Hamlin

Craig Butler and Damon Hamlin, each of whom has played a key role in Wilde Lake's storied football tradition, are taking their talents to college.Butler, a 5-foot-9, 160-pound wide receiver/defensive back who helped the Wildecats win their third consecutive state championship last fall, signed a letter of intent with Kent State University (Ohio) yesterday. Butler, who was an All-County selection last season as a defensive back, played most of the season with a stress fracture in his leg.Hamlin, who has been attending Fork Union Academy, signed yesterday with Rutgers.

On January 16, 2006, MADELINE M. SHOURDS (nee Hamlin); loving wife of Joseph M. Shourds; beloved mother of Mary Heflin and the late Clara Shourds; cherished grandmother of Theresa, Mark and Madeline Heflin and Ruth Carruba; dear sister of Edith Johnson, the late Olga Mac Namee, Jack, Ross, Louis, Bill and Earl Hamlin. Also survived by five great-grandchildren. Friends may call at the family owned David J. Weber Funeral Homes, P.A., 5311 Edmondson Avenue on Thursday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. William of York Church, on Friday at 10 A.M. Interment New Cathedral Cemetery.

Two men were found shot to death in a West Baltimore apartment Sunday night, bringing the city's homicide total to within striking distance of last year's 11-year low of 261. Police said that Kiari Cromwell, 23, and Derek Hamlin, 24, died of multiple gunshot wounds inside Cromwell's apartment in the 800 block of W. Lexington St. Police were summoned to the apartment at 11:20 p.m., and medics pronounced the men dead at the scene. Detectives said yesterday afternoon that they were searching for suspects.

The Penguin Classic Baby Name Book: 2,000 Names from the World's Great Literature, by Grace Hamlin (Penguin, 496 pages, $14). In an American era in which -- it seems to me -- one out of three males is named Michael and almost all young women are called Tiffany, the challenge to name newborns with anything like dignity is acute. Any parent who has not enlisted in the Cult of Coinage will do well to turn to the sources of history and culture -- great literature. Grace Hamlin has done an ecstatic job of mining the canon -- from the Old Testament (Elizabeth: "promised to God" from Hebrew)

Baltimore police recovered four weapons Friday and arrested two men wanted in connection with a shooting Thursday that wounded a homicide suspect and a 12-year-old girl. Darnell Wade, 25, and Dartaniyan Barnes, 20, were charged with weapons possession and attempted first-degree murder Friday after the double shooting at noon Thursday in the 1200 block of Poplar Grove St. The 12-year-old girl was grazed by a bullet and taken to St. Agnes HealthCare, where she was treated and released. Police said the girl was accidentally hit when two gunman fired at Dennis Hamlin, 19. Hamlin, of the 3700 block of Bell Ave., was transported to an area hospital, where he underwent surgery to remove a bullet just above the knee, police said yesterday.

Mrs. DORIS LEOLA EVANS, 78, of Pasadena, died August 6, 2005 of Heart Failure at North Arundel Hospital. She was born March 10, 1927 in Baltimore and lived on Hastings Lane in Pasadena since her 1952 marriage. She was a long time member of the Lake Waterford Community Association and the AARP. She was preceded in death by her husband, Israel Berkley Evans, Jr. in 2000. Survivors include her son, Cory J. Evans and companion Deborah Walters. Brother Donald Hamlin and wife Janice. Sister-in-law Joyce Evans.

Archie Wannamaker, a standout running back at Mount St. Joseph, has been charged with burglarizing a Baltimore County home, police said.Wannamaker, 18, a record-setting running back and a potential All-Metro Player of the Year, was arrested Nov. 5 by Baltimore County police, who allege he broke into a home in the Randallstown area. He was charged with first-degree burglary and malicious destruction of property, according to court records.Mount St. Joseph football coach Mike Working would not comment.

James Hamlin still sees Pennsylvania Avenue in all its tumultuous splendor. This makes him a great visionary, or a sentimental dreamer. Or both. In his mind's eye, a kid named Little Stevie Wonder's opening at the Royal Theatre. The Temptations are strolling down the street, and the Four Tops are pausing to get their shoes shined, and Redd Foxx is still showing up to convulse audiences with laughter. Pennsylvania Avenue is in West Baltimore. Hamlin lives in Sykesville. That's some long-distance vision he has. He is 57 years old and left West Baltimore back in 1976.

LOUDON, N.H. -- They call him "Happy." That nickname might have never fit better than it did yesterday for Kevin Harvick. Nobody left New Hampshire International Speedway happier than Harvick, who jumped to the top spot of the NASCAR Nextel Cup standings after winning the Sylvania 300 before 101,000 at NHIS. The race was the first of 10 in the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Harvick started on the pole and had the dominant car most of the race, but at times he was forced to drive with some of the aggressive racing style that has marked his six years in Nextel Cup. Harvick had a two-second lead on the field in the late stages before a caution on Lap 292 set up a four-lap shootout among Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.

Except for an occasional floating plastic soda bottle and some suspicious-looking white foam, yesterday's canoe and kayak race down the Jones Falls was remarkably un-city like. The water wasn't sparkling blue. But the lush green watershed's river along the expressway, among Baltimore's best-kept secrets, made for a pleasant ride, competitors said. A few even went swimming. Maybe the swimming wasn't intentional. The 10-foot drop at Round Falls near Wyman Park was harder to negotiate than a few people expected.