Entertainment

A casino is an entertainment business, and slots players are customers who visit to be entertained. Slots and card players know full well that the odds are against them leaving a casino with more dollars than they brought to play with. A slot player's entertainment is in the time spent playing, and that time is directly related to a casino's slot payout percentage. Casino state taxes are an expense that directly impacts operations and customer charges. Casinos in Nevada offer the longest playing slot times by providing customers with a 95 percent slot payout made possible by a 7.75 percent casino tax rate.

"Estate" is not a description that should be used indiscriminately — yet the term clearly when referring to the Colonial-style mansion at 1105 Bellevista Court in Severna Park. Located on nearly one acre in the subdivision of Belleview Estates, this four-story brick home with almost 9,000 square feet of living space was listed at $1,995,900 and sold for $1,850,000. It closed April 30 without ever being formally listed on the market. "[This was] one of the highest-selling, non-waterfront homes in Anne Arundel County and an example of the positive turn our housing market is taking," said Jennifer Sowers of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, one of two co-listing agents.

Baltimore was not one of the cities invited to compete for a federal grant that would have helped it explore the feasibility of creating an arts and entertainment district on the west side of downtown, but local arts leaders say they hope to find alternative funds to continue their study. The matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts would have given Baltimore up to $250,000 to determine whether to create the arts district and to evaluate the success of existing arts districts in Station North and Highlandtown.

Expectations are high for this year's commencement speakers at Maryland universities - an august crew that includes the Obamas and their team of writers as well as funnyman Bill Cosby and Hollywood director Jason Winer. But to stand out - or simply be remembered - isn't a guarantee, no matter how high the profile of the speaker. "The commencement speaker has to perform. He or she has the responsibility to inspire both students and graduates to make something of their lives" without falling back on cliches, said Steven D. Cohen, managing director of the oral communication program at the University of Maryland.

Thank you for your extensive coverage of recent animal cruelty cases in Baltimore — I hope it raises awareness of the problem and convinces those with the power to do so to make sure more animals do not suffer at the hands of these barbarians. I am 91 years old, a life-long Baltimore resident, and I am sickened and heartbroken to think that anyone — especially children — would treat an animal the way Phoenix, Mittens, Rainbow and so many others have been tortured, maimed or killed.

Nothing better illustrates today's vast changes in electronics and entertainment than the mega-merger of Disney and ABC. The $19 billion acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC by the Walt Disney Co. is revolutionary in terms of pop culture and home entertainment. In retrospect it should not have been a surprise, because its attractions are so obvious. Strategically, the two giants are a perfect fit: They complement each other with little duplication. Mergers like this are a tycoon's dream.But is this a dream or nightmare for everyone else?

Live from 'SNL,' Tina Fey is 2008's top entertainer Tina Fey was voted the Associated Press' Entertainer of the Year, an honor given annually to the performer who had the greatest impact on culture and entertainment for the year. Robert Downey Jr., whose comeback was capped with the blockbuster Iron Man, finished second, and Heath Ledger, who posthumously wowed audiences as the Joker in The Dark Knight, was third. But it was Fey, 38, who most impressed voters (newspaper editors and broadcast producers across the country)

In a slow season, a reporter of restaurant news will take to scouring the Baltimore City License Board's notice of transfers and even, occasionally, the want ads under Hospitality on Craigslist, hoping that a new restaurant has posted hiring notices. And that's how this turned up: "Entertainer who plays the piano/synthesizer and sings is wanted nightly from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. for the Da Mimmo Cocktail Lounge." Mary Ann Cricchio, owner of Da Mimmo (217 S. High St., 410-727-6876, damimmo.

WESTMINSTER - Looking for a different gift idea? The American Heart Association is selling the Entertainment '91 books for $35.The books include discount coupons for restaurants, movies, sporting events, dry cleaning, film developing, hotels and more.To purchase books, call 876-1029 or stop by the AHA office at 280 E.Main St.

These are pretty heady times for ABC's "Monday Night Football," and why not?MNF remains the biggest weekly spectacle in televised sports, garnering ratings high enough to keep the show in the Nielsen prime-time top 10 for the past four years.And when the curtain goes up on the show's 25th season Monday night, as the San Francisco 49ers play host to the Los Angeles Raiders, the home-viewing audience will find basically the same formula that has yielded big dividends to this point."On Monday night, we have a special mandate.

Anne Arundel Community College's Kauffman Theater at the Pascal Center for Performing Arts is proving to be fertile ground for people searching for entertainment bargains. The center offers such options as dance troupes, jazz ensembles, world-class guitar concerts and performances by the AACC Concert Band. The major spring concert season kicked off last weekend with classical concerts by the college's Symphony Orchestra and the Concert Choir and Chamber Singers. If these opening classical concerts signal the caliber of what lies ahead, music fans are in for a treat.

