Lost

(NOTE: To download Liam's full cheat sheet for all of Saturday's races, click here . Following is his analysis on the Preakness Stakes.)   There are always lots of hard luck stories in the Kentucky Derby, and some of those hard luck horses come to the Preakness looking to set the record straight. Several of those guys are here to take on Orb. And a handful more Derby grumblers are skipping the Preakness to set their sights on the Belmont. However, recent history shows that the Derby winner tends to back up the Derby win and beat most if not all of those Derby finishers again.

Kaci DeWitt-Rickards remembers being a chunky kid with a steady diet of Burger King chicken tenders, vanilla milkshakes and Papa John's pizza. By her sophomore year in college at the University of Miami, her adolescent pudge had ballooned into a weight problem. The 5-foot-4 exercise physiology major hit her heaviest weight ever that fall in 2010, weighing in at 167 pounds. She felt bad about herself and didn't have a lot of energy. But most of all, she felt like a hypocrite as she studied for a career to help people stay fit. "If you're going to go out and teach a healthy lifestyle, you have to live it," DeWitt-Rickards remembers a professor saying that fall semester.

USF&G Corp., whacked by the costs of 17 storms and tornadoes during the past three months, said yesterday that it lost $56 million in the second quarter, continuing a string of losses that began last year.The giant Baltimore-based insurer, which is in the midst of a massive restructuring, said further employee cuts and costs associated with reducing the scope of the company had also eroded earnings."It is disappointing the timing and full effect of our restructuring efforts have not yet taken hold to sufficiently offset the unanticipated and unprecedented high level of catastrophic losses as well as the costsassociated with our ongoing restructuring process," Norman P. Blake Jr., chairman and chief executive of the company, said in a prepared statement.

Visiting Loyola trails, 15-10, in its series with Duke, which has won six of the last seven meetings. The teams have faced each other just once in the NCAA tournament with the Blue Devils cruising to a 12-7 victory in the first round of the 2008 postseason. The Greyhounds (11-4) have won seven of their past nine contests, but are trying to rebound from an 18-11 thumping by Ohio State in an Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament semifinal on May 2. With 126 career goals, senior attackman Mike Sawyer is seven goals away from tying Pat Lamon for the most in that department in school history.

Robin Marie Williams' $15,000 bracelet -- a diamond-studded engagement gift from her fiance -- disappeared two weeks ago as she left the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse after serving jury duty.It was lost forever, she thought.But today, Ms. Williams and her bracelet were reunited -- this time forever, she said -- after phone calls from a man who said he had "something you may have lost.""This is so unbelieveable," Ms. Williams, 34, said hours before the bracelet was brought to her Harbor Court apartment by Ahmet Hisim, a prosecutor at the courthouse.

Maryland residents who lost food as a result of Isabel may be eligible for reimbursement from the state - but they must apply by tomorrow for the money. People with serious damage to their homes may qualify for a modified food stamp program, the equivalent of a month's worth of stamps. Regular food stamp recipients in 14 of the hardest-hit counties have already received half a month's worth of food stamps. Food stamp recipients who live in other parts of the state that weren't as severely damaged - including Baltimore - and lost food during Isabel can also apply by tomorrow for the extra half-month of food stamps.

Rail Europe, the company that represents most European railroads in this country, has introduced a free protection program for buyers whose Eurailpasses are lost or stolen.The company stepped in to fill at least part of a gap when the railroads that participate in the Eurailpass -- which allows unlimited train travel in 17 countries -- this month dropped their policy of replacing lost and stolen passes.An official said the high number of lost-pass claims forced the railroads to tighten and finally discontinue its policy.

From the messy opener in Cincinnati to Sunday's debacle in Seattle, the Ravens have simply lost their grip on the season, as well as on the ball. The Ravens have lost 25 fumbles this season, which leads the NFL (by eight) and shatters the team record (by six). To make matters worse, these fumbles have come at critical times and have come from usually reliable players. With the Ravens down 12-10 in the opener in Cincinnati, quarterback Steve McNair's throwing arm was hit, and the ball fell into the hands of linebacker Landon Johnson, who returned it 34 yards for a touchdown.

NEW YORK -- If you've taken a big investment loss, maybe it wasn't just bad luck. Sometimes your broker sells you risky investments you never should have had. In that case, you might be able to get some money back.* A man with no investment experience went to a broker whoadvised him to trade options. The broker said option trading was safe, because he'd make money whether the market went up or down. Based on that lie, the client put up about $85,000 and lost it all in about six months. The arbitration panel hasn't yet delivered its decision.

ESSAYS A Field Guide to Getting Lost By Rebecca Solnit. Viking. 240 pages. Rebecca Solnit is a conglomerating writer, melding borrowed history with contemplation, curiosity with a pastiche of facts, snatches of contemporary song with passages lifted from Dante. Many compare this author of books like Wanderlust and River of Shadows to Susan Sontag, but I tend to think that she has more in common with Annie Dillard, whose thoughts often turn to the power of nature and whose prose is often graced with lyricism.

