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Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

For the third time in the last four seasons, Stevenson and Salisbury will meet in the NCAA Division III tournament semifinals and at stake is a spot in the championship final at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on May 26. Both sides took different paths to the same destination. The No. 4 Mustangs (20-2) have been ranked in top five for pretty much the entire year and collected a program-record 20th victory with Wednesday night's 13-7 victory over No. 13 Lynchburg. The No. 12 Sea Gulls (17-5)

For many folks headed to Preakness, the focus of the afternoon isn't the race. It's the fashion — and we don't just mean hats. If you're in the grandstands, the Jockey Club area or Corporate Village, you'll want to dress the part. Betsy Dugan, owner of Bettina Collections in Cross Keys and former co-owner of Octavia in Pikesville, has been dressing women for Preakness for years. "This is the time ... to dress up," she said. If there's one rule of thumb, it's that ladies and gentlemen at Preakness should look like ...well, ladies and gentlemen.

Almost three weeks after NBA player Jason Collins became the first openly gay active male athlete in a major American sport -- and yes, all those qualifiers are necessary -- new polling data shows a majority of Americans wouldn't care if their favorite athlete was gay. In a comprehensive survey conducted by Reason-Rupe, only 12 percent of those polled said they would be less likely to support their favorite jock if he or she came out, while 77...

Are you kidding me? The city's tourism agency, Visit Baltimore, is running a $500,000 campaign to lure visitors (and their wallets) to Baltimore. And the best slogan they could create is "Find Your Happy Place"? Really, are you kidding me? I wish Visit Baltimore would have approached me with an offer of endless cups of coffee and a comfortable workspace for one hour. I guarantee I could have come up with a more lucrative and creative slogan in that time frame. In the meantime, let's all put on our smiley faces and tweak our dimples with our index fingers while we all shout in unison, "Find Your Happy Place"!

Every year, when the leaves begin to fall and the bright blue skies of October gladden our days, comes the Maryland Institute's faculty exhibit.As always, it reminds us first and foremost that the Institute is a vital part of the community, not an ivory tower. Its faculty, of whom about 70 have works on view in this show, are working artists contributing to the life of art in Baltimore and Maryland, and attracting students who may settle here as well.Second, this faculty is composed of good artists.

It's a Sunday afternoon, and all along our street, fathers and sons are dutifully putting up their holiday decorations. Surely, the NFL's Nielsen ratings have taken a brief dip. It's not clear whether every son is there willingly. But somebody has to steady the ladder and listen to the cursing as each Dad tries, usually without success, to find the one dead bulb amid the 200 mini-lights. How else is a youngster to learn? My son, Daniel, is exactly 6 3 / 4 years old and this is the first year of his apprenticeship.

In the company of Dan Snow, a dry-stone waller from Vermont, rebuilding, an often painful proposition, is as natural as breathing. It is his job to take geological rubble and render it into walls, fences, terraces, sacred grottos and delightful follies. The boulders, slabs and stones Snow uses are often recycled from structures built more than a century ago to mark boundaries and keep livestock within pastures. He uses no mortar. Instead, Snow manipulates stone with a hammer and chisel to make a snug fit. It's an apt time to speak with Snow, and to read his book, "In the Company of Stone: The Art of the Stone Wall" (Artisan, $35)

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A new poll released today shows the largest measured gap between Americans who believe individuals are born gay and those who believe sexual orientation is caused by external factors. According to Gallup , 47 percent of Americans chose "nature" over "nurture" when asked about same-sex orientation, while 33 percent say they believe being gay is a product of an individual's upbringing and environment. As recently as 2011, public opinion on the causes of sexual orientation were about equally split.

We had planned to keep our beloved 1997 station wagon. Then something happened. On the way home from picking up a small, new SUV, its air conditioning stopped. Its temperature soared and the needle on its temperature gauge flew past "H. " The towing company took it to our trusted, longtime mechanics, Tony and Steve, who said repairs would cost about $3,000. As much as we loved that little white wagon, we could not indulge in that repair after we had just bought a new car. On April 23, we bid the wagon adieu.

From: Monterey, Calif. Price: $23 Serve with: Red meat, roast poultry, tuna steak Thus full-bodied, earthy red wine combines some of the best elements of Burgundian style and California ripeness. It's an earthy wine, with some of the gamy low notes that distinguish fine Burgundies, while the black cherry and cassis notes are bold up front. While it's a lush, opulent wine, it's also well-balanced and complex, with good acidity in the finish and no trace of alcoholic heat. It's a versatile wine that will pair with many foods and comparable to pinot noirs at twice the price.

A man in Carroll County was checking his mailbox Wednesday afternoon when he discovered a pipe bomb, the Office of the State Fire Marshal said. The man was not injured. The mailbox was described as "rural," in the 3800 block of McMullen Road in Taneytown, the fire marshal said. The home's owner, James A. Sandel, found the bomb about 4:15 p.m. and called 911. The bomb was disposed of, and McMullen Road was closed for about five hours. Anyone with information about who placed the bomb in the mailbox is asked to contact the Office of the State Fire Marshal at 410-859-7152.

Police and firefighters cordoned off a section of Fort Meade on Wednesday morning after utility workers discovered a piece of unexploded ordnance from the World War II era, base officials said. The workers were doing scheduled maintenance work in a residential section of the Army installation in Anne Arundel County around 10:30 a.m. when they found the mortar training round, officials said. The Fort Meade Department of Emergency Services cordoned off a 300-meter area near 2 n d Army Drive and Potomac Place, officials said.

For a sudden media phenomenon, Orb was remarkably relaxed on the morning of his first full day at Pimlico Tuesday as he gets ready to tackle the second jewel of racing's Triple Crown in Saturday's 138 th running of the Preakness Stakes. “He's got plenty of energy,” Shug McGaughey, Orb's trainer, told a small group of reporters and photographers outside the stakes barn at Pimlico, shortly after Orb had walked in the shed row and received his morning bath. “He's settled in well.” The bay muscular colt's chief attention Tuesday appeared to be focused on the long grassy area that sits just across the path from his stall and runs along the perimeter fence.

With city schools CEO Andrés Alonso's announcement last week that he is stepping down at the end of this school year, Baltimore finds itself in the market for a new leader who can continue and expand upon the reforms he instituted. Whoever succeeds Mr. Alonso will have a hard act to follow, and finding a replacement who possesses the right combination of leadership, management and interpersonal skills won't be easy. That's why the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners must insist on conducting a thorough, nationwide search for the city's next schools CEO and resist pressures from some city leaders to short-circuit the process by rushing to name a successor.

The pitch bores in low and skitters under Ian Anderson's mitt. As he chugs to retrieve the baseball, another enemy runner dashes across home plate, putting the Carver Bears more hopelessly behind. Shoulders slump around this West Baltimore diamond, lumpy and pocked with dandelions after weeks of no mowing. Harvey White, pitching his first game ever for Carver, can't find his control. And Anderson, filling in for a suspended teammate, looks like the novice he is behind the plate. But from the bench comes an animated voice, cutting through the dejection: "Good job, Ian!