Creativity

Carroll County Public Library celebrated creativity in both the written word and the video image this week, as the system recognized the winners of its annual summer short story and film contest for young adults Aug. 22 at a ceremony at Carroll Community College. The contest was open to all middle school and high school summer reading participants in the county. Winners were chosen from each age group for each genre. The 12 winners had their works featured during the ceremony. "We had, over the entire contest, over 100 entries," said Beth Heltebridle, children's service supervisor at the CCPL's Mount Airy Library.

Sometimes, the same old solutions are inadequate for stubborn problems. New directions must be found. So it is with overcrowding in the Baltimore County Public School system. The county has too few bricks-and-mortar schools for the number of students attending. The problem is chronic and unlikely to improve - projections show county public school attendance rising in the years to come. Exacerbating the problem is the troubled economy, which is forcing parents to switch from private to public schools to save tuition costs.

Standing at her easel on the bridge over the Patapsco River at the base of Ellicott City's historic Main Street, Sam Alger was pleased with the visual elements of the scene she'd staked out earlier in the summer. Arched stone B&O Railroad overpass? Check. Dappled water with lazy interplay of light and shadow? Check. Cool shade on her back? Not so much. She hadn't anticipated the relentless rays of sunshine when she picked a spot to paint, but two out of three wasn't too bad. As she brought the landscape to life in oil paint last Sunday morning, the Longfellow Elementary School art teacher said jokingly that at least she wouldn't have to worry about turning in a still-wet entry to "Paint It!

For some people, choosing the bridal party can be one of the toughest decisions in wedding planning -- but not for me. I knew my bridal party even before the question was popped. My bridesmaids are my go-to people, my best friends and my family. I didn't have any questions or doubts in my head. The one issue with our bridal party is that it will be uneven. I wasn't crazy about this, but it is what it is. My fiancé has fewer groomsmen than I have bridesmaids, but we decided that we are OK with this.

While growing up in a well-to-do Richmond, Va., family, Rob Levit never knew quite what to do with the surge of energy he often felt racing through him like a current. He hadn't mastered an instrument or learned to paint. He had no hankering to write. So he did the only thing he could think of. He became the class clown. "I was always getting in trouble," says Levit, 44, an improvisational jazz guitarist with 15 music CDs and an international performing career to his credit.

By the banks of the Jones Falls is a building that houses the life work of artist Les Harris. The Amaranthine Museum is his view of creativity through the ages. His work, many years in the making, fills several rooms. "Art expresses the spiritual reality of the psyche, not the rational," he says, explaining his mazelike, multidimensional artistic experience. The museum, at 2010 Clipper Park Road, is open Thursday nights, Sunday afternoons and by appointment. Information: 410-523-2574.

WESTMINISTER - Countians seeking answers to relationship problems will have some extra help, with the advent of "Counselor's Corner" at noon tomorrow on Prestige Cable Channel 55.The show, created by Steven Mednick, a psychotherapist with the Carroll County Family Counseling Center, could reach about 18,000 households."

"Wry Martinis," by Christopher Buckley. Random House. 291 pages. $22.As Christopher Buckley acknowledges up front, this is mostly a collection of his magazine pieces, many of them for the New Yorker, where he is a frequent (and frequently hilarious) contributor to the "Shouts and Murmurs" column.Traditionally, publishers feel that emblazoning the word "collection" on a humor book's dust jacket is tantamount to announcing: "This product was made from the skin of baby seals." But if any potential buyers are put off by the dreaded C-word, it would be a pity, since this is an enormously funny and entertaining compilation.

Button Howard used to be in the mortgage business, but her creative side got the best of her and now she fashions fantastical hats under the name of Button's Sew On and Sew On. She sells hats at festivals and fairs, and they also appear at weddings and on theater sets.Howard, naturally, wears her own hats, including baseball caps decorated with pansies and other frilly flowers. Howard does have to dare herself to sport her most outrageous pieces, decked out with feathers, veils, blooms, "you name it!"

For small business owners, these are tough times to be seeking capital. Faced with the triple threat of recession, weakness in the banking system and the fear of prolonged combat, financing sources are closing the spigots on loans and investments, forcing many companies to face the harsh reality of a capital drought.But as difficult as the picture appears to be, it is not without hope. By applying creativity to the financing process, entrepreneurs can secure sufficient capital to assure liquidity or to fuel growth.

