Gentle Giant

LOS ANGELES -- The assistant coach known as Big Hank -- Olden Polynice doesn't remember his last name -- came up with the nickname.Polynice was 16 and playing for a New York City summer-league team known as Riverside Church. Kenny Smith, now with the Houston Rockets, and Bruce Dalrymple, who later went to Georgia Tech, were teammates. Polynice was a 6-foot-8 center whose play at times was so soft that he regularly got dunked on and elbowed in the face. So Big Hank labeled him "the gentle giant."

Edward Feete was buried this past week. His was a simple service at a Falls Road funeral home, attended by dozens of his friends and remaining family. Eddie was 68, still youngish by today's standards for a long life. But Eddie was a big guy - a very tall, big-boned, heavy guy. His heart had had enough. Many of you in Towson and on the north side of Baltimore knew Eddie. For most of the twenty-four years before he retired in 2012, Eddie was a bagger at the Giant Food store in Ridgely Plaza.

HOUSTON -- Bill Simpson was killed the day he left Klan country.He couldn't take it any more in Vidor, Texas. There had been too many threats, too many nights of wondering if the whites of Vidor would decide to use the darkness as a time to take him out.So Mr. Simpson left Vidor Wednesday, the last black to stay on in what is known as one of the meanest towns in the South, where the common wisdom for a black man is to be gone by sundown.He went to nearby Beaumont.And there, as he was standing on the street late Wednesday night, he was gunned down in an apparent act of random violence.

The Maryland Hay Bank, an operation of the Mount Airy-based Gentle Giants Draft Horse Rescue, was among 15 organizations awarded a piece of $21,000 in grants this week from the Maryland Horse Industry Board. The Maryland Hay Bank assists private horse owners who are experiencing a financial hardship or a personal crisis with free hay for their horses for 30 days, up to a maximum of 100 total bales. The Maryland Hay Bank is donation driven, and hay is provided at no cost to recipients.

Five minutes before his death in a car crash yesterday morning, Baltimore police officer Harold J. Carey was doing one of the things he loved most about life -- laughing.In a little luncheonette at Howard and 25th streets, Carey and his co-workers were joking about his arrest of a shoplifter.The crook's take: 70 packets of Kool-Aid."We were joking with him, and we just all laughed," said Carey's partner, Officer Demetrius Jackson. "And then we hit the street."Five blocks away, Baltimore's 3,200-member force lost an officer many knew as the "gentle giant," a bear of man at 6 feet 1 and 250 pounds who loved to joke with his friends, drive fast cars and shoot pool near his Catonsville home.

Baltimore police buried a "gentle giant" yesterday as more than 2,500 officers heard tributes to a colleague whom they described as kind enough to spend an hour consoling a disturbed man but angry whenever a bad guy got away.Officer Harold J. Carey, who was killed in a car accident Friday while riding in a police van that was speeding to help a fellow officer, was eulogized in song, poetry and Scripture during a packed funeral service at Central Church of Christ on Edmondson Avenue."This was a terrible and sudden tragedy," said Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier.

NEW YORK -- His biceps are massive, making him a cover candidate for "Muscle and Fitness" magazine. And he's incredibly long. When he unfolded his 7-foot-1 frame and stood up yesterday, there was a noticeable gap between the bottom of his sweat pants and the top of his sneaker.On sight alone, David Robinson would appear to be one of the most dominant players in the NBA. And over a 10-year career he has proven as much, although he hasn't been devoid of criticism. He's been called "too nice," not tough enough.

ST. LOUIS -- This is the kind of city where, if you're standing next to your car and fishing through your pockets, someone driving by will stop to ask if you need change for the parking meter.It's the kind of city where the reigning sentiment is: If I caught it, I'd give it to Mac. It's the kind of city where everyone knows "it" is the home run ball that breaks one of baseball's most storied records, Roger Maris' 61 home runs.And "Mac" is, of course, Mark McGwire, the St. Louis Cardinal who is taking the city on one glorious ride as he gets thisclose to doing just that.

A painless 20-second procedure was all it took for Karl Meyer and his designers at Gentle Giant Studios in Burbank, Calif., to revolutionize the art of toymaking. While children on Christmas morning may whine about their presents, one complaint you're unlikely to hear is, "But he doesn't even look like Harry Potter." That's because Harry himself (aka 12-year-old actor Daniel Radcliffe) sat and posed for the Gentle Giant digital scanning equipment. Twenty seconds is all the time it takes for the scanner to digitally create a topographical map of the human face.

