Lassie

Call him writer's best friend. Since Homer's time (and we don't mean Simpson), dogs have served, quietly and dependably, as literary kibble. There were dogs (with fairly meaty roles) in both The Iliad and The Odyssey. Dogs were mentioned 32 times (mostly negatively) in The Bible. There were dogs in the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare, Dickens and Dostoevsky. And for the past 100 years or so - whether we were getting wild with Jack London's Buck, traveling with John Steinbeck's Charley, making house calls with James Herriot to creatures great and small or coming home with Eric Knight's Lassie - dog-themed books have stayed loyally at the reader's side.

— Trainer John Salzman Jr. didn't set out to buy a horse for 25th annual Maryland Million Day, but this year, unlike some others, he has a filly that looks like the class of the Maryland Million Lassie field for two-year-olds and possibly one of the best horses on the card. But don't tell Salzman his horse looks like a synch to win. He'll look at you with dismay. "We might have a shot to win a race," he said after Wednesday's draw at Laurel Park where his filly was one of 111 horses who learned which gate they'll be starting from for Saturday's Maryland Million Day. "I'd never say we were a synch.

Pet identification has leaped into the computer age.Critters of all description can benefit from a new microchip that acts as a high-tech dog tag, its developers and users say."This is another good way to help us reunite lost pets with their owners," said Robert Hewler, supervisor of the Marion County, Fla., animal control department.The chip, about the size of a grain of rice, is electronically encoded with a serial number. It is then implanted into the animal, and information about the animal's owner is entered into a nationwide data base.

Laurel Park Scat's Lassie favored in $75K Selima Stakes Scat's Lassie will go for two wins in a row for trainer Bruce Levine when 10 fillies start in the 82nd running of the $75,000 Selima Stakes, race No. 9 on the 10-race card Saturday at Laurel Park. The six-furlong test is Laurel's oldest stakes race, and 16 Selima winners have earned Eclipse Awards as champion 2-year-old fillies. Scat's Lassie (3-1) was a debut winner on the turf at Saturday's distance against New York-breds.

Cold and creamy, a lassi is a perfect treat for a summer day, especially when it's flavored with fresh, ripe fruit. Lassis, as fans of Indian food will know, are similar to milkshakes, except they're made with yogurt rather than ice cream. And like a good milkshake, a lassi is versatile enough to carry a wide variety of flavors. If you're like me, you tasted your first lassi in an adventurous moment at an Indian restaurant. Chances are the flavor was mango, which is always a good choice but especially now when fresh mangoes are abundant.

The dozens of children who spend their after-school hours at the Stanton Community Center in downtown Annapolis can find help with homework, or a game of basketball. They get a bag lunch and assistance from a friendly group of volunteers. But the most dominant presence in this historic city building is the man they call Mr. Lassie. Everybody refers to recreation leader George Belt as Lassie, a childhood nickname that has stuck for all his 60 years. (When he was born the third child in three years, his grandparents told his mother he should be called "Lastie," though she went on to have seven more children.

THE LASSIES (see below) of Eastern High School's Class of 1952 will assemble at a downtown hotel Saturday for their 50th reunion. Just over 100 members of a graduating class of 350 are expected. Reunion organizers figure 50 classmates have died. An optimist would point out that six of seven young women who commenced at the old Poly auditorium have survived a half-century. Not bad. Think of the cumulative millions of heartbeats. "We're just starting to realize that every day is a gift," said Peg Massey, who invited me to her Baltimore home for the final meeting of the reunion committee.

Spuds MacKenzie is dead. And now, inevitably, things will start to get ugly.You'll learn "the truth" about Spuds.The tabloids -- print and television, both -- will be all over this one, like fleas on a hound. People magazine will tell you that Spuds spent a few wonderful months with the late Raymond Burr and try to make it sound like something dirty.The sleazemeisters wait until the great ones are dead, and then they feed off them.It makes me ashamed when we're talking about what I think we can all agree was a great American dog. Tell me whose life wasn't made better by having known this pooch?

Elizabeth Taylor, who died early Wednesday morning of congestive heart failure at age 79, did something no other actor ever did. At every stage of her career she became a superstar all over again. As a magical little girl, a pristine ingénue and a voluptuous woman, she created characters and images that enraptured or fascinated international audiences. In the second half of the 20th century, no other Hollywood-bred celebrity was as frequently photographed, celebrated or vilified.

On June 16, 2005, MARY "Mae" W. PETTAWAY, dear sister of Edward A. and Frank Pettaway, Lassie M. Alston and the late Lester P. and Sarah I. Pettaway. Also survived by a host of relatives and friends. Friends may call at the family owned Leonard J. Ruck, Inc., Funeral Home, 5305 Harford Road (at Echodale) on Monday3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. Ms. Pettaway will lie in state at Zion Baptist Church, 1700 N. Caroline Street, on Tuesday, 10:30 to 11 A.M. the funeral hour. Interment Oak Lawn Cemetery.