Family Feud

By the time Jen Staab and Sam Hruz played in The Game for the first time, they knew all about the basketball rivalry between the Institute of Notre Dame and Mercy. They grew up hearing about the competition, the tradition and the school spirit surrounding what is as much an event as a basketball game, because their mothers also played in The Game, which will tip off for the 46th time Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Towson Center. "We talk about it all the time," said Hruz, a Mercy junior.

By the time Jen Staab and Sam Hruz played in The Game for the first time, they knew all about the basketball rivalry between the Institute of Notre Dame and Mercy. They grew up hearing about the competition, the tradition and the school spirit surrounding what is as much an event as a basketball game, because their mothers also played in The Game, which will tip off for the 46th time Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Towson Center. "We talk about it all the time," said Hruz, a Mercy junior.

Dear Harriette: My aunt and I are very close. A couple of months ago, I was having a bad day and, without intending to, I took my frustrations out on her in front of her children, using profanity, etc. I deeply regretted it immediately and apologized. She accepted my apology, we hugged, and that was that. A month later, I stopped by her house, but neither she nor her children would really interact with me. I haven't been back in two months and no one has called me or anything. I think that they are all holding a grudge, but I apologized and she accepted.

For the past 50 years, Ernie Tyler has been the keeper of the sacred pearls. The beloved Orioles "ballboy" and umpire attendant has, with Ripkenesque persistence, shown up for work at Memorial Stadium and Oriole Park on such a regular basis for so long that it's almost impossible to imagine a ballgame in Baltimore without him. That's why, when he underwent a hernia operation last year and had to stay off the field for part of the season, you...

When the Robbie family in Miami celebrates Thanksgiving next week, it won't be a Norman Rockwell setting.Instead of carving up the turkey, they could be carving up each other.A bitter family feud among the nine children of Joe and Elizabeth Robbie has threatened the family's control of the Miami Dolphins and could lead to the club's being sold.It started when Joe Robbie died Jan. 7, 1990. His will left control of the team to three trustees -- his sons, Tim and Dan, and daughter, Janet.They infuriated their mother, Elizabeth, and their other six siblings by firing a brother, Mike, from the team's front office and selling half of Joe Robbie Stadium and 15 percent of the team to video magnate H. Wayne Huizenga, who got the expansion baseball team for Miami.

THE SCHEDULE read "Dorsey's Search at Phelps Luck." But coaches and many swimmers on both teams knew this was more than your usual meet. The Columbia Neighborhood Swim League dual meet was a Schnaar family feud - the friendly sort, of course, mother's team facing daughter's team for the first time. "It was kind of strange," said Cindy Schnaar, a River Hill High School social studies teacher who has coached Dorsey's Search for seven summers and remembers it wasn't all that long ago when daughter Melissa was one of her swimmers on a small Long Reach squad.

INDIANAPOLIS -- It wasn't exactly a demonstration of brotherly love. But Geoff and Brett Bodine sure did liven up the Brickyard 400. They've probably also set the stage for one heck of a family reunion next week in Watkins Glen, N.Y.On the 99th lap, the two Bodines were racing one and two when Geoff tapped the rear bumper of Brett's car, and drove low on the race track to take the lead.Moments later, Brett stepped on the gas and drove square into Geoff's back bumper, knocking him -- and Dale Jarrett, who got caught up in the crash as drivers scrambled to miss Geoff's spinning car -- out of the race.

Editor's note: Every Tuesday through the end of tax season, The Sun will run an edited transcript of Baltimoresun.com's weekly tax-advice column featuring three experts from the Hunt Valley accounting firm SC&H Group. My husband and I reside in Texas. I have a daughter that attended a university in Virginia after graduating from high school in 2006 and resided in the dorm. She worked a [part-time] job (two, to be exact) for a short while in Virginia during the year 2006. My husband and I are unsure if we can claim her as a dependent since she lived in the dorm.

TCThe host of the TV game show "Family Feud" asked Kevin P. Fitzgerald if he were married."Yes," replied the 29-year-old Columbia resident.Providing color commentary on the taped broadcast with a gathering of friends back home in Columbia Thursday night, Marylynn Fitzgerald playfully admonished her amused husband. "That's when you're supposed to say you have a beautiful wife at home."Mr. Fitzgerald was about to provide the family's five-member contingent with a clean sweep -- five out of five possible answers -- on this question: "Name something a mistress might demand."

