Loud

Bob Baffert strode into the Preakness stakes barn Friday morning, shouting toward Orb's trainer Shug McGaughey loud enough so all could hear. "OK, Shug, I'm here to take away that media spotlight for you," he said. Baffert, indeed, is one of the few people in the sport who could have swiped some of the attention from McGaughey and his heavily favored colt this week . Baffert has won the Preakness five times, and on three occasions he's moved on to Belmont with a chance at the Triple Crown.

The U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center, U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground plans to conduct several large detonations beginning on or about March 11 and ending on or about March 22. These detonations are likely to generate sound and/or vibration outside the installation's boundaries. If weather conditions are not favorable in minimizing noise off of the installation, firing will be rescheduled. The U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center, a test center under the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, provides test and test support services for authorized customers, within the Department of Defense and outside the DoD, including government and non-government organizations, both foreign and domestic.

Nine Maryland high school students gathered Saturday at the Enoch Pratt Free Library to compete for the state championship in the national Poetry Out Loud competition. The students recited memorized selections by Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Frost, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and other giants. They clenched their fists and clutched their hearts to accentuate dramatic passages. Competitors were judged on presence, articulation, understanding of the poem and the difficulty of their selections. The winner, Nora Sand- ler, a senior at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, received a $200 prize and advanced to the national finals in Washington at the end of April.

It was not our intention, but on a recent Friday night at the quickly popular Ale House Columbia, our table of four really tested the patience of the server. As Top 40 blared overhead, our server leaned in and asked for drink orders. She was knowledgeable about the wide selection of beer (including the many types of house brand Oliver Breweries), and offered what I heard as a beer "sampler. " After choosing four beers, it was the next person's turn. "I'll have whatever he's having," the friend said.

Is it me, or is it loud in here? I SAID IS IT ME, OR IS IT LOUD IN HERE? YES, IN HERE! IN THE MOVIE THEATER! WHAT? YES, I KNOW IT'S ONLY THE TRAILERS. I SAID, I KNOW IT'S ONLY THE ... Whew. Do you have conversations like this at the movies? I have them all the time. At the risk of lapsing into cranky-old-guy musing, when did it get so loud at the local cineplex or multiplex or megaplex, or whatever they're calling themselves these days? When did they start jacking the volume to eardrum-shattering levels, so that every car crash, helicopter explosion and Semtex blast makes me jump out of my seat?

Food *** (3 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere ** (2 stars) There are two kinds of people who shouldn't even consider eating at the new RA Sushi in Harbor East: Those who take their sushi seriously, and those who don't like really loud, throbbing rock 'n' roll music while they eat. In fact, if you fall into either of those two categories, don't even read any farther. That's how enraged this Arizona-based chain will make you. Poor:]

APPARENTLY, we have now reached the point in this country where everyone above the age of 8 is being issued a cell phone and told: "OK, get out there and have real LOUD, personal conversations in public." In the dairy aisle of my local Mars supermarket the other day, a woman -- dark hair, intense, in her early 30s -- was doing just that. Pushing her shopping cart with one hand and holding her Nokia with the other, she conducted an incredibly intimate conversation with someone named Ernie that could only be overheard by, oh, 300 other people.

Ever wonder why rock concerts are so loud?Sure you have -- especially on those mornings after, when you wake up and your ears are still buzzing from the night before. It probably doesn't bother you in the parking lot after the show; heck, everybody expects ringing ears after a rock concert. But when it's still there 18 hours later, even dedicated rock fans begin to wonder about the value of too much volume.Even in the music business, most people agree that rock concerts are often ear-crushingly loud.

Mildred Willis Loud, who had worked in a downtown Baltimore real estate firm, died of congestive heart failure Dec. 13 at her daughter's home in Northwest Baltimore. She was 90 and lived in Mount Washington. Born Mildred Willis in Betterton, she was the daughter of Ida Willis, who ran the old Wiltshire summer hotel on the Eastern Shore, and Charles Willis, a waterman. "She often fondly remembered her years there, helping her mother in the hotel, enjoying the seafood her father caught and the fresh vegetables her mother grew, and spending time at Betterton's beach," said her daughter, Lorraine Loud Wizda of Baltimore.

URBANA - Everyone loves a parade, but who can stand all the practicing? Not Paul and Brenda Geisbert. The couple's brick rancher is next door to Urbana High School, and they say they can't eat, sleep or talk in peace while the award-winning Mighty Hawks marching band drills for hours on end in a parking lot barely 25 yards away. The booming drums and blaring horns even make the trinkets rattle on their bedroom shelves. "When I was in the Army, my heart swelled when they played the `Star-Spangled Banner,'" says Paul Geisbert.

Hundreds of Baltimore Orioles fans rallied in front of City Hall on Wednesday, hoping their joyful noise would reach the team preparing to take on the Yankees in