Faris

THROUGH TODAY MIXED MEDIA SHOW Pottery by Susan Wertheimer David, watercolors by Donna Fink and abstract paintings by Phil Gurlik will be on view at the Galleries at Quiet Waters Park, 600 Quiet Waters Park Road, Annapolis, through today. Regular hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. 410-222-1777 or friendsofquietwaterspark.org. VIEWING STONES Japanese viewing stones collected from around the world by members of the Potomac Viewing Stone Group are on display through today at the U.S. National Arboretum, National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, 3501 New York Ave. N.E., Washington.

For someone known only to the cognoscenti, William Faris was a marvel. Watch- and clockmaker, silversmith, tavern keeper, gardener, man about town: Faris, born in London in 1728, was a l757-1804 Annapolitan. Never a nob, never a pol; what he did was, at age 63, start a journal of sights and doings. Scholars have been dipping into Faris for decades; now the Maryland Historical Society has published him in full: The Diary of William Faris (496 pages, $55). On an inverted-L plot on West Street, he had rabbits, pigs, bees, a cow, flowers (74 listed varieties)

SEATTLE -- With the goal of producing "a new generation of leaders," Bill and Melinda Gates are giving $1 billion to fund scholarships for minority college students.The amount, $50 million a year for 20 years, matches the largest charitable gift ever, the $1 billion donated to the United Nations by media mogul Ted Turner. The grant comes from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, created last month through a merger of the William H. Gates Foundation and Gates Learning Foundation.It will provide a minimum of 1,000 new students each year with any money they need to pay for their education, beyond any other financial aid they get.The program is a response to anti-affirmative-action measures such as last year's Initiative 200, which prohibits race-based admission policies at Washington state colleges and universities.

O bserve and Report is a static one-ring circus revolving around a ringmaster who's also a low clown. Seth Rogen, as mall security chief Ronnie Barnhardt, jiggles his flab, flexes his muscles and practices intimidation as he searches for a serial flasher in a case that he hopes will make his career in law enforcement. This film isn't the most awful comedy of the year (that would be Bride Wars or New in Town), but it may have the grossest antihero. The writer-director, Jody Hill, may think he's a risk-taking moviemaker, building a farce around an armed security guard with a Messiah complex.

Saying their survival is important to the growth of new jobs in Maryland, owners of small businesses from across the state appealed to lawmakers in Annapolis yesterday to lower taxes and offer relief from regulations they view as overly burdensome.Business owners delivered their message during an annual lobbying day organized by the National Federation of Independent Business, the nation's largest small business advocacy group."We really want less government," said Vaughn Foxwell Jr., owner of the Capital KOA Campground franchise and Heritage Tours in Millersville.

Before he got the text, Jacob Levy had never volunteered. In late June, Levy, a 28-year-old who lives in Baltimore, got an offer through his Virgin Mobile phone about a new program that traded coveted VIP tickets to Sunday's sold-out Virgin Mobile FreeFest at Merriweather Post Pavilion for community service hours. "I jumped on it," Levy said. Levy was one of nearly 3,000 people who earned tickets - and some VIP passes - for the Columbia festival by volunteering their time. They gave blood.

Lecture on Faris Author/historian Jean Russo will deliver a lecture titled “William Faris: Craftsman, Gardener, Diarist, Annapolitan,” at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday at St. John’s College’s Francis Scott Key Auditorium, 60 College Ave., Annapolis. The event is free. Call 410-626-2507. Apply to school The Monarch Academy Public Charter School has begun accepting applications for students for the 2010-2011 school year and has scheduled open houses and informational sessions for parents and prospective students.

Films like Scary Movie 3 aren't movies so much as purging rituals for consumers gorged on pop cultural ephemera. You don't patronize such enterprises in search of refinement or sophisticated discourse on genre conventions. You go to wallow in the silliness. This time, David Zucker, the veteran goofball behind Airplane! and the Naked Gun series, picks up where the Wayans brothers left off. For whatever reason, the change gives the franchise a noticeable spring to its step - though such things are relative when the corn is high and the comedy is low. The corn, by the way, is in the back yard of a widowed minister-turned-farmer (Charlie Sheen)

In the three years since River Hill opened its doors, the fledgling Hawks and the well-established Glenelg Gladiators have developed one of the county's best lacrosse rivalries. One-goal losses to the Gladiators by River Hill (6-1 overall, 2-0 league) the first two seasons understandably frustrated the Hawks, who were determined to do better yesterday. They did, rallying in the second half to win, 11-8, and burning off that simmering frustration with a well-deserved and vigorous post-game celebration.

Here's one for everybody who ever got stiffed on a tip or hit on by an over-the-hill manager. Waiting, written and directed by former waiter Rob McKittrick, is a raunchy, rude, Old School-style look at the world of the waiting and the waited upon. Ryan Reynolds is perfect as Monty, the overage Lothario who's made a career waiting on folks at ShenaniganZ, and of sexing up its underage waitresses. He tells a new recruit, restaurant work is "about learning the routine" - such as how to deal with hateful customers and "push" foods about to spoil in the freezer.