From Bangor to Peoria, in the Huffington Post and in Forbes Magazine, the press is focusing on the minimum wage. While we hear and read about it constantly these days, many of us never take the time to reflect on what it really means. When seen up close, as I do every day here in Baltimore at the Center for Urban Families, the real meaning of "minimum" becomes painfully apparent. Minimum is just that. As Merriam Webster says: "the least quantity assignable, admissible, or possible.

Outside what was once a backyard garage, mugs, sponge holders and broad bowls are lined up on tables to dry. A peek inside the structure reveals dozens of butter dishes, teapots, toothbrush holders, bowls of every size, vases, trays and more, all in various stages of production, resting on racks of shelving. And by the windows, with sunlight illuminating their potter's wheels, Nevan Wise is turning brick-sized blobs of clay into pitchers, and her husband, Doug Wise, is shaping clay lumps into kitchen utensil jars.

When Secret Mountains released its long-awaited first album, "Rainer," in February, the band seemed poised to make a leap to higher prominince in the indie music world. The shoegazed-inspired Baltimore sextet had already garnered positive write-ups from online tastemakers Stereogum and Pitchfork. Even the New York Times joined in the praise with a concert review in 2011. The band achieved all of this without a full-length album to its name. But lately, things have been relatively quiet with the band, and last week, singer Kelly Laughlin announced to The Baltimore Sun why: She had left Secret Mountains right before "Rainer" was released.

Everything that Wrestlemania wasn't, for the hardcore WWE fan, Raw was. It had twists, it had turns, and most of all, it had chants. Lots of chants. Chants never heard at a WWE event before. In fact, for much of Raw, the fans hijacked the show. It started with Dolph Ziggler. Fans were chanting for him throughout the show, until he appeared to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase, and the place went wild. Nobody sat down during the 2-3 minute match where Ziggler finally won the World Heavyweight title, with most fans in the audience having the opinion that he more than deserved it. It was a surreal moment ... a "WrestleMania moment," just the following day. Once fans got what they asked for with Ziggler, they turned their attention elsewhere.

Typically, a singer is excited to discuss the ins and outs of her band's debut album, especially a well-received, highly anticipated one like Secret Mountains' "Rainer. " But today, singer Kelly Laughlin announced she left the Baltimore sextet earlier this year, right before "Rainer" was released in late February. The 21-year-old Laughlin, who graduates from the Maryland Institute College of Art with a degree in printmaking next month, says there were many factors that led to her decision (including the possibility of enrolling in graduate school and the fact that two band members live in New York)

When The Baltimore Sun inaugurated its Peeps Recipe Contest this year, it was a way to acknowledge the unstoppable force that has become the Peep. [See photos of all Peeps recipe contest entries here .] Once, the marshmallow treat was mere Easter candy. Those days are over. Peeps are cultural touchstones with fan clubs, a clothing line and even a store devoted to them at National Harbor. They've inspired people to make sculptures and videos, and even to write books and songs.

Elton John's recent public outburst about the Internet's effect on pop -- he suggested that a five-year cyberspace shutdown might be the only way to renew the music's creativity -- was greeted with eye rolling and the general consensus that he should splurge on an iPod. But his consternation is understandable. The music industry is in tatters; the noise that amateurs once kept to themselves emanates from every corner of cyberspace, and between the money-obsessed mainstream and the hype-addled underground, there's no agreement on what will endure.

Harford County Public Library employees added creativity to their participation in the Harford County government's Harvest for the Hungry food collection campaign which ran March 1-8, collecting nearly a ton of food for local food banks in the process. The library system held a contest for its own employees to create the most creative food collection themes and displays. Overall, Harford County Public Library employees collected 1,810 pounds of food to be donated to the Harford Community Action Agency, which provides food for those in need through its own pantry and through distribution to other local nonprofits.

The group of veteran slotbacks who handled most of the work at the position have departed Navy's football program. A former starting quarterback heads into his senior season without much chance of unseating an incumbent who was electric as a freshman last fall. Those two issues could tie together into an intriguing subplot as the Midshipmen prepare to open spring practice Monday. Trey Miller, who started the first five games of 2012, is listed as Keenan Reynolds' backup at quarterback.