Ladder

Mayor Martin O'Malley got his big Hollywood break yesterday, but his first role in a feature film was not much of a stretch. O'Malley portrayed the Mayor in the Touchstone Pictures drama Ladder 49, which stars John Travolta and Joaquin Phoenix. The scene shot yesterday portrayed a ceremony at the War Memorial Building on Gay Street and featured the mayor and 516 extras. "I never came out of character," O'Malley said of a performance that garnered him membership in the Screen Actors Guild and a one-day paycheck of $650.

Owners of two-story ceilings face a major problem: How to clean those impossible-to-reach spaces. One way is to make it easier to clean ceiling beams by first applying a coat of polish, said Jackie Jenkins, manager of Maid to Perfection, a cleaning firm in Severna Park. Jenkins uses extension tools to tackle 9-foot to 10-foot ceilings. High ceilings can require professionals accustomed to climbing 22-foot extension ladders, he said. Cleaning companies usually charge by the hour, and they get more for difficult jobs.

Let's just lay our cards on the table, shall we? There's an 8-foot-tall lighted snowman in my front yard. You want to make something of it? Oh, and yes, a couple thousand lights. Well, sure, it's taken me a few days to put the whole display together. At least six electrical outlets are involved. So? I made the rounds of all the major garden centers and hardware stores two months ago looking for novel Christmas lights. I don't deny it. It's good to get an early start on the season. Maybe I already own enough of that green outdoor extension cord to power appliances in Delaware.

Mike Flanagan's journey through the Orioles' organization has taken him from the pitching mound to the coaches' office, and from the broadcast booth to the owner's ear. Now he's ready to get into the jewelry business. Sitting with reporters at the Camden Yards warehouse yesterday, Flanagan removed his World Series ring from his right hand and spun it on a table. He doesn't usually wear it, but the moment seemed right with his introduction as one half of the replacement for Syd Thrift, the club's outgoing vice president of baseball operations.

Humans, young and old, are not the only species that get bored with their toys. So do animals - and veterinary experts say that is unhealthy. This week, about 25 staffers at the National Aquarium took up power drills, handsaws, PVC pipes and an assortment of hardware to build new toys. Staffers strung together a rope ladder for South American monkeys, chained together Hula-Hoops for bottlenose dolphins and hacked PVC pipes into shapes that will challenge the eight arms of the giant Pacific octopus.

The lasting image some Orioles fans might have of left-hander Erik Bedard is the game-winning hit he surrendered to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' Ben Grieve on April 21 at Tropicana Field. When a pitcher makes only two appearances before disappearing into the minors, a failure of this magnitude tends to stick. It would be a shame if this is true. Bedard, 23, is tearing up the Double-A Eastern League, with four consecutive winning decisions that have lowered his ERA to 1.61. He's 6-2 for the Bowie Baysox and bound again for the All-Star Futures Game at Miller Park in Milwaukee, where a collection of baseball's top prospects congregate to showcase their talents.

At a recent meeting of about 200 manufacturers at the World Trade Center in Baltimore, this question was posed: How many people have heard of Unilever? Not a single hand went up. The company might not be a household word, but its products are in households across the country, and the $49 billion conglomerate operates a 500-person plant in Baltimore. The 50-acre plant is the sole source of the following products sold in the United States: liquid Wisk, all and Surf laundry detergents, and liquid Final Touch and Snuggle fabric softeners.

Herman Williams Jr. watched the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center with a special, personal, horror. "I knew right away there were going to be firemen involved," he says. "Because that's our job." Williams fought hundreds of fires during his 35 years with the Baltimore City Fire Department, nine of them as chief. "They had to go in to rescue people. There was nothing else they could have done," he says. "I thought right away, if that building comes down, there's a lot of firemen in there."

BACK ON Jan. 28, Super Bowl Sunday, the phone rang at a Baltimore County fire station, and LeRoy Edmunds picked up. This is Vinny Princiotta, the caller said. New York City Fire Department, Engine 16/Ladder 7. "We wanna make a bet on the game." The Giants were about to play the Ravens. This Princiotta wanted to make it interesting and have some fun with guys from a Baltimore firehouse with a comparable number. He'd been calling around. He couldn't find an Engine 16 in Baltimore City. So he settled for the one in the county -- Station 16, Golden Ring.

Brian Billick insists that no import should be put into the practice rotations on the Ravens' makeshift offensive line. No one buys that spiel faster than Sammy Williams. Williams, whose NFL experience consists of bit parts in three games, will start at right tackle when the Super Bowl champions return to PSINet Stadium tomorrow (7:30 p.m.) for a preseason game against the Carolina Panthers. Billick and the rest of the Ravens' brass like the potential of Williams, who is the future at a position where the top two candidates have a combined 25 years of experience.