Chair

Mashed potatoes in a martini glass? "They make me feel so elegant," said attorney Shirley Bigley, as she nibbled the caviar-capped mound.Elegance was in the air at the Maryland Science Center's Solstice '99 celebration. Subtitled the "Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer," the fete featured an old-fashioned lawn-party theme, with Astroturfed areas in the Hyatt Regency Hotel offering jim-dandy diversions such as a putting green and a spot of croquet. There also were handouts of hand-cranked ice cream.

Just like mail carriers, football fans usually don't let snow or sleet stand in the way of their appointed rounds. At the annual Ravens Roost No. 18 bull roast, 1,024 Ravens boosters weren't about to let a sprinkling of snow and sleet block the route to Michael's Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie.Besides sports memorabilia offered at the silent auction, there was real-life memorabilia in attendance as well -- as in former Baltimore Colts players Jim Mutscheller, Buzz Nutter, Bruce Laird and Doug Eggers, and fellow ex-NFLer Adrian Mehrling.

Kelly Ripken honored her own team, the medical group behind the Kelly G. Ripken Program: A Johns Hopkins Resource for Thyroid Education and Patient Care, at a party before an O's game at Camden Yards.Some 150 fans of Cal Ripken Jr.'s wife gathered in the Designated Hitter's Lounge of the Camden Yards warehouse for a barbecue buffet and a raffle of some Orioles treasures.Daughter Rachel Ripken, 9, provided enchanting entertainment in her prize descriptions. A Cal Ripken baseball, for instance, was "also signed."

Talk about your fashionable fund-raiser! Tons of terrifically turned-out women turned up at Pikesville's Beth Tfiloh Congregation for lunch and a fashion show, presented by designer Dana Buchman. The 450 stylish guests didn't buy tickets to attend, however; instead each had invested in Israel Bonds.Seen among the chic minglers were Barbara Samuelson, chair of Israel Bonds of Maryland; Joy Glass, chair of Israel Bonds Women's Division; Nancy Sacks, Women's Division vice chair; Ethel Fischer, Women's Division director; Judi Finkelstein and Lee Mintz, event co-chairs; Phyllis London, Sandy Dobres, Mickey Katzen, Marilyn Pick, Marcia Yumkas, Brenda Mandel and Chaya Friedman, event committee members; Mira Dahan, event honoree; and Lillian Hackerman and Jenine Macks Fidler, Baltimore philanthropists.

At that moment, when the big shark finally was under control, Donnie Simon wanted more than anything to stand and walk aft to look over the transom of Yankee Babe as it rolled in the Atlantic's heavy swell off Ocean City.But when he tried to stand, he nearly fell. So he sat down again in the fighting chair and waited for the torturously tight muscles in his arms, back and legs to uncoil."I had been in the chair for 2 1/2 hours," said Simon, who earlier this month made his first shark-fishing trip and hooked up with a 585-pound thresher.

County steering committee for Bush campaign namedEllen R. Sauerbrey, state chairwoman for the George W. Bush Presidential Campaign, has announced the appointment of the campaign's Carroll County steering committee.Bob Wolfing was named committee chairman and Koreen Hughes as county director.Also serving are: Sen. Timothy R. Ferguson, Dels. Carmen Amedori and Joseph M. Getty, County Commissioners Donald I. Dell and Julia Walsh Gouge, and State's Attorney Jerry Barnes.Other posts are: Melvin Mills, finance chair; Robin Kriete, electronic campaign chair; John Green, Bush bandwagon chair; Don Elliott, surrogate speaker chair; Margie Jones, communications chair; Koreen Hughes, precinct organization chair; Ben Decker, youth team 2000 chair; and Robert Tabler, next choice chair.

Patti LuPone hit a high note for the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Two hundred fans of the Broadway musical star spent $100 a ticket to help benefit the organization, which provides free and low-cost civil legal assistance to people with low incomes.At the wine-and-cheese reception after the concert, MVLS board member Francine Stokes and her 10-year-old daughter, Tinsley, declared that their favorite song of the concert was "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," Lupone's signature number from the play "Evita."

It was a garden party where Mathias Hammond would have felt at home, especially because it was given at the Annapolis residence he built for himself in the late 1770s. About 220 years later, some 150 elegantly attired guests gathered in the garden of the Hammond Harwood House. They savored appetizers and aperitifs, and raised $31,000 for the restoration of the Georgian-style home, one of the oldest structures in the city.Among those serenaded by both the B. J. Doyle jazz trio and the local crickets: Carter Lively, executive director of Hammond Harwood House; event committee chair Robert Giddings; honorary chair Sibyl Brown; committee members Ann Somers, Claire Purnell and Peggy Brock; HHH board chair Carol Hutchinson; board members Jane Bowen and Mary Waddington; auxiliary chair Louise Bell Devanny; Bob Henel, president of Annapolis Bank & Trust Co.; David Morrow, president of Maritime Insurance Services; Pam Chaconas, education director for the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra; and Linda Buckley, Realtor with Champion Realty.

Most people redecorate their homes and expect the result to last for years and years. But sometimes adding just one piece of furniture or an accessory can make a whole room look fresh and very up to date. It's a delicate balance: You want furnishings that are very much of the moment but won't look out of style in a year or so.If the new year has you thinking of redecorating but you don't know where to start, we have some suggestions. Here are our picks for pieces that pack plenty of punch but also have proven staying power.

