Hallmark

Crown Books chief to head PearleGlenn Hemmerle, chief executive officer and president of Crown Books Corp. since November 1992, is leaving to become president of Pearle Vision, an eye-wear retail chain owned by Grand Metropolitan PLC, the companies said yesterday.Ronald S. Haft, president and chief operating officer of Dart Group Corp., Crown's majority shareholder, will be acting chief executive until a replacement is found for Mr. Hemmerle.Sculley lands consultant jobJohn Sculley, once the high-flying chairman of Apple Computer Inc., has accepted a part-time job as a marketing consultant to the electronic imaging division of Eastman Kodak Inc., the company said yesterday.

Patriot Homes of Columbia won three awards last month from the Sales and Marketing Council of the Home Builders Association of Maryland (HBAM).Patriot Homes won an Award of Excellence in the single-family homes, $160,000-$179,000 category; a Silver Merit Honor in the single-family homes, $220,000-$239,999; and the Affordable Housing Recognition award in Howard County.Patriot Homes is a companion company of the Heritage Housing Group, which includes HBAM Williamsburg Builders and Hallmark Builders Inc.

There's always something new from Hallmark, the sappy, greeting-card people, and this year is no exception. This year's ground-breaking innovation is: Mother's Day cards that let you record a 10-second message to Mom and play a clip of the song that's apparently become synonymous with motherhood, Tag Team's "Whoomp! There It Is." OK, maybe you're thinking: Gee, I didn't know that song was big with mothers. Well, neither did I. In fact, I seem to recall lyrics about shaking derrieres and swilling gin and juice and puff- ing something stronger than a Marlboro Light.

Series Cops:: In the 750th episode, Florida officers catch a pair of suspects siphoning gasoline from a car and find out they've been doing cocaine, while in Washington state, police use a helicopter to search for a guy who threatened to kill his girlfriend. (8 p.m., WBFF-Channel 45) Movies Plainsong: : This 2004 Hallmark Hall of Fame version of Kent Haruf's novel stars Aidan Quinn as a Colorado teacher who raises his two sons alone after his wife leaves him. (9 p.m., Hallmark) Knocked Up:: Seth Rogen stars as a party animal whose one-night stand with a TV journalist (Katherine Heigl)

Home inspectors elect Annapolis man regional presidentJim McLaughlin of Annapolis Home Inspection Services has been elected chairman of the newly formed Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Association of Home Inspectors, which includes Delaware, Maryland and Northern Virginia.Other officers are George Parker of Inspection Consultants, vice chairman; Gary Anderson of Building Specs Inc., treasurer; Ron Katz, Building Specs, secretary, and Bob Gajewski, American Property Inspectors, assistant board member.

If you haven't been in a card shop lately, you're in for a shock. Whole sections are devoted to "recovery" sentiments and wishes -- recovery from alcoholism, drug abuse and life-threatening relationships, to name a few.People who know where their loved one's detox center is can send them a card of support.It's not surprising, with recovery cards ready to go and Mother's Day right around the corner as well, that Hallmark offers us a drama about a mother-daughter relationship that involves substance abuse.

A feature in which Sun writers and critics sound off about the movies. Daily Variety's John Dempsey reports that when Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions issued press material for the Jan. 29 CBS presentation of Pat Conroy's The Water is Wide, Hallmark never referred to Conrack (1974) - the first adaptation of Conroy's literary debut, still the best adaptation of a Conroy book, and the most engaging and penetrating American movie about teaching. Based on Conroy's 1972 memoir of instructing impoverished schoolkids on South Carolina's remote Yamacraw Island, Conrack featured Jon Voight's zingiest star acting in the title role (the kids called Conroy "Conrack")

James K. Baker, 83, a civil rights lawyer and the first black department head for the city of Birmingham, Ala., died Tuesday of a pulmonary embolism. Mr. Baker was credited for working to integrate everything from jury boxes to cemeteries in the Birmingham area. In one of Mr. Baker's hallmark cases, he argued successfully for a mother who was told she could not bury her son, a Vietnam War casualty, in Elmwood Cemetery because he was black. Michael Jendrzejczyk, 53, a human-rights expert whose advocacy on behalf of victims in Asian nations made him an unlikely power broker in Washington, died Thursday after collapsing during a walk near his office in Washington.

Q: I am looking for a miniature model of the Chicago Water Tower that lights up to add to my Christmas village. Where can I find Water Tower-related items in time for Christmas?A: Chicago's Own Gift Shop, 163 E. Pearson St., Chicago, Ill. 60611, phone (312) 467-5305, has 16-inch-high hand-painted electric miniature models of the Chicago Water Tower, handcrafted by Walter Brockman, for $220 each. Water Tower Christmas tree ornaments are $15. The shop is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, and until 7 p.m. Fridays to Mondays during December.

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered that she had turned into the wrong person. She was 53 years old by then - a grandmother. With these words, Baltimore author Anne Tyler began her 2001 novel, Back When We Were Grownups, which the Hallmark Hall of Fame lovingly brings to the screen tonight at 9 on CBS (WJZ, Channel 13) with Blythe Danner as a Baltimore woman in late-midlife crisis who sets out to rediscover who she is. It is the third novel by Tyler to become a Hallmark movie, and once again, just as with Breathing Lessons in 1994 and Saint Maybe in 1998, television is enriched by the marriage.