Hardware

If it's spring at our house, it's a trip to the hardware store.I lose him to Hechinger's or Frank's or some other such place when the first flower blooms.I hear, "I'm going to the hardware store, I'll be back in a little while."A little while turns into hours.I would like to spend a spring day with him at the aquarium, on a garden tour or at the harbor.But here's the strange part of his home improvement sorties: When he gets back, he often does not fix the dripping faucet or the loose shingles.

Handbags are the great equalizer of fashion. No matter your height or size, a stunning handbag can complement your look. We asked Danielle DiFerdinando, the Ellicott City native behind the successful Danielle Nicole handbag line, for her top purse trends of spring. Colors: Neon: orange, pink and lime Feminine pastels Brights: coral, cobalt blue and teal Shapes: Structured mini cross-body bags are the leading shape this season. Clutches: "Make sure they are sleek and modern simple," she recommends.

Stanley A. Parr, a retired hardware store owner, died Saturday of a blood disorder at Oak Crest Village in Parkville. The former Idlewylde resident was 96. Born in Baltimore and raised on Caroline Street, Mr. Parr attended St. Paul's Parochial School and later Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated in 1924. After working on a horse-drawn American Ice Co. wagon as a young man, he got his retailing start at Wagner's Hardware on Harford Avenue. In 1945, he opened Parr & Steadman Hardware with his brother-in-law, Bill Steadman, on West Baltimore Street.

During a quiet morning at his hardware store, owner Jared Littmann strolled down an aisle to chat up a regular customer who was looking at smoke alarms. "Good to see you. Let me know what you need," Littmann told Ben Derrick, a handyman for Annapolis Property Services, who was shopping at Littmann's K&B True Value hardware store in Annapolis. Though he's in the store almost daily, Derrick said he didn't know Littmann will soon be sworn in as the Ward 5 alderman on the Annapolis city council.

Many crashes are due to driver error. And I don't mean cars. I'm talking about computer crashes caused by mistakes in software "drivers," those little, rarely noticed programs that help your computer understand its printer, scanner, display and other add-on hardware. Even when they're not crashing, drivers are often hard at work, slowing down your computer and making some of its features and options impossible to operate. You see, each time you add some bit of hardware to your computer, you also add a driver for that hardware.

Samuel David Berlin, a retired hobby kit manufacturer who later owned a hardware store, died Monday of cancer at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The former Pikesville resident who lived in Boca Raton, Fla., was 81. Born in Baltimore and raised on Norfolk Avenue, he was a 1939 graduate of Forest Park High School. He attended the Johns Hopkins University. During World War II, he was a mechanical engineer at Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River. He then co-founded General Crafts Corp., a Southwest Baltimore glue and paint-by-number hobby kit company.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. -- Sears, Roebuck & Co. said yesterday that it will buy Orchard Supply Hardware Stores Corp. for $415 million in cash and assumed debt to help expand its fast-growing chain of hardware stores.Orchard Supply's 60 stores in California will help Sears carve a niche between Home Depot Inc.'s cavernous stores and mom-and-pop shops, analysts said.The 115 Sears hardware stores and Orchard Supply focus on homeowners needing small repairs. The warehouse chains aim at complex jobs such as renovations.

The Carroll County Board of Zoning Appeals has given permission for Pro-Source Hardware to open in Eldersburg Business Center at 1430 Progress Way.The store is owned by Northeastern Plumbing and Heating Supply Inc. of Westminster and will be located in a building with the supply company.

Men and their hardware -- a fact of life. Now hardware moves from the basement toolbox to the wardrobe.The latest accent to men's clothing and accessories are metal ornaments such as buckles, zippers, steel fasteners, horsebit buckles, studs and other fanciful objects.The ornaments -- dubbed hardware -- adorn hats, shoes, vests, coats, blazers, jackets, pants and even underwear.Once men thought they could only use hardware. Now they can wear it from head to toe.The simplest way to begin is to sport leather belts covered with shiny metal gear.

Albert Gunther & Co., one of the Baltimore area's largest and best-known hardware businesses, has filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code.The filing, which was made last week, comes on top of an out-of-court restructuring that took place last year in which the Timonium-based hardware business received a capital infusion from a group of investors for working capital and to help make debt payments to Mercantile Bank and suppliers.Paul Nussbaum, attorney for Gunther hardware, estimated yesterday that the business owes Mercantile more than $4.2 million and owes suppliers roughly $2.5 million.

