Chestertown

She's been the talk of Chestertown for three years now, so it made sense to townspeople and tourists alike to turn out at the water's edge yesterday to watch in wonder as the voluptuous Sultana took her first official dip. At the very moment the replica of a Colonial-era schooner touched the gray-green water of the Chester River, a crowd of nearly 5,000 onlookers burst into loud cheers. Cannons were fired and sailboats in the water nearby tooted their horns. "May the Sultana sail again!"

The important thing to know about shopping in Chestertown on the Eastern Shore is that everything is two blocks away from everything else. That's only a slight exaggeration; the truth is you can park your car and happily spend the rest of the day on foot. What's more, the most interesting stores are located in the historic district. On a fine spring day, this Eastern Shore town is an easy, scenic place to shop. Don't expect any chain stores. Rumor had it that a Chico's was going to move in, but that never materialized.

CHESTERTOWN -- It's 6 a.m. when the parade of regulars begins lining up at Scottie's Shoe Store. Clutching coffee cups, they come looking for their daily news fix ---- that and all the wisdom, wit and gossip that shopkeeper Anna Scott Cole can muster. Shoes are optional. "Miss Anna," as she's known by everybody in this Colonial-era town, isn't just the proprietor of a footwear business. She sells newspapers - just about all of them. She doesn't provide the caffeine, but she's strategically located at the center of the historic business district between two java joints.

CHESTERTOWN -- Lauretum looks like someone slapped together the "Addams Family" mansion and a gingerbread house.It is just that combination of characteristics that won the Chestertown bed-and-breakfast a spot on the National Register of Historic Places."

Shiraz Maher went to the mosque in search of answers. Why, he wanted to know, had 15 young men from Saudi Arabia, the country where he spent most of his childhood, just crashed jetliners into prominent U.S. buildings? The men who gave him clarity wore fashionably tailored suits and spoke as easily of Shakespeare and Hegel as they did of the Quran. The 20-year-old Briton found these Muslims - as urbane as they were devout - completely alluring. By the time U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan three weeks later, Maher was a recruit of Hizb ut-Tahrir, or Party of Liberation, an organization devoted to creating a pan-Islamic state ruled by religious law. "America, in my mind, had gone to war with Islam," says Maher, now 30, from a sunny patio on the campus of Washington College.

At first glance, the White Swan Tavern, a beautifully restored bed and breakfast in Chestertown, doesn't stand out among the 18th- and 19th-century buildings on High Street. Set back from the row of store fronts and shielded by columns that support the shed overhang, it seems almost retiring. But step inside the capacious front hall with its huge, tattered American flag (carried by suffragettes in 1919), and you are surrounded by perfectly proportioned spaces filled with antiques and imbued with an ambience that reaches back over two centuries to our nation's beginnings.

CHESTERTOWN -- They have seen the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the National Aquarium in Baltimore. They've been to a minor league baseball game, and they saw the Fourth of July parade in Rock Hall. Now, they're eagerly anticipating trips to the United Nations in New York and the "shrines of democracy" in Washington. But the enduring memories that many in this group of young Muslims will take home are of a freewheeling session with Margo Bailey, the roll-up-her-sleeves mayor of this town of 4,100, and of the lush little campus of Washington College at the top of the hill.

C. David Haacke, a former mayor of Chestertown and one-time member of the Kent County Board of Commissioners, died of lung cancer Tuesday at the Bonnie Blink Masonic Home in Cockeysville. He was 82. A Baltimore native and 1950 graduate of the Johns Hopkins University, where he received a degree in chemical engineering, Mr. Haacke was a successful business owner who played an active role in Kent County civic and political affairs. He was well-known for his work with the Masons, rising to the fraternal organization's highest rank in Maryland - Most Worshipful Grand Master - in 1985-1986.

A Queen Anne man was sentenced in federal court yesterday to more than 12 years in prison for robbing a Glen Burnie bank and then leading police on a 10-mile car chase. Anthony Wayne Nunn, 34, pleaded guilty in May to bank robbery -- a charge that stemmed from the Ritchie Highway robbery, in which prosecutors say he threatened tellers with a fake bomb. As part of his sentence, he also agreed to make restitution of more than $220,000 in connection with several other banks he had robbed, prosecutors said.

On September 29, 2004, KATHLEEN E., of Chestertown, Maryland, beloved wife of C. David Haacke; loving mother of Kathi Morehead of Brunswick, MD, Terri Cox of Wilton, CT and Debbi Haacke of Dallas, TX; devoted grandmother of Michael Cox, Betsy Dietrich and Ian Koplowitz. Services will be held on Saturday, October 9, 2004, at 11:00 A.M. at Christ United Methodist Church, Chestertown, MD. Private Interment at St. Paul's Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Christ United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 262, Chestertown, MD 21620, Chestertown Chapter #86 O.E.S.