Bucket List

HOLLYWOOD -- Screenwriter Justin Zackham admits he put a bit of his own travel ambition in The Bucket List. "The truth is that the locations in the film - the pyramids, the Taj Mahal, Everest and the Great Wall of China - are all destinations on my own personal bucket list," he writes in an e-mail. The Bucket List, which opened in theaters recently, brings actors Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman together as cancer patients who become buddies and undertake "the road trip of a lifetime."

Ray Lewis is the oldest Raven - he turns 37 on Tuesday - but as one of The Baltimore Sun's top 10 all-time Maryland athletes, he's just a kid. Eight of his peers are Hall of Famers in their respective sports. Seven were stars before Lewis was born. The breadth of their accomplishments is not lost on the Ravens linebacker. "Look at the guys on that list, [Johnny] Unitas  and  Brooks [Robinson], and the impact they had. They were staples in this city, known as much for what they did off the field as on it," Lewis said.

The Bucket List is 98 minutes of mawkish sentiment, a stream of greeting-card moments made palatable only because they come out of the mouths of Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Of course, a plumber's manual would sound interesting if recited by these two men; Nicholson would make it seem subversive, while Freeman would make it seem comforting. But in the end, it would still do nothing more than tell you how to fix a leaky pipe. So it is with this movie; even with all this Hollywood star power, it's still a series of "Happiness is ... " cliches and cuddly moments.

Watching every match of the Rugby World Cup, is it on your bucket list? Well, get ready to scratch it off. Slainte, which has become a destination for English Premier League fans, is showing every RWC match from New Zealand including with the Oct. 23 final. Well, you may have missed a few already, but who's counting. All matches played between 6 a.m. and 2 a.m. ET will be shown live and replays will be shown on weekends at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. and on weekdays at 6 p.m. Slainte serves breakfast every day beginning at 7 a.m. And you never need to wonder what sporting event Slainte is showing at any given time.

Ray Lewis is the oldest Raven - he turns 37 on Tuesday - but as one of The Baltimore Sun's top 10 all-time Maryland athletes, he's just a kid. Eight of his peers are Hall of Famers in their respective sports. Seven were stars before Lewis was born. The breadth of their accomplishments is not lost on the Ravens linebacker. "Look at the guys on that list, [Johnny] Unitas  and  Brooks [Robinson], and the impact they had. They were staples in this city, known as much for what they did off the field as on it," Lewis said.

Verbraunia Rhodes of Baltimore is working on her "bucket list" and plans an Alaskan cruise to see the Northern Lights "before I pass on." She asks what time of year is best for aurora viewing. Good choice. Alaska is the best place in the U.S. to see the Northern Lights. Plan to go in September or March. Skies are dark, it's not too frigid and Earth's orbit is most likely to carry us through solar storms.

The Bucket List Rating -- PG-13 What it's about -- A pair of terminally ill old men set out to have a few peak experiences, things they've always wanted to do, places they've always wanted to visit, before they "kick the bucket." The Kid Attractor Factor -- Curmudgeonly Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman act like overgrown kids as they sky-dive, race cars and live it up. Good lessons/bad lessons -- Everybody ought to have a "bucket list," but not everything on it should be indulgent.

The miraculous thing about Jack Nicholson is that he can make even schmaltz entertaining. Perhaps it's the deep-in-the-bone sense of mischief that courses through many of his performances. Some screw is permanently loose, leading to such whacked-out delights as The Shining, the nastiness in Five Easy Pieces, the raunchy rebelliousness of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Terms of Endearment, even the surly focus of Chinatown. He has the gift of being ironic and totally present at the same time.

Watching every match of the Rugby World Cup, is it on your bucket list? Well, get ready to scratch it off. Slainte, which has become a destination for English Premier League fans, is showing every RWC match from New Zealand including with the Oct. 23 final. Well, you may have missed a few already, but who's counting. All matches played between 6 a.m. and 2 a.m. ET will be shown live and replays will be shown on weekends at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. and on weekdays at 6 p.m. Slainte serves breakfast every day beginning at 7 a.m. And you never need to wonder what sporting event Slainte is showing at any given time.

Sue Pankow looked like a pro Sunday afternoon as she grabbed the thin metal bar and shot through the air. With the Inner Harbor skyline as a backdrop, she reached out and grabbed the waiting arms of her trapeze instructor. After a huge swing, pointed toes kicking out into the cloudy sky, she released and fell to the safety net below. "I'm psyched!" the 44-year-old mother of two yelled as she bounced up and down on the net. "I don't believe I did that." But Sunday was bittersweet for the Trapeze School NY. The school, which has operated in Baltimore from April to November since 2004, is moving to Washington, where it can open year-round in a more affordable location, according to employees.

