Leather Jacket

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Central DistrictRobberies: A gunman robbed five people of nearly $300 in the 600 block of E. Pratt St. about 11: 30 p.m. Friday. Three men and two women were walking east when the gunman brandished a large-caliber semiautomatic handgun, told them not to say anything and demanded their money. The robber fled east on Pratt Street.Southern DistrictShooting: A Baltimore Department of Public Works employee was walking in the 1300 block of Washington Blvd.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Northern DistrictRobbery: A man was in the 6200 block of York Road about 6: 45 p.m. Sunday when a gunman robbed him of a leather jacket, compact disc player and several compact discs, all valued at nearly $400.Stolen car: A 1993 Nissan with tags ZKL 404 was stolen Sunday in the first block of Highfield Road.Northwestern DistrictRobbery: A man, 31, was riding a mountain bicycle on Reisterstown Road near West Belvedere Avenue about 11 p.m. Sunday when a gunman ordered him off the bicycle and rode away.

It's a safe bet that any film with a cast that includes Mink Stole and someone by the name of Moist Towelette isn't going to be your conventional popcorn flick. And "Leather Jacket Love Story" isn't a conventional anything.Part exploitation-style sex flick, part tender romance, part comedy, part coming-of-age tale, "Leather Jacket Love Story" winds up being not much of anything, save for a platform for some encouraging performances, great cinematography, a few funny scenes, lots of bad poetry and lots of graphic sex.Kyle (Sean Tataryn)

This fall, men can have it all - clothes made of cashmere, leather and suede, easily cut with elegant details, that hit many notes. There are suits that show they care - but not too much. Sweaters and trousers that bring together the classic and unexpected. Activewear that works in the office.But for them, dressing is hardly simple these days. The lines continue to blur - retro looks modern, jackets aren't required for 9-to-5, and power isn't conveyed through a red tie. Instead, it's a subtle, sophisticated thing that requires thought and not just a -- corporate uniform.

Baltimore illustrator Jonathan Carlson, 29, is one of those people who was born too late. "When I draw people, they're vintage 1940s or '50s people," he says.Likewise Carlson. "I can't seem to get it out of my system," he says. On any given day, he's dressed in vintage, head to toe. "When it gets warm out I tend to be more '50s. That means scads of Hawaiian and bowling shirts."When it's cooler, I'm more '30s or '50s," he says. That means a coat for every temperature, including a beautiful leather jacket from Sears and Roebuck, circa 1945.

I recently landed a job as an executive in the country-and-western division of a major record company. As part of it I have to attend a record-release party in July. My assistant, who has worked at many of these parties, suggests I wear a leather jacket with fringe, a shirt with a bandanna motif, jeans and cowboy boots.I'm a city girl, and I could never carry it off. I don't even like leather; it's too tough for me.Have you any suggestions for something that's country and western but sophisticated, too?

FireHampstead: Hampstead firefighters responded at 1: 51 a.m. Tuesday to downed electrical wires on Main Street. Units were out 15 minutes.PoliceHampstead: A resident of Hi View Drive told state police Tuesday that someone entered his unlocked vehicle while it was parked outside his home overnight Monday and removed a leather jacket, baseball hat and an audio book. The loss was estimated at $220. BirthManchester: Irene and Jeff Russo are the parents of a 6-pound, 3-ounce daughter, Paige Nicole, born at 3: 31 p.m. March 30 at Carroll County General Hospital.

A thief who broke into a Marley Heights home Wednesday took a cellular phone and coin collection, but left behind his leather jacket and a shoe, county police said.Joseph Smith of the 7600 block of Marcy Drive told police he left home about 7 a.m. and returned about 3 p.m. to find pry marks on his front door.He found his home had been ransacked and the phone and coins were gone. But the thief left behind a black leather jacket and one black tennis shoe in the master bedroom, police said.Police said the robber tried to pry open the front door before going to a rear porch, breaking a window and reaching in to open a door.

A woman was robbed of $8,000 in cash and jewelry Tuesday when her purse was snatched on the parking lot of Chesapeake Square shopping center, county police said.The Pasadena woman, 66, whom police would not identify, had got out of her car about 3: 30 p.m. and was walking toward the stores in the 6700 block of Ritchie Highway when a man yanked the purse from her arm and ran away with two other men, police said.Police did not have a complete description of the men.Odenton man beaten, robbed at party in Glen BurnieAn Odenton man was beaten by two men and robbed of his jacket and keys Monday at a party in the house of two Glen Burnie women he met in a bar, county police said yesterday.

A Columbia man was charged with burglary Monday after officers found him wearing a leather jacket reported stolen from a home in his neighborhood earlier the same day, Howard County police said.Someone broke a rear basement window of a home in the 5600 block of Thunder Hill Road between 8:30 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. Monday and took jewelry, coins and a tan leather coat, police said.Officers searched the area after the robbery and arrested the suspect later Monday after someone reported seeing a man wearing the stolen jacket in the neighborhood.

