Duchess

Sarah, Duchess of York, was on the road again, and feeling vaguely gloomy. She sent her driver into a deli to buy her two cheese and tomato sandwiches slathered with salty butter and two "full-bodied" Coca Colas, none of that diet stuff. The driver, aware of the Duchess' role as a Weight Watchers spokeswoman, asked if she was sure. She insisted.But before chowing down, she called her Weight Watchers adviser on the cell phone and, sounding like someone hoping to be talked off a ledge, told her she was about to gobble it up."

Duchess and dieting: She wrote the bookOK, so Sarah, the Duchess of York, doesn't cook. She readily admits it. But she still has to eat and feed her two daughters, she says.As a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers, the former wife of Britain's Prince Andrew, who has battled her own weight problems, has come out with a cookbook -- her second -- with recipes and advice on how to lead a healthy lifestyle.In "Dieting With the Duchess" (Simon & Schuster, 1999), she offers such easy meal suggestions as a PB&J bagel: Spread 1 small toasted oat bran bagel with 1 1/2 tablespoons strawberry spreadable fruit and 1 tablespoon peanut butter.

To some, Baltimorean Wallis Simpson was one of the century's most romantic figures, the divorcee Edward VIII gave up his kingdom for. To others, she was a social climber who as the Duchess of Windsor spent a vain and useless life after marrying the ex-king.But whatever people think of her, they agree she dressed well."She was the personification of pared-down, sleek minimalism," says Kohle Yohannan, a professor at the Parsons School of Design in New York. Yohannan is guest curator of "Wallis: Duchess of Windsor," an exhibition exploring the duchess's personal style, which opens today at the Maryland Historical Society.

The Baltimore connection with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor recently got stronger thanks to purchases made by a board member on behalf of the Maryland Historical Society.Stiles Tuttle Colwill, a prominent interior designer and a Maryland Historical Society board member, successfully bid on about 13 of the duchess' outfits and one of the duke's suits. "Some of the outfits have handbags, some have shoes," Colwill says.The Duchess of Windsor was born Bessie Wallis Warfield in Baltimore and was twice divorced when she became involved with Edward VIII.

Let's use surplus in budget to help farmers on Shore2 Politicians should not approve such a venture.Richard A. ZehlBaltimoreReading the paper shows Fields was rightI read with much interest and amusement the article about a possible class action lawsuit against American Family Publishers the many people who feel duped or cheated by their tactics.The proposed litigants feel they were swindled in their effort to get rich quick.In the words of the great philosopher W. C. Fields: "You can't cheat an honest man."

WIMBLEDON, England -- It's hard to be 17 and a champion, when every flaw is dissected, when every racket toss is noted, when every loss is the stuff of tennis history.But for Martina Hingis, the toughest part of being a year older and trying to defend the coveted Wimbledon title was the realization that she was no longer dominant, no longer unbeatable."I guess I'm not the player I was last year," Hingis said yesterday after being dispatched from Wimbledon's women's semifinals by her doubles partner, Jana Novotna.

WIMBLEDON, England -- This time, Jana Novotna wept in triumph.She was the one who marched through the stands to hug and kiss her friends and family. She held tight to the outstretched hands of the Duchess of Kent, who smiled excitedly and told her that the third time was the charm, after all.And there she was, cradling the gold winner's plate, on the greatest victory lap in tennis, as cheers and tears poured down from the Centre Court stands.Yesterday, Novotna buried the past with one glorious triumph, beating Nathalie Tauziat, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2)

John Joseph Carroll, 77, a former city editor for the Associated Press who accompanied President Harry S. Truman on his walks along New York City's Fifth Avenue, died Friday in New York.John B. Combs, 92, a political columnist for black publications and confidant to Ohio's governors, died Saturday in Columbus, Ohio.Allan Dell, 31, who turned Hogs & Heifers -- a dive bar in the meatpacking district -- into a celebrity hangout, died early Saturday en route to a New York hospital after having trouble breathing, the New York Post reported yesterday.

GET READY for comedy this weekend when students at Francis Scott Key High School present "The Mouse That Roared," an adaptation of the popular 1950s novel about a tiny, antiquated European country that declares war on the superpower United States -- and wins.Leonard Wibberley wrote the original book.The fun starts when Duchess Gloriana, ruler of Grand Fenwick, an obscure country in the Alps, learns that a California pinot, similar to one produced in her country, has arrived on the world market.

It could be worse, of course. She could be posing in No Excuses Jeans. There could be a 900 number, a line of open-toed shoes, or a Playboy pictorial.What, after all, is a fallen duchess to do for money after the palace doors swing shut?If you are Sarah, Duchess of York, you go public with your tales of dieting disasters, of ballooning up to 205 pounds during your unhappiest days in royal hell, of finding comfort in sausages and mayonnaise, of eating just half the chocolate chip cookie so that you can fit into your slimly tailored suit.

