Fairy Godmother

Soap Boat Derby Create a foam vessel and watch it glide as you compete in the Baltimore Museum of Industry's Soap Boat Derby. The museum is offering an educational and fun-filled day with indoor boat racing, so leave your coats and scarves at the door. On Saturday and Sunday Baltimore Museum of Industry will hold a Soap Boat Derby. BMI is at 1415 Key Highway at Inner Harbor South. Admission is $10, $6 for seniors (60 and older), children and students. Children under 4 and BMI members get in for free.

ONCE UPON a time, boys and girls, there was wonderful place all the way out Route 40 in rural Howard County. It was called Enchanted Forest, and children from all over begged their parents to make the long drive there to frolic amid the three bears' house, the old woman's shoe and other such fairy tales in fiberglass. Hundreds of thousands of fun-seekers a year flocked there, and people in these parts considered it their Disneyland. But that was 50 years ago, and over the decades the forest grew a lot less enchanting for boys and girls who seemed to want more and more bells and whistles.

The voice on the other end of the phone was unmistakable."I'm BAAAACK!" brayed Wendy Kaufman, better known as Wendy the Snapple Lady, before breaking into a trill of delighted giggles.The Long Island woman went from the company's order department to letter-answerer to advertising icon before food giant Quaker Oats bought Snapple in 1994, and Wendy lost her job."I never left Snapple. Snapple left me," she says. "When Quaker came into the picture, they decided I was no longer the image they wanted to project that I had had my time, and that they wanted to go mainstream."

With founder Bobbi Smith at the helm, Talent Machine Company opens its 12th summer season June 22 with "Cinderella," featuring a cast of 40 children. Smith serves as director and choreographer, guaranteeing a production that showcases the young talent. This is the first of Talent Machine Company's two summer shows. Next month, a 23-member cast, ages 12 to 19, will present the first Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice collaboration, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." TMC is known for offering fresh approaches to familiar shows.

Holiday House Tour Get an up-close look at the diverse architectural styles in Federal Hill and Otterbein during the Preservation Society's annual self-guided Holiday House Tour. Residents in the historic neighborhoods open their doors to visitors from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Also enjoy an open house and holiday music throughout the afternoon at Old Otterbein United Methodist Church, 112 W. Conway St. Festivities wrap up at 7 p.m. with a community tree lighting in Federal Hill Park. Parking is available at Martini Lutheran Church, Henrietta and Hanover streets.

On her 7th birthday, Denni Haw was given a Cinderella watch and figurine that became the most cherished gift of her childhood. Nearly 30 years later, Denni couldn't pass up the chance to live out a fairy tale of her own making in a Cinderella-theme wedding.Like most modern fairy tales, Denni's Cinderella story has its own twists and turns.The fairy godmother who brought Denni and Norm Crouse Jr. together was not a kindly old woman armed with a magic wand. Norm -- though he is tall, dark and handsome and conveys a certain charm -- wasn't searching the kingdom of Baltimore looking for a wife.

NEW YORK -- Martin Short believes in summer vacation the way bears believe in hibernation. It's annual. It's his nature.The Canadian funnyman, in town to publicize his fairy-godmother turn in "A Simple Wish," which opens Friday, was whiling away the hours before he and his wife and three children head north for three months on a lake."

ART REVIEWWhat: Fay's Fairy Tales: William Wegman's "Cinderella" and "Little Red Riding Hood"Where: Baltimore Museum of Art, Art Museum Drive near North Charles and 31st streetsWhen: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; through Dec. 5Admission: $5.50 adults, $3.50 seniors and students; $1.50 ages 7 through 18; free Thursdays$ Call: (410) 396-7100All the world loves a good fairy tale, and all the world loves William Wegman's dog photographs, so what could be a better match than fairy tales illustrated with William Wegman's dog photographs?

JUST WHEN holiday demands have us feeling as if we're going round in circles, Trinitas, an a cappella trio with Kate Caldwell of Severna Park and Jane Elkin and Carolyn Sonnen of Broadneck, offers a soothing solution. The trio's new compact disc, Songs of the Labyrinth, is filled with the peaceful sounds of sacred music and chant. The melodies, dating from the ninth century to the present, are arranged to accompany meditation, quiet prayer or a labyrinth walk. A religious labyrinth, Caldwell says, is described as "an ancient sacred symbol of a pilgrimage to the divine."

Shakespeare's Pericles is part fairy tale and part myth, and director Mary Zimmerman takes those characteristics and runs with them. Zimmerman's enchanting production at Washington's Shakespeare Theatre treats this picaresque tale of treachery, tempests, love, loss, reunion and redemption like a fanciful children's story. She divides the narrator's role among many players, who read aloud from a book as if it were a child's storybook. She uses toy sailboats on sticks to represent a royal fleet.