Fireworks

Where to see fireworks this week: All events are Thursday, unless otherwise noted.ANTIETAM BATTLEFIELD, Sharpsburg. Fireworks follow free 7:30 p.m. concert Saturday by the Maryland Symphony Orchestra. Follow Route 70 west to Route 65. Call 797-4000.BEL AIR: Fireworks at 9:30 p.m. at playing fields adjacent to Bel Air Middle School and Bel Air High School, following a day of activities, including a parade.COLUMBIA: Fireworks at 9:30 p.m. at Lakefront, across from Columbia Mall. All-day free entertainment, toddler parade at 4 p.m.FORT MEADE: Fireworks at 9:30 p.m. over Burba Park, following parade at 9:30 a.m. and all-day entertainment and demonstrations, including First U.S. Army Band concert at 8 p.m. Call 677-2163.

Tanger Outlets is celebrating its grand re-opening after renovations with today's Summer Savings Bash. The daylong event at the former Ocean City Factory Outlets includes a concert at 7:30 p.m. featuring Kris Allen, the winner of American Idol's 8th season, along with games, face-painting, rock-climbing, prizes and special savings for shoppers. Fireworks will top off the evening. Go to http://www.tangeroutlet.com/oceancity/events for more info.

The Greater Jacksonville Optimist Club is sponsoring a bike parade, entertainment and fireworks on July 2. Registration for the bike and pet parade begins at 9 a.m. at Manor Shopping Center. The parade starts at 10 a.m. and kids receive prizes and goodie bags. Festivities behind Jacksonville Elementary School start at 6:30 p.m. with a closest-to-the-pin golf contest. There will be music by The Objections and Apple John will entertain children. Food and drinks will be sold and people can bring their own food, chairs and blankets.

Ocean City is ready for the spotlight this weekend as the town launches into the summer season with a new laser light show. The O.C. Beach Lights Spectacular features lasers, videos, special effects and lights displayed on a 50-foot-tall sphere that looks like a beach ball. The show will take place Sundays on the beach at North Division Street three times a night - 9:30 p.m., 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. - from Memorial Day to Labor Day. "We're excited about it," says Donna Abbott, public relations manager for the Town of Ocean City.

Fire officials say smoldering discarded fireworks sparked a blaze that caused $1.3 million in damage to a house near Hagerstown. It happened Tuesday about 2:45 a.m. State Fire Marshal says sparkling devices were put into a plastic trash can near the house and next to a gas grill. He says the fire went up the side of the house and across the roof. Fire officials say 60 firefighters from across Washington County battled the blaze for more than two hours. Low water pressure in two fire hydrants made fighting the fire more difficult.

Violence erupted in separate locations of the Inner Harbor Monday night despite a heavy police presence for the holiday, with a child shot in the leg and a man fatally stabbed shortly after the fireworks ended. They marked the second and third violent events downtown Monday — a significant disappointment for the city Police Department, which had coordinated an elaborate July Fourth safety plan that involved several hundred state and city officers patrolling Baltimore's streets, monitoring surveillance cameras and tracking one another via GPS signals.

THE USUAL sparkles will fly on the Fourth of July, and some will light the sky later this week. Fireworks displays planned throughout the region include:BALTIMORE CITY:* An all-day celebration Thursday at the Inner Harbor will end with fireworks at 9:30 p.m. Rain date is July 5. Call 837-4636.BALTIMORE COUNTY:* In Dundalk the fireworks display will be from 9 to 10 p.m. at the North Point Government Center, Merritt Boulevard and Wise Avenue. Rain date is Friday, July 5. Call 284-4022.* At Oregon Ridge, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with guest conductor David Loebel will present a patriotic program at 8 p.m. Thursday, ending with a finale of fireworks.