Michael Burns Rafferty, who owned hardware businesses in Baltimore, died Sept. 28 of complications of Alzheimer's disease at Heatherwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Newport, R.I. The former Guilford resident was 76. Born in Providence, R.I., he attended Phillips Exeter Academy and earned a bachelor's degree in business from Yale University. Mr. Rafferty moved to Baltimore in the late 1960s and initially lived on Tyson Street after his marriage to the former Suzanne Lear, an artist and designer.

John Vander Horst Jr., a former hardware store executive, died Sept. 8 in Charleston, S.C., where he was recuperating from triple bypass surgery. The former Owings Mills and Roland Park resident was 69. The son of the Episcopal bishop of Tennessee and a homemaker, Mr. Vander Horst was born in Philadelphia and raised in Ellicott City, Macon, Ga., and Chattanooga, Tenn. After graduating in 1961 from what is now Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Conn., he attended Sewanee: The University of the South, in Sewanee, Tenn.

News Roundup •••• The “is Valve making a console?” rumors got a lot more interesting as Apple is now being linked to the Steamers (as I like to call them), but in terms of “wearable computing” (i.e. Google's first potential Project Glass competitor). Huh? [ Metro ] •••• Video game sales continue to plummet, down another 20% in March. The steepest decline in the area of hardware might be due to the fact that the current most popular hardware available is really freaking old . You're not helping either, Vita . [ Zacks ]

A 48-year-old man was arrested after a short pursuit in connection with the Thursday morning burglary of a Glen Burnie hardware store, according to Anne Arundel County police. Officers from the Eastern District responded to an Ace Hardware store in the 7900 block of Crain Highway at approximately 3:30 a.m. Thursday and noticed Richard Scott Rotramel of Glen Burnie leaving the store's parking lot in a Chevy Cavalier, police said. Rotramel refused to stop, so officers followed the vehicle, according to police.

Home style trends follow fashion. Similarly, the metallic finishes of hardware, lighting, plumbing fixtures and some furniture follow trends in jewelry. After decades of gold jewelry, white gold, silver and platinum eventually took over as the dominant materials. Now, that silver look is starting to skew cold, and warm golds are returning at the high end. Where jewelry goes, the kitchen and bath will soon follow, according to industry professionals who often refer to hardware as jewelry for the home.

The Howard County Planning Board has voted against funding the purchase of land to build a road that would serve a proposed mixed-use development in Clarksville, a potential setback for the county-backed project, which has struggled to secure highway access. About 150 people, including landowners in the area surrounding the former Gateway School site, showed up to a Thursday hearing in support of Kendall Hardware, which has been a vocal critic of a plan that county officials believe can breathe life into the stalled Clarksville Commons development on the county-owned land.

William H. Jensen, former owner of an East Baltimore hardware store who was later a paint salesman, died of complications from a heart attack Wednesday at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 90. Born in Norfolk, Va., he moved to Baltimore's South Linwood Avenue as a child and left Polytechnic Institute in his senior year to help support his family by working as a machinist at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point plant. In 1955, he opened a hardware store at Harford Avenue and Preston Street, and from 1966 until retiring in 1982 worked as a salesman for Budeke's Paints in Fells Point.

''Hardware'' is a hard watch. Yeah, it's an old, familiar expression, but this is a very familiar film, one that was done in England and Morocco and plays like a closet version of ''Alien.''It also plays like ''Friday the 13th, X.'' The gore is overwhelmingly repugnant. You'll be looking away much of the time. If you're smart, you'll look the other way all the time.''Hardware'' is futuristic. We know that from the first frame, one that scans the desert to pick up what looks like a street person.

Jeanette F. Bevard, a former Baltimore hardware store owner and active churchwoman, died Feb. 5 of heart failure at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The longtime Northwest Baltimore resident, who moved to Towson a decade ago, was 96. The daughter of a factory foreman and a homemaker, Jeanette F. Goodman was born in Baltimore and raised on West Lanvale Street and Franklintown Road. She was a 1932 graduate of Western High School and went to work at the Hochschild Kohn department store at Howard and Lexington streets.