At a packed Mount Washington Tavern happy hour, Fagee Sugarman stands out in the crowd. And that's how the retired jewelry saleswoman and gift shop owner likes it. She goes for a slightly "edgy" style; something with a slight biker bent. The formula that works for her? "I usually do black and then add a pop of color, or silver or gold." The only thing she loves more than her many leather jackets ("I have them in every color") and her more than 150 belts? Shopping for them. Age:: "Over 50 and under 70" Residence: : Pikesville Job:: Retired Radcliffe Jewelers sales associate and gift shop owner Self-described style: : "Edgy."

A mayor walks into a bar. It's full of reporters who've been on her case. And the joke is on them. Sheila Dixon knew a couple of dozen reporters from local newspapers and TV, who call themselves Media Mavens and gather monthly for happy hour, would-be. Last Thursday night it was at Ixia on Charles Street. Instead of steering clear of someplace crawling with chroniclers of her love life and shopping sprees, the mayor crashed the party. The Sun's Nicole Fuller broke the story, filing to me via BlackBerry before Her Honor downed her last drop of Riesling.

The mercury is stalled near 40 degrees, but Anne Offermann is the very vision of spring as she picks her way through the parks of Mount Vernon Place in a pale lemon jacket so thin it's almost see-through, featherweight khakis and a wide-brimmed straw visor. Yet now, as the wind rakes frozen fingers through just-blossomed cherry trees, she barely shivers. Her sartorial strategy? "Long underwear," she says, hiking up a cuff to reveal an ankle armored in thick black fabric. Offermann is visiting from the harsh climate of Buffalo, N.Y., but even she is unsure how to dress for the atmospheric free-for-all that is Baltimore's early spring.

FBI seeking bank robber The FBI is seeking help identifying a man dressed in a leather jacket and a tie who robbed a Baltimore County bank at gunpoint last week. Authorities said yesterday the man walked into the First Mariner Bank in the 10000 block of Philadelphia Road in White Marsh about 2:15 p.m. Nov. 23 and asked to open an account for a business, J&J Fabrication in Baltimore, which the FBI said does not exist. The FBI said he then took a handgun from his jacket and demanded money.

The financial disclosure records of candidates running in Baltimore's Sept. 9 primary revealed that Mayor Martin O'Malley has a penchant for a particular leather jacket and that his chief challenger has established his city residence by living with his in-laws - and socialist A. Robert Kaufman is also a capitalist. And four City Council candidates who missed the deadline for the disclosure forms, which was Thursday at the city's Department of Legislative Reference, may have had their runs for office scuttled because they filed their paperwork late.

Silly me. Once again, I was wrong about reality television. I keep thinking we've touched the bottom of this long, national nightmare, and then along comes another network with an idea more debased than the last. You have to admit, who would think anybody could sink lower than UPN with its "Chains of Love" exercise in psuedo-S&M? How about NBC -- hot on the heels of "Weakest Link" with its leather-clad mistress of verbal of humiliation? The network introduces a new series tonight featuring people strapped in a pit in a dark, dank warehouse at night, with 400 rats crawling over them.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore City Southwestern District Weapons seized/arrests: "Operation Cease Fire" - last month's police initiative aimed at getting firearms off the streets in Carroll Park, Rosemont, Harlem Park, Tremont and Beechfield - resulted in the seizure of 15 weapons and the arrests of 11 people, who were charged with drug violations. Lt. Michael Tabor, commander of the district's drug enforcement unit, said the seizures were credited for the fact that the district had no homicides last month and only two shootings.

Baltimore City Northern District Robbery: A woman, 26, was walking to her car in the 2900 block of Lovegrove St. about 7:30 p.m. Saturday when a man armed with a shotgun robbed her of a wallet containing $40. Robbery: A woman, 45, was in the first block of E. Bishops Road about 9:50 p.m. Saturday when a gunman robbed her of $60 and a cellular phone, all valued at $280. Burglary: While the occupant was working outside, someone entered a house in the 4200 block of Falls Road through the front door Saturday and stole a leather bag, pager, diary, a wallet containing an undisclosed sum of money, eyeglasses and a briefcase.

More guns on streets would only bring more gun violence It is unfortunate that Gregory Kane chooses to use inflammatory rhetoric and name-calling when he writes about handguns ("Carroll gun raffle highlights our right of self-defense," Jan. 30). A thoughtful and well-reasoned column could be written without using blanket terms such as "self-righteous," "knee-jerk" and "liberal anti-gun nuts." I would think a newspaper such as The Sun would promote a higher level of discourse on such an important issue.

AS SURE as night follows day, the letters from the anti-gun crowd were sure to come in the wake of my Jan. 30 column expressing my disgust over the state of Maryland's gleeful evisceration of the Second Amendment. Merrill E. Milham of Baldwin wrote: "Gregory Kane uses the robbery of his son's jacket to launch an emotional and irresponsible verbal attack on gun laws, various political figures and the State of Maryland. "Mr. Kane makes the far-fetched claim that his son was victimized by the State of Maryland: He says that Maryland was responsible for disarming his son, who as a result was surprised by a criminal wielding a 12-gauge shotgun and robbed of his jacket.