Inauguration

Drawing on the last drumrolls of the Perry Hall High School marching band, Baltimore County schools superintendent S. Dallas Dance greeted 700 applauding administrators Friday to deliver his inaugural back-to-school address, sending a message he hoped would resonate for the next 10 months. "That explosive sound is what every team needs when they're about to take the field," said the 31-year-old superintendent, who took the helm of the 26th-largest school system in the nation on July 1. "And I have no doubt that 'Team BCPS' are indeed about to take the field for a championship school year and a championship journey.

The new team that's organizing the Baltimore Grand Prix faces two big challenges. The first is overcoming the logistical difficulties of throwing together the complicated enterprise that is a three-day street racing festival in less than four months. And the second is overcoming the skepticism of race fans, sponsors, vendors and Baltimore residents who are wary after last year's organizers left millions in bad debts and the city's handpicked replacement team collapsed just months before this year's event.

The Baltimore Bohomians are set to kick off their inaugural season in the United Soccer League's Premier Development League, taking on visiting Ocean City FC at 7 p.m. Saturday at Cedar Lane Park in Bel Air. Longtime Baltimore Bays and McDonogh coach Steve Nichols is in charge and has a roster stocked with some of the finest local talent. The Bohemians will compete in the Mid-Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the nationwide 65-team league.   "We have a strong player pool, and we're really excited about getting on the field and putting a great product out there," Nichol said.

Compass Rose Studio Theater will complete a successful inaugural season this spring, capped by Lionel Bart's classic musical "Oliver. " Based on Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist," the story of an impoverished orphan sold to an undertaker before escaping to join a gang of pickpockets, Bart's musical adaptation premiered in London in 1960. It ran for a record-setting 12 years and created several beloved standards including "Consider Yourself," "Where is Love?" and "As Long as He Needs Me. " Bart strips down Dickens' tale to essentials in his musical, which is appropriately shrunk further by Compass Rose director Lucinda Merry-Browne to fit her intimate theater space.

Yesterday's weather made me think of the beach and reminded me about a new event set to kick off the summer season in Ocean City. On May 31, the town will host the first-ever Ravens Ocean City Beach Bash . The four-day festival comes on the heels of Memorial Day and probably means there will be just one big. non-stop party week downy ocean. Organizers said the event, sponsored by Miller Lite, will include Ravens players, cheerleaders, mascot Poe and talent from 98Rock as they "turn Ocean City into Ravenstown" for the weekend.

It is perhaps one of the shortest trips a UPS delivery truck has ever made. The brown, boxy, 14,000-pound vehicle traveled 90 feet in about 23 seconds in Anne Arundel Community College's parking lot as five AACC students hauled it by rope in the Inaugural AACC Truck Pull competition. "It's harder than I expected it to be," said AACC second-year student Alex Bohlman, who participated as part of a group of e-marketing course students. They posted live Twitter feeds about the competition, which was sponsored by the college's program in transportation, logistics and supply-chain management.

If you want to break the boredom of a late winter Sunday, you could raise a cup of cheer to the memory of President William Henry Harrison, the nation's ninth president, who was sworn into office 171 years ago today. I'm also certain the details of Harrison's brief tenure as the nation's chief executive — he is better known as an Indian fighter (the Battle of Tippecanoe) and a general in the War of 1812 — are not on the tip of everyone's tongue. The one thing everyone knows about Harrison is the catchy presidential campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too," when Harrison was the Whig Party candidate in the 1840 presidential election with his running mate, John Tyler.

For over a year, a group of local bartenders have been informally meeting as Baltimore's first guild for mixologists. They've been operating under the radar for most of that time, only quietly launching a website a month ago. But they will make their big entrance Sunday with their inaugural event, a fundraiser and cocktails showcase at B&O American Brasserie. Dubbed the Baltimore Bartenders' Guild, the group includes some of the most well-known bartenders in the city and some of the most high-profile - Brendan Dorr of B&O, Adrian Ross-Boom of Wit & Wisdom , and Doug Atwell of Rye . So far, there are 15 members from 11 bars, including one that hasn't opened yet. It is a working trade group, one where its members talk shop and liquor vendors sometimes present new products.

Simona de Silvestro walked through the lobby of an Inner Harbor hotel Thursday looking comfortable in her white shirt and black jeans. "I feel like I'm back home," the IndyCar driver said. "It was one of the best races we had last year, and I'm really looking forward to getting back on the race track here. " De Silvestro was one of the first drivers to come here to promote last year's inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix. Thursday, one day after officials confirmed the race will return Labor Day weekend, she was back with her newly designed HVM Nuclear Clean Entergy race car with a new Lotus engine that has proven powerful in practice.

Cornflakes and water, Joe Pace recalled, was sometimes all he had to eat. Even if a hardscrabble existence hardly seemed to fit the profile of perhaps the best there ever was at Coppin State, there were always lean days in college for the big man with the bigger appetite. It was a good thing, then, that Pace wasn't bad at basketball. "If we do good out there," the 6-foot-10 Pace said, remembering his playing days in the mid-1970s at Coppin State, "somebody might even invite us to their house to eat, give us a little money to buy the other ball players some food.