The Ladies Auxiliary to the VFW Post 8185 entertained the Perry Point veterans on Sunday, April 14 at the post home at 520 Susquehanna River Road. Kathy Heaton and her crew provided a scrumptious meal followed by music provided by DJ Bob Cross. The ladies entertain the veterans on the second Sunday of every month from April through December. The new Bainbridge Museum at 6 S. Main Street (the Bank Building) will open for the season on Saturday, April 20, from 1 to 5 p.m. Fitness instructor Cindi Lamb Wiley, has two "Fun Buns" classes running, one in North East at Victoria Park senior apartments on Tuesday mornings at 11 a.m., and the other at the VFW Post 8185 in Port Deposit on Monday evenings at 6 p.m. The sessions in North East are free and the classes at Port's VFW encourage a $2 donation to the VFW each week.

Sportswriters inevitably get the question: How do you cover teams you once loved as a fan? The standard answer is that you stop rooting for the jersey and start rooting for the best story. That's true to a point but incomplete. It's near impossible to cover a team and not become fascinated with some of the individual personalities. You don't exactly root for them, but you are drawn to them. And that brings me to Ed Reed and his departure from Baltimore after 11 mesmerizing, mystical, confounding and deeply entertaining seasons.

The ink on their contract was barely dry and the moving van just out of sight, when Richard and Key-Key von Lange prepared to flip the first-floor interior layout of the six-year-old home they bought in Federal Hill three years ago. "We looked at the house and were sold," Richard von Lange recalled of the rowhouse he and his wife purchased for $395,000. "We wanted parking, we wanted a yard and we liked the location. " The only problem with the three-story, end-of-group home with a rooftop deck was the kitchen just inside the front door.

The Baltimore entertainment attorney who represented White House state dinner crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi and "The Wire" actress Felicia "Snoop" Pearson was disbarred Monday after the state's highest court found he had, among other things, overbilled clients and misused money given to him as a retainer. The Court of Appeals upheld an earlier ruling that Paul W. Gardner II had violated official standards of conduct for lawyers, and he was ordered to pay court costs. The court ruled Gardner improperly paid his office manager for legal work, though she was not an attorney, and improperly filed a nonimmigrant work visa application, resulting in its being denied.

Terrell Suggs didn't need a microphone. The booming voice from the Ravens outside linebacker was easily heard during the Super Bowl media day Tuesday. Suggs embraced the wackiness often associated with media day, pulling his own antics during the hour-long session Tuesday morning at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Just a few questions into the interview, Suggs jumped up from his seat and asked, "We're good? I'm done?" He left the podium and tried to ask teammate Ed Reed a question, but Suggs couldn't get through the crowd assembled for the Ravens safety.

Everybody has heard about the information highway and its potential for changing the way we live, work and communicate. But there are many things we don't know about it yet -- like when it will arrive, where it will take us, and what we'll do when we get there.It shouldn't come as any shock, then, that those questions loom large in the minds of the manufacturers, retailers and consultants gathered here for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). But the answers they've come up with are surprising.

MARYLANDERS are invited to celebrate children and families this weekend at the state's first Kids' Convention at Towson State University.With a flourish of entertainment, activities for children and programs for parents, the convention hopes to promote education, spotlight services for families and present a forum for the exchange of ideas on family issues. The convention is sponsored by the Governor's Office of Children, Youth and Families and area businesses.Children's activities include a variety of art projects, displays by the Baltimore Zoo and the National Aquarium and hands-on exhibits from the Maryland Science Center.

On Sunday, pretty much everyone in Baltimore will be rooting for the Ravens. Likewise in San Francisco with the 49ers. But the rest of the nation's football fans? Most will just be rooting for another entertaining Super Bowl. Each of the last five Super Bowls went down to the wire, and a couple of them could be considered among the greatest of all time. In anticipation of another good one Sunday in New Orleans, I have compiled my list of the seven most entertaining Super Bowls in NFL history.

If you have a small child, you're used to avoiding situations where there's an expectation of quiet. Flying's no fun, the theater's out, and museums are off the list too. But rethink that last one: The Walters Art Museum has a program called Waltee's Cubs for ages through 18 months. On a day when the Walters is typically closed, it opens its doors for babies for engaging learning activities in one of the exhibit areas, then a half-hour of free play and art in the studios. I attended January's "Funny Faces" event with my 1-year-old, Aaron, last week.