Corcoran

Most business owners believe in their products, and Alexa Corcoran is no different. Except that she also lives on the meals made by her Maryland enterprise, Let's Dish!, a meal-assembly store that has nine locations in the region and plans for more. Customers at the store put together their own meals to cook at home. "Since 2004, we have ... created over a million dishes," says Corcoran, 34, who invested in the business with her husband, Rick, and a couple of friends. "It's a concept that came when people were saying they wanted easy and convenient meals but also healthy."

Air-traffic controllers at BWI Airport barred several planes carrying anti-Castro banners from flying over Oriole Park during Monday's game with Cuba -- even though the Federal Aviation Administration permitted the flights.Spokesmen for the FAA and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, a general aviation group based in Frederick, say they are investigating the situation. Pilots in the Baltimore area say the decision smacked of midair censorship, and they complained about potential harm from the precedent.

CAMDEN, N.J. -- No hotels, no bowling alleys, no movie theaters and only one chain supermarket remain in this city of 87,000, a once-thriving industrial mecca overtaken by burned-out rowhouses, boarded-up stores, open-air drug markets, weeds and trash.Yet here in a sunny, modern office sits Tom Corcoran, trying hard to market Camden as a tourist attraction on the banks of the Delaware River, with a sparkling view of the Philadelphia skyline and a historical hub in the midst of a renaissance.

By all accounts, Grace Williams should be dead, the victim of a parachute that failed to open properly on her first jump.Somehow, though, she comes through unscathed, and therein lies the central dilemma of "Falling Grace," the Mark Scharf play in production at River Hill High School in Clarksville under the auspices of the Directors' Choice Theater Company and the Baltimore Playwrights Festival.Is the young woman's survival a matter of luck, or has she been delivered miraculously from death by the grace (get it?

Only one of the three one-act comedies being presented at the Spotlighters is actually about cliches. But in a sense, they all are, since each puts a new spin on a cliched situation.The tone for this trio of Baltimore Playwrights Festival offerings is set by the opener, Mark Scharf's clever 10-minute sketch, "Like White on Rice," which is written entirely in cliches.Ten minutes of cliches might not seem to amount to much. But Scharf's singular achievement is that, using everything from worn-out pick-up lines ("What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"

FLORENCE Corcoran of Louisiana was in the eighth month of a high-risk pregnancy when her obstetrician ordered hospitalization. But, even after another doctor concurred, court papers allege, Ms. Corcoran's managed-care insurance company wouldn't pay for it -- instead it provided 10 hours a day of home care. A few days later, while the at-home nurse was off duty, the fetus went into distress and died.That might sound like a lawsuit waiting to happen. But, when Ms. Corcoran tried to sue the insurance company, arguing that it had sacrificed her well-being for the sake of saving money, a federal appeals court handed down the bad news: Under the provisions of the 1974 Employment Retirement Income Security Act, the federal law that regulates employer-paid health benefits, Ms. Corcoran could not sue for damages based on pain and suffering.

Kathie Corcoran gets the strangest looks when she gives her address as "McDonogh School."Jonathan Oleisky gets the same reaction when he tells people he lives at Garrison Forest School -- an all-girls boarding school.When Sue Ann Ness has visitors, "they are amazed that I can walk up to Carter House for breakfast" before going to her nearby classroom at St. Timothy's School. She also goes to the school dining hall for dinner with her family most nights.Corcoran, Oleisky and Ness are among about 200 individuals and families who call six area private schools their home.

Two years ago, ArtSites began in the Washington area as a juried biennial exhibit of regional artists, involving not one but six galleries. Organized by Washington's Corcoran Gallery and Corcoran School of Art, it proved such a success that this year it has expanded to 11 sites including Maryland Art Place and School 33 in Baltimore.Although centrally administered by Corcoran School of Art dean Samuel Hoi, ArtSites consists of 11 separate shows with a curator for each gallery.Maryland Art Place director Jack Rasmussen and School 33 director Claudia Amory served as their galleries' curators with successful results.

About four years ago, Samuel Hoi, dean of Washington's Corcoran School of Art, and the heads of five Washington-area arts centers decided to inaugurate a regional juried show, held at all six sites in 1994. This year, ArtSites expanded to 11 sites, including Baltimore's Maryland Art Place and School 33.There are organizational advantages. One call for entry was sent out to 10,000 addresses in Maryland, Washington and Virginia, resulting in 850 responses. Curators from the sites viewed the slides together over a three-day period and chose a total of 86 artists for their separate shows.

At Washington's Corcoran Gallery right now, you can see a "painting" made of chewed sculpture compound, another whose central section is a rectangle of marijuana leaves, another composed of strips of film, another that incorporates a sofa, and another that includes a section of striped, knitted fabric.They are all in "Painting Outside Painting," the Corcoran's 44th biennial exhibit of contemporary American painting. And if you're wondering whether they're serious art or gimmicks, the answer is that some are one and some are the other.

