Blue Moon

C louds will likely obscure it, but there's an odd full moon set to rise over Baltimore at 4:53 p.m. EST today. Sometimes called the Old Moon , or the Moon After Yule, this one is also the second full moon of the month, which has come to be called a Blue Moon . It would not qualify under an older tradition that reserved the name for the third full moon in a season with four. Earth's shadow will partially eclipse the moon beginning just before 2 p.m. EST. Alas, the eclipse won't be visible from Maryland.

From a showroom in a squat, brick building in Havre de Grace, with red and white balloons bobbing outside, Bob Rynes sells merchandise no one wants to buy - or even look at. No one wanders into the store, next door to a beauty salon, just to browse. That's OK with "Baltimore Bob," as his supplier has dubbed Rynes, owner of Blue Moon Casket Co., the first casket retail store in Maryland. Rynes opened this month in a carpeted showroom just big enough for a tidy desk and a dozen gleaming caskets sitting side by side, figuring he'll win customers over by saving them money.

Loretta J. Wentzel, an artist who worked in beach glass, died Thursday of lung cancer at Sinai Hospital. The Timonium resident was 57. Loretta Junghans was born in Baltimore and raised in Timonium. She attended Maryvale Preparatory School and graduated in 1970 from Dulaney High School. During the 1970s, she briefly worked for the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. before becoming a teacher's aide at Loch Raven Middle School in the 1980s, working with disabled children. Mrs. Wentzel did faux paintings during the 1990s and contributed her artistic work to several Baltimore Symphony designer showcase homes.

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. In Alexandra Arminger's case, it also is the maker of fabulous fashion. Arminger borrowed this beautifully wild Pucci-esque dress from a friend, but needed something to wear underneath to make it appropriate for greeting clients at the Owings Mills salon where she works as a receptionist. Instead of grabbing a boring tank top, Arminger pulled on a funky fishnet top. That one act of fashion-forwardness took this dress from great to g-r-r-reat!

It's riddled with improbabilities. Its tone careens between serious, adult comedy and campy send-up -- and never really figures out which way it wants to go. It uses stereotypes of gay men and Japanese executives, which some viewers will rightfully find offensive.The verdict: "Chance of a Lifetime," which airs at 9 tonight on WMAR-TV (Channel 2) is a pretty good made-for-TV movie.It's pretty good despite the flaws, because the broad strokes of the story are interesting and the casting of Betty White and Leslie Nielsen as lovers is almost inspired.

Quote: "My biggest prayer is to make [dropping to one knee in prayer] cool again. For a high school kid to get on a knee and pray and [show] it's not something that's unique or different and that it's okay to be outspoken about your faith. " New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow, while preaching at Easter Sunday's mass in Georgetown, TX on Sunday. AS TOLD TO ABC NEWS Digits: 1973 : the year local Baltimore breweries and bottling plants began to close due to competition from national brands.

It seems hard to believe a month has passed since August's blue moon, but another full moon will be upon us Saturday night. The moon reaches its fullest point at 11:19 p.m., though there's a chance scattered clouds could block the view. Fortunately, showers are no longer in the forecast for overnight Saturday, but mostly cloudy skies are expected. This one is known as the Harvest Moon, the closest full moon to the autumnal equinox, or as the Corn Moon. The Harvest Moon moniker comes from the fact that, in the days before electric lights, farmers relied on the full moon of the harvesting season to finish their work by night, according to one NASA science news report . In case of clouds, look Friday and Sunday nights too to catch a glimpse.

Some handbags refuse to disappear into the background. Whether dotted with crystals or embellished with embroidery, fashioned from felted wool or finished with tassels, these are bags that are anything but boring, bags that get noticed by strangers for their interesting shape and innovative detail. Some people call them "man magnets," said William Vablais, whose wife, Sheila Holley, designs distinctive wooden box-shaped handbags for their Springfield-Ill.-based company, Once in A Blue Moon.

TWICE IN A BLUE MOON Patricia Moyes Henry Holt 192 pages. $19.95. Patricia Moyes' series featuring Scotland Yard Superintendent Henry Tibbett and his wife, Emmy, is one of the longest-running in mystery fiction -- the first installment, "Dead Men Don't Ski," was published in 1959. But "Twice in a Blue Moon," Ms. Moyes' long-awaited new novel, is a rather bland affair, not the perfect puzzler fans have come to expect from this author.Instead of using her usual third-person voice, Ms. Moyes has innkeeper Susan Gardiner narrate the story.