Fourth of July observances haven't changed much since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776, and July 4, 1930, was no exception.The Sun reported that "cannonading and pyrotechnical displays throughout the city last night marked 154 years of American Independence."With temperatures in the high 70s, Marylanders looked forward to the day's traditional parades, picnics and fireworks.In Northwest Baltimore, while crowds of parade-goers wearing Panamas and straw boaters lined the curb, students from Public School No. 87 (Windsor Hills)

Residents of the neighborhoods surrounding Mount de Sales Academy have flocked to the school's high and historic grounds for decades to enjoy a decent view of Catonsville's fireworks and a glimpse of the harbor's celebration.  A tranquil alternative to the crowds closer to Catonsville High School, spectators appreciated the low-key atmosphere and opportunity to catch up with friends and neighbors. This year, however, the school put a decisive end to the neighborhood tradition.  Over the past months, residents may have noticed the new black security fencing with matching gates erected as a definitive barrier between the school and community.

Unless you want a fight to break out at a cocktail party or a family reunion, conventional wisdom has it, don't talk religion or politics. I did both in this space last Monday, and then I crawled in a bunker and waited for the fireworks to begin. "Be prepared," my editor warned. "The long knives will come out. " "There's going to be a cross burning in your front yard," a friend warned; another asked if I had hired bodyguards. In that column, I talked of how difficult it was to be a Catholic woman these days, what with the church fathers taking up the cudgel against American nuns, not to mention the odd teacher struggling to get pregnant or the heartbroken teenage girl dumped by a guy on the eve of her prom.

After the New England Patriots dropped back-to-back games to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Giants in Weeks 8 and 9, there was chatter that the Patriots, then 5-3, were on the verge of losing their grip on the AFC East to the New York Jets and — gasp! — the Buffalo Bills. Nine straight wins later, the red-hot Patriots (14-3), who finished the regular season with the AFC's best record, will host the second-seeded Ravens (13-4) in Sunday's AFC championship game at Gillette Stadium.

I totally agree with letter writer Fred Medinger regarding fireworks ("Stricter laws for fireworks in neighborhoods," Jan. 5). On the evening of Jan. 1, the individual who lives directly across the street from me was setting off fireworks with small children in the audience. Those aerial fireworks were flying way above my house (not his house, of course), and the remains were falling directly on my residence. The next batch he had prepared to set off in the street (a county road)

This fireworks displays on New Year's Eve were a reminder of what has become a year-round problem in some communities. It has become acceptable to detonate explosives and launch aerial incendiaries in residential communities throughout the year. In my northern Baltimore County community, for example, it is common to hear loud explosions on summer weekends or whenever someone decides to make a big noise. The statute governing the private use of fireworks in Baltimore County is so permissive, and the penalties so light, that it may as well not be on the books.

Glittery paper top hats and flashing accessories bedecked the horn-honking crowd in Baltimore's Inner Harbor on Saturday night as thousands gathered for the annual midnight fireworks display. "These are always popular, no matter where you are," said Joe Deacons, picking up a pair of plastic eyeglasses in the shape of "2012" from his array of New Year's novelties. He was selling his wares - glowing light sticks, necklaces and plastic horns - from a cart on the corner of South and East Pratt streets, to the people streaming toward the fenced-in viewing areas.

With the coming of each new year, many people get predictably festive and offer "Happy New Year" salutations to everyone they encounter. In Havre de Grace, folks have real reasons to be festive, not the least of which is the annual New Year's Eve Duck Drop that welcomes the next upward digit in the annual chronology. Traditionally, some folks get lit up on New Year's Eve and not in the way that the fireworks cascading over the Havre de Grace Middle School do. Like it not, their spark is too much alcohol or other forms of partying.

Five…four…three…two…ONE!!! And as the duck drops in Havre de Grace again this year, and the clock strikes midnight at the end of Dec. 31, the sky will light up with fireworks to ring in the new year. Havre de Grace began the Duck Drop and fireworks in 1999 to celebrate the arrival of the new millennium, and the tradition has continued. One year, the fireworks were canceled because the recreation committee didn't have enough money and another year the duck didn't drop because the fire company's ladder truck was out of service, so the duck was lit atop the J.M. Huber building.