Elmo

On March 4, 2005, ELMO H.; beloved husband of the late Iris E. Bucher (nee Falk); beloved father of Marjorie M. Marshall and the late Judith N. Falk. Also survived by five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Services at the Eline Funeral Home, 934 S. Main Street, Hampstead, on Tuesday at 11 A.M. Interment in Greenmount United Methodist Cemetery, Hampstead. Friends may call Sunday 7 to 9 P.M. and Monday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. at the funeral home.

A fifth man has filed a lawsuit against Kevin Clash, the former voice of Elmo on "Sesame Street," making sex abuse allegations similar to those of four other plaintiffs. Kevin Kiadii, now 25, of New York, alleges that he was 16 when he and Clash engaged in sexual contact after meeting on a gay phone chat line. According to the lawsuit, Clash initiated contact with Kiadii on the chat line in 2004, invited him to his New York apartment and sent a luxury car service to pick Kiadii up in Brooklyn.

A claim that "Sesame Street" puppeteer Kevin Clash had sex with a minor has been withdrawn. The 23-year-old man who had said he was 16 when he began a romantic relationship with Clash - the voice of Elmo - recanted Tuesday through his attorney. The brief statement from the Harrisburg, Pa., law firm of Andreozzi & Associates reads in its entirety: "This office represented the 23-year-old man who was the subject of many media reports regarding Kevin Clash. He wants it to be known that his sexual relationship with Mr. Clash was an adult consensual relationship.

Sheldon Stephens, the first man to claim that “Sesame Street” puppeteer Kevin Clash had an underage relationship with him, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the former voice of Elmo. Stephens is the fourth man to sue the Turners Station native, but in November he was the first to make his allegations public. Clash, 52, has denied all of the allegations. He has said he and Stephens had a relationship after Stephens became an adult. Stephens soon retracted his claim, calling the relationship adult and consensual.

You have to hand it to Elmo. That little red Muppet sure knows how to work a crowd. "Elmo love coming to Baltimore," he shouted in that squeaky, happy voice of his to a gym full of tiny kids sitting on exercise mats at John Eager Howard Elementary School. And the kids went wild at hearing "love" and the name of their hometown as the first words coming out of the mouth of the manic character they watch every morning on public TV. Elmo and the celebrated puppeteer who brings him to life, Baltimore native Kevin Clash, came to the school recently to promote PBS KIDS Raising Readers, a national literacy project that shares some of the same core goals as "Sesame Street" when it launched in 1969.

Having a big-name puppet come to town is not exactly child's play. "Video interviews with Elmo require a monitor and IFB for Elmo's performer," reads the news release announcing that the celebrity furball and Kevin Clash , the Baltimore native who brings him to life, would participate in the lighting of the Washington Monument on Thursday. IFB is an in-ear communication device, Downtown Partnership spokesman Mike Evitts informed me, noting that it's just one of the high-tech gizmos used to "preserve the illusion" that Elmo speaks for himself.

Don't let the Muppet on the cover fool you. My Life as a Furry Red Monster isn't a kids' book. It's the life story of Kevin Clash, the puppeteer behind Sesame Street's Elmo, who grew up in a Turners Station home filled with love, children - and "chemical odors" from the nearby Bethlehem Steel mill. How'd he get from there to "where the air is sweet?" "Kind of like a Cinderfella story," is how Clash summed it up to me the other day in his very un-Elmo baritone. "I'm not Elmo. I went through what everybody else went through."

Kevin Clash, the voice of Elmo on "Sesame Street," is taking a leave of absence from the show in the aftermath of allegations that he had sex with an underage boy, which surfaced Monday on the website TMZ. The Baltimore-born Clash has vehemently denied the accusations. According to TMZ, the 23-year-old accuser says the two began a sexual relationship seven years ago, when he was 16 and Clash, 45. Clash has acknowledged he had a relationship with the man, but said that it didn't begin until after he had become an adult.

Christmas may not come until tomorrow, but Rodney Diggs already knows what present he's getting.Thanks to dozens of people who responded to an article in yesterday's Sun, 12-year-old Rodney, who since birth has been stricken with a soft-bone disease, will get a ramp for his wheelchair. Callers to his Pikesville home offered donations of money, material, labor and ramps so that Rodney would be able to keep the Tickle Me Elmo doll his 64-year-old grandparents were offering for sale to pay for a ramp.

