Howl

MALIBU, Calif. -- By the light of a full moon, as fingers of fire reached into the night, the women howled like wolves, their primal sounds acknowledging and embracing a wild feminine spirit they no longer would deny.Their cries celebrated both their pain and their glory, underscoring a commitment to themselves to believe in their intuitive instincts and finally to unleash their creativity.Last weekend in the Malibu mountains, nearly two dozen women bTC walked into the woods with Santa Monica psychologist Pamela Hogan for a retreat based on "Women Who Run With the Wolves," the runaway best seller by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, a Denver psychologist.

Editor: The Humane Society of Harford County wishes to thank the Harford County community for supporting our Walk & Wag-a-Thon and Pet Fair held Nov. 5 at the Harford County Equestrian Center. Hundreds of people and their pets came out to walk for the homeless and neglected animals. Together, we raised $20,000 to help with their care and shelter! We have such an amazing support network including everyone who raised money and walked, everyone who made a pledge, our sponsors and Pet Fair vendors, our staff and our volunteers who helped make sure everything ran smoothly.

At 7:45 p.m. Friday, Power Plant Live's plaza lies nearly empty. Here, it's too early for lines to snake out of Bar Baltimore or Have a Nice Day Cafe, but a few people wait at the entrance to Howl at the Moon. Inside, the piano bar's already packed, with standing room only. Two men sit at a pair of black pianos on a small stage, both nailing the keys while one belts out "Banana Boat Song (Day-O)" from the middle of Howl at the Moon. A drum kit and bass guitar are also onstage but go unused most of the night.

BEST BET Saturday Hike 7 3/4 miles on Prince George's County's Northwest Branch Trail of the Anacostia Tributary Trail with the Appalachian Mountain Club. Explore a secluded stream valley in urban setting. Step off at 10 a.m. Details: amc-dc.org (click: "Activity List") or 410-263-1844. CHILDREN Tuesday Discover the wild world of wolves in an interactive program that will teach children how to howl like a wolf and why wolves howl, 2 p.m., at the Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel.

I see no point in living if I can't be beautiful!" declares dashing, vain young wizard Howl (Christian Bale), bereft that his hair has turned from blond to a hideous orange. "You think you've got it bad?" asks his endearingly lumpy housekeeper, Sophie (Jean Simmons). "I've never once been beautiful in my entire life." Actually, Sophie was prettier than she knew before the jealous Witch of the Waste (Lauren Bacall) mistook her for one of Howl's many fleeting crushes and transformed her from a young maiden (Emily Mortimer)

BEST BET Saturday Hike 7 3/4 miles on Prince George's County's Northwest Branch Trail of the Anacostia Tributary Trail with the Appalachian Mountain Club. Explore a secluded stream valley in urban setting. Step off at 10 a.m. Details: amc-dc.org (click: "Activity List") or 410-263-1844. CHILDREN Tuesday Discover the wild world of wolves in an interactive program that will teach children how to howl like a wolf and why wolves howl, 2 p.m., at the Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel.

Editor's note: A little boy yearns to know the purple coyote's secret but later wishes he hadn't been so curious.In the middle of a flat and arid desert stood a hill of sand and rock.Near this hill was a small house.Jim played alone in the garden with his old truck, which was missing one wheel.One day, a coyote appeared on the hill.A coyote unlike any other.A purple coyote.Jim watched him.The coyote did a little dance. Then he balanced himself on his right front paw and let out a strange howl:"WULULI WULA WULILA WUWU WA!"

Editor's note: An unusual book binds two children together in a suspenseful mystery. The house was dark. One candle was lit. Andrew shook as he opened the cover of a spooky book. Thunder rumbled far away as Andrew gulped a fistful of popcorn. Carefully he turned each dusty page. And this is what that spooky book said ... Once there was a girl alone in a great big house. Lightning cracked the sky, and she shook as she opened the cover of a spooky book. "Same as me," whispered Andrew. "She had no one to play with, and she found a spooky book!

CLEVELAND -- Steve Young stood at his locker, pulled his shirt over his head and took a deep breath. Then he turned around and faced the lights, the tape recorders, the questions.The focus, of course, is on Young. No matter what else went wrong for the San Francisco 49ers on the banks of Lake Erie, it will all inevitably come down to rest on Young's shoulders.So let's get it out of the way, right up front. Young threw three interceptions last ight, bringing his total to six this season. Two of the turnovers resulted in Cleveland scores.

Ghosts hang from leafless trees. Straw-stuffed dummies line the driveway -- one holds its head in the crook of its arm. Pumpkins with toothless grins and triangular eyes call from the Dungeon of Terror.Residents of the Thomas O'Farrell Youth Center in Marriottsville have transformed the grounds and 2,000 square feet inside into a little gym of horrors. Dracula, Frankenstein, Freddie Kruger and Jason of hockey mask fame make guest appearances.The residents are having a haunting tonight through Monday, and they are inviting all to meet their spirits of Halloween.

