Companion

Fans of Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy will get a closer look at the late author Wednesday, when long-time companion Eva Gabrielsson appears at the Enoch Pratt Free Library to discuss her book "There Are Things I Want You to Know. " The book is part-memoir, part-polemic against Swedish inheritance laws, which denied her a part of the fortune generated by "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and Larsson's other books. Though Stieg and Eva lived together for decades -- and shared the trials of sustaining the muck-raking magazine Expo, including death threats from fascist groups -- she was not legally an heir.

“American Idiot,” the 2010 Broadway hit musical - the first punk rock opera, really - now at the Hippodrome, paints a searing portrait of restless, reckless youth, with all the sex, drugs and violence you'd expect from a disaffected generation. That the show also manages to be entertaining and exhilarating just bumps up the cool factor, which is already considerable, given that the music is by the popular band Green Day and drawn from the 2004 album “American Idiot.” Front man Billie Joe Armstrong collaborated on the book with Maryland native Michael Mayer, who directs the production with the same dynamic touch he brought to another hit musical about young angst, “Spring Awakening.” The unfocused “kids of war and peace” in “American Idiot,” kids who are “born and raised by hypocrites,” can't stand the make-believe world of suburbia where they feel trapped.

The 20-year-old companion of Sadiq Martin, who was killed last September during a police chase at Woodlawn Senior High School, was found guilty today in Catonsville District Court of helping to steal a car radio, amplifier and radar detector from an auto just before the chase began.Judge John C. Coolahan placed Theron C. Hill, of the 5500 block Gwynn Oak Ave., on three years of supervised probation and assessed $600 in fines for theft and destruction of the car window and --board wiring.Judge Coolahan said the case was "much worse than theft."

When officials in Washington evaluate the consequences of the sequester, Tiara Bland wants them to consider the sixth-grade girls at Mother Seton Academy. Bland, a 22-year-old AmeriCorps member at the Baltimore academy for low-income children, said the decision by government leaders to impose across-the-board spending cuts will shortchange the urban youths who turn to her for advice on math problems and life. Bland, who aspires to be a school psychologist, is one of 17 AmeriCorps members performing education and literacy work in Baltimore for the Notre Dame Mission Volunteers.

HELP WANTEDOutdoor companion -- someone who would enjoy sharing the joys of nature with a fellow sportsman who enjoys horseback riding and fishing. Excellent benefits.Sports enthusiast who likes football, basketball, soccer and baseball. Must be willing to take another sports enthusiast out to a ballgame. No experience necessary.Artist needed to guide creative endeavors of a budding painter. Will purchase own paints and brushes. Flexible hours.The notices don't exist yet, but for workers from six county agencies who have formed the Community Companion Connection, they could soon become a reality, helping to match volunteers as companions for retarded adults in Howard County.

BONN, Germany -- Police said yesterday that Petra Kelly, founder of the nation's Green Party and a leading figure in its peace and anti-nuclear movements, was shot and killed by her longtime companion, who then took his own life.The bodies of Miss Kelly, 44, and her companion, Gert Bastian, a 69-year-old former major general in the West German army, were found Monday night in the modest row house they rented in a working-class suburb of Bonn."We must assume, based on evidence and expert opinion, that Kelly was shot and Bastian shot himself afterward," said Harmut Otto, chief of the Bonn police.

The rewards of literary success include prizes, royalties, residuals, honorary degrees -- perhaps, later on, even a concordance. It is less than a decade since Tom Clancy's first novel came out (by now, his total is six). Yet a 223-page, A-to-Z concordance, compiled by Roland J. Green, is on the market.The book containing it, plus an introductory literary essay, a new Clancy interview and a dozen reprinted essays by him, is "The Tom Clancy Companion" (Martin H. Greenberg, editor; Berkley Books, paperback, $12.95)

Mary Jane Shields-Komber, a retired nursing companion who was an accomplished social pianist, died of a respiratory illness Tuesday at Stella Maris Hospice. The Towson resident was 79. Born Mary Jane Cleary in Baltimore, she attended St. Ann's Parochial School and was a 1946 Seton High School graduate and appeared in the school's theatrical productions. She became a Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone service representative and later sold the World Book Encyclopedia. She was an Immaculate Heart of Mary School teaching assistant, and after study at a Red Cross nursing program, she received her nursing-assistant certification and was a private-duty companion nursing assistant for 15 years.

Dorothy Kerfoot is a woman of few words. Asked what she thinks of Companion Radio, a Rochester, N.Y.-based service with an old-time play-list that dominates the airwaves at Baltimore's Keswick Multi-Care Center, she comes straight to the point."

Judges should extend to homosexual parents the same protections they do to heterosexual parents when setting conditions for children to visit divorced parents, lawyers for a gay Glen Burnie man are arguing.They are asking the Court of Special Appeals to overturn what they called a biased divorce decree in which an Anne Arundel County judge forbade Robert G. Boswell to visit his two children in the company of his partner or "anyone having homosexual tendencies or such persuasions."Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Lawrence H. Rushworth issued the ruling in April 1996 that also barred Boswell's children from overnight stays with him and visits "with anyone that the father may be living with in a nonmarital relationship."

Every morning, Monday through Friday, blogger Matt Vensel will hook you up with reading material -- mostly on the Ravens but with some other Baltimore sports stuff, too -- to skim through as you slug down coffee and slack off at the start of your workday. That way he'll have an excuse to do the same to start his workday, too. RUNNING IT BACK The Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers, 34-31, to win their second Super Bowl title . ... Joe Flacco, your Super Bowl MVP, is going to Disneyworld . ... With a pair of big plays, Jacoby Jones also made a claim to be Super Bowl MVP . ... The Ravens defense hung on for a wild win . ... Ray Lewis was victorious in his final NFL game , but Ed Reed once again said that this was not his last ride . ... All season long, these Ravens just kept finding a way to win . ... The Ravens will hold a championship parade in Baltimore on Tuesday morning.

A Frederick County woman who traveled to Aruba with an American companion vanished a few days into the trip, and police on the island have detained the man, authorities in Aruba said Tuesday. Robyn Gardner, 35, was last seen Aug. 2 in an area known as "Baby Beach" for its shallow waters, said Ann Angela, a spokeswoman for Aruba's public prosecutor's office. On Friday, authorities investigating Gardner's disappearance detained her 50-year-old companion, who had reported that she had failed to make it to shore after snorkeling, officials said.

In the ambulance that Monday last July, Rose looked into Donald's eyes and saw the wild look of panic and terror. He had been dying of AIDS for months, but right now, at this very moment, he was really dying. His skin was as pale as paste, the disease had shrunk him down to almost nothing. A tangle of tubes extended from his chest, an oxygen mask was held close to his mouth and nose. He gasped desperately for a breath, his eyes pleading with Rose.He shouldn't die like this, she thought, gently stroking his hair.