Hagar

MILL VALLEY, Calif. - Sammy Hagar stands in the middle of his hotel lobby, giving instructions on how to properly drink the tequila that bears his label. The student is a TV cameraman, still lingering from an earlier interview, who's just received a bottle of Hagar's Cabo Wabo mixture, plucked from a cardboard case near the sliding glass door. Hagar's tone may be light, but he's dead serious when it comes to tequila. Properly approaching the good life matters. He wants the cameraman to savor the taste the way he does.

So you're Alex Van Halen, you're lounging around the house and the phone rings. It's Sammy Hagar. You know, the Sammy Hagar, the one who fronted your band for 11 years before leaving in 1996 when tensions with your brother, guitar god Eddie, became unbearable? The one who toured two years ago with David Lee Roth, the flamboyant first singer for Van Halen? The one with his own brand of tequila? Now he's on the phone, calling to chat for the first time in eight years. What do you say? "It was like I had talked to him yesterday," Alex Van Halen says from Boston, on a tour that stops tonight at the MCI Center in Washington.

Most fans don't know this, but it was actually David Lee Roth who came up with the notion of using Van Halen as a band name. What was his thinking? "More syllables than 'Roth,' " went the practiced answer, which he invariably followed with guffaws.A good joke, sure, but if you want to hear the real reason the band has the name it does, forget the old stories and turn your attention to the new album, Van Halen's "Best Of Volume 1" (Warner Bros. 46332, arriving in stores today). All you have to do is hit "play," and as "Eruption" explodes from the speakers, the answer becomes obvious: It's called "Van Halen" because "Edward Van Halen" had too many syllables.

Jones to read from novel Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward P. Jones will read from his latest book, All Aunt Hagar's Children, during a discussion and book signing at Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium, 1021 Dulaney Valley Road. The 8 p.m. event is free and open to the public, although reservations are required. Call 410- 337-6333.

The Sun is planning a few changes to the comics pages, and we want to hear what you think. Is Hagar really that horrible? Should F-Minus get an A+? If you're a comics fan and would like to participate in a brief online survey, please send your e-mail address to nanci.banks@baltsun.com by noon Wednesday.

Suddenly on Friday January 13, 2006, HOWARD J., SR, loving and devoted husband of Clara M. Barrett, caring brother of Thomas, Otha, Oscar, Hagar, Earlene and Mary. Friends may visit at the Gary P. March Funeral Home, 270 Fred Hilton Pass, on Tuesday from 11 A.M.-7 P.M. Family will receive friends at Village Baptist Church, 100 S. Hilton St., on Wednesday 10:30 A.M. to 11 A.M., with home going services immediately following. Interment Woodlawn Cemetery. A special family arrangement by Nancy M. Wallace.

Landover -- Right now.That's all that matters, Sammy Hagar told a crowd of 16,000 rock-and-roll fans at the Capital Centre last night.And right now, Van Halen is the most successful act on the rock circuit, pulling into Landover behind their third consecutive No. 1 album -- "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" -- and playing before yet another sellout crowd."

On December 4, 2005, JOHN RAYMOND SHANK, beloved husband of Patricia A. (nee Rutkowski); devoted father of Erin Dicello and her husband Eric and Jonathan Shank and his friend Tracy; loving grandfather of Logan Michael Shank; son of Margaret Shank and brother of Jeffrey Shank. A Catholic Burial Service will be held at the family owned Duda-Ruck Funeral Home of Dundalk, Inc., 7922 Wise Avenue on Friday at 10 A.M. Interment Sacred Heart of Jesus Cemetery. Friends may call on Wednesday and Thursday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. In John's memory contributions may be made to a Scholarship Fund for his grandson, Logan Shank, c/o David P. Hagar, BCEFCU, 23 W. Susquehanna Avenue, Towson, MD, 21204.

Give credit (or blame?) to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: David Lee Roth is back with Van Halen and planning to tour. The mercurial Roth, who officially left Van Halen on April Fool's Day in 1985, will reunite with his old band for a tour that kicks off in North Carolina in early May, according to sources in the concert industry. Joining Roth will be guitar hero Eddie Van Halen and drummer Alex Van Halen. But bassist Michael Anthony reportedly will be replaced by Eddie Van Halen's teenage son Wolfgang.