WORLD Abbas calls for elections In a direct challenge to Hamas, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has called for new presidential and legislative elections. The move comes amid a violent political deadlock that is impoverishing the Palestinian people and pushing them closer to civil war. pg 20a Hitler, the YouTube cartoon A mocking video that depicts Adolf Hitler as a ridiculous cartoon character shows how Germans are learning to laugh at a monster from the darkest part of their history.

A scuffle at a Howard County high school between adults and teens from two feuding families led to six arrests, police and school officials said. Four students and two adults were charged with disorderly conduct in the incident Tuesday at Reservoir High in Fulton, police said. The members of the two families - students ages 15 to 17 and two female adults - encountered one another in the front office during the school day and began to bicker, said school system spokeswoman Patti Caplan.

First cousins Katie and Sarah Matz are best friends, and they're not about to let anything change that, especially not a lacrosse rivalry. While that might sound easy, it couldn't have been Tuesday when Katie's No. 1 McDonogh team rolled over Sarah's No. 4 Bryn Mawr team, 16-3. "Of course it's frustrating," Sarah said afterward, "but we're family, so we can't let it get between us. We're still best friends." How will they handle the aftermath of Tuesday's game? "We'll probably hang out on Friday," Katie said, and they both laughed.

Six weeks after former City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr. was gunned down outside a Northeast Baltimore nightclub, his family and supporters are growing impatient with the pace of the investigation. But they are taking divergent paths in their quest for answers, sparking a bitter family dispute that went public this week. Harris' widow, Annette, appeared at City Hall on Monday in support of a City Council resolution calling on police Commissioner Frederick H.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman said yesterday that he is moving forward with plans to call Baltimore's Krongard brothers before his committee next month - despite attempts by Howard "Cookie" Krongard during the weekend to cancel the hearing. "There is no legitimate legislative purpose to be gained by publicly pitting two brothers against each other," Cookie Krongard's lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder, wrote to Waxman, chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Van Gelder wrote, "I would ask that this committee not hold any additional hearings into this matter."

Editor's note: Every Tuesday through the end of tax season, The Sun will run an edited transcript of Baltimoresun.com's weekly tax-advice column featuring three experts from the Hunt Valley accounting firm SC&H Group. My husband and I reside in Texas. I have a daughter that attended a university in Virginia after graduating from high school in 2006 and resided in the dorm. She worked a [part-time] job (two, to be exact) for a short while in Virginia during the year 2006. My husband and I are unsure if we can claim her as a dependent since she lived in the dorm.

WORLD Abbas calls for elections In a direct challenge to Hamas, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has called for new presidential and legislative elections. The move comes amid a violent political deadlock that is impoverishing the Palestinian people and pushing them closer to civil war. pg 20a Hitler, the YouTube cartoon A mocking video that depicts Adolf Hitler as a ridiculous cartoon character shows how Germans are learning to laugh at a monster from the darkest part of their history.

ON AND OFF THE AIR:* The proliferation of morning talk shows was noted in this space last week, but the cable-connected have a juicy alternative that began today: back-to-back screenings of those prime-time soap operas "Dallas," and "Knot's Landing.""Dallas," which ended its 13-season run on CBS last spring, can be seen at 10 a.m. and "Knot's Landing," still airing on CBS, follows at 11, both on the TNT basic service.And in connection with the scheduling, TNT did a cute promotion with viewers: a contest to write lyrics for the instrumental theme song.

For the past 50 years, Ernie Tyler has been the keeper of the sacred pearls. The beloved Orioles "ballboy" and umpire attendant has, with Ripkenesque persistence, shown up for work at Memorial Stadium and Oriole Park on such a regular basis for so long that it's almost impossible to imagine a ballgame in Baltimore without him. That's why, when he underwent a hernia operation last year and had to stay off the field for part of the season, you...

Dear Harriette: My aunt and I are very close. A couple of months ago, I was having a bad day and, without intending to, I took my frustrations out on her in front of her children, using profanity, etc. I deeply regretted it immediately and apologized. She accepted my apology, we hugged, and that was that. A month later, I stopped by her house, but neither she nor her children would really interact with me. I haven't been back in two months and no one has called me or anything. I think that they are all holding a grudge, but I apologized and she accepted.

The older brother of one of New Jersey's largest cranberry growers has gone to court seeking to stop the sale of nearly 10,000 acres of family farms and pristine woodlands in South Jersey to a preservationist group. In a lawsuit that outlined a long and bitter financial feud, the brother, Mark A. DeMarco, 72, accused the grower, J. Garfield DeMarco, 64, of mismanaging the family cranberry business, spending corporate funds on himself and improperly trying to sell the family property to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation for about 30 percent of its market value.