Bright Colors

While other designers showcase glam-rock '80s styles, Ann Taylor is as classic as ever. The Spring 2001 Collection features modern, ultra-feminine clothes with a focus on lean silhouettes and easy versatility. Here's what to expect: Suits -- Range from fluid, wide-leg trousers with single-button jackets to knee-length dresses with matching fitted jackets Dresses -- Vibrant prints in pinks and yellows hug the body, some with ruffle details at the cuffs, collars or hems Separates -- Lots of color and class: pale-yellow leather jackets paired with cropped pants of the same shade, green and blue paisley wraparound shirts with slim silk pants, a scooped-neck T and checked Capri pant Accessories -- Strappy sandals, floral scarves, lizard bags Listen: gemstones on the earphones Mobile phones aren't just a means of communication anymore -- they're a personal statement.

This is the time of year pumpkins take center stage. But if there were a Robin to the pumpkin's Batman, it would certainly be the gourd. Gourds are as much a part of autumn as their big orange cousin. And, in some cases, even more so because gourds are often displayed well into November, long after pumpkins have become pie. Gourds come in bright colors, some sporting warts, stripes, bi-colors and even wings. But these welcome decorations are only part of the picture. Gourds are also used as spoons, bowls, musical instruments, art, dolls and sponges.

With Baltimore-area new-home sales continuing to creep along, it seems that some builders are literally going back to the drawing boards to come up with new ideas to spark buyer interest.Housing Data Reports, a Washington-based research firm that tracks new-home sales, stated in its September report that single-family home sales were up slightly for the year, by 3.7 percent, but that townhouse and condominium sales were down 12 percent and 19 percent, respectively, in the Baltimore metropolitan area.

It's June, the month of the strawberry moon, according to Native American lore. In our neighborhood, it is the month of roses. Guilford's gardens are abloom with roses of every variety and hue. At our house, careful watering through the recent heat wave have produced a plethora of blooms, many of them from heirloom plants, a legacy of a former owner. From palest pink to deepest crimson, they are a joy to behold. We do not grow strawberry plants, but we do see tiny pears on our tree, a promise of luscious fruits in just a few weeks.

Before I get down to the nitty gritty, let me say that I fully agree with The Aegis' sports editor Randy McRoberts, who voiced his distaste in Wednesday's paper on how the MPSSAA decided to move Class 2A teams into the 1A field hockey tournament in order to better fill out the brackets. That move does not sit well with me, and if I were a coach or player on the Havre de Grace, Perryville or Bohemia Manor teams, which are the only true 1A schools playing in the North bracket, I'd write a strongly worded letter to the powers that be. I am not trashing the efforts of the MPSSAA, which, like every scholastic athletic association in the country has a tough, thankless job, and I appreciate the work it puts forth (seriously, in four-plus years of trying to pick fights with various people, teams, organizations, coaches, etc. with this column, the only time I ever wrote anything bad about the MPSSAA was after some goon with a walkie talkie tried to beat me up for attempting to do an on-field interview with Fallston's Caitlin Dempsey, after she scored a double-overtime goal in the Cougars' 1-0 victory over Bethesda-Chevy Chase in the 2007 Class 3A state title game)

Frustrated by shoddy-quality kids' toys, Fred Lundahl, owner of a pressed steel company in Moline, Ill., made a toy truck for his 5-year-old son in 1920 and built an industry. He wanted his son, Buddy "L," to have indestructible playthings to resemble the newest adult toy, the automobile, and to spark imaginative play.Just before the younger Lundahl died in 1981, he wrote that his father "truly believed that the only really good playthings were those that could make a child's dreams come true, playthings you could actually do things with, ones that REALLY WORKED just like the big machines they modeled."

Pacific Trading Cards' fifth edition of Major Soccer League Cards is out. The set has 170 cards, down from last season's record 220, and is available in packs of 12 and factory sets.This is a sharp-looking set and makes a quantum leap past its predecessors. Card stock is better, and card style is more sophisticated.Card fronts have Pacific's customary glossy coating (don't sort your cards lying on the sofa -- they're likely to slip-slide all over the place). Angles are in, with the left border widening to a near-triangle to accommodate a vertical nameline, as another triangle runs along the bottom, giving team affiliation and position.

Isn't that your suitcase on the luggage carousel?The one with the yards of duct tape holding it together and the handle that's half torn off?Looks as though it's time for a new one.Though packing a suitcase is a grim but unavoidable part of traveling, shopping for that suitcase can be fun.You've no doubt noticed those confident travelers who breeze through airports wheeling neat black bags that glide smoothly over tile floors, asphalt parking lots, even...

German troops may have been marching outside his studio door in Nice in the summer of 1943, but the late works of French artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954) nonetheless shine with a joyful celebration of life. That's the optimistic message of Jazz, an artist book of 20 stencil prints on the theme of the circus that Matisse created from cut-paper collages during the final creative period of his life. Now that work, one of the most influential artist books of the 20th century, is the centerpiece of a lovely one-gallery exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Matisse: Jazz runs through Aug. 27 at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive.

Maybe it is the bright lights on its facade, or the vivid colors of the dining room walls, or Sinatra crooning over its sound system. Whatever the reason, Tony's Diner reminds me of dining in an Atlantic City hotel. First a note on the restaurant's exterior: It is cool. At night, seven pillars of colored lights wash the upper reaches of the restaurant's front. The lights slowly change colors. This brightens a stretch of Park Avenue just north of 1st Mariner Arena and blends in nicely with the neon glow of a sign reading "Tony's Diner."