Blue Moon

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!

Each year when the air turns crisp, a few loyal customers head west on Liberty Road until fast-food restaurants give way to horse farms. Turning onto a long driveway, they pull past a jumble of tables tangled with vines to park by a turnip patch. Then they follow the instructions painted on a wooden sign in green and red letters: "For wood blow horn here." After a few moments, John Holbrook opens the door to his house and shuffles down the steps. At 81, he doesn't pull out his chainsaw so much anymore, but he still sells the logs he split a few years ago. It's good wood, he says, mostly long-burning locust, well aged by wind and sun. For folks who like to keep the home fires burning all winter long, buying pricey little bundles of wood at the gas station or grocery store is not an option.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The uncle of Orioles reliever LaTroy Hawkins called his nephew around midnight Saturday after he left his job at a steel mill and asked how that night's game against the Tampa Bay Devils Rays went. "`I'm not even going to tell you,' " Hawkins said he told his uncle. "I said, `When you get home, turn on ESPN and then call me back.' And he called me back about 2 a.m." This is how Hawkins summed up the Devil Rays' 13-12 victory, which was the first time in 73 years that two teams each scored nine runs or more in an inning in the same game.

INDIANAPOLIS -- To pull off one of the most thrilling upsets in NFL playoff history, the Pittsburgh Steelers needed a hit by their quarterback and a miss by the game's most accurate kicker. Moments after Ben Roethlisberger made a touchdown-saving tackle off a fumble recovery, Indianapolis Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt badly missed wide right on a 46-yard field goal with 17 seconds remaining, enabling the Steelers to escape with a pulsating 21-18 triumph at the RCA Dome yesterday. The heavily favored Colts stood in disbelief as their season came to an abrupt close just about one month removed from flirting with a perfect season.

For a Sunday morning, our 25-minute wait at the Blue Moon Cafe wasn't bad. In the 6 1/2 years since it opened, this cozy Fells Point cafe has become something of an institution, with customers gladly waiting an hour or more for tables, especially on the weekends. One reason for the wait is that the place is so small, with only 10 tables jammed into its wood-floored, blue-walled space. Another - more important - reason is that Blue Moon fills a niche, serving enormous, dirt-cheap breakfasts that put lots of diner fare to shame.

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.

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.

You heard it here first: Backstreet Boys will break up in November! Brian and Nick will pursue successful solo careers. Howie will do stand-up comedy and Kevin will hit the lecture circuit. And A.J.'s shot at going solo might make him wish that the group was back together. That noise you just heard? It's the sound of countless young girls fainting at the mere thought of a world without Backstreet Boys. Before panic grips an unsuspecting nation, it's time to confess that this news has not been confirmed by any official sources.

Alex Schmidt has had a crazy month or two. Scarcely back from her honeymoon in Nevis and St. Barts, she'll be dancing the night away tomorrow at the Blue Moon Ball to benefit the League: Serving People with Disabilities. As a member of the Friends of the League, Schmidt has put a lot of hard work into the event, and it's a safe bet that the account executive for the Jewish Times and Style magazine will be putting just as much hard work into her big-band swing moves. That Schmidt, a veteran of both Chanel and Armani PR departments, will be making those moves in haute designer style, is a given.

The blue moon is the second full moon to shine in a single month. This doesn't happen too often - therefore, the expression "once in a blue moon."The Blue Moon Dining House, opened just two months ago in Fells Point, is a rare find worthy of its name. It serves modestly priced breakfast, lunch and dinner and is especially adept at the morning meal. Ethereal biscuits, gooey cinnamon rolls and crisp hash browns are certainly "heavenly bodies."Blue Moon's menu is printed with the command, "Support our space program," the front door bears a poster for the Hubble Space Telescope, and the bathroom is home to a cool glow-in-the-dark moon.