Chico

Snow and sleet are no reason to sacrifice style. In the case of Terry "Chico" Love, bad weather is just another way to show it off. And walking over to Lexington Market for lunch is a great way for this clothing store salesman to prove that a stitched shearling jacket and hip work boots embody both fashion and function. Age: 52 Residence: East Baltimore Job: Just For Kicks salesman Self-described style: "Odd. I don't look like anybody [else]. I like unusual clothes." The look: Beige Kangol hat. Brown shearling jacket.

If only the Baltimore Opera had had Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont around, maybe we'd still be having arias sung from the stage of the Lyric every few months. Alas, it wasn't meant to be; no rich dowager or rapscallion promoter showed up to bail the opera out at the last minute. But this weekend at the Charles, the Marx Brothers' "A Night at the Opera" will show what could have been. Has there ever been a comedic force to match the combined might of the brothers Marx? Maybe Monty Python in its prime, but there ends the very short list.

Blast fans aren't fond of Wichita Wing Chico Borja.They picture him doing everything in his power to beat the Blast, right down to pushing, shoving and kicking. Past injuries to forward Tim Wittman and goalkeeper Scott Manning have been laid at his soccer shoes.Around here, Chico Borja is perceived as a "dirty" player.But one of the best pictures of Borja, and one of total contrast, came during the Major Soccer League All-Star Game last month.As a member of the East team under the direction of Blast coach Kenny Cooper, Borja scored five points and combined with Blast veterans Billy Ronson, Manning, Dale Mitchell and Domenic Mobilio to earn the victory.

A Marx Brothers revival has long been overdue. Let's hope the Charles' presentation of their masterpiece "Duck Soup" helps kicks one off. It's a good thing that the Charles plays old movies more than once a week. The punning effrontery of Groucho and the dialect comedy of Chico come so fast and mock-furious that even their target audiences in the 1930s had to attend the films several times to catch all the jokes. Each brother of the brothers (except game, banal Zeppo) could also be a sight gag unto himself.

The White House Inc., a Glen Burnie-based retailer that sells only classic black and white women's clothing, just found a quicker route to green: It is being sold for $90 million to a Florida clothing chain rather than proceed with earlier plans for a public stock offering, it announced yesterday. Chico's FAS Inc. will pay $85.6 million in cash and the rest in stock for the company's 103 stores that trade as White House/Black Market. Richard A. Sarmiento, a former Hyatt hotel executive, founded the company with a single store in Baltimore's Harborplace in 1985 with a concept that he thought was different enough to gain notice.

''I will pursue as my primary goal in life the killer or killers who slaughtered Nicole and Mr. Goldman. They are out there somewhere. Whatever it takes to identify them and bring them in, I will provide somehow.''I CAN SEE HIM in his famous Bronco, cruising Bogota, scanning the cafes and bodegas in search of the cocaine hitmen who struck that night at faraway Bundy Drive . . .O.J., leaping from the truck, vaulting a flower cart, sprinting down a long alley and -- with a Heismanlike burst of speed -- tackling a young man who's running away . . .O.J.

I can't use Chico's full name because he thinks he'll be killed for talking to a newspaper columnist. It's a small big town, Baltimore. Everybody knows everybody, or everybody knows somebody who knows somebody, and particularly in the miserable drug life - guys selling dope, or guys sticking up guys selling dope - it's all this kill-or-be-killed stuff among homie familiaritas in sales territories that have become even more compact under O'Malley-era police...

On March 12, 2003 PHILIP W. MERENBLOOM, beloved husband of the late Florence R. Merenbloom (nee Surosky), loving father of Robert B. Merenbloom of New Orleans, LA., and Sara Leitner of Chico, CA. Adored grandfather of Arielle and Jessica Leitner. Services and Interment at Workmans Circle Cemetery, 6843 German Hill Rd. on Thursday, March 13th at 11 A.M. Please omit flowers. Arrangements by SOLLEVINSON & BROS., INC. 13

It's been a long, hot summer, but residents of Hernwood Heights in Randallstown have always had shade."When you turn into our street, Sheraton Road, I think the temperature goes down 10 degrees," Shirley Balfour said. "It's like turning into a whole other world off Liberty Road."Tall oaks line the street that leads into the quiet neighborhood marked by low, brick columns at entrances on Liberty and Marriottsville roads.Residents are proud of their greenery, which is thick enough in LTC spots to attract wildlife.

The Village of Cross Keys in North Baltimore has attracted three stores - including two national women's apparel chains - to plug vacancies at the shopping center owned by Rouse Co. Rouse's recruitment of the national chains Chico's and J. Jill is part of a strategy it embarked on after some local businesses moved or failed last year, including the Bibelot book chain. The third new tenant will be a locally owned art gallery. In addition to Chico's and J. Jill, the Cross Keys center has two other national retailers, a Talbots women's clothing store, and a Williams-Sonoma upscale kitchen ware store.

