Lake Tahoe

Margaret Miller Ekin, a homemaker and bookkeeper who had lived in Catonsville, died Feb. 2 of heart failure at Austell Presbyterian Village in Austell, Ga. She was 98. The daughter of farmers, Anna Margaret Miller, who did not use her first name, was born and raised in Miller's Corner in Howard County. She was a graduate of Ellicott City High School. During the Depression, she worked as a bookkeeper for a decade at the old Miller Chevrolet in Ellicott City, which had been established by one of her brothers.

Matt Katula has been the Ravens' starting long snapper since 2005. Along with punter and holder Sam Koch, Katula helped kicker Matt Stover lead the NFL in field-goal percentage with a 93.3 conversion rate last season. Matt Stover has said that one of the keys to his success is your ability to snap the football to Sam Koch so that the laces are always in the front when Sam catches the ball. How did you perfect that? It's all about rotation. The ball spins a certain amount of times. We just needed to figure out how many times it spins before it gets to his hands.

Werner Janssen, the first American-born conductor to lead the New York Philharmonic and later the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, died Wednesday at the Stony Brook (N.Y.) University Hospital. He was 91.He had a distinguished career as a film composer and champion of contemporary music on the West Coast.Born in New York, he attended Dartmouth College and the New England Conservatory of Music. He studied conducting in Europe with Felix Weingartner and Hermann Scherchen and composition with Ottorino Respighi.

Brandon Tartikoff, who led NBC to five consecutive winning seasons in the prime-time ratings, has been seriously hurt in a car crash that also injured his daughter, a network spokeswoman said yesterday.Tartikoff, 41, chairman of the NBC Entertainment Group, and his daughter, Calla, 8, were injured late Tuesday near Lake Tahoe, Nev. They were rushed to Washoe Medical Center in Reno, Nev., where both were placed in intensive care.Yesterday afternoon, Tartikoff's condition was upgraded from serious to satisfactory and he was moved to the orthopedic recovery unit, says NBC spokeswoman Susan Binford.

LEMONT, Ill. -- Greg Norman took 66 shots on the golf course yesterday, then leveled a couple more at his critics."Everybody expects things of me," said Norman, the winner of 1986 British Open and 66 other tournaments around the world -- but none in more than a year."

CARDIFF, Wales -- Apparently International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe is facing a weighty problem as he prepares for his Nov. 6 rematch with former champion Evander Holyfield.One has to consider the source on such matters as a heavyweight's expansive waistline, but here is what former Sugar Ray Leonard associate Ollie Dunlop said last week concerning Bowe's physique."Bowe looked like a rhino before he left for his training camp," said Dunlop, who lives near Bowe outside Washington.

DISNEY A ghostly overhaul The Haunted Mansion at Disney's Magic Kingdom is closed for the summer. The attraction closed for renovations June 6, according to the Orlando Sentinel, and is not scheduled to reopen until mid-September. During that time, ride designers plan to add new ghosts and work to enhance the effects of the attraction with technology updates. This is the first major overhaul of the ride. Designers said they hope to update the ride without losing its traditional features or altering its story.

On Sunday, August 24, 2003, FRANK G. ENGLES, age 84, of Lewes, DE, died at Beebe Medical Center in Lewes. Mr. Engles was born in Baltimore, MD, son of the late Elmer and Blanche (Lupus) Engles. He had been married for 55 years to his late wife L. Lorraine (Lavender) Engles, when she passed away in 2002. Mr. Engles was an independent ice deliveryman for 50 years. He was a WWII Navy veteran and was a 50 year member of the Dewey Loman American Legion Post, Baltimore, MD. He is survived by one daughter, Lesley Engles Bowers and her husband Sam of Lewes, DE; three sisters: Eleanor Taylor of Denton, MD, Mary Ellen Schanken and Patsy Fox, both of Baltimore, MD; one brother, Bill Engles of Riviera Beach, MD; two grandchildren: Abby Gerkin of Lake Tahoe, NV and Caroline Bowers of DelRay Beach, FL; and a great grandson William.

"I hit a big rock and did an end-over," Joe Amato said matter-of-factly, rubbing the back of his aching left shoulder. "What about your finger?" asked his wife, Diane. "Oh, that. I think maybe it's broken," he said, shrugging. Later, he added: "Mountain biking is rough on the body. You do crash. I don't try a lot of the things, now, that I used to, but younger guys have no fear." Amato is still one serious mountain biker, though. Make that one serious competitor, because love of competing, he said, keeps him biking, running and swimming for huge chunks of spare time.

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow "That's the tune California ski resort operators are finally able to sing. For a while, though, the lyrics were more like a prayer. Summer and fall temperatures lingered unseasonably late, fending off Mother Nature's attempts at snowmaking and keeping it much too warm to sustain machine-made snow."This has been our worst start ever, it's been so warm," said Chris Riddle, a spokesman for Snow Summit at Big Bear Lake. "But things are looking up."For most ski areas, the first tentative blanketing of snow came in mid-December.