Ditch

Trailing by two points with 64 seconds left in the game, Ravens quarterback

"Saturday Night Live" tapped into excitement over the Super Bowl and the amusement over Ray Lewis' exuberance during the Weekend Update segment. Kenan Thompson appeared in jersey and face paint as Lewis, whom host Seth Meyers interviewed. The highlight came with Thompson's promise that, upon winning the Super Bowl, he would kneel down on the 50-yeard line and ASCEND INTO HEAVEN. Thompson: Whooh! Oh, Seth. Meyers: So, Ray, are you excited for the big game? Thompson: Aaah.

Despite a painful left shoulder strain that makes it difficult for him to put on his clothes or move too quickly, wide receiver and kick returner David Reed said surgery is a last-ditch option that he's trying to avoid. “We're trying not to go for surgery because that would mean that I would be out longer,” he said prior to Wednesday's practice. “I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible. Hopfeully, it will just settle down after a week, and I'll be able to start strengthening it and everything.” Reed, whose left arm is in a sling, said he suffered the injury when an unidentified Tennessee Titans player delivered what Reed called “a cheap shot” during a kick return that was downed in the end zone in the fourth quarter.

Efforts to avert the "fiscal cliff" offer great drama, but they won't solve Washington's budget woes and could precipitate another recession - or worse. The Budget Act of 2011 requires the president and Congress to agree on a nine-year, $1.2 trillion deficit reduction program, or annual defense and non-entitlement outlays will be automatically cut $107 billion on Jan. 1. At the same time, the Bush tax cuts, payroll tax reductions and other assorted programs expire. Altogether, $136 billion in annual spending reductions and $532 billion in additional taxes could trigger cataclysmic consequences for the economy.

On November 12, 2003 WAVA L. DITCH (nee Pierce) beloved wife of the late Glen E. Ditch, Sr.; loving mother of Glen E. Ditch, Jr., Susan Jean Ditch, Beverly Ann Gary, the late Louise JoAnn Blizard, and the late Danny Lee Ditch. Also survived by numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Relatives and friends may call at the family owned Ambrose Funeral Home of Lansdowne, 2719 Hammonds Ferry Road on Friday from 11 to 1 p.m. Services and interment will be private.

Mary Lamb Ditch, a decorative artist and painter, died of a respiratory ailment Saturday at St. Joseph Hospital. She had been a resident of the College Manor nursing home in Lutherville for the past three years.Graveside services for Mrs. Ditch, who was 84, will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Loudon Park Cemetery, 3801 Frederick Ave.Born in Charlotte, N.C., the former Mary Lamb Smith attended Goucher College and married Winfield Ditch Jr. in 1927.She and her husband lived in Baltimore County and the city after their marriage.

State officials announced Friday that they had fined an Eastern Shore farm couple $4,000 for improperly piling sewage sludge near a drainage ditch. But the Department of the Environment declared it had closed its investigation of the Hudson farm in Berlin with no further action because its inspectors could not say the farm was responsible for pollution found in the ditches draining its land. State inspectors had detected high levels of bacteria and nutrients in the ditches, which ultimately drain into the Pocomoke River.

The Maryland office of Occupational Safety and Health said it will investigate Monday's incident in which a ditch caved in on a 23-year-old plumbing worker.Doug Wallis, a MOSH supervisor, said the investigation would probably take a month to complete.At about 4:15 p.m. Monday, an unshored ditch collapsed on RaymondSmith, an employee of William Blubaugh Plumbing of Silver Run. Smithwas laying pipe for a new housing development near the 2900 block ofBachman Road.Two co-workers quickly uncovered Smith, whose foot was caught between a pipe and a rock.

Graveside services for Mary Lamb Ditch, a decorative artist and painter, will take place at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Loudon Park Cemetery, 3801 Frederick Ave.Mrs. Ditch, who was 84, died of a respiratory ailment Saturday at St. Joseph Hospital. She had been a resident of the College Manor nursing home in Lutherville for the past three years.Born in Charlotte, N.C., the former Mary Lamb Smith attended Goucher College and married Winfield Ditch Jr. in 1927.She and her husband lived in Baltimore County and the city after their marriage.

Howard County police said a pipe bomb found yesterday in a ditch near a construction site in Ellicott City was secured and destroyed without injury. A passer-by discovered the object and called police about 4:15 p.m. Police and fire personnel found the pipe bomb in the 5000 block of Landing Road and secured the area, said W. Faron Taylor, the deputy state fire marshal. Experts from the Maryland state fire marshal's office detonated the device, Taylor said. No injuries were reported, and traffic was diverted for a short time, police said.

As JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound took the stage for WTMD's First Thursday concert in Mount Vernon this past June, the rain came. But instead of allowing the dark clouds to damper the mood, lead singer Jayson Brooks saw an opportunity to make an impression. The magnetic frontman worked every inch of the stage, encouraging the crowd to clap along as he cleanly hit falsetto notes. When the rain stopped and a rainbow emerged, it almost felt as if Brooks had willed the clouds away.

One in a series of profiles of Maryland delegates to the Republican National Convention O.P. Ditch almost didn't make it to the Republican National Convention - not because of Tropical Storm Isaac, but rather a missed deadline. The retired Air Force colonel decided in January he wanted to be a delegate for Mitt Romney. But after making up his mind, the 73-year-old Vietnam veteran learned that the deadline to put his name on the ballot was only hours away. There wasn't enough time.

Rock 'n' roll has never had a rulebook. Dylan Baldi, the 20-year-old Clevelander responsible for indie-rock buzz band Cloud Nothings, is the latest songwriter to take preconceived notions of his music and flip it on its head. Cloud Nothings began as a solo project in 2009, when Baldi was a teenager holed up in his parents' suburban basement. He recorded short bursts of crude-sounding punk songs, with just enough pop shine peaking out from under the reverb haze. Passed-along mp3s caught the attention of Carpark Records, also home to Baltimore's Dan Deacon.

In order to become truly happy, Canadian country veteran Terri Clark knew she had to leave the one relationship she had worked so hard to build - the one with BNA Records, the Nashville-based label owned by Sony. After spending 14 years on a major label, Clark announced in 2008 that her constant pursuit for a hit record had worn her out, creatively. Grateful for her past success but more than ready to forge on independently, Clark left BNA and finally felt liberated. She said it was no surprise that after her announcement to leave BNA, the subsequent album - 2009's "The Long Way Home," released on her own Baretrack Records - immediately poured out of her. Three years later, Clark says leaving BNA was the best career decision she ever made, no matter how many records she sells.

If you're looking to get on Nick Carter's good side, address him as Lord Balgrott, his "World of Warcraft" character. The former teen heartthrob is such a fan of the online role-playing game that he changed his Twitter avatar to an illustration of the white-bearded guild leader. It's not the type of career move - yes, social media management is a part of the game in 2012 - many would expect from the handsome, blue-eyed member of the Backstreet Boys. But compared to his pop peers, Carter, 31, has had one of the strangest career arcs, full of chart-topping hits and embarrassing personal lows.

The wanted poster portrays a .40-caliber Glock Model 22 semiautomatic pistol, serial number EKG463US, that resembles thousands of standard-issue guns owned by the Baltimore Police Department. But this particular weapon found its way out of the hands of law enforcement and into the hands of a suspected killer — an above-board but nightmarish scenario for city police. Authorities say the gun was used three years ago to shoot two young girls on a dirt road outside a rural Oklahoma town.

A 5-year-old Chestertown boy was seriously injured yesterday when his father, who was allegedly drunk, drove the truck in which they were riding into a ditch, state police reported.William David Allen Jr., 27, was charged with driving while intoxicated, driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle and negligent driving. Mr. Allen was also charged with resisting arrest, carrying a loaded rifle and malicious destruction of a police vehicle.Police said the driver became angry and uncooperative when troopers arrived, slamming his fist on a patrol car.The child, Darly Wayne Allen, was flown to Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition last night.

A worker buried to his waist by dirt in a collapsing ditch was rescued yesterday evening after a six-hour ordeal -- hungry and a little numb, but with a smile on his face for the emergency crews that saved him.Gabriel Kierson, 21, was one of five employees of Baywood Design Builders assigned to a waterproofing job at a home in the Woodmark development in West Friendship.They had dug a trench about 12 feet deep and nearly 30 feet long along a leaky side wall of the house on Mount Albert Road.

When the doctor's office receptionist summons her, when she flashes her credit card at the grocery store, when she leaves a phone message — the reaction to her last name these days is always the same. Voltaggio? "They say, 'Are you …?' And we say yes," says Bobbie Voltaggio, aunt of chefs Bryan and Michael, whose 2009 appearance on "Top Chef" made the Italian word for "voltage" a household name far beyond the close-knit Frederick area where she lives and her nephews grew up. "As soon as they see the last name, we know what they want to know.

With the news that Domonique Foxworth's season had ended after being placed on injured reserve Wednesday morning, the Ravens cornerback group got a bit of good news in the form of rookie Jimmy Smith. The organization's first-round pick in April, Smith is no longer wearing a clunky boot on his left foot to help him bounce back from a high ankle sprain. Smith walked through the team's locker room on Wednesday without a limp in his gait or a grimace on his face. “That's a sign that the ankle is getting better, getting stronger,” he said.