Hot Stuff

When I reach for my cell phone, it is sometimes hot to the touch. Is there something wrong with the battery? There have been at least two reported instances in the past year in which batteries overheated and caught fire. Verizon Wireless announced that it was recalling 50,000 counterfeit batteries masquerading under the LG Mobile Phones brand. Check with your wireless carrier if you are concerned about your phone or suspect that it might be having major battery problems. Do not charge the battery if you think there might be something wrong with it. If the problem seems sporadic and you carry your phone in a purse, bag or briefcase along with keys and coins, metal objects might be touching the battery contacts and creating a very hot short circuit.

Hypercolor could be the next Nehru jacket or maybe just maybe the next denim.Like those innovations, the color-changing Hypercolor clothing has become the hot apparel item. The question is, what happens to sales when Hypercolor cools off? Will it disappear like the Nehru jacket or endure like denim?Seattle-based Generra Sportswear, the exclusive seller of Hypercolor garments in the United States, expected to sell $20 million worth of the garments its first year. By mid-April, the company had $50 million in orders.

At long last, Ray Lewis' restaurant finally opens in Canton Sunday. Ray Lewis' Full Moon Bar-B-Que is in the Can Company space that used to be the Atlantic, but any resemblance between the two establishments stops there. Gone is the stark white Zenlike interior of the large dining room. General manager Kevin McCarthy says large photos of the Ravens' linebacker and sports memorabilia line the buttery glazed brick walls. Casual mahogany tables and booths circle the room, almost every one of them equipped with a flat-screen television.

They're hotter than Georgia asphalt at high noon.They make grownmen cry.They're not so much sexy as scorching. Novice customers who try Glen Burnie's latest delicacy -- super spicy, Buffalo-style chicken wings -- often end up gasping for a drink of water. Even the pros have been known to wince.Inside Wings to Go, a tiny take-out next to Parie's Honey Bee Liquors, the air is heavy with the smell of hot sauce.Eric Weaver, a native of a town 16 miles outside Buffalo, N.Y.,stands in front of a bubbling deep-fryer and watches a half-dozen chicken wings turn golden brown.

The Orioles couldn't take the heat last night. They ran into the hottest team in baseball on one of the hottest nights of the year, so there was nothing to do but cool off.Reliever Mark Eichhorn, who took the mound with a string of 20 2/3 scoreless innings, gave up three runs in the sixth inning and the streaking Oakland Athletics went on to score a 6-4 victory before a sellout crowd of 47,722 at Camden Yards.Stan Javier delivered a game-tying double and Geronimo Berroa provided the margin of victory with a two-run single as the A's continued their impressive midseason recovery with their fifth straight victory and their 19th in the last 22 games.

Last week, Charm City was all about chow. Seems as if every event was all about really great food. Last Monday, the Family Tree threw its 13th annual Great Chefs' Dinner at the Grand Lodge in Hunt Valley. This year, Todd Gray, the chef at D.C.'s Equinox restaurant, created a five-course gourmet meal for about 350 folks; it included dishes such as early spring pea soup with lobster sausage, glazed breast of Muscovy duck and herb-roasted Australian rack of lamb. But the evening's creativity didn't end with the grub.

Lots to watch at the Baltimore Zoo last weekend, and we're not talking about the residents there. We mean the human animals - more than 2,000 of them jampacked under tents last Friday for Zoomerang! As folks stuffed themselves with goodies at more than 50 food stations from local restaurants and caterers, there was Rubin Schechman - quite the attention-getter for the food he hasn't been eating. You may know Rubin from the wacky commercials he does as president of Bill's Carpet Fair. But, his appearance has changed quite a bit in the last year, ever since he underwent gastric bypass surgery and dropped 152 pounds.

One of the clubs that made Canton hip is back. And hipper than ever. In March 2003, a fire swept through the Good Love Bar, forcing owners Patrick Radoci and Jason Sanchez to close the business. Now, after months of renovation, the new-and-improved Good Love has reopened. Jason says you'll notice the hip-yet-comfy feel is intact, but changes have been made, as he and Patrick opened up the floor plan to give the place a more spacious feeling. On the first floor, the exposed brick walls have been painted white, and the old cement bar is gone.

The grilled-cheese sandwich at Sun Moon & Stars might be the best you've ever tasted. The warm Swiss cheese oozes between thick slices of tangy, slightly buttery and perfectly toasted sourdough bread. Nestled alongside the sandwich is a generous handful of house-made potato chips - crisp, thin, slightly brown, delicately salted and completely free of grease. Top them off with a glass of fresh lemonade that's more sweet than tart, and you've got a treat. Sun Moon & Stars, which opened in February on Red Brook Boulevard in a sterile office park off Owings Mills Boulevard, could have coasted along as a deli serving bagels, sandwiches and salads to the power-suit crowd.

What was it W.C. Fields once said? "Never act with children or animals. You can't win." Unless you're Baltimore's Ronald McDonald House. The house recently had its annual gala at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel, and some of the guests are still talking about how four children stole the show. They had spent time at the Ronald McDonald House with their families while being treated at Baltimore area hospitals for serious illnesses. Rachael Joyce, Montague Totten and Jade Shapiro all shared emceeing duties with former Baltimore Colt and big Ronald McDonald House supporter Joe Ehrmann.