Friends

After nine tantalizing seasons, Steve Bisciotti finally stood exactly where he wanted to be, encircled by jubilant Ravens players and cradling the hollow silver football that said his team was on its way to the Super Bowl. Bisciotti had just accepted the trophy from former player O.J. Brigance, whose fight against ALS has inspired the Ravens organization. As the king whose army had conquered the enemy's field, he could have basked in a nation's gaze. Instead, as is the Ravens owner's wont, he exited the stage quickly.

Hattie Harrison, the matriarch of East Baltimore politics who often greeted colleagues as "Baby" and was known for her signature curled hair and Southern cooking, will be remembered at a funeral at noon Feb. 9. Mrs. Harrison died of heart disease complications Monday at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was 84. Appointed to the House of Delegates representing the 45th District in 1973 and re-elected thereafter, she was the oldest member of the General Assembly. She was also the longest-serving member of the House of Delegates and the first African-American woman to chair a major committee, Rules and Executive Nominations.

Hannah sits, uncomfortably, for an interview for a freelance gig with a website called jazzhate.com. The blonde interviewer suggests she write about a threesome, or doing cocaine, and then points to a sign on the wall indicating where your comfort zone is (outside the circle), to which Hannah responds, "Uh huh. Okay. " The girls are having a yard sale (which in Brooklyn is more of a street sale) and Hannah asks Marnie where she could actually procure said cocaine. Answer: Laird, her weird junkie neighbor.

For most people, the attractions of Christmas do not include the possibility of children roasting over an open fire. But that has not kept Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" from becoming a favorite opera at Christmastide. Based on a vivid tale by the Brothers Grimm and first performed Dec. 23, 1893, Humperdinck's most famous opera does, of course, feature lots of talk and images of sweets, notably gingerbread. So it's easy to make a seasonal tie-in, which is what Washington National Opera did over the weekend with a revival of its 2007 family-friendly production.

Building just about anything in Annapolis, from a garden shed to a slots casino, is a bit easier these days, as applicants can now handle all of the paperwork in a single place - a new, one-stop permit counter at 145 Gorman St. County officials say the facility spares contractors, business people and homeowners the trouble of shuttling from there to City Hall to the fire marshal's office a few miles away, and perhaps back again, to complete project...

Southwest Baltimore district detectives are investigating a fatal shooting that killed a 19-year-old man late Wednesday. Police were summoned to the 3800 block of Old Frederick Road in the Saint Joseph's area at about 11 p.m. where they found the man with multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body. He was transported to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center where he died just before midnight, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Police would not release his name until next of kin are notified.

At Harford Friends School, an unusual field trip for middle school resulted from an equally unusual assignment for Cheryl Foley's science class: reading and discussing "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. " Eighth-graders from Harford Friends School recently toured the original lab at Johns Hopkins, where the HeLa cells were discovered. A HeLa cell is a cell type in an immortal cell line used in scientific research. Although many groups tour the facility every day, this group of middle schoolers was one of the youngest ever to be received by researchers.

After pushing a female companion out of harm's way, a 19-year-old Essex man was hit by a truck Friday night and hospitalized for his injuries, Baltimore County police said. Kwante Betters and Lauren Bielanski, both 19, were trying to find jumper cables after their van stalled on Southeast Boulevard near Turkey Point Road in Essex about 10 p.m. Friday, according to police. Betters saw a red Ford F-150 pickup truck approaching and pushed Bielanski out of its path. The truck struck the disabled van and Betters, throwing him into the road.

In Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall , young Richard Cromwell says to his uncle, the rising Thomas Cromwell, "You are practiced at persuading, and sometimes it's quite difficult, sir, to distinguish being persuaded by you from being knocked down in the street and stamped on. " That's what I aim for at this blog, being persuasive.  

Lt. Brad Snyder holds the acoustic guitar in his arms for the first time, strumming a few random chords, then moving into a sampling of Neil Young. The sounds take him back to the nights when he was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and sat around a fire teaching fellow servicemen songs like Tom Petty's "Mary Jane's Last Dance. " But there was a time when the 28-year-old Florida native and Baltimore resident wasn't sure if he would be able to play the guitar again. Snyder was left blind in September 2011 when he stepped on a bomb during a mission in Afghanistan.