Lessons

Dan in Real Life Rating -- PG-13 for some innuendo. What it's about -- Single dad raises his three girls, one of whom is in the middle of her first crush, but finds love himself at a big noisy family reunion. The Kid Attractor Factor -- Very cute kids, comically chaotic reunion. Good lessons/bad lessons -- Before giving advice on young love to your kids, maybe consider how messy your own love life can be. Violence -- None. Language -- Disney clean. Sex -- Suggested, yearned for. Drugs -- None.

Firehouse Dog Rating -- PG What it's about -- Famous movie dog goes missing and finds a new home with a kid and a fire station. The Kid Attractor Factor -- An Irish terrier, in action. Very cute. Good lessons/bad lessons -- Don't judge a dog by his collar. Violence -- Dogs and people in peril, a couple of punches are thrown. Language -- Canine bodily function jokes. Sex -- A suggestion of doggie harems. Drugs -- Champagne. Parents advisory -- Benign kiddie comedy with a few too many bathroom-humor jokes.

Arthur and the Invisibles Rating -- PG What it's about -- A boy resolves to rescue his grandpa and find the family fortune in the tiny, underground world of fairyfolk. The Kid Attractor Factor -- Animated underground sprites, A Bug's Life-like action. Good lessons/bad lessons -- You're never too young to be someone others can depend on. Violence -- Animated, not graphic. Language -- Clean. Sex -- None, though Madonna voices a hot cartoon princess. Drugs -- None. Parents advisory -- A bit complicated for a cartoon children's fantasy, but the characters are cute.

Catch and Release Rating -- PG-13 What it's about -- A young woman must get over the death of her fiance and learn to live and love again, and maybe not be such a stick in the mud. The Kid Attractor Factor -- Jennifer Garner, some funny stuff with Juliette Lewis and Kevin Smith. Good lessons/bad lessons -- You never really "know" somebody until you're executor of his estate. Violence -- A fish is stomped. To death. Language -- A bit of profanity, here and there. Sex -- Three or four fairly suggestive scenes.

That day two years ago when Hurricane Katrina advanced on the Gulf Coast with deadly fury marked the beginning of the end of many Americans' faith in the Bush administration to protect them. Weather alerts went largely unheeded by the White House and emergency agencies. Warnings that were passed on to those in harm's way were delivered with no sense of the limitations on people too poor to escape. New Orleans, sitting in a land basin between two bodies of water, never had been provided the protection it needed.

Pan's Labyrinth Rating -- R What it's about -- A young girl enters the world of fairies during the Spanish Civil War. The Kid Attractor Factor -- A child is the heroine, and magical creatures are her sidekicks. Good lessons/bad lessons -- Follow instructions to the letter, and protect the innocent. Violence -- Quite a bit; some of it of a bloody, stabbing and torturing variety. Language -- Profanity of the nastiest kind, in Spanish. Sex -- None. Drugs -- Potions and poisons and booze and morphine.

It's 7 on a Saturday night, your section is full and you're repeating the specials of the night for the third time to a timid thirtysomething who must be suffering from short-term amnesia. You glance at the customers at your other tables: Two need bread, two are waiting to order and the family of five in the corner needs refills of chocolate milk and Shirley Temples. Waiting tables is a stressful, fast-paced and, at times, utterly chaotic occupation. Perhaps that's the reason that every week, according to People Report (a Dallas-based research-and-consulting company)

THE MOVIE GRACIE IS THE story of a 15-year-old girl who, in the wake of the death of her soccer-playing brother, seeks to take his place on the high school team. The story takes place in New Jersey in 1978, a time when girls played sports, but stopped in high school when they started paying attention to boys. In any case, their athletic opportunities were limited to girls' sports, such as field hockey and gymnastics and, of course, cheerleading. In Gracie, there is no girls' soccer team, just a boys' team.

BECAUSE I SAID SO Rating -- PG-13 What it's about -- A smothering mother tries to choose the right man for her daughter and meddles when the daughter can't seem to agree on Mr. Right. The Kid Attractor Factor -- Mandy Moore, in a more adult role, pursued by Gabriel Macht and Tom Everett Scott. Good lessons/bad lessons -- Sometimes, it takes a blowtorch to cut those apron strings. Violence -- None. Language -- Reasonably clean. Sex -- More than you might expect, and somewhat explicit.

