Comics

It's no red herring. Or pickled, for that matter. Opus the cartoon penguin, chronicler of all that is true and right and aerodynamically incorrect, is returning from a self-imposed exile. Opus, the first regular comic strip from Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berke Breathed in eight years, begins its Sundays-only run in The Sun Nov. 23. Breathed broke into newspapers with Bloom County in 1980, and won the Pulitzer for that pioneering strip in 1987. Bloom County was succeeded by Outland, which featured many of the same characters and was published until 1995.

What's the hottest issue in Washington?Mark Trail.The comic strip, yes. Some might say, ''the boring comic strip.'' And executives at the Washington Post said exactly that last month when they axed the old boy.That's how things got very hot on the issue front, or ''politically sensitive,'' as the phrase goes in our nation's capital -- generally translated to mean, ''somebody turn off the fan.''After announcing on February 10 that Trail had come to the...

A newspaper's image is constantly evolving, reflecting changes in the community it serves and readers' reactions to the things it does. In recent weeks, The Sun has received a storm of reader reaction to reductions and changes in the Today and Business sections - a popular crossword feature, two popular columns and some comics were eliminated, among other moves. Editors faced difficult decisions about content in the newspaper and made the changes primarily because of required budget cuts.

Afro dance Celebrate Afro-Brazilian culture in Baltimore tonight at the Maryland Historical Society's Afro-Brazilian Dance Party. Learn new moves in a samba dance class just in time for the dance party and live music afterward. Watch the Baltimore Angola Society demonstrate capoeira, the martial art that slaves developed in Brazil during colonial times and disguised as dance. The party runs 5 p.m.-8 p.m. today at the Maryland Historical Society, 201 W. Monument St. Call 410-685-3750, ext. 321, or go to www.mdhs.

What debate were you people watching ("Biden connects," Oct. 14)? The only thing I saw was a man with ideas for getting this country out of the worst four years economically since the Great Depression and a laughing hyena. Really, how low can The Sun sink in it's editorial positions? Maybe you guys will go down with your leader and after 55 years of reading your (gag) newspaper I won't have to cancel my subscription. All that's left for me in your paper is the comics (and I'm not talking about the editorial page even though it's tough to tell the two apart)

For the editorial board of The Sun to say that $447 billion is "modest" only illustrates the depths of their partisan-at-all-costs support for anything President Barack Obama proposes ("Let them eat tax cuts," Sept. 12). And exactly when and where did the editorial board extol the virtues of bi-partisanship when the president had overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate during his first two years in office? Save your future editorials on Washington's dysfunction (and it only seems dysfunctional when a liberal agenda doesn't sail through our legislative bodies)

What happens when you give a nerd a microphone? I found out Sunday at an open-mike comedy night. Damon's Grill in Hunt Valley hosts a weekly event called Drink 'Til We're Funny. The headliner, Lawrence Owens, was hilarious. But most of the dozen or so amateur comics before him dealt cringe-inducing duds and dirty but not funny jokes. "This is what happens when people from Best Buy drink," one of them said. Too true. People from Best Buy tell jokes about live action role playing (LARP)

It's a new day in the Sunday comics. Last month, we asked readers to vote to help us make long-anticipated changes in our daily and Sunday comics lineups. Thousands wrote or e-mailed to tell us which existing strips and panels were their favorites, and also to vote on several new comics we were considering adding. The result, in part, can be seen today in the Comics section, where some old strips have been retired and five popular new strips have been added. Along with old favorites like For Better or For Worse, Doonesbury, Dilbert and Peanuts, The Sun will now offer Foxtrot, Get Fuzzy, Pearls Before Swine, Speed Bump and Zits for your reading pleasure.

Like the fragments of conversations and shards of contemporary life that Rachel Masilamani collects, clues to her calling first came in bits and pieces. As a child in Morristown, N.J., she loved to draw. She was a natural story teller. And at Johns Hopkins University, she majored in anthropology, honing her powers of observing human nature. But it wasn't until spring semester of her senior year when she took Tom Chalkley's cartooning class that Masilamani's intuitive, intellectual and visual skills began to crystallize into a single, tangible form: comic strips.

Chris Kamsch waits for a jolt of courage or madness to propel him from his safe table to the smidgen of a stage at Winchester's Comedy Club. Under the club's dangling shamrocks, it's open-mike night. Contestants, please keep your day jobs."How many are you from California?" Chris, 21, asks the 28 patrons, picking at molten nachos and cuddling their Samuel Adamses.There's not a sound in the comedy club. Either no one is from California or no one cares."Me neither. How ironic!" Chris says.He resembles Jim Carrey -- in the hair.