I Cried

My buddy Bullwinkle and I were strolling past a high school when the teen-agers there burst into laughter.At first, I thought they were laughing at me, which would have been an outrage.But then I looked down at Bullwinkle's feet."Good lord, Bullwinkle!" I exclaimed. "What happened to your basketball shoes!""Wha'?" said Bullwinkle, quick on the uptake as always. "What's wrong with my shoes?"I'll tell you what was wrong with Bullwinkle's shoes. They had burst at the seams and were held together with electric tape.

The biggest overachiever in Maryland basketball history -- maybe in the modern college game -- is trying to beat the odds again. At age 33, a decade after leading the Terps to the NCAA men's championship, three years removed from his last NBA game and now rehabilitating an injured left knee, Juan Dixon is plotting his comeback. "Don't count me out," Dixon said Thursday in his first extensive interview since being banned in February 2010 from playing in Europe after failing a drug test the previous season.

Imagine showing off your new car to friends and family only to get a call from the dealer — sometimes weeks later — saying your financing has fallen through. You're given the option of returning the car or signing a new sales agreement with terms that are likely less favorable. If you're like many buyers, consumer lawyers say, you will be too embarrassed to send the car back and opt to pay more instead. Consumer lawyers call this yo-yo financing, when dealers let buyers leave with a car and then reel them in again to say the agreement has changed.

At one minute past midnight on Sept. 16, a state landmark known by millions of motorists will go dark. Employees will say their goodbyes before the doors and off-ramps are barricaded at Maryland House, the Interstate 95 travel plaza in Harford County that opened in 1963. Within weeks, wrecking crews will level the neo-Georgian brick structure to make way for a new building, the flagship of an ambitious public-private partnership valued at a half-billion dollars. The same night, the smaller Chesapeake House in Cecil County will change as new vendors replace old ones.

Like many younger siblings, Ludie Montgomery adored and admired her older sister as a model of beauty, popularity and talent. But no other girl had as an older sister Thomasina Montgomery, better known by her Motown stage name, Tammi Terrell. Now, 35 years after Terrell's death at age 24, Montgomery has overcome a litany of troubles to co-author a biography of her sister, who gained fame as Marvin Gaye's duet partner on such songs as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Your Precious Love."

This week, we asked about your favorite movies from 2011. Here's what you had to say. ••••  “Thor” --A ndrew Daugherty  via Facebook ••••  “The Help” --J ennifer Mundie  via Facebook ••••  I really liked “Hesher”! --K elly Mitchell  via Facebook ••••  “Bridesmaids" was f---ing hilarious and so was "The Hangover 2". --C arol Ann Sonnet-McCall  via Facebook •••• “Midnight in Paris” --R ex Anderson  via Facebook ••••  “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” --T akeeta Baker  via Facebook ••••  “Hugo” --L indsay Wailes  via Facebook ••••  “The Muppets.” I laughed, I cried, I left feeling happy.

OK, I admit it -- I cried. Big tears, all over my cashmere sweater. Still, I was fairly sedate compared to the man sitting a couple of seats away. Blubbering.He, I'd like to believe, was wrapped up in the emotion of the story, a romantic comedy in which a chauffeur's geeky daughter returns from Paris transformed into a beautiful and sophisticated woman who entices not just one but both of the millionaire Larrabee sons.I, on the other hand, was crying over the fashions.While I have to admit that pantsuits and sleek velvet ball gowns are more apropos of the '90s, some deep-seated '50s part of me was craving the sight of opulent, luxurious clothing -- and not on the male actors.

On paper, Lisa Scottoline is a little intimidating. She's got more than 30 million copies in print of her books, including 20 best-selling novels. She writes a weekly column, with her daughter, for The Philadelphia Inquirer. She's a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and taught a class at the latter called "Justice and Fiction. " But ask her about any connections she might have to Baltimore, where she'll be visiting May 20 as a featured author in the Baltimore Sun Book Club, and you'll quickly discover her self-deprecating sense of humor.

CLAUDIA COFFEY hadn't slept for a whole week. She tied a white handkerchief to her wrist to dab the tears."This is really heartbreaking," she said as she checked coats for people at the Pimlico Restaurant, which closed last night after more than 40 years.Regular eaters know her as the living legend who created one of Pimlico's favorite dishes, the Coffey Salad. It's ''a Pimlico exclusive created by our own Claudia Coffey,'' said the menu. "A garden-fresh medley of lettuce, tomato and onion accented with anchovies, hard-boiled egg, garlic and freshly grated imported Parmesan."

When Bill Clinton took the podium to address the country in January 1993, I was moved to tears. Here, then, was my first president. My parents had had all the presidents up to that point. Here was a man of my generation. Married to the working mother of a school-aged child who was his educational and professional equal. To someone like me. Mr. Clinton acknowledged the passing of the "greatest generation" when he thanked outgoing President George H.W. Bush for his 50 years of service to the country.