Bottle

UPDATE: Check out a photo gallery of images from Joe Flacco's wedding here. The photos can also be found on the website of photographer Jason Prezant , but the site has been inaccessible due to the high interest in the Flacco pictures. . Joe Flacco's wedding photos have been posted out in the blogosphere, and simply put, they are amazing. The photos, which were published to the blog of wedding photographer Jason Prezant, shed a little light onto what the Ravens quarterback is like away from the television cameras and our microphones.

In the United States of 2013, any youngster can walk into a store and buy a bottle of aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen or some other pain reliever without showing any identification, parental consent or a doctor's order. They don't have to be 15 or 17 or even old enough to know how to make exact change if the cashier will help them out. So what's the big deal about a bottle of a common analgesic, you may ask? Well, it may be the most dangerous over-the-counter drug available. Each year, poison control centers across the nation get thousands of calls from people who have overdosed on painkillers, particularly acetaminophen, which some people deliberately take to commit suicide, as it can cause acute liver failure if consumed in sufficient quantity.

If the Black Eyed Susan were a race horse, it would be a sprinter. It makes one strong move, then fades quickly. The strong move occurs this weekend when the cocktail will be in demand at Pamlico Race Track, during both the running of the Black Eyed Susan Stakes on Friday and the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. Over these two days, about 25,000 servings of the libation, poured into commemorative glasses, will be sold at $8 apiece, track officials say. But as soon as Preakness weekend ends, so does the does the local thirst for the Susan.

Wine growlers are coming to Maryland and the music at Merriweather Post Pavilion can play at the usual volume under Howard County-based legislation adopted in the 2013 General Assembly session. The Howard legislative delegation got just about everything it asked for in the session, which ended this week, either by having bills passed, folded into statewide legislation or included in the state's capital budget. The legislature approved bills to allow the county to create a property tax credit to encourage improvement of certain neighborhoods and give library employees the right to form a union.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's proposed 5-cent bottle tax can add up quickly. For example, five 12-packs of Diet Coke can be bought on sale for $10. Sixty cans times 5 cents equals $3. Add to that the 6 percent sales tax - 60 cents - and the total becomes $13.60. That's why I think city residents will soon find themselves buying sodas and alcohol in the county. Dave Edington

Regarding the bottle tax proposal ("Bottle tax rise gains in council" June 12): I grew up in New York State, where a five-cent tax on bottles has been on the books for at least 15 years. Nobody even thinks twice about it there; the tax is simply a small amount of money raised for a purpose that benefits everyone. I can't recall hearing anyone consider moving to Pennsylvania in order to avoid paying an extra 60 cents for a 12-pack of Pepsi. It's simply not that big a deal. Here in Baltimore, we have Councilman Warren Branch, who said of the bottle tax, "Instead of luring 10,000 people to the city, we're going to lose 10,000 people.

A four-cent tax on bottled beverages that could have prevented scores of city workers from losing their jobs was defeated Thursday at an emergency meeting of the Baltimore City Council. Without the tax — the centerpiece of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's package of new fees and tariffs to help bridge the city's $121 million budget gap — the city plans to scale back street cleaning, graffiti removal and maintenance of vacant properties, among other services. Supporters hold out the slim hope of resurrecting the measure before June 30, the deadline for officials to settle the city's budget for the coming fiscal year.

A 16-year-old boy has been charged in connection with the explosion of two improvised bottle bombs in an Aberdeen Dumpster, according to state fire marshals. Aberdeen city police originally responded to the first block of East Bel Air Avenue for a calls of "shots fired" shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday, according to a notice of investigation from the State Fire Marshal's Office. Police discovered two explosive devices – bottle bombs – inside a commercial Dumpster at the Magnolia Apartments, according to the notice.

The Sun is correct in saying that the city's bottle tax increase is "no cause for great celebration" and that residents already "suffer disproportionately from poverty and high taxes" ("Beyond the bottle tax," June 13). Yet in the same breath you applaud the City Council's decision to pass the tax, saying it has the potential to transform our schools and city into a beacon of hope that will attract thousands of families. To the contrary, the current beverage tax has failed the city, fallen woefully short, cost good jobs and hurt local grocery stores.

One of the first conversations my fiancé and I had after the spastic, electric dust settled from our engagement was about our registry. I am a slob, wannabe chef and part magpie, so getting presents to help me organize, cook and fulfill my need to see sparkly stuff seemed awesome. It didn't occur to me at first that we wouldn't register -- until Rob (my fiancé) suggested something radical. No gifts. Just wine. We're moving into a new home and hope to build a wine cellar in the stone basement.

