Crumb

Monsters inhabit the visual world created by R. (he never signed his work "Robert") Crumb, the subject of Terry Zwigoff's superb documentary "Crumb." It's about the misanthrope whose randy, drug-crazed Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural and Angelfood McSpade once lived on the pages of Zap Comix and are now found on the walls of such places as the Museum of Modern Art in New York.Crumb's world is peopled by grotesques -- demonic women (as often without heads as with those of animals), Charles Manson-like murderers and nerds strained past breaking by unbelievable anxieties.

Jeremy McCord worked freehand with 3,500 M&Ms, several cans of white icing and a 32-by-40-inch frame. He went withDr. Seuss, the theme suggested for the 19th annual Edible Art Exhibition at Towson High School, and sculpted the bite-sized bits of red, white and black into a grinning replica of the Cat in the Hat. "I liked 'The Lorax' best as a kid, but the 'Cat in the Hat' is the most recognizable Seuss concept," Jeremy said. The framed piece took Best in Show last week and the freshman entrant chose a gift certificate for ice cream from a prize board.

I was sitting in the splendor of Citronelle restaurant savoring forkfuls of roasted duck with bordelaise cinnamon sauce and taking sips of a knock-your-cuff links-off red wine, Autard '89 Chateauneuf Du Pape, when suddenly a crumb appeared on the corner of my mouth.The crumb was bad form. It had to be disposed of, properly. I picked up my napkin and brought it to the corner of my mouth. I did not blot or wipe with the napkin. I dabbed. The crumb was history.I knew that my dinner companion, etiquette expert Mary Mitchell, approved of my dabbing.

It seems strange that the city and state can build a new baseball, football and basketball stadiums, propose dollars for horse racing and yet fail to support auto racing. Compared to the millions that were spent for stadiums, the amount owed for the Baltimore Grand Prix is a mere pittance. Why are auto racing fans excluded? The race may have not generated the dollars expected, but it did give Baltimore some international press. How much international press do the existing professional sports produce?

Terry Zwigoff blames his unruly hair on a rainy Baltimore day. But the director has been similarly described in other interviews he's done while promoting his documentary movie about cult underground cartoonist Robert Crumb. His hair-raising "Crumb" opens Friday at the Charles Theater.Lamenting the journalistic fixation on his messy hair, Mr. Zwigoff comes across as a more genial version of his eternally kvetching subject. Slightly built, bearded and a tad disheveled, the 47-year-old Mr. Zwigoff is like a middle-aged poster child for casual nonconformity.

Odds & Ends, by Robert Crumb (Bloomsbury, 136 pages, $34.95). If you know the work and life of Robert Crumb, you need no recommendation to have a serious look at this major new collection of his work. Crumb is, of course, best known as a brilliant innovator of comic and cartooning art forms. But this gathering together of his work, going back to high school sketches from 1963, presents a dazzling array of images that range from wine labels to greeting cards to portraits of friends to record jackets to magazine and newspaper illustrations -- and beyond.

Mary Bertek of Traverse City, Mich., was looking for a very old recipe for Nutmeg Cake. It was her grandmother's recipe, which Bertek lost when she moved into her "new" home in 1955. For years she tried to find one like it, with no luck. She said the cake was very moist and delicious and needed no frosting. Eileen Shrey of New Freedom, Pa., had a recipe given to her by her mother-in-law. The cake is fairly simple and has a strong nutmeg flavor. Shrey's recipe called for using lard and sour milk and did not have a baking time, which gives you an indication of how old her recipe must be. I decided to substitute unsalted butter for the lard and used buttermilk instead of the sour milk because I thought they would improve the taste.

On February 11, 2005, EDWARD J. NAIMASTER; husband of the late Anne Naimaster. He is survived by his children, Edward J. Naimaster, III, (Gina), Leslie Naimaster, LIsa Mc Crumb (Rick); and seven grandchildren. He is predeceased by a son, Ronald L. Naimaster. Family will receive friends on Monday, February 14 at Fleck Funeral Home, 7601 Sandy Spring Road, Laurel, MD from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M., where funeral service will be held on Tuesday, February 15, at 11 A.M. Interment Parkwood Cemetery, Baltimore, MD. Family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Disabled American Veterans 1-887-426-2838.

A woman was not injured after biting into a pastry containing a razor blade on Thursday, Howard County police said. The woman discovered the blade, which police identified as the size used in a shaver, in a Joey's brand crumb cake she purchased from a BP gas station in the 15000 block of Frederick Road in Lisbon. The blade appeared to be pushed through the plastic wrapping, which likely occurred in the store after the item was stocked, police said. Police said the remaining Joey crumb cakes were removed and returned to the manufacturer, and no other items appeared to have been tampered with.

A few hazelnuts go a long way. We roast the nuts to heighten their flavor and aroma.Hazelnut coffee cakeMakes 12 servings.1/2 cup hazelnuts1 1/2 cups flour1 teaspoon baking powder1 teaspoon baking soda1/2 cup sugar1/2 teaspoon salt1 egg yolk1/3 cup light corn syrup1 (6-ounce) carton light peach yogurt1 teaspoon vanilla3 egg whitescrumb topping (see below)additional peach yogurt, optionalSet hazelnuts on baking sheet and roast at 350 degrees 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, place nuts in kitchen towel and rub back and forth to remove skins.