John Bruce Johnson, the departing president of the Vagabond Players, has always guarded the F. Scott Fitzgerald chair like the sacred relic of some literary saint.Vagabond lore holds that in 1933 Fitzgerald dropped wearily into the huge throne-like chair after the dress rehearsal of his wife Zelda's play "Scandalabra" ran to five hours. Fitzgerald sat and drank beer all night and chopped away huge chunks of Zelda's huge clunk of a play.Johnson has preserved the venerated chair. But missing from the jumbled archive he's created in his office overlooking the square in Fells Point are other cherished pieces from Vagabond history: the 1916 program for their first production, H.L. Mencken's one-act satire "The Artist," and the original manuscript of "Bound East for Cardiff," which a young Eugene O'Neill brought for the 1917 season.

At the High Point, N.C., wholesale furniture market that ended last week, Century Furniture introduced a wing chair with a 100 percent wool slipcover that will retail for about $7,350. And you thought slipcovered furnishings were for the economy-minded? They are. That's the thing about today's slipcovers: The range of prices and styles is all over the map. In the current economy, says Hugh Rovit, CEO of Sure Fit, which makes ready-made slipcovers, "We're having a record year. When dollars are tight and people spend more time at home, we're the lower-cost alternative to redecorating."

A Delaware man who was high on crack cocaine when he beat to death a retired Wicomico County preacher with a chair was sentenced yesterday to life in prison. Antonio E. Herneisen, 41, of Dagsboro pleaded guilty in May to first-degree murder for the March 30, 2007, killing of the Rev. Van Crawford, 76, of Delmar, near the Delaware border. Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty, which prompted a change of venue to Anne Arundel County, where Judge Ronald A. Silkworth sentenced Herneisen.

SOME 550 FOLKS STREAMED INTO THE Maryland Food Bank's Halethorpe warehouse for the organization's third annual Blue Jean Ball fundraiser. Some of the evening's fun came from dressing for it. Any combination of black tie and blue jeans was welcome. "That made it an attraction for me, because I don't always look forward to dressing up. This kind of dressing up I'll do anytime," said Jim Perdue, CEO of Perdue Farms and the gala's honorary chair, sporting a tux jacket and jeans. "I know I'm the only person in here with creased jeans on," boasted Craig Sigismondi, Carey Sales and Service president / owner.

Kordusky to chair annual fundraiser Meaghan Kordusky, a fiscal technician for the Howard County Office on Aging, will chair the county's Relay for Life, the annual overnight fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, to be held June 6 and 7 at Hammond High School in Columbia. Kordusky served as co-chair of the county's 2007 Relay for Life, and as a team captain in 2006. Although she is to chair this year's event alone, two previous Relay for Life co-chairs, Lori Evans and Debra Wilkenloh, will assist her. Kordusky's father, who has bladder cancer, participated in the event's Survivor's Lap in 2006 and 2007, and her maternal grandmother died of uterine cancer about 25 years ago. Last year, 72 teams participated in the Howard County Relay for Life.

AT MANY FUNDRAISING PARTIES, YOU could say it's almost de rigueur to arrive at least 15 minutes after the doors open. The LifeBridge Health Magic of Life Gala was not one of them. At 6 p.m. -- the official start time of the gala -- at least 200 guests were already milling around the mezzanine. And that was only the beginning. "Another 1,300 to go," gala chair Lynn Abeshouse said, watching folks filing in. "But we're totally prepared." As the steady stream of people in formal dress continued into the theater, a well-trained army of food servers met them.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The impromptu show started when Nick Markakis spotted a basketball and darted across the clubhouse to grab it. For the next five minutes, he effortlessly spun it on various objects, first on his index finger, then on the tongue of his team-issued belt and finally on the tip of a ballpoint pen. By now, a small group of Orioles had gathered around Markakis, challenging the outfielder to do more. So Markakis, wearing only his white sliding shorts, picked up a chair, lifted it over his head and balanced it on his chin, holding the wobbly chair upright for about 10 seconds.

You won't find the Good Love bar unless you're looking for it. The upscale Canton lounge established itself years ago as a trendy spot with quality drinks, earthy decor and friendly, snappy service. It once had some of the best DJs in the city and never needed to boast. Instead of a sign out front, there's a small "G" shaped like a chair -- the bar's logo -- on the window. If you're driving down Boston Street, you'll probably pass right by it, unless you spot the bouncers outside. But lately, Good Love has been gasping for air. A little after 11 p.m. on a recent Saturday night, the three-story corner lounge was only a third full.

The Walters Art Museum was simply ooh-la-la at its annual gala. That's because it had a French theme, in honor of the museum's newest exhibition, Courbet and the Modern Landscape. To help guests get in the mood, they were greeted at the door not just by Walters director Gary Vikan, board president Andie Laporte, party chair Adena Testa, and honoree Jay Wilson. They were also "painted" by a very, very tall "artist" -- an actress on stilts with a very, very long brush with which she pretended to coat people in various "paints" from her "palette."

Richard Thomas leans forward in his chair to share a line from one of his most treasured movie reviews. It's not one of his movies, however. Twelve Angry Men Oct. 24-Nov. 5 at the Hippodrome Theatre, 12 N. Eutaw St. $27-$67. 410-547-SEAT or BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com

They call him "Mr. Lion of Westminster." Now, Russell Mills Jr. has another title: Maryland's Most Beautiful People Volunteer for Carroll County. Mills was chosen out of 26 nominees for the annual honor at an awards ceremony at the new North Carroll Senior and Community Center. A selection committee of seven reads all of the nominations, rates them and picks one person to represent the county at the state banquet in November, said Shawn Reese, Department of Citizen Services administrative office associate.