Helen Brierley turned off her heat pump and has been air-drying her dishes. Amina Gauhar hangs her laundry on a clothes rack and even avoids the vacuum cleaner. Both have turned their thermostats way down. But despite efforts to conserve energy, their utility bills - like those of other Maryland residents - have doubled or even tripled during the past few months. As Maryland regulators and utility executives scramble to explain the sticker shock to thousands of angry customers, the Maryland Public Service Commission set up a hearing this week to address the sharp number of complaints.

As a chorus of tubas played "The First Noel" at Baltimore's Inner Harbor yesterday, Santa Claus started a fistfight with a figure he claimed was a Santa impersonator. The two Santas rolled on the bricks, swinging and clawing at each other as children watched, confused. "It's a Santa brawl!" someone shouted. But careful observers in the crowd wondered whether either combatant was the authentic Jolly Old Elf. One Santa, it seems, was wearing a gas mask, the other a skull mask beneath a red cap. And, when the scrap was over, the two Santas helped each other up - to the applause of 13 other Santas - some wearing sunglasses, combat boots and fishnet stockings along with the standard red-and-white coats.

You've got to have a lot of moxie to call your own movie Full of It, especially when it's as bad as the low-grade teen comedy currently bearing that title. A wish fulfillment fantasy of staggering silliness, both smirkingly cutesy and gratingly offensive, this is one for the movie ash heap. Watching it, your heart goes out to the actors, floundering through the cliches and trying to amuse us with this frazzled cautionary tale of the dangers of falsehood. On hand for most of the floundering is the young star, Marylander Ryan Pinkston as pint-sized high school senior Sam Leonard, newly arrived at a school whose mascots are the "Awesome Possums."

At 7:45 p.m. Friday, Power Plant Live's plaza lies nearly empty. Here, it's too early for lines to snake out of Bar Baltimore or Have a Nice Day Cafe, but a few people wait at the entrance to Howl at the Moon. Inside, the piano bar's already packed, with standing room only. Two men sit at a pair of black pianos on a small stage, both nailing the keys while one belts out "Banana Boat Song (Day-O)" from the middle of Howl at the Moon. A drum kit and bass guitar are also onstage but go unused most of the night.

Alfie, a cute fellow who loves attention, has two drawers full of designer duds that include a Burberry cap, Puma shirts, and Juicy Couture and Coach bags. Christina Leonard spares no expense to spoil Alfie, and you can be sure this holiday season the 5-month-old Yorkshire terrier's stocking will be brimming with presents. "I got him a Santa Claus hat, a reindeer ear," said Leonard, 27, of Elkridge. "I'm addicted. My husband looks at me and says, `You got it bad.'" Step aside, kids. Adults are spoiling Fido or Kitty with gourmet treats, designer collars and other gift items this holiday season.

This time last year, a fair number of folks had their underwear in a knot over the state's first black bear hunt in more than half a century. This year? There's hardly a wrinkle in those BVDs. No legal action, no shrill news releases, no protesters in bear suits prancing in front of the State House. While New Jersey officials dither and debate the particulars of resuming a bear season a year after anti-hunting rhetoric scared them into canceling it, Maryland forges on. Come Monday, about 400 lottery-chosen hunters will fill the woods of Garrett County and the western portion of Allegany County just before dawn, hoping to get a bear.

By American Indian tradition, he is the Trickster, the most cunning but also the most flawed and human of animal spirits. Noble and godlike in some ways, he is also perverse, vain, deceitful, larcenous, obsessed with sex, and a lover of pranks who repeatedly blunders into trouble and gets his comeuppance, but always bounces back.To ranchers in the West, he is nothing more than a despised varmint to be hunted down and killed.To generations of movie and television viewers who have watched the "Roadrunner" cartoons, he is Wile E. Coyote, the sneaky but hapless hunter blown up, squashed or zapped in midair, only to show up in the next frame, whole and ready to go again.

ELY, Minn. - On a clear winter's night when subzero temperatures seem to freeze your breath, the ululating howls pierce the stillness in the snow-covered Superior National Forest. First a single rising wail. Then another voice joins in and soon a chorus of baying sounds fills the frigid air. They are the cries of wolves, but they come from human throats. The group has trudged down the frozen trail in hope of raising a response from the Farm Lake wolf pack, one of the dozen or so that is being tracked in this area with radio collars by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Didn't get enough amusement park thrills this past summer? Despite the cooler weather, area amusement parks remain open and offer some of the fall's best attractions. Instead of the heat and long lines of high season, enjoy haunted houses, spooky mazes and delicious autumn treats. Here's a rundown on what some area parks are offering this fall: Six Flags America Fright Fest 2005 runs through Oct. 30 and features a slew of spooky attractions like the Midnight Express Haunted Train, Hall Manor House of Horrors and a Trick-or-Treat Trail.

I see no point in living if I can't be beautiful!" declares dashing, vain young wizard Howl (Christian Bale), bereft that his hair has turned from blond to a hideous orange. "You think you've got it bad?" asks his endearingly lumpy housekeeper, Sophie (Jean Simmons). "I've never once been beautiful in my entire life." Actually, Sophie was prettier than she knew before the jealous Witch of the Waste (Lauren Bacall) mistook her for one of Howl's many fleeting crushes and transformed her from a young maiden (Emily Mortimer)