So, give me that again: Heroin and cocaine are illegal - controlled, dangerous substances - because they are harmful to society, destroyers of bodies and minds, destroyers of families, even whole neighborhoods? Is that it? We have state and federal prohibitions against the sale and possession of these narcotics because, otherwise, we would have widespread dysfunction in American households and mayhem on our streets? We have devoted billions of taxpayer dollars and millions of hours of police work to stopping the illegal drug commerce because, without that effort, we think the United States would be a dangerous place?

Snow and sleet are no reason to sacrifice style. In the case of Terry "Chico" Love, bad weather is just another way to show it off. And walking over to Lexington Market for lunch is a great way for this clothing store salesman to prove that a stitched shearling jacket and hip work boots embody both fashion and function. Age: 52 Residence: East Baltimore Job: Just For Kicks salesman Self-described style: "Odd. I don't look like anybody [else]. I like unusual clothes." The look: Beige Kangol hat. Brown shearling jacket.

I can't use Chico's full name because he thinks he'll be killed for talking to a newspaper columnist. It's a small big town, Baltimore. Everybody knows everybody, or everybody knows somebody who knows somebody, and particularly in the miserable drug life - guys selling dope, or guys sticking up guys selling dope - it's all this kill-or-be-killed stuff among homie familiaritas in sales territories that have become even more compact under O'Malley-era police...

The White House Inc., a Glen Burnie-based retailer that sells only classic black and white women's clothing, just found a quicker route to green: It is being sold for $90 million to a Florida clothing chain rather than proceed with earlier plans for a public stock offering, it announced yesterday. Chico's FAS Inc. will pay $85.6 million in cash and the rest in stock for the company's 103 stores that trade as White House/Black Market. Richard A. Sarmiento, a former Hyatt hotel executive, founded the company with a single store in Baltimore's Harborplace in 1985 with a concept that he thought was different enough to gain notice.

On March 12, 2003 PHILIP W. MERENBLOOM, beloved husband of the late Florence R. Merenbloom (nee Surosky), loving father of Robert B. Merenbloom of New Orleans, LA., and Sara Leitner of Chico, CA. Adored grandfather of Arielle and Jessica Leitner. Services and Interment at Workmans Circle Cemetery, 6843 German Hill Rd. on Thursday, March 13th at 11 A.M. Please omit flowers. Arrangements by SOLLEVINSON & BROS., INC. 13

Her personality was flamboyant, her looks were striking and her taste was impeccable. Now Diana Vreeland has been immortalized in a new biography, Diana Vreeland, by Eleanor Dwight (William Morrow, 320 pages, $50). Vreeland, long-time editor at Harper's Bazaar and editor-in-chief of Vogue, is famous for helping first lady Jackie Kennedy create her often copied "Jackie look." She transformed Vogue from a prim, conventional magazine into a daring one by doing such innovative things as sending models all over the world to be photographed on the edges of cliffs and in dazzling locales.

Her personality was flamboyant, her looks were striking and her taste was impeccable. Now Diana Vreeland has been immortalized in a new biography, Diana Vreeland, by Eleanor Dwight (William Morrow, 320 pages, $50). Vreeland, long-time editor at Harper's Bazaar and editor-in-chief of Vogue, is famous for helping first lady Jackie Kennedy create her often copied "Jackie look." She transformed Vogue from a prim, conventional magazine into a daring one by doing such innovative things as sending models all over the world to be photographed on the edges of cliffs and in dazzling locales.

If only the Baltimore Opera had had Groucho Marx and Margaret Dumont around, maybe we'd still be having arias sung from the stage of the Lyric every few months. Alas, it wasn't meant to be; no rich dowager or rapscallion promoter showed up to bail the opera out at the last minute. But this weekend at the Charles, the Marx Brothers' "A Night at the Opera" will show what could have been. Has there ever been a comedic force to match the combined might of the brothers Marx? Maybe Monty Python in its prime, but there ends the very short list.

The Village of Cross Keys in North Baltimore has attracted three stores - including two national women's apparel chains - to plug vacancies at the shopping center owned by Rouse Co. Rouse's recruitment of the national chains Chico's and J. Jill is part of a strategy it embarked on after some local businesses moved or failed last year, including the Bibelot book chain. The third new tenant will be a locally owned art gallery. In addition to Chico's and J. Jill, the Cross Keys center has two other national retailers, a Talbots women's clothing store, and a Williams-Sonoma upscale kitchen ware store.