WHAT IF someone could predict for you the fads of '97? What will be the next dance craze; the next must-have toy; the movie or record or beverage everyone is raving about? With a shrewd investment or two, we could make a fortune. Oh, to foretell just one.Every year has its crazes, from phone-booth stuffing to pet rocks. However, they seem to be arriving more rapidly, or thanks to the information superhighway, on a broader scale.No one in America can be unaware of the Macarena, even if only 2 percent of us can do the dance.

A fourth accuser is coming forward to claim he engaged in underage sex with former "Sesame Street" puppeteer Kevin Clash. On Monday, Florida-based attorney Jeff Herman filed his third lawsuit alleging that Clash, now 52, engaged in sex with minors. Herman also has filed suits on behalf of two of the previous three accusers. All three cases allege civil — in other words, noncriminal — violations, and are pending in the Southern District of New York. All three seek unspecified damages.

Kevin Clash, the Baltimore-born puppeteer who was the voice behind the beloved "Sesame Street" character Elmo, resigned Tuesday in the wake of allegations that he had sex with minors. Though a man who'd accused Clash last week of having underage sex recanted, Clash released a short statement saying he was leaving the show with sadness after another accuser emerged. "I am resigning from Sesame Workshop with a very heavy heart," he said. "I have loved every day of my 28 years working for this exceptional organization.

A claim that "Sesame Street" puppeteer Kevin Clash had sex with a minor has been withdrawn. The 23-year-old man who had said he was 16 when he began a romantic relationship with Clash - the voice of Elmo - recanted Tuesday through his attorney. The brief statement from the Harrisburg, Pa., law firm of Andreozzi & Associates reads in its entirety: "This office represented the 23-year-old man who was the subject of many media reports regarding Kevin Clash. He wants it to be known that his sexual relationship with Mr. Clash was an adult consensual relationship.

WEATHER: Showers, with a high near 52 . Tonight is expected to be mostly clear, low around 38. TRAFFIC: Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues. TOP NEWS Voice of Elmo leaves 'Sesame Street' after underage sex accusations : Baltimore-born Kevin Clash, the voice of Elmo, is taking a leave of absence from the show in the aftermath of allegations that he had sex with an underage boy, which surfaced Monday on the website TMZ. Infrastructure issues continue with 2 mo re water main breaks : For the second time in six days, Baltimore's aging water system ruptured, affecting service to dozens while snarling traffic and providing yet another unpleasant reminder of the region's crumbling infrastructure.

When Kevin Clash was a boy in Baltimore County, he'd watch TV mere inches from the screen and wish he could walk right into "Sesame Street. " It didn't take him long to get there. At 15, the kid from Turners Station became the regular puppeteer on a WMAR kids show. At 19, he performed as Cookie Monster in the Sesame Street float at the 1979 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and that night met his hero, Muppet creator Jim Henson. "Sesame Street" hired Clash in his early 20s. Before he turned 25, he took a gravel-throated red fur-ball and imbued him with a loving nature, a piping voice and a rapscallion innocence.

NEW YORK - Goodbye, Elmo. Goodbye, Jackie Mason. Goodbye, "Let's Get Ready to Rumble for Safety!" The recorded announcements in New York's taxicabs reminding passengers to buckle up and get a receipt are going the way of the subway token, after the Taxi and Limousine Commission concluded that they were more annoying than helpful. "They will be going away in the very near future," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday on his weekly radio show. "We haven't found anybody that likes it." The news angered entertainer Eartha Kitt, the Catwoman on the Batman TV series, who warned millions of passengers: "Cats have nine lives - gggrooowwwlll!

Elmo sleeps with the fishes. Teenie Beanie Babies rule.And at Andi and Tom Moore's trend-spotting Toy Traders, success is built on the fickleness of children and the parents who cater to them.The Moores have watched the trends for 17 years from their shop in the back of a strip mall on Layhill Road in Silver Spring.Carrying toys washed up in the prime of their stuffed lives, parents and children come to the Moores in hopes of buying or swapping them for ones that look more exciting or seem newer.