When it comes to Erika Brannock, a Cockeysville resident who lost her lower left leg in the Boston Marathon bombing, and Brannock's mother, Carol Downing, the staff at Graul's Market in Hereford consider them part of the family. Brannock, a preschool teacher at Trinity Episcopal Children's Center, in Towson, worked in the store's deli department while she was in college and grad school, and she still keeps in close touch with her former co-workers. "Erika worked here for six and a half years before she became a teacher," said store manager Ken Bullen.

Remember the 1980s? It was to be the decade of Japanese dominance. A post-Jimmy Carter America would be unable to compete with the efficient Japanese jobs machine. Aging technology, lazy management and high-cost labor would ensure America's rapid demise at the hands of the ascendant Asian economic superpower. History records a very different evolution, however, including a prolonged economic slump that continues to haunt the Japanese economy to this day. At the onset of a new millennium, many pundits predicted it would be the Chinese who would dislodge America from its dominant economic perch.

Hundreds of residents have been relocated and dozens of homes cleared from Baltimore's Middle East neighborhood in recent years. Now the area just north of Johns Hopkins Hospital may be losing something more: its name. As an ambitious redevelopment project with biotech research labs, corporate offices and homes reshapes the neighborhood, the area is being marketed around the yet-to-be-built Eager Park — a strategy that upsets some longtime residents. "They want it to sound like there's no history here until they got here," said Donald Gresham, a leader of the now-defunct Save Middle East Action Committee, created more than a decade ago to oppose the displacement of residents.

University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center will be able to recoup some of the tens of millions of dollars it lost while operating without a Medicare certification under a compromise reached with federal officials. The Towson hospital will be able to bill Medicare for treatment given to patients in the federal program since Jan. 7, about six weeks before it regained what is known as a Medicare provider agreement. St. Joseph had operated without one since the University of Maryland Medical System bought the hospital and chose not to renew its existing Medicare certification.

Things did not look appealing for St. Mary's when the team opened March with three losses in four contests to fall to 2-4. Since then, however, the program has strung together seven consecutive wins - a run it hasn't enjoyed since 2006. The Seahawks are 9-4 overall and 4-0 in the Capital Athletic Conference, but coach Chris Hasbrouck did his best to downplay any fervor as they prepare for No. 6 Salisbury (12-3, 5-0) this Saturday and York (11-3, 3-1) next Saturday. “We've just been plugging away,” he said Thursday morning.

Johns Hopkins has dropped three of its past four contests and fallen to No. 15 in The Sun's rankings. But the Blue Jays team that has struggled to a 6-4 record is not the one that No. 4 Maryland (8-1) is anticipating for Saturday's showdown at Byrd Stadium in College Park. Coach John Tillman pointed out that John Hopkins sprinted to an 11-1 advantage en route to a 15-8 demolition of No. 16 Virginia on March 23 and owned a 10-9 lead with less than two minutes left in regulation before falling, 11-10, in overtime to No. 3 North Carolina.

Talk about a strange cultural pairing. It would be difficult to think of a better example of mainstream American entertainment than the hit ABC show Lost. The mystery drama about plane crash survivors on a mysterious island, which had its season premiere this past week, is watched by millions of passionate fans. By contrast, Illinois-based Dalkey Archive Press is famous in literary circles for publishing experimental and avant-garde books. The firm is lucky if it sells 90,000 books in a year.

Some pets are pictured in pearls, others are simply captured with tail in mid-wag. Some pets have been stolen from BMWs, others lost by baby sitters. While no two fliers are alike, they are all immortalized in a new book, Lost: Lost and Found Pet Posters From Around the World (Princeton Architectural Press, $14.95). "The book is very sad, yet very funny," says the author, Ian Phillips, 35, who lives in Toronto. "It says a lot about the importance of animals in people's lives. It's something almost anyone can relate to whether they have a pet or not."

It seemed every seat was filled during the Baltimore Orioles' exciting playoff run last season except the one that belonged to Matt Hersl. Friends say the rangy, baldheaded Orioles regular never sat during games but ran around Camden Yards, laughing with season ticket holders, keeping an eye on the batter to make sure he had the best vantage point to snag an errant fly ball or a home run souvenir. Hersl was a vigilant "ballhawk," and brought the same sharp eye and enthusiasm to his Little Italy community, where he served as the neighborhood watch leader.

Lost City Diner is open again. When Lost City Diner opened, suddenly, in August 2010, it was a surprising twist in a long-running story that played out for years on the corner of Charles and Lanvale, a half block up from the Club Charles. A diner was always coming, and it never came. And then it did. The brainchild of Club Charles owner Joy Martin, Lost City Diner was beautiful, with antique fixtures and fanciful retro-industrial elements evoking the giddy atmosphere of a Buck Rogers serial from the 1930s.  Then, in February 2012, just as suddenly as it opened, the Lost City Diner closed.