Family Ties

Just off busy Butler Road, in Glyndon, a road narrows and passes through two stone gates into a quieter time — a time when neighbors knew each other and enjoyed each other's company on their front porches. It was a time when friends routinely shared picnics and hymn sings on weekday evenings, and worship services and fried chicken dinners on Sundays. That's still the gentle way life flows during the warmer months at Emory Grove — a place that, as one visitor observed, "forces you to slow down and enjoy nature, and become part of a community.

TODAY'S lesson in how the world shouldn't work begins with a question: What do these three men have in common? Jiang Mianheng, the son of Chinese senior leader and military head Jiang Zemin. Winston Wong, son of Wang Yung-ching, chairman of Taiwan's largest conglomerate. Neil Bush, the 48-year-old younger brother of President Bush. It's simple: They're all big stakeholders in a mainland Chinese company, Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., a start-up with huge ambitions that needs U.S. approval to import an advanced level of American computer equipment.

Right away you know that Booker T. Carter is a different kind of corporate animal.As vice president of Subscriber Services for CareFirst & Columbia FreeState, you might imagine that for him success is the excitement of leadership. But to him, the sweet smell of success is having people who love you and who you love."I've learned over the course of my career that you must make time for your family. The most important part about life is the people you care about. It is my family that motivates me to achieve.

The removal of Lawrence A. Snoops as a plumbing subcontractor on Howard County's $30.8 million state-of-the-art River Hill High School project raises serious questions about possible impropriety. Beyond the usual concern about nepotism -- Mr. Snoops is the son of Hilda Mae Snoops, longtime friend of Gov. William Donald Schaefer -- there is also the question of why the state took back $2 million in construction funds already promised to the project.In all, the Howard school system incurred a $4 million cost overrun at River Hill, which the County Council covered this week by approving a budget transfer.

"Beyond Silence," by German director Caroline Link, bears lyrical testament to the ties that bind families and how they are severed.The fact that this absorbing drama is played out in a family in which a hearing daughter tries to disentangle herself from the dependence of her deaf parents heightens the story's poignancy but in no way narrows its focus. It is a universal coming-of-age story, made unique by its distinctive setting and warm, true-to-life characters. "Beyond Silence" will resonate with anyone who has had passing experience with the contradictions of love and separation, especially adolescents who may be experiencing those contradictions' first pangs.

Soon-to-be princess Kate Middleton has a few prominent Marylanders — and American celebrities — in her family tree. Middleton, a commoner who marries Prince William on Friday, is a distant cousin of "The Star-Spangled Banner" author Francis Scott Key, talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres and Colonial Maryland governor Sir Thomas Bladen, the namesake of Bladensburg, according to "The Ancestry of Catherine Middleton. " Released this month by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the book traces Middleton's roots back hundreds of years, and ties the 29-year-old to a host of historical figures, from George Washington to World War II Gen. George S. Patton.

It's only natural that J. Scott Wilfong, president and CEO of SunTrust Bank for the Greater Washington/Maryland area, would want to give back to the American Heart Association. After all, heart disease runs in his family. His wife, Susan, suffers from dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart weakens and becomes enlarged. Her brother died at the age of 13 and her father at the age of 61 from the same condition. Their daughter, Sarah, 29, has a defibrillator and his sister-in-law has had a heart transplant.

Kevin Marshall and Buddy Evans, like many cousins, are close. They keep in touch regularly and enjoy talking over a cup of coffee when they can get together. The two, who have spent much of their lives on the Chesapeake Bay as watermen, even took their cordial relationship to land to play in a softball league together. But when the 41st annual Crisfield Boat Docking Classic takes place Sept. 2, none of that will matter. Asked whether they were on the same team, Evans laughed at the thought.

COLLEGE PARK -- A bond between brothers and the schools that separated them was captured in a family photo taken this past summer: Maryland junior receiver Isaiah Williams was wearing his jersey from the Champs Sports Bowl, while his older brother, Ira, a 2001 graduate and former receiver for Wake Forest, was sporting a Demon Deacons T-shirt. "Last year he trash-talked me quite a bit," said Isaiah Williams, referring to when Wake Forest beat Maryland in the regular-season finale, knocking the Terps out of the running for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship.

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT you, but I need to simplify my life.I have too many to-do lists, too many piles of paperwork. I have too many errands to run, too many calls to return and too many bills to pay. My day timer is more important to me than my marriage.Elaine St. James needed to simplify her life, too. After she did, she wrote a book about the process of giving things up and throwing things away, doing less and making do with less.The book was called "Simplify Your Life," and it was a big success.