The bottle deposit bill may be dead in the House, but its spirit evidently lives on.  Del. Maggie McIntosh, chief sponsor of the measure that would have put a nickel deposit on all plastic, glass and metal beverage containers sold in Maryland, said this week that the House Environmental Matters Committee, which she chairs, intends to take a closer look at the proposal in the coming year. The bill, HB1085 , had the support of environmentalists, who note that the 10 states with beverage container deposit programs have much higher recycling rates than Maryland.  But it drew fire from retailers and beverage makers opposed to higher prices on their products.

A bill meant to boost recycling of drink cans and bottles by charging a nickel deposit on them died in the House Environmental Matters Committee Monday. The measure, HB1085 , sponsored by the committee's chairwoman, Del. Maggie McIntosh, a Baltimore city Democrat, had the backing of environmental groups, who noted that states with similar container deposit laws had much higher recycling rates than those without. McIntosh touted the bill as a new, improved version of the bottle deposit legislation that was repeatedly pushed - and defeated - years ago in Annapolis.

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more," I say, quoting Shakespeare's Henry V, the breach being not the hole in the wall at Harfleur, but the gap between who Marylanders are as recyclers and who we could be. How's that for reducing a fine literary allusion into a mundane practicality? But I mean well. I'm talking about the gap between being pretty good recyclers of bottles and cans and being nearly excellent recyclers of same. Into that breach comes the bottle-deposit bill, now before the General Assembly.

Calling all cat lovers! You are invited to the Baltimore Humane Society's Kitten Shower, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 10, for fun, games, prizes, refreshments, and lots of kitten snuggling. A veterinarian will be on-hand to answer questions about cats (and dogs) and talk about fostering options for adoptable pets. There will be lots of activities and opportunities to win prizes, along with a bottle-feeding demonstration for current and prospective kitten owners.

History's throwaways and discards emerged as coveted attractions Sunday when bottles, vials and flasks that spent decades buried in dumps and privies returned in translucent glory. Billed as the "largest one-day bottle show in the world," the Baltimore Bottle Club's 33rd annual sale and exhibit, held in Essex, drew container connoisseurs who didn't flip a cork over paying $750 for a rare cobalt-blue poison bottle produced at Carr-Lowrey, a factory on the Middle Branch of the Patapsco in Westport.

It's one of those things that make sense but we do not do: Have a nickel deposit on every bottle and can of beer, soda and all the other liquid beverages we drink. Maryland does not have it. Some states do. Every state should. I first looked into why Maryland is a no-deposit/no-return state 30 years ago, having been raised where this was done all the time. There have been attempts over the years to get a bottle-deposit law passed in Maryland, but it was always shot down. Tom Horton, my former columnist colleague at The Sun, once cited polls showing that as many as seven out of 10 Marylanders supported the idea.

Children in Baltimore County have recently been leaving dangerous homemade "bottle bombs" in mailboxes, on people's lawns and in other outdoor areas around the county, according to Baltimore County police. "They do it as a prank," said Lt. Rob McCullough, a police spokesman, "but once again, it's dangerous. " The so-called bombs are plastic bottles filled with a chemical drain cleaner, a piece of aluminum foil and a little bit of water - three ingredients that, when mixed, cause a gas reaction that fills the bottle until it explodes.

Sometimes less is more, more or less. Sometimes, less is all you have and all you have will do just fine. Sometimes, the small things, the short things, the bits and pieces are worth keeping because they might be one day useful; my father felt that way about stove bolts. Walter Hard, a Vermont folk poet of Robert Frost's generation, once told of the frugal Yankee woman - was there any other kind? - who left a bag in her attic labeled, "Pieces of string too short to use. " So, alrighty then, that's my preamble and I'm going with it. Here, forthwith, are pieces of column too short to use ... • Suggestion for the Baltimore merchants who oppose Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's proposal to increase the city's bottle tax to five cents to pay for school renovations: Turn what you see as a problem into an opportunity.

I think the real reason the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Beverage Association is against the "Recycle for Real" bill is because it will create more work for beverage retailers and the beverage distributors ("Drink deposit fight brewing," Jan. 15). They may even have to add employees to handle the work. I do not think an added nickel, that a purchaser will get back, will deter anyone from buying a bottled or canned beverage. It will make everyone more thoughtful before throwing out a bottle or can because then it is worth something.