Lamotte

Possession is not so much a movie as an exercise, a chance for some fine actors to get their hands on an old-fashioned (though far too pretentious) love story and for a director to show the world how multi-faceted he really is. And like most exercises, undertaking this one may teach you something, but don't expect much in the way of pleasure. In adapting A.S. Byatt's novel of parallel lovers in the 19th and 20th centuries, director Neil LaBute clearly wants to show audiences he's more than the edge-pushing cynic he seemed in his first two films, In the Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors, and to a lesser degree in his third, Nurse Betty (the first to suggest there was a genuine sense of humor, and perhaps a little warmth, underneath that bitter facade)

So it wasn't the championship softball game of the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland C Conference, but that didn't seem to matter to Roland Park. In a rematch of last season's IAAM C final, the host Reds earned a measure of revenge in Baltimore yesterday by hammering defending champion Park, 23-2, in a five-inning affair shortened by the 10-run mercy rule. Roland Park, which dropped last year's title contest, 14-3, remained undefeated with a 7-0 overall and conference mark.

HARPER'S FERRY, W.Va. - Richard La Motte stands, eyes narrowed, on the edge of a movie set. The hills cradling this historic town rise and fall in gentle swells around him, and the trees cling to the reds and golds of an unusually warm autumn. But in the scene from Gods and Generals, the Civil War movie unfolding before him, it is supposed to be a chill December day in 1862, just after the Battle of Fredericksburg. Corpses and broken furniture and shards of ceramic pots litter the streets.

Anne Lamott understands. Mayer Baker kneels before her, the first supplicant in a line of more than 100, a line that stretches from literature, through genre fiction and all the way to biography in the Pikesville Bibelot bookstore. Baker has with her seven copies of various Lamott titles, including four of the latest one, "Traveling Mercies," a book of essays billed as "some thoughts on faith." It's also about hair and dogs and parents and how screaming at one's child is akin to "bitch-slapping E.T.," a characteristic Lamott-ism.

YORK, Pa. -- Chances are, you've got a friend in Pennsylvania.Maybe more than one, considering the number of Marylanders crossing the Mason-Dixon Line these days in search of affordable housing, good schools and a taste of country living.Marylanders, who for years have settled on the Pennsylvania border, now are moving north into the heart of York County, stretching to an hour or more their daily commute to work in the Baltimore suburbs.As a result, a county once dominated by Pennsylvania Dutch farmers is struggling to cope with a very urban phenomenon -- sprawl.

Ronald M. Smedberg, 48, Baltimore police sergeantRonald Michael Smedberg, a Baltimore police sergeant, died May 29 at Franklin Square Hospital Center after a heart attack at his Perry Hall home. He was 48.Born and raised in Fells Point, he graduated from Mount St. Joseph High School in 1965, attended the University of Baltimore, and joined the Police Department in 1968.He was Eastern District's 1977 Policeman of the Year. He had been a sergeant at Northeastern District since 1979.Sergeant Smedberg had been a member of the Fraternal Order of Police since 1972 and a member of its board of directors since 1986.

A small group of Marylanders has found an interesting way to beat the heat. This weekend, Alan and Lois Elkin, owner of Advance Business Systems, boarded the Pride of Baltimore II in Juneau, Alaska, for a cruise to Ketchikan. They joined Annapolis artist Steven Beshara of Cox Creek Studio, who was already on board gathering material for a series of paintings and drawings of Alaska and the Pride.After a day of safety training, the guests and crew are seeing icebergs, pods of whales, soaring eagles and the usual rainy weather that has made Ketchikan's "rust-colored" buildings famous.

ANNAPOLIS -- The idea of cloning human embryos is "repugnant" to Del. Lawrence A. LaMotte, but Daniel Clements sees the technology as a bridge to breakthroughs in helping infertile couples.Mr. LaMotte, a Democrat who represents Baltimore County, wants to ban the technology in Maryland and has introduced a bill to make cloning research with human tissue a crime punishable by a maximum $100,000 fine and five-year prison sentence."When you have research that is geared toward duplicating human beings, you've gone too far," Mr. LaMotte testified Wednesday before the House Environmental Matters Committee.

ANNAPOLIS -- A committee of the General Assembly's Women's Caucus will meet today to discuss whether to support a bill that would create a Carroll County Commission for Women.Del. Lawrence A. LaMotte, a Democrat who represents Carroll and Baltimore counties, said Friday he has asked each female House member to support the bill.Mr. LaMotte submitted House Bill 1423 after the Carroll delegation voted earlier this month not to file the measure.It was requested by the county commissioners.Mr.

The Carroll delegation's voting record on environmental issues ranked among the worst in the state during the 1991-1992 legislative session, says an environmental coalition.Sen. Charles H. Smelser, D-Carroll, Frederick and Howard, received the lowest score possible -- 0 percent -- ranking him among the worst in the General Assembly on the report card of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters Inc., which represents a number of environmental organizations.Mr. Smelser's office said Friday that the senator was unfamiliar with the report and had no comment.