George Bernard Solomon, a "gentle giant" who served for 12 years as chairman of Advance Bank, was pronounced dead last Monday after apparently suffering a heart attack the previous night while walking at the Woodlawn High School track. He was 55. Mr. Solomon helped guide Advance, a community bank founded to serve African-Americans in Baltimore, as it more than doubled its assets over the past dozen years to about $75 million, according to its president and chief executive officer, John Hamilton.

When I first heard the news of Orlando Brown's death, like most people, I was stunned. Not Zeus. He was too tough to die. There was nothing fierce or mean enough to be able to take Orlando Brown away from here. But as time wore on Friday, I started smiling because Zeus had fooled me again. He always portrayed this image as the toughest guy on the planet, but for those who really knew him, Zeus was a pussycat, one of the nicest people you'd ever meet. He was a huge man with a huge heart.

When the Humane Society of the United States calls, rescue groups listen. So in April, when Gentle Giants Draft Horse Rescue was asked to assist in the largest horse impoundment ever in Maryland (and one of the largest in the nation), the Mount Airy-based group's volunteers headed to Centreville with trucks and trailers to ferry some of nearly 150 equines to new digs. No matter that they normally deal with hefty Clydesdales, Belgians, Percherons and somewhat smaller Haflingers, still bigger than the Polish Arabians being removed due to neglect.

CAIRO -- Like many Western holidays in the Middle East, Father's Day probably will come and go with little pomp and circumstance. Most denizens in the Arab-Muslim world are probably unaware that June's third Sunday is designated to honor fatherhood in the United States. Despite living in the Middle East during this celebration, I cannot help but think of my dad this Father's Day and the irreplaceable role he has played in my global education. My father introduced this part of the world to me as a teenager.

George Bernard Solomon, a "gentle giant" who served for 12 years as chairman of Advance Bank, was pronounced dead last Monday after apparently suffering a heart attack the previous night while walking at the Woodlawn High School track. He was 55. Mr. Solomon helped guide Advance, a community bank founded to serve African-Americans in Baltimore, as it more than doubled its assets over the past dozen years to about $75 million, according to its president and chief executive officer, John Hamilton.

The buzz in the halls and seminar rooms in the Days Hotel Timonium was far more dramatic than the budget hotel surroundings. In one corner, an intense discussion of body-snatching ghouls; in another, a debate about globe-eyed beings from outer space. But there was no hint of alarm. The only invaders in sight were 500 of the nation's most hard-core monster fans, who had gathered to talk, fantasize and debate all things gory at the 17th annual horror film convention, or "con," known as FanEx.

A painless 20-second procedure was all it took for Karl Meyer and his designers at Gentle Giant Studios in Burbank, Calif., to revolutionize the art of toymaking. While children on Christmas morning may whine about their presents, one complaint you're unlikely to hear is, "But he doesn't even look like Harry Potter." That's because Harry himself (aka 12-year-old actor Daniel Radcliffe) sat and posed for the Gentle Giant digital scanning equipment. Twenty seconds is all the time it takes for the scanner to digitally create a topographical map of the human face.

Edward Feete was buried this past week. His was a simple service at a Falls Road funeral home, attended by dozens of his friends and remaining family. Eddie was 68, still youngish by today's standards for a long life. But Eddie was a big guy - a very tall, big-boned, heavy guy. His heart had had enough. Many of you in Towson and on the north side of Baltimore knew Eddie. For most of the twenty-four years before he retired in 2012, Eddie was a bagger at the Giant Food store in Ridgely Plaza.

When I first heard the news of Orlando Brown's death, like most people, I was stunned. Not Zeus. He was too tough to die. There was nothing fierce or mean enough to be able to take Orlando Brown away from here. But as time wore on Friday, I started smiling because Zeus had fooled me again. He always portrayed this image as the toughest guy on the planet, but for those who really knew him, Zeus was a pussycat, one of the nicest people you'd ever meet. He was a huge man with a huge heart.

NEW YORK -- His biceps are massive, making him a cover candidate for "Muscle and Fitness" magazine. And he's incredibly long. When he unfolded his 7-foot-1 frame and stood up yesterday, there was a noticeable gap between the bottom of his sweat pants and the top of his sneaker.On sight alone, David Robinson would appear to be one of the most dominant players in the NBA. And over a 10-year career he has proven as much, although he hasn't been devoid of criticism. He's been called "too nice," not tough enough.

Baltimore police buried a "gentle giant" yesterday as more than 2,500 officers heard tributes to a colleague whom they described as kind enough to spend an hour consoling a disturbed man but angry whenever a bad guy got away.Officer Harold J. Carey, who was killed in a car accident Friday while riding in a police van that was speeding to help a fellow officer, was eulogized in song, poetry and Scripture during a packed funeral service at Central Church of Christ on Edmondson Avenue."This was a terrible and sudden tragedy," said Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier.