Kettle

JUDY CEPHAS is the new Gifted and Talented Program resource teacher at Patuxent Valley Middle School. A dedicated educator, she's taking 150 pupils to New York City to see a Broadway production this month.But that's not why she called this reporter.Cephas, who is spending her first year in our area -- although she has worked at other Howard County schools -- is a big fan of other staff members at the school. And she is really impressed by the work of Suzanne Gross' sixth-grade reading class.

With a hymn, a prayer and an official blessing, the Dorsey family opened its 50th annual reunion in Sykesville yesterday.Some 100 descendants of Ed and Carrie Dorsey, nearly all wearing T-shirts printed with the family tree, watched as Mayor Jonathan S. Herman presented 88-year-old Thelma Dorsey Jackson with a key to the town. Letters of congratulations also arrived from state Sen. Larry E. Haines and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski.Dorseys have lived in Sykesville for more than a century, longer than the town of 3,500 has been a town.

DURING THE Baltimore mayoral primary, I kept waiting to hear a candidate promise that, if elected, he would put a chicken in every barbecue kettle. Maybe I missed it, but nobody I heard ever mentioned chicken.Among the Demo- crats, Carl Stokes wanted to put brooms in residents' hands to clean up the city. Martin O'Malley wanted to put in a new policing policy, and Lawrence Bell wanted to put in a City-Hall hot line.Among the Republicans, David Tufaro wanted to cut property taxes, and Carl Adair wanted to keep the city from getting too crowded.

ON A RECENT soft spring evening, I subjected the backyard grill to a bout of spring cleaning.Like a lot of chest-thumpers, I had cooked on the grill during the winter. It was a point of manly pride or, at least, it seemed to be. But after several months of fighting an icy wind, I began to think the impulse to cook outdoors in bad weather might be the sign of some genetic flaw, nature's way of saying that I was not the brightest porch light on the block.After all, generations of civilized men had been erecting structures that sheltered them from inclement weather.

The national shortage of Salvation Army bell-ringers and red kettle-minders has washed right over LaVerne Schmidt.She stands in front of Cross Street Market, a 53-year-old grandmother of eight, 112 pounds of cheerful "Merry Christmases" from Armistead Gardens. Her children and her husband told her she wouldn't be able to stand on her feet eight hours a day, six days a week.But she does it. "Thank you, hon," she says to a woman who made the red kettle clang. "God bless you."She told her children she was going to try it, at $6.50 an hour.

My wife has never touched my barbecue grills.This thought came to me with the fury of a grease flare-up as I wrestled with charcoal, flame and a beef brisket for five hours one recent Saturday afternoon. Why does she keep her distance?My Smokey Joe, my trusty 22-inch kettle (Oh, what incendiary moments we've shared!), my three-burner propane barbecue with built-in "Flavorizer" bars - how could she not share my infatuation for their sizzle and smoke?Even this summer when she bought me a new gas-powered model (which, I believe, pumps out enough BTUs to put grill marks on concrete)

Perfume bottles shaped like Oriental men, soup tureens that look like huge shells and vases covered with human and animal heads were among the unusual designs produced by French porcelain manufacturers in the 19th century. When the rococo style was revived, the affluent demanded elaborate porcelains.Jacob Petit was one manufacturer who met the demand. His firm in Fontainebleau, France, made vases, clock cases, figurines, candlesticks and dishes.Now, Petit's small perfume bottles encrusted with three-dimensional flowers as well as Oriental-inspired designs for figurines and decorative wares are in great demand.

The Salvation Army of Annapolis has set a goal of $125,000 for its 1996 Christmas Kettle Campaign and has added five kettle locations to the usual 15.The goal is nearly double the $63,000 volunteers collected last year.To help achieve the goal, the Salvation Army is pursuing local service organizations to adopt kettle locations and have volunteers at the kettles six days a week from Nov. 22 through early Christmas Eve.Several local groups, including Kiwanis of the Severn, Annapolis Civitan Club, Annapolis Rotary Club, Kiwanis of Crofton and Kiwanis of Mayo, have agreed to become "Kettle Keepers."

BOMBAY HOOK, Del. -- When the Dutch acquired this marshy point from the Indians in 1679, they called it Boompies Hoock. It's said the price they paid was a musket and powder, some liquor and a steel kettle -- about what they paid to buy Manhattan. I'd rather have Bombay Hook.Since 1937 there has been a national wildlife refuge here, more than 16,000 acres worth, mostly marsh but also including some wooded upland and several big freshwater ponds. Tidal rivers like the Leipsic, Duck Creek and my favorite, Old Woman's Gut, pass through it. It's a wonderful place to see birds of all kinds, especially migrants.

Donations to the Glen Burnie Salvation Army are down this year, partly because there aren't enough volunteers to ring bells at the organization's kettles, said Capt. Diane Shingleton.Money taken in during the North County kettle drive accounts for a large part of the group's funds, she said. The group collected $65,000 last year and had hoped to garner donations of $75,000 this year."We're going to have to really do a lot of praying to get volunteers and reach that goal," said Captain Shingleton.

James Michael Crooks, a chef and former co-owner of the Country Kettle Cafe in western Howard County, died Friday of heart failure at his New Windsor home. He was 44. Mr. Crooks was born in Wheaton and was raised there and in London, where he attended London Central High School. After graduating from Wheaton High School in 1982, he went to work in the restaurant business. "We met when we both were working at the Olney Ale House in 1983. Back then, we were young and crazy," said his wife of 17 years, the former Amy Regina Lauer.

Mindy McCready in hospital after apparent suicide attempt Country singer Mindy McCready was in stable condition in a Nashville, Tenn., hospital yesterday after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in an apparent suicide attempt. A Nashville police report said McCready's brother discovered the singer in her bloody bed several hours after she returned Wednesday morning from a night out. Timothy McCready told police his sister had been "very intoxicated." Centennial Medical Center spokeswoman Jenny Barker said yesterday that Mindy McCready, 33, remained in stable condition.

America's obesity problem is our lifeblood here." - TAAVI McMAHON, president of a biofuels cooperative in Madison, Wis., on the source of most of the waste vegetable oil - 3,000 gallons a week - for his recycling and filling station: a Kettle Foods potato chip plant; while clean-burning vegetable oil is widely used as a fuel in Germany, it has only recently begun to catch on in the United States

Mrs. ELIZABETH "Betty" ANNE (Lewis) GRITTNER, 80 of Norton, Vermont, passed away on Monday March 13, 2007 at the Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital in Colebrook, New Hampshire. Mrs. Grittner was a steadfast cancer survivor, who ultimately succumbed to a sudden heart condition. Mrs. Grittner was born Elizabeth Anne Lewis on April 23, 1926, in Baltimore, Maryland to William Lewis a Methodist Minister from Wales (Cymru) and Mabel (North) Lewis. Mrs. Grittner completed high school in Baltimore and then attended Western Maryland College in Westminster.

A former investigative reporter for WMAR-TV was arrested Tuesday night and charged with domestic aggravated assault, accused of throwing a kettle of hot water at his wife during an argument in their West Baltimore home, authorities said. Darryn M. Moore, 41, a reporter for WTTG-TV in Washington, was released on his own recognizance shortly after he appeared before a District Court commissioner, authorities said. According to the police report, shortly before 9 p.m., a Western District officer responded to a domestic violence call in the 1500 block of N. Bentalou St. and was told by Moore's wife, Nicole, 38, that during an argument her husband picked up a kettle of hot water from the stove and threw it at her. The kettle missed hitting her, but splashed hot water on her legs when it hit the floor, the report said.

Winter does not stop a serious smoker. You put on a coat, go outside and confront the elements. That is what I did recently on a brisk February afternoon as I ministered to a 5-pound beef brisket on my backyard kettle cooker. The air smelled like smoke, and so did I. Hickory smoke, to be exact. That was the type of water-soaked wood I had tossed onto the ashy charcoal briquettes, part of the process cookbook author Steven Raichlen refers to as "smoke-cooking." The idea is that through this slow, low-heat cooking process, meat is transformed into tender morsels, almost like edible smoke.

On December 16, 2005, ROBERT J. KETTLE, beloved husband of Mary T. Kettle, stepfather of Mary Mulligan, Larry Mulligan, and John Mulligan, Sr., grandfather of Debbie Brooks, Shawn Mulligan and John Mulligan, Jr., and three great-grandchildren. Brother of Edward Kettle and Mary Jane Hoffman. Also survived several by nieces and nephews. Services private. Donation in his memory to Seasons Hospice, 7008 Security Blvd., Suite 300, Baltimore 21244. (nee Stehling), beloved wife of the late John J. Keys; devoted mother of John R. Keys; loving grandmother of Hunter, Logan, and Jessica Keys; dear sister of Robert Stehling and Audrey English.

Baltimore: Harborplace Salvation Army's '05 campaign to open The Salvation Army will kick off its 2005 Red Kettle Campaign today at the Inner Harbor amphitheater. The Salvation Army Band is set to begin playing at 10:45 a.m., and the ceremony will begin about 11 a.m. City Council President Sheila Dixon, the Salvation's Army's 2005 recipient of the Outstanding Civil and Charitable Contributions Award, will place the first "official" donation in the kettle for the 2005 holiday season. The Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is being recognized with the group's Outstanding Corporation Contributions Award.

PALATINE, Ill. - The man in an apron casually moves quartered slabs of zucchini off the hottest part of the grill to the cooler edges, where they can be turned to expose angled stripes of caramelized flesh. Then peppers, yellow and red and blistered, and saucer-sized portobello mushrooms, too. And finger-thick spears of asparagus, now freckled brown and fire-kissed. The flesh of filleted salmon is weeping surface puddles of its own oils. The swordfish steaks have been turned, and there is a crackle over the heat.

On July 22, 2005, THOMAS RUSSELL HOLMES, SR., of Bel Air, MD; beloved husband of the late Marian Wagner Holmes; devoted father of William J. Holmes and his wife Vickie, Patricia H. Kettle and her husband Patrick, Rebecca V. Holmes and her partner Helene Scharf, and the late Thomas R. Holmes, III. Also survived by three grandchildren, Michael Holmes, Stephen Holmes and Andrew Kettle. A Service will be in the family owned Mc Comas Funeral Home, P.A., Bel Air, MD, on Tuesday, July 26, 2005, at 12 P.M. Interment will be in Bel Air Memorial Gardens, Bel Air, MD. Friends may call at the funeral home in Bel Air, on Tuesday prior to service from 10 to 12 noon.