Check another item off the bucket list for Kathryn Becker, a 70-year-old Parkville grandmother who donned her Orioles turtleneck, cap and Brooks Robinson jersey and came to the ballpark Saturday afternoon for the 2011 ball girl/ball boy tryouts. She's been an Orioles fan since the beginning in the 1950s, she said, since before most of the other 64 people trying out yesterday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards were born. Becker held her own among the prospects, shouting "CHARGE," fielding grounders and tossing balls back along the warning track in left field, even if the surgery to her right shoulder about 10 years ago took some zip off her fastball.

News item: The Ravens will improve to 5-1 on Sunday if they can beat the New England Patriots for the first time ever in the regular season. My take: But it won't be the end of the world if they don't. If I had told you in Week 1 that they would be 4-2 after the toughest six-game stretch of the season, you would have signed on the dotted line. Now, you're just getting greedy. News item: Brett Favre is facing a possible suspension by the NFL for allegedly sending obscene cell phone pictures of himself to a young New York Jets game hostess.

Colin Drane is a serial entrepreneur. He pitches his latest venture, SpotCrime.com, as a way to meet the public's need for freely available crime statistics. His past, more prosaic enterprises include selling car trunk organizers, which he pitched as a way to keep groceries from being jostled and crushed. Drane, a 39-year-old Baltimorean, also has invested in other inventions, such as the Invisilift strapless bra and Bendaroos, a popular toy. He got the idea for the Trunkanizer several years ago, patented it and then launched a moderately successful campaign to sell it through an infomercial.

Sewall W. "Susie" Mann, a lifelong athlete who was known as the "Daredevil Granny" and who embarked on an odyssey of adventures that included sky diving and swimming with dolphins after receiving a diagnosis of terminal cancer last summer, died of the disease Feb. 15 at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. The Mercy Ridge resident was 79. After a long history of cardiac disease, Mrs. Mann, who was known as "Susie," had successful bypass surgery last March, only to find out four months later that she had terminal stomach cancer.

When Dina Perouty Leone spread the word a couple of years ago that she was dying of cancer, her friends from the Dundalk High School class of 1990 rallied to help. The 37-year-old real estate agent had reconnected with her classmates on Facebook, told them she had been diagnosed with Stage IV stomach cancer and asked for help paying for chemotherapy, some of the women recalled this week. Leone told them she did not want to leave this world without completing her "bucket list" - a summary of things she wanted to do before she died.

Verbraunia Rhodes of Baltimore is working on her "bucket list" and plans an Alaskan cruise to see the Northern Lights "before I pass on." She asks what time of year is best for aurora viewing. Good choice. Alaska is the best place in the U.S. to see the Northern Lights. Plan to go in September or March. Skies are dark, it's not too frigid and Earth's orbit is most likely to carry us through solar storms.

News item: The Ravens will improve to 5-1 on Sunday if they can beat the New England Patriots for the first time ever in the regular season. My take: But it won't be the end of the world if they don't. If I had told you in Week 1 that they would be 4-2 after the toughest six-game stretch of the season, you would have signed on the dotted line. Now, you're just getting greedy. News item: Brett Favre is facing a possible suspension by the NFL for allegedly sending obscene cell phone pictures of himself to a young New York Jets game hostess.

Check another item off the bucket list for Kathryn Becker, a 70-year-old Parkville grandmother who donned her Orioles turtleneck, cap and Brooks Robinson jersey and came to the ballpark Saturday afternoon for the 2011 ball girl/ball boy tryouts. She's been an Orioles fan since the beginning in the 1950s, she said, since before most of the other 64 people trying out yesterday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards were born. Becker held her own among the prospects, shouting "CHARGE," fielding grounders and tossing balls back along the warning track in left field, even if the surgery to her right shoulder about 10 years ago took some zip off her fastball.

Sue Pankow looked like a pro Sunday afternoon as she grabbed the thin metal bar and shot through the air. With the Inner Harbor skyline as a backdrop, she reached out and grabbed the waiting arms of her trapeze instructor. After a huge swing, pointed toes kicking out into the cloudy sky, she released and fell to the safety net below. "I'm psyched!" the 44-year-old mother of two yelled as she bounced up and down on the net. "I don't believe I did that." But Sunday was bittersweet for the Trapeze School NY. The school, which has operated in Baltimore from April to November since 2004, is moving to Washington, where it can open year-round in a more affordable location, according to employees.