings. The teams have faced each other just once in the NCAA tournament with the Blue Devils cruising to a 12-7 victory in the first round of the 2008 postseason. The Greyhounds (11-4) have won seven of their past nine contests, but are trying to rebound from an 18-11 thumping by Ohio State in an Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament semifinal on May 2. With 126 career goals, senior attackman Mike Sawyer is seven goals away from tying Pat Lamon for the most in that department in school history.

Johns Hopkins was left out of the NCAA tournament Sunday night for the first time since 1971. The exclusion snapped a streak of 41 consecutive appearances in the tournament, which ended what had been the longest active streak in a Division I team sport. The streak was a point of pride for the program, but could also be a burden as senior classes feared about being the one unable to extend the run. Coach Dave Pietramala said the streak did not weigh on him. But for the players? That might have been a different story.