If life is a banquet, playwright and actor Al Letson doesn't let a crumb go to waste. "I do a lot of autobiographical work," said the author of "Crumbs," currently on the boards at Theatre Project . "I am concerned with the truth, if not the literal truth. I want to make things dramatically effective. " Billed as "a possibly true story," "Crumbs" is a 2009 piece based on an experience Letson had about eight years ago. "I worked for a private investigation agency in a bread company," he said.

Mary Bertek of Traverse City, Mich., was looking for a very old recipe for Nutmeg Cake. It was her grandmother's recipe, which Bertek lost when she moved into her "new" home in 1955. For years she tried to find one like it, with no luck. She said the cake was very moist and delicious and needed no frosting. Eileen Shrey of New Freedom, Pa., had a recipe given to her by her mother-in-law. The cake is fairly simple and has a strong nutmeg flavor. Shrey's recipe called for using lard and sour milk and did not have a baking time, which gives you an indication of how old her recipe must be. I decided to substitute unsalted butter for the lard and used buttermilk instead of the sour milk because I thought they would improve the taste.

James Riley McCrumb Sr., a retired Howard County public school principal and outdoorsman, died of respiratory failure Saturday at his New Market home. He was 74. Mr. McCrumb was born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville. He was a 1953 graduate of Mount St. Joseph High School in Irvington. He earned a bachelor's degree in animal husbandry in 1958 from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a master's degree in education from Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College, in 1968.

It wasn't that long ago that one might have thought that ciabatta referred to an Italian sports car and brioche was a piece of woman's jewelry. Happily, times have changed and these and other good breads are readily available. Artisan bakeries and the bakeries in many supermarkets produce a variety of crusty, very good breads, handmade in small batches. Most of these breads, made from flour, yeast, salt and water, are best stored for about two days. Storing them in a tightly closed paper bag or an old-fashioned bread box is best, but once they are cut, a plastic bag will keep them from drying out. These breads are too good to waste even a crumb.

Just because a dish is considered classic doesn't mean it never can change. Take this recipe for pan-fried fish. My mother used to make it with store-bought bread crumbs and haddock, but she switched to flounder when haddock grew scarce. Now my daughter enjoys it made with petrale sole from California and Japanese panko bread crumbs. I love the subtle changes this dish has undergone over the years. It's a tasty reminder of how a dish can be adapted to evolving tastes and market forces without losing its flavorful essence.

Walter E. Uebersax, a retired Parkville baker renowned for his peach and pound cakes produced in a rowhouse oven, died of Parkinson's disease complications Saturday at the Maryland Masonic Home in Cockeysville. The Sparks resident was 89. Mr. Uebersax was a Baltimore native, born at home and delivered by his father, a Swiss-immigrant baker. The elder Uebersaxes - Ernest and Alvena - established the Fenwick Bakery in 1926, naming it for an avenue off Harford Road near Clifton Park, a location they selected so that their children would be close to the city's best schools.

The Baltimore Symphony and its music director, David Zinman, have of late had to play a great deal of unfamiliar and difficult music. For that reason, and perhaps because of last weekend's three recording sessions with pianist Helene Grimaud, conductor and orchestra may have been understandably tired.Whatever the reasons, they were below form last night in Meyerhoff Hall on the first half of their program when they performed Mozart's Concerto No. 9 in E-flat (K. 271) with pianist Emanuel Ax.Mozart's works, particularly his piano concertos, have always been one of the great strengths of this orchestra and conductor.

Grunt, slump and buckle may sound like some exhausting exercise class, but they are really traditional blueberry desserts. Cozy Cape Cod grunts and New England slumps consist of soft dumplings steamed on top of bubbling blueberries, and the buckle is a crumb-topped blueberry cake. Fortunately, the most grueling exercise involved is lifting your fork to enjoy them. Blueberries are usually packed in pints, which yield about two cups of blueberries. Look for blueberries shipped in clear plastic "clamshell" containers, which protect the berries from being crushed or bruised.

Terry Zwigoff may be the secret weapon of American cinema in the 21st century. Moving from the devastating documentary Crumb (1994) to the now-classic growing-up-absurd feature, Ghost World (2001), he brought the humor of the American dropout to the screen in pure and profane form. The instinctive skeptic, the doubting Thomas or Thomasina, and the authenticity freak who can't stand commercialism as a value or sanitized comfort as the measure of a good existence: These are the characters who find their voice in Zwigoff's movies.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston celebrates the scrambled purity of its anti-hero, Daniel Johnston, a manic-depressive, geeky-gonzo singer-songwriter with a lyric gift and a way of leaving human wreckage in his wake. But what makes this a stunning documentary comparable to Terry Zwigoff's Crumb (1994) is director Jeff Feuerzeig's rendering of the All-American damage deep down in Johnston's soul. A Johnston devotee, Feuerzeig elicits admiration for the artist's body of work and a complicated sympathy for the bewitched, bothered and bewildered heart behind it all. Johnston, 45, now lives in Waller, Texas, in a house directly behind his parents' home.