Capers

On January 6, 2007; CAPERS J. THOMPSON, SR; beloved husband of Rebecca A. Thompson. On Thursday friends may call VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES (RANDALLSTOWN), 8728 Liberty Rd. from 5:00 to 8:00 P.M. On Friday, Mr. Thompson will lie instate at VCGFS, 8728 Liberty Road, where the family will receive friends from 10:30 to 11:00 A.M. with services to follow. Inquiries to (410)655-0015

Local author Sherban Young pens what he calls “mystery capers.” The 37-year-old Ellicott City resident got interested in solving puzzles and mysteries through CD-ROM interactive adventure games while at Loyola University, where he majored in English literature. Though in partnership with his father in a Columbia financial planning firm, Young has disciplined himself to devote time each morning to writing his mystery capers. “I love to solve puzzles,” he said, adding that his style of mystery writing enables “readers to enjoy themselves ... my writing is to be entertaining and intriguing.

I am not confident in the company of capers. I have a jar of the pickled green flower buds lurking somewhere in the fridge. Most folks do. But I am not sure when to break it out.Capers remind me of semicolons. I know it is permissible to sprinkle a few around, but I worry about how much is appropriate. If you flaunt them, people think you are putting on airs.And just as the semicolon packs more authority than a comma but less than a period, so a caper delivers more wallop than parsley but less clout than garlic.

When life hands you car theft, make political hay. “While picking up his car from a local automotive repair shop last month, [Jody] Landers' vehicle was stolen as he was inside the office and paying for the work,” the former City Councilman's mayoral campaign announced Wednesday. “More than two weeks after the car was recovered, Landers started receiving notices, via U.S. mail, of several parking and moving violations that were the work of the thief. After trying for several hours to convince the City to waive these fees and dealing with red tape issues, Landers ultimately relented and paid the fines.” Landers' campaign got one thing wrong: He never relented.

An old friend is back in the restaurant business, and that's good news for eaters.Garry Anderson has opened Garry's Grill in the former Family Circle Restaurant in the Olde Severna Park Village ShoppingCenter on Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard.It's enough to get your salivary glands working double time.Remember back in 1980 when a little dining place in Cape St. Clair began serving such wonderful food? They called it Capers.Anderson, the sales and marketing man-turned restaurateur, and his then-wife transformed that tiny, strip shopping center business into one of the highest-rated dining spots in the county.

The late Elizabeth David, the Julia Child of England, had no reservations about capers - unlike a lot of people. She bought the best from France (small Rhone River valley capers called nonpareilles) and put copious amounts out in small bowls or piled mounds of them on dinner plates to accompany roast lamb or beef.The French seem to prefer capers stirred into hot brown butter and poured over sauteed fish, while the Italians use this Mediterranean bud's piquant taste to perk up stewed vegetables or fish.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Dom Capers, the architect of the NFL's most aggressive defense, appears to be the top choice to become the first head coach of the Carolina Panthers.According to sources and an ESPN report, Capers is the man the Panthers hope to hire, although contract negotiations are not yet under way and the team has been ordered by the NFL to stop discussions with Capers because of possible violations of the league's anti-tampering policy.It could not be confirmed whether Capers, 44, has agreed to take the job. Other NFL teams with coaching vacancies, especially the Philadelphia Eagles, are believed to be interested in him, too.Capers could not be reached, and Panthers president Mike McCormack said, "We're being consistent.

It is time to bring the "Doonesbury" technique to this column.Lately the comic strip has been advocating reader participation.First with tongue in cheek, a "Doonesbury" character urged Americans to become "Just Like the Prez" and become tax residents of Texas, a state without a personal income tax. About 25,000 readers have filled out a mock form, printed in the comic strip, asking for the same income tax break as Texas resident George Bush.Then, shortly after Gennifer Flowers said she was paid by a tabloid to tell the story of her alleged affair with Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton, "Doonesbury" printed another gag form.

Cooking en papillote means baking something -- fish fillets often -- on a bed of aromatic vegetables in a pouch of parchment or foil. The contents of the pouch steam in their juices, their flavors mixing. We love the romance of en papillote: First, you cut a giant heart from the parchment or foil. Then, when you serve, each diner opens his own personal pouch to get a fragrant poof of steam. Very cool. Robin Mather Jenkins writes for the Chicago Tribune, which provided the recipe analysis.

In the New Year, Mary Louise Capers will be basking on the sugary beaches of St. Maarten in the British Virgin Islands -- a small reward for (and a brief respite from) her nine years of dedicated service tothe Glen Burnie community.Capers, a founder of the Glen Burnie Interest Group, predecessor of the Omicron Gamma Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, received the trip from four of her colleaguesat a recent luncheon in her honor.A marketing teacher at Old Mill High School, Capers has been extremely active in the community, working within and outside the sorority, serving as a board member of the county's Pan Hellenic Council andon the campaign of the late Delegate Aris T. Allen.