When the Metro train pulled into the Silver Spring station late Monday afternoon, Michael Corcoran made a split-second decision that might have saved his life. Rather than hoof to the end car, which would conveniently deposit him beside an escalator at his destination, Union Station, he stepped into the third car and took a seat. Corcoran, 39, just felt happy to be escaping his job as a federal contractor before 5 p.m. for a change. Even with the punishing two-hour-plus commute to Jarrettsville, he figured he'd get home early enough to play with his four kids, maybe even mow the grass.

What does power look like? What does it do to people? How can you tell who has it and who doesn't? No one has all the answers, of course, but valuable lessons can be gleaned from a timely, illuminating and, yes, powerful, new exhibit at Washington's Corcoran Gallery of Art. Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power is a 50-year retrospective of the work of one of America's foremost fashion photographers and portraitists, an ad man turned fine artist who...

On May 4, 2008, Robert E. CORCORAN, age 85, beloved husband of Esther Corcoran (nee Gallawa); devoted father of Judith Robin Corcoran, and Janenne Jaye Corcoran and her husband Michael William Lang III; dear brother of Richard L. Corcoran and Shirley Reed. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. The family will receive friends at the family owned Ruck Towson Funeral Home, Inc., 1050 York Road (beltway exit 26), on Wednesday from 5:00 to 8:00 P.M., where a funeral service will be held on Thursday at 1:00 P.M. Interment private.

Most business owners believe in their products, and Alexa Corcoran is no different. Except that she also lives on the meals made by her Maryland enterprise, Let's Dish!, a meal-assembly store that has nine locations in the region and plans for more. Customers at the store put together their own meals to cook at home. "Since 2004, we have ... created over a million dishes," says Corcoran, 34, who invested in the business with her husband, Rick, and a couple of friends. "It's a concept that came when people were saying they wanted easy and convenient meals but also healthy."

After the opening of Let's Dish on Jan. 4, 2005, in Timonium, the store's proprietors were amazed at the number of people traveling from Harford County to "dish." The basic premise of "dishing" is that people make reservations either online or by telephone, then they come to the store at their scheduled "dishing" time for meal preparation, which takes about two hours. "Every session was filling up," said Alexa Corcoran, who owns the Let's Dish stores in Maryland and Virginia along with her husband, Rick Corcoran, and Erik Ginsberg and Lisa Hardiman.

Alexa Corcoran, 33, is a partner in the Let's Dish! chain of meal-making stores with her husband Rick, and another married couple, Erick Ginsberg and Lisa Hardiman. The four created their first store in November 2004 in Timonium. They prepare the recipes and all the ingredients for homemade dishes, then customers come in and assemble the dishes themselves to take home. There are now nine stores in the region, with plans for more. Corcoran lives in Roland Park with her husband and daughters Maeve, 4, and Charlotte, 2. Have you always been a big cook?

On September 27, 2006, MARY CATHERINE "CATHY" CORCORAN (nee Joyce) of Bel Air, MD. Beloved wife of Patrick E. Corcoran. Devoted mother of Kathleen A. Browning and her husband Charles H. Browning III, Margaret A. Hammen and her husband Edward G. Hammen, Jr. Loving sister of the late Eileen B. Houston. Also survived by a brother-in-law Leo Houston and five grandchildren, Amelia K. Browning, Caroline P. Browning, Haleigh M. Hammen, Casey L. Hammen and Hunter L. Hammen. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held in Prince of Peace Catholic Church, Edgewood, MD on Monday, October 2, 2006 at 11:00 A.M. Interment will be in Darlington Cemetery, Darlington, MD. Friends may call at the church on Monday from 10 to 11 A.M. prior to the service.

Sarah Masek found a great way to improve her field hockey skills this summer: playing alongside her coach. As part of the summer league organized by the county Department of Recreation and Parks, the Severn School co-captain wound up playing with Severn coach Jessica Burke, as well as South River head coach Katie Corcoran and assistant coach Megan Atkinson. The South River Seahawks have won consecutive state titles. "It was so much fun," Masek said. "I was mixed with a lot of older kids who'd already graduated from college.

On April 6, 2006, HELEN SRAMEKHUDERT, 86, of Richmond, formerly of Baltimore, MD. She was the widow of J. Anthony Hudert Sr. to whom she was married for 53 years until his death in 1992. She is survived by 11 children, Joseph A. Hudert Jr., Regina H. Corcoran (Dick), Sr. Claire "Elaine" Hudert, O.S.B., Carl A. Hudert (Rebecca), Anthony W. Hudert (Cynthia), Elizabeth A. Lord Watkins (Tom), Marianne D. Coulter (Rob), Linda D. H. Spach-Korepta, Cathleen M. Shutt (Mike), Christopher A. Hudert (Peggy)

Player of the Year Mandy Pickard North Carroll, midfield The center midfielder gave opponents fits all over the field. A big scorer who could mark out the opposition's top attack player and control the midfield transition, Pickard led the No. 4 Panthers (14-2) to the state semifinals for the first time since 1998. The senior saved her best performance for last, scoring two dazzling goals in a 3-2 overtime loss to No. 1 Severna Park. Pickard scored her first on a textbook penalty corner, and her second was even more impressive.