Greek

Sarah V. Moralis, a homemaker who was active in the affairs of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, died Friday of Alzheimer's disease at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The Hunt Valley resident was 80. The former Sarah Vrachalus, the daughter of Greek immigrant parents who owned and operated a restaurant, was born and raised in Mobile, Ala. After graduating in 1947 from Murphy High School in Mobile, she worked in the late 1940s for the Georgia Insurance Co. and Sears Roebuck & Co. Mrs. Moralis met her future husband, Peter J. Moralis, who was an Air Force radar technician assigned to Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss.

Greece is a popular summer destination, but with recent concerns about the nation's economy and threats of a strike by air traffic controllers there, some travelers may have crossed it off the list this year. No worries. It turns out you can experience a little piece of Greece just by crossing the Bay Bridge this weekend for the 21st annual Greek Festival in Ocean City. Yes, I know it will be hard to make it all the way to Friday without calling in sick, but this fun festival is worth the wait.

A 22-year-old woman was injured early Saturday after a vehicle fleeing police drove onto the sidewalk after the second night of the Greek folk festival, police said. Police were called to the 4800 block of Eastern Ave. about 2 a.m. after a woman said a man who made a lewd comment at her pulled out a handgun and pointed it at her and her boyfriend, according to an incident report. As witnesses notified security for the Greek Folk Festival, the man and three others fled in a 1999 BMW. With the 500 block of S. Ponca St. closed to traffic because of the festival, the car veered onto the sidewalk and up a ramp in front of St. Nicholas Church.

John Morekas, a retired Baltimore businessman who hosted the "Greek-American Hour" on radio for more than 50 years, died June 8 of Parkinson's disease at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 81. The son of Greek immigrants, Mr. Morekas was born in Baltimore and spent his early years in the city's Pimlico neighborhood. In 1933, his family returned to Greece, where they settled in Kalamata. They intended to return to Baltimore after he and his brother completed high school but were trapped in Greece by the outbreak of World War II. After surviving the Italian and German occupation, they returned to Baltimore in 1946, where Mr. Morekas graduated from City College.

There were inscriptions written above the entrance of the Temple of Apollo at the Oracle of Delphi, and the two most famous ones were cautionary words of wisdom: "Know thyself" and "Nothing too much." Those bits of ancient advice are worth considering as two Hollywood studios hope to launch film franchises that use Greek mythology as the unlikely premise for popcorn entertainment. "These are the stories that began storytelling in many ways," director Louis Leterrier said a few months ago on the London set of his "Clash of the Titans," the Warner Bros.

Jewelry makers Cynthia Alderdice and Lois Mansfield are meticulously forging the past to the present with chains of silver, copper and gold. The pendants and necklaces for sale in their Annapolis shop use such modern-day tools as computers to help them replicate designs and effects that are nearly 2,000 years old. For example, a necklace called "Awakening" features a pendant made from 22-karat gold and featuring cloisonne, a type of enameled...

What do you get when you combine the Walters Art Museum's new exhibition, "Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece," and the Baltimore-Piraeus Sister City Committee fundraiser on the night before Halloween? You get one heckuva Greek party. Guests were greeted by event co-chairs Vasi Karas and Georgia Vavas, as well as the Greek goddess Athena, aka event committee member Gayle Economos - adorned in a golden toga and face makeup. "This is a place where Greeks feel at home," event honorary chairman Aris Melissaratos said as he nodded toward guests, including: Niki Marsh, Pinewood Elementary School speech and language pathologist; Kali Maheridis, DLA Piper controller; John Diokoulos, Acropolis Construction president; and Darlene Diokoulos, community volunteer.

The Walters' big fall exhibit celebrates four larger-than-life heroes from Greek mythology: Achilles, Odysseus, Hercules - and, um, Helen of Troy, an unfaithful wife who caused a war that wreaked havoc on two cities. Under what criteria could Helen even conceivably be considered a "hero"? Might she be more accurately termed a celebrity? Wasn't she merely the 12th century B.C. equivalent of Britney Spears, whose romances and legal scrapes vastly entertained the citizenry? Regine Schulz, curator of ancient art at the Walters Art Museum, begs to differ.

John Pantelis Karsos, who with his wife owned and operated a popular York Road restaurant for more than three decades, died of a stroke Saturday at his Towson home. He was 86. Mr. Karsos, the son of farmers, was born and raised in Kambia on the Greek island of Chios. Educated in Kambia, Mr. Karsos served in the Greek army during the Korean War. In 1963, he immigrated to New York City with his wife, the former Kyriaki Fotenos, whom he had married in 1954. He went to work in a restaurant owned by his sister-in-law and later furthered his culinary training working for a brother-in-law at his Culpeper, Va., restaurant.

Zorb a the Greek was the rare movie that proclaimed it was about the life force and managed to embody it anyway, reviving the spirits of audiences in 1964 and maybe for all time. So it's depressing to see it reduced to a touchstone for a measly little picture called M y Life in Ruins. This cute title rests on top of a sappy scenario about a Greek-American scholar named Georgia (Nia Vardalos) who loses her university job in Athens but finds her soul or spirit or chi or mojo - or, as the Greeks say, her kefi - while working as a guide for a seat-of-the-pants touring company.