Alvin and the Chipmunks Rating -- PG What it's about -- The rocking rodents find their way from the forest to the pop charts with their Christmas hit "The Chipmunk Song." The Kid Attractor Factor -- Chattering chipmunks, juvenile jokes, bodily function humor. Good lessons/bad lessons -- Kids deserve the chance to be kids. Even chipmunk kids. And family is where you find it. Violence -- None. Language -- Profanity-free. Sex -- The Chipmunks perform with booty-shaking dancers in some scenes.

Beatrice Rigby's choice of the flute as an instrument to play in the fourth grade felt as random a selection as what she would eat for lunch that day. But that simple decision to go for the "oooh, shiny" instrument would guide much of the rest of her childhood. She learned quickly and her music teacher at Cross Country Elementary School suggested she try out for the Baltimore School for the Arts' TWIGS program for young city artists. The training at TWIGS prepared her for a place at the School for the Arts, and she will graduate today as an experienced musician and will attend Towson University with the goal of being a music teacher.

At least 14 of the 20 officers and crew aboard the U.S. container ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean Wednesday attended union-run maritime schools in Maryland, and many received classroom training on how to handle a pirate or terrorist attack, school and union officials said Thursday. Nine of the twelve members of the Seafarers International Union who were aboard the Maersk Alabama attended the union's maritime school in the St. Mary's County town of Piney Point, the school's education director said.

'Road House' 8 p.m. [AMC] It's counterprogramming for the NCAA tournament. This is only one of the greatest bad movies of all time, featuring Patrick Swayze (left) as a traveling bouncer kicking bad-guy butt and winning hot-chick heart. Not to mention dispensing life lessons: "Pain don't hurt" and "Be nice until it's time to not be nice."

Walt Disney World Resort in Florida will feature a new financial education and interactive exhibit thanks to a partnership with Baltimore money manager T. Rowe Price Group. The Great Piggy Bank Adventure is set to open May 19 at Epcot's Innoventions, whose exhibits focus on ideas and innovations, Price announced yesterday. Financial details of the sponsorship agreement were not disclosed, but money for the project will come from Price's advertising and promotions budget, Price said. The exhibit, designed in collaboration with Walt Disney Imagineering, will offer lessons on four financial issues: setting goals; saving and spending smartly; staying ahead of inflation; and diversifying your investments.

Salary: $35,000 Age: 47 Years on the job: Eight How he got started: While attending Vassar College in New York, Gordon joined the fencing club. By his senior year, fencing was a varsity sport, and he served as its captain. After college, he continued to fence and began coaching while working at various clerical and administrative jobs. He co-founded the Chesapeake Fencing Club in 1992. During this time, he worked for a nursing home, most recently as its transportation coordinator. In 2001, he found himself out of a job because of cuts at the facility.

While many Howard County students will be glued to classroom TVs watching the historic presidential inauguration of Barack Obama, the lessons will extend beyond civics and social studies at one school. Students at Running Brook Elementary will be applying the event to a variety of lessons in - of all things - math. Talk about cross curriculum. The school's math support teacher, Heather Dyer, said she came up with the idea a week ago, and teachers and students are getting excited about the one-time melding of arithmetic and current events.

Tee It Up With Tiger 7 p.m. [Golf Channel] Tiger Woods (right) offers golf lessons (two more half-hour episodes follow). Lesson No. 1: You don't say anything bad about other golfers, even if you're talking about Phil Mickelson.

This is how good the Ravens feel right now, not only about themselves, but also about their chances down the stretch of the regular season - and beyond. When Ed Reed was asked about the Gatorade shower given to John Harbaugh at the end of the near-gratuitous 36-7 beating of the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday, he said: "We plan to be doing this in late January and February. This was just practice." Reed said it with a grin, understandable considering what a laugher this became, thanks largely to his latest NFL-record play.

You know it isn't an ordinary high school classroom when the sign on the front door welcomes: "Mr. Turner. Journalism Rm 329. Safe Streets. Stop the shooting." Philip Turner, a native of Wisconsin, fresh from grad school at Northwestern, is teaching a lesson on crime reporting to high school seniors at Baltimore's Walbrook Homeland Security Academy. Crime here is neither a concept nor a statistic. It's real. These kids are victims and suspects, relatives and friends of addicts and dealers.

With her wide-set brown eyes and high cheekbones, Pinnie L. Ross still has what it takes to be a model - more than a half-century after the heyday of her career. Ross carries her slender frame with the same elegant bearing she once did in fashion shows, and she remains aware of her posture. It is not hard to imagine her receiving young girls into her Columbia home for another session of Pinnie's Charm Studio. On Sunday, "Miss Ross" will get a chance to relive her glory days of runways and sashes, and poise and social graces.