A man with a history of railing at political figures of all ideological stripes has been charged with leaving a fake "destructive device" — a toilet equipped with electric gadgets that police feared was a bomb — outside a former courthouse in Towson. Duane G. Davis, 51, was being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. He is scheduled to appear in court March 4. The discovery of the toilet Monday morning outside the former courthouse — which houses the County Council chambers and administrative offices — prompted a shutdown of surrounding streets and the attentions of a bomb disposal squad.

Talk about not connecting the dots. Or, in this case, tying the laces. It took half a dozen years, but a spate of five burglaries around the University of Delaware campus over the Christmas break helped police in the college town of Newark, Del., divine an odd pattern: The only items taken were men's shoes, pictures of men and a handful of boxer shorts. After the public learned of the Great Shoe Caper, more victims came forward. Many of them, apparently relieved that nothing much of value had been taken, had never reported the break-ins.

O bserve and Report is a static one-ring circus revolving around a ringmaster who's also a low clown. Seth Rogen, as mall security chief Ronnie Barnhardt, jiggles his flab, flexes his muscles and practices intimidation as he searches for a serial flasher in a case that he hopes will make his career in law enforcement. This film isn't the most awful comedy of the year (that would be Bride Wars or New in Town), but it may have the grossest antihero. The writer-director, Jody Hill, may think he's a risk-taking moviemaker, building a farce around an armed security guard with a Messiah complex.

It's a challenge to make a fish dish for four and stay under a $12 total - unless you use tilapia. I thought this recipe from the new book Two Dudes, One Pan, originally designed for grouper, might work with any white fish, even thin fillets of tilapia. The browned butter and salty capers liven up this pedestrian fish, which cooks quickly. If you can find it on sale, baby bok choy makes a nice accompaniment. Spray with an olive-oil cooking spray and grill for a few minutes on a grill pan. shopping list Tilapia: $7.98 Butter: 32 cents Capers: 80 cents Lemons: $1 Parsley: 5 cents Baby bok choy: $1.50 From the pantry: salt, cooking spray TOTAL: $11.65* Note: Prices are calculated based on the amount of each ingredient used in the recipe.

A BIG-CITY CRIME LAB DISCOVERS EVIDENCE IN ITS CUSTODY has been tainted by DNA from its own technicians. CSI script writers couldn't have crafted a more authentic plot -- it's playing out right now at the Baltimore Police Department. Call this episode: Sloppy Police Work. City crime lab director Edgar Koch got the ax last week because of the mix-up, which was discovered by a lab supervisor who was new to the job. She saw what others missed - DNA samples taken from lab analysts, a standard practice to check for contamination, hadn't been logged into the DNA database.

Brian Billick isn't second-guessing himself. Under siege from a barrage of criticism from media and fans, the Ravens coach defended his decision to send in kicker Matt Stover instead of trying for a touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the Miami Dolphins' 1-yard line with 12 seconds left and the Ravens trailing 16-13 Sunday. Billick said had he given the signal to go for it, the Dolphins -- and especially defensive coordinator Dom Capers -- would have stuck everyone on the line of scrimmage to dissuade the Ravens from giving the ball to running back Willis McGahee.

NFL coaches were falling like leaves on a chilly autumn afternoon yesterday. Five more hit the unemployment line, boosting the number of vacant jobs to seven.Besides the five teams that handed out pink slips, the two other clubs looking for coaches are the Cleveland Browns expansion team and the San Diego Chargers, who fired Kevin Gilbride during the season and then saw interim coach June Jones depart for a college job at the University of Hawaii.An eighth team will likely be looking for a coach after the playoffs because Mike Holmgren is expected to leave Green Bay for a club that will make him a coach/general manager.

The Carolina Panthers' original idea was to hire Joe Gibbs as their first coach.When the former Washington Redskins coach turned down the Panthers, they did the next-best thing. They got a coach who may do the same thing Gibbs did in his first season with the Redskins in 1981.If the Panthers beat the Redskins today in their season finale, they'll finish 8-8 after starting 0-5.That's the same comeback Gibbs pulled off in 1981, and they're noticing in Carolina that Gibbs went to the Super Bowl in his second and third seasons.

On January 6, 2007; CAPERS J. THOMPSON, SR; beloved husband of Rebecca A. Thompson. On Thursday friends may call VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES (RANDALLSTOWN), 8728 Liberty Rd. from 5:00 to 8:00 P.M. On Friday, Mr. Thompson will lie instate at VCGFS, 8728 Liberty Road, where the family will receive friends from 10:30 to 11:00 A.M. with services to follow. Inquiries to (410)655-0015