On May 10, 2009 FLORENCE "DUCHESS", mother of Sherman Payne-El and Carrlinn Rivers. Viewing Sunday 12 noon to 6 P.M. at Phillips Funeral Home, P.A., 1721-27 North Monroe Street at Westwood Avenue. Wake and funeral Monday 10:30 to 11 A.M. at Mt. Hebron Baptist Church, 2651West North Avenue. Interment Baltimore National Cemetery.

[Paramount Home Video] Starring Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes Directed by Saul Dibb. $29.98, Blu-ray $39.99. ** dvds The Duchess, in stores Saturday, may be lovely to look at, but even Keira Knightley's best efforts can't shake up this curiously inert film, the tale of an 18th-century British lass who married into the aristocracy, only to find the marriage doomed her to a life of little more than servitude to her vain, pompous husband. Knightley, corseted and wigged beyond any reasonable measure, is Georgiana Spencer, who starts off thrilled that she is to be betrothed to the esteemed Duke of Devonshire.

Amanda Foreman's robust, elegant biography, Georgianna, Duchess of Devonshire, receives a cream rinse and a Princess Di job in The Duchess, a Minorpiece Theatre depiction of the great-great-great-great-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales. Georgianna is a cultivated lass with an independent mind when she marries the fabulously wealthy and politically influential William Cavendish, the fifth duke of Devonshire. But she's also an intensely hopeful 17-year-old, so she's traumatized when she discovers that the duke is a cold cad who sees marriage as the process by which noble folk produce male heirs.

Only a charity event could boast such a bizarre assemblage: British and Northeast Baltimore royalty sitting for a proper tea party with a famous corporate clown in the west side of downtown. Yet there they were yesterday, two of the world's most famous redheads -- Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, and Ronald McDonald -- having a spot of tea with Maryland first lady Katie Curran O'Malley. The occasion: to announce a McDonald's charity program that will place a new item -- a $1 donation -- on the Maryland menus of the chain's 500 restaurants in the Baltimore and Washington region.

WASHINGTON -- In the breathless minutes before the royal motorcade rolled up to the SEED School yesterday, a small army of khaki- and polo-clad kids unfurled a brown paper sign, with this spray-painted message: "Welcome to SEED Prince Charles and Duchess of Wales." A sweet gesture. Only, the well-coiffed visitor in the black limo wasn't the Duchess of Wales. Wales belongs to Diana, the beloved princess, dead eight years now. This woman grinning at the prince's side was the newly minted Duchess of Cornwall - formerly Camilla Parker Bowles, Princess Diana's longtime rival, Prince Charles' former mistress and, now, wife.

Richard Warfield was alone when he came to Maryland as an indentured servant in the mid-1600s, but today his descendants are spread across the state and the world. An exhibit opening Saturday at the Howard County Historical Society highlights some of the members of the Warfield family tree - including two Maryland governors, a famous writer and an infamous duchess - and offers glimpses of life in past centuries. When Jean Keenan, a Warfield descendant and Historical Society volunteer, suggested the display, Executive Director Michael Walczak said he wasn't sure it would appeal to people outside the family.

THE MEMBERS OF one Mount Airy family are on a mission. The Clarke family has operated a rescue and sanctuary for severely abused and neglected animals for eight years. It's an effort that started with one ailing dog. When Donna Clarke and her family were looking for a pet, they decided they wanted to provide a good home to an animal that desperately needed one. They put out the word, and heard about Duchess, a female Great Dane that had been bought by its previous owner specifically to breed, and spent most of her day in a tiny crate in a dark basement.

John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi is one of the gorier plays in English literature. But though it's a so-called "tragedy of blood," there's no blood visible in director Michael Kahn's intense production at Washington's Shakespeare Theatre. It's not that the requisite number of lives (eight) aren't lost. It's just that we don't see any of the red stuff being spilled. This turns out to be especially appropriate for a Jacobean revenge tragedy whose villains are extremely cold-hearted and bloodless.

To some, Baltimorean Wallis Simpson was one of the century's most romantic figures, the divorcee Edward VIII gave up his kingdom for. To others, she was a social climber who as the Duchess of Windsor spent a vain and useless life after marrying the ex-king.But whatever people think of her, they agree she dressed well."She was the personification of pared-down, sleek minimalism," says Kohle Yohannan, a professor at the Parsons School of Design in New York. Yohannan is guest curator of "Wallis: Duchess of Windsor," an exhibition exploring the duchess's personal style, which opens today at the Maryland Historical Society.

Sarah, Duchess of York, was on the road again, and feeling vaguely gloomy. She sent her driver into a deli to buy her two cheese and tomato sandwiches slathered with salty butter and two "full-bodied" Coca Colas, none of that diet stuff. The driver, aware of the Duchess' role as a Weight Watchers spokeswoman, asked if she was sure. She insisted.But before chowing down, she called her Weight Watchers adviser on the cell phone and, sounding like someone hoping to be talked off a ledge, told her she was about to gobble it up."