Interview

The elements didn't work in WWE's favor Saturday. In a rare weather twist, Phoenix saw rain. Enough rain to need to move the Fan Axxess festivities indoors. This caused come confusion and delay, as was to be expected. After all, you had to not only move the ring inside, but logistically figure out how the entire event would be run with less space. The U.S. Airways Center and WWE did a good job of moving everything along as quickly as they could. Once fans were allowed inside, they were greeted with free bowls of Fruity Pebbles (no kidding)

"Saturday Night Live" tapped into excitement over the Super Bowl and the amusement over Ray Lewis' exuberance during the Weekend Update segment. Kenan Thompson appeared in jersey and face paint as Lewis, whom host Seth Meyers interviewed. The highlight came with Thompson's promise that, upon winning the Super Bowl, he would kneel down on the 50-yeard line and ASCEND INTO HEAVEN. Thompson: Whooh! Oh, Seth. Meyers: So, Ray, are you excited for the big game? Thompson: Aaah.

Tuesday morning on CBS, Oprah Winfrey said that Lance Armstrong "brought it" to the interview she had taped with him the day before. Now that we've seen the interview Thursday night, we know that isn't exactly true. Yes, he admitted to doping and lying and lying and doping and lying and doping some more. But what else could he do? The evidence gathered and the actions taken by the United States Anti-Doping Agency have made it impossible for him to do anything else. But anyone who watched the 90-minute conversation and didn't walk away understanding they were listening to a sociopath who still thinks he's the smartest guy in the culture wasn't paying attention.

Jan Houbolt may be the most influential Baltimorean you've never heard of. As head of the Greater Baltimore Committee's Leadership Program since 1989, he has helped groom some of the state's up-and-coming leaders through a 10-month-long series of site visits and conversations that help them examine the city in all its complexity. Mr. Houbolt will retire in December, so this year's class, his 25th, will be his last. I talked to him about why a white sociology major from a historically black university took a job with Baltimore's business elite - and some of what he saw along the way. Q: Where did you grow up?

Failures to communicate are everywhere. You've no doubt heard radio or TV interviews, for example, where the interviewer seems to be preoccupied with preparing the next question, or following a script, that he/she doesn't actually hear the interviewee's answer to the one just asked. As a public service, I devote this Midweek Madness installment to ... the classic, ahead-of-their-time humorists Bob and Ray, who demonstrate just how badly awry an interview can go. (You'll still learn something about Komodo dragons, though.)

Multiple students at Old Mill High School in Anne Arundel County were interviewed by administrators and school police Monday after an unsubstantiated rumor began spreading through the hallways that a shooting was planned there Friday. Those interviewing the students found "nothing credible" about the rumor, but Principal James Todd sent a letter home to parents - and sent out emails and a robocall message - alerting them to the troubling chatter. "We have interviewed every student whose name was brought to our attention and pursued every piece of information we have been given," Todd wrote in the letter.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Dan Duquette, the Orioles' executive vice president of baseball operations, took some time away from the organization's affiliates' reception to talk to reporters tonight at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville. The winter meetings don't start in earnest until Monday. Here are some of his quotes on specific Orioles' topics. Duquette on the club's goal this week at the annual winter meetings: “Our agenda at the winter meetings, of course, is to try to find a hitter.

Orioles third-base coach DeMarlo Hale, one of two coaches the team has yet to resign, has interviewed for the Toronto Blue Jays bench coach job, an industry source has confirmed. Ending a tenuous search for a manager to replace John Farrell, who left to become the Red Sox's new manager, the Blue Jays hired John Gibbons, who managed Toronto from 2004-'08. He was introduced to the media on Tuesday morning.  Orioles manager Buck Showalter had expressed concern that other teams could woo Hale, who also served as the team's infield coach, with the offer of a bench coaching job. Hale was bench coach on new Indians manager Terry Francona's staff in Boston and worked alongside Farrell, formerly the Red Sox pitching coach, under Francona.

Anne Arundel County police were called to a Severn residence Tuesday for reports of a suicide but later determined the death a homicide. Officers were called the 100 block of Pine Cove Avenue for an attempted suicide and found Jerome Vorden Wood, 45, on the floor suffering from trauma to the upper torso. He was taken to Baltimore Washington Medical Center where he died. After interviewing several witnesses and collecting evidence, police determined the injury was not self-inflicted.

A 31-year-old Severna Park man who said he is following directions from God to visit sites of tragedies in the United States was recently detained and interviewed by authorities after ammunition was found in his car outside the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, where a gunman killed six worshippers and himself in August, police reported. According to an Oak Creek, Wis., police report, Joel Sinclair Corbett walked into the temple about 8:41 a.m. on Oct. 28 wearing a backpack with wires hanging out of it. Police in a nearby parking lot spotted him and drove to the temple.