Ice Skating

McHENRY -- Hoping to make Garrett County a winter sports mecca, outdoor enthusiasts here are pushing plans to build a winter sports complex offering improved cross-country skiing, other activities and possibly ice skating."

For the first time in about a decade, outdoor ice skating could return to the Inner Harbor with the creation of a temporary rink at McKeldin Square. Baltimore's spending panel approved an agreement Wednesday with the Waterfront Partnership, which hopes a temporary rink will bring more city residents and visitors to the harbor during the slower winter months. But the nonprofit must raise $250,000 by Labor Day to pull off the plans. Other efforts to revive skating at the harbor have failed since an outdoor rink at Rash Field in Federal Hill was closed when its aging equipment could not keep the ice cold enough.

As we approach the XXCVXIXXIML Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, some questions that are very much on our minds are:1. What is the Official Lip Balm?2. Which one is Norway, anyway?3. Is it the same as Sweden?4. Will the Buffalo Bills be involved?Also, we are all on pins and needles about what will happen next in the saga of Tonya Harding, who every day seems to be implicated in more and more things (the FBI is now saying that she can be clearly seen in frames 189 and 190 of the Zapruder film)

Interest in ice skating peaks every four years during the Olympics. The 2014 Sochi games might be over, but swirling figures on ice are still dancing in the dreams of young would-be Meryl Davis and Charlie White, the Olympic gold medalists in ice dancing. Since 1975, the Columbia Figure Skating Club has provided area skaters with the opportunity to pursue both recreational and competitive skating. Each spring, Pat Muth, her daughter Martha, granddaughter Melissa, and a host of volunteers put many of these rising ice stars in a standing-room-only spectacle, this time around appropriately called "Frozen In Time," at the Columbia Ice Rink.

This is ice skating's magic moment. Without warning or reservations, people are swarming into rinks everywhere with new skates and fantasies of jumping gracefully into the spotlight. The pros haven't seen anything like it - for four years. That's the power of the Olympics. "The whole thing sells," said Pat Muth, who has taught at Columbia Ice Rink since 1971 and has seen the quadrennial trend again and again. "The clothing sells, the lessons sell - [our] phones are ringing off the hook because they've been watching the television," Muth said.

Courtney Renner, a third-grader at Crofton Woods Elementary School, won two gold and two silver medals Saturday at the fourth annual open ice-skating competition at Northwest Ice Rink in Baltimore.The 7-year-old from Shaftsbury Avenue won gold medals in free style and interpretive skating and silver medals in figures and in dance.Courtney has been skating for only two years under the direction of coach Patty DeLisi at the Piney Orchard Ice Rink and already she has gotten into that Olympic routine.

Ice-skaters will be able to return to Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis tomorrow when the outdoor rink there reopens after being closed for two seasons.Workers are putting the final touches on a rink with portable coolant tubing installed over the original in-ground system that failed in December 1993.The county government installed the temporary system for $265,000.The tubing mats can be removed and stored at the end of each season, similar to the system used at Rash Field at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.

When it is frigid enough, outdoor ice, formed on rivers, tributaries, harbors, ponds, lakes and reservoirs, is open to everyone. And those who recall the bonfires, hot chocolate and ruddy cheeks that accompanied late nights of outdoor skating -- and later, long, sound sleeps before school the next day -- find it difficult to imagine skating any other way.In the past, the ritual of leaving terra firma for the unpredictable glories of ice has been repeated on...

As John J. Otlowsky skated from his 60s and into his 70s, he learned one of life's sadder lessons: "You slow up a little bit," he says. "The muscles aren't what they used to be. Your legs haven't got the push you used to have."* Piney Orchard Ice Arena in Odenton: Call (410) 672-7013.

THE CANADIAN skaters stole the show. The Russians skated off with the gold. The armchair and arena audiences booed. Is it still 1984? Olympic judges have proved once again that style can win over substance in the political and subjective ballet of ice skating. What would the Games be without intrigue? On Monday night in Salt Lake City, world champion skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada competed against overwhelming Olympic history and lost. Only Russians have won the gold medal in the pairs event since 1964.

Ice Champions LIVE offers the opportunity to see Olympic and world champions perform on Sunday, Sept. 15, at 4 p.m. at the Gardens Ice House, 13800 Old Gunpowder Road. International superstars of figure skating expected to participate are Ekaterina Gordeeva, Kimmie Meissner, Michael Weiss, Ryan Bradley and Adam Rippon. Presented by Michael Weiss Foundation, this event is a fundraiser for scholarships for aspiring Olympians. There will also be a silent auction featuring skaters' personal memorabilia as well as items from local artists, jewelers and restaurants.

Hello, Top Cheffers! Tonight's episode felt like the quiet before the storm. The final three chefs, Lindsay, Paul and Sarah, are very friendly toward one another. Usually there is a little infighting or a passive-aggressive “good luck” here and there within the final cheftestants, but these three sincerely seem to enjoy each one another's company. That is lovely in real life but leads to a bit of a boring episode. With that said, the episode didn't completely fall flat, so let's get into the good stuff, shall we?

NORTON, Mass. — Ernie Els waited for his TV interview slumped forward in a plastic chair, spent from another week of living on the edge. "It's been a hard couple of days," the Hall of Famer said wryly. More like a hard three weeks — this one going down to his final putt Monday in the Deutsche Bank Championship. Needing a birdie to keep his PGA Tour season alive, Els went long with his second shot at TPC Boston's par-5 closing hole. His chip rolled 6 feet past the pin — long enough to jangle the nerves — but Els holed the putt.

Baltimore Development Corp.'s president, M.J. "Jay" Brodie, said Thursday that he is on the mend after an ice skating injury that has kept him sidelined for much of the past two months. Brodie, 73, told directors of the economic development agency that he has been under doctor's orders to rest his right leg after it became inflamed in early April. Brodie, an avid skater, said he noticed pain and swelling in his leg after skating twice in late March. He said that he did not fall or break his leg, and that tests uncovered no fractures or torn muscles.

It's a little bit of a mystery to me why former Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. wants to "ice skate uphill," as a listener put it, battling the blinding blueness of Maryland's political landscape in an attempt to win back his old job from Martin O'Malley, the man who sent him packing in 2006. So let's try to unravel it. Remember, this loss happened despite positive approval ratings for Mr. Ehrlich. Remember also that he was the only incumbent governor in the nation to be ousted on election day in 2006.

BEIJING - Michael Phelps has backed away from a previous comment he made about purchasing a pool in Baltimore, saying at a news conference yesterday that he's not sure of his plans. Phelps, still in China after winning eight gold medals at the Olympics, said, "We're definitely going to start training back in Baltimore. "But I'm not really sure exactly. I never know what I'm really talking about, I just say things." A day earlier, Phelps told NBC's Nightly News that he and his coach, Bob Bowman, had bought a pool in Baltimore and were looking to change the sport of swimming.

When the 65 members of the Columbia Figure Skating Club take to the rink this weekend for their annual spring show, it will be the icing on almost a year's worth of detailed planning and practice."

Perky the Penguin has found a new home just across the harbor. A public ice skating rink will open next month at Harbor Point in Fells Point, city officials said yesterday, saving a skating season that a few weeks ago appeared to be in jeopardy. The Baltimore Ice Rink at Harbor Point will open Dec. 12 and continue through Feb. 29, marking the 11th consecutive year for public skating. All of the rink's annual activities -- and its mascot, Perky the Penguin -- will return. In October, the city said the rink's former location at Rash Field in Federal Hill would not open for the skating season because outdated equipment often failed to make ice suitable for skating.

Many Marylanders may not realize it, but blind people like to skate, and many know how to take to the ice safely. For years, the local affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind has held its annual convention at a hotel in Ocean City that features an ice skating rink, and the blind convention participants enjoy the rink along with other hotel guests without problems. Blind skaters use their canes on the ice, just as when walking, in order to avoid colliding with other skaters and to observe the boundaries of the skating area.

Thinking of taking a nice evening stroll to "walk off" your Thanksgiving dinner? Plan to be gone for more than six hours. That's how long it would take a person who weighs 155 pounds to burn the roughly 1,650 calories eaten in a typical Turkey Day feast - and that's without going back for seconds. Here's a breakdown by dish: Turkey (115 calories in 3 slices) and gravy (178 calories in 1/2 cup) = 293 calories = 71 minutes of walking Mashed potatoes = 111 calories in 1/2 cup = 14 minutes of racquetball Stuffing = 198 calories in 1/2 cup = 21 minutes of biking Green beans = 18 calories = 2 minutes of ice skating or 2 minutes of racquetball Green bean casserole = 110 calories in 2/3 cup = 13 minutes of ice skating Sweet potatoes, candied = 192 calories in 1/2 cup = 16 minutes of swimming Dinner roll = 115 calories = 14 minutes of tennis Cranberry sauce = 105 calories in 1/4 cup = 9 minutes of jumping rope Pumpkin pie = 367 calories in 1 slice = 45 minutes of jogging Glass of wine = 142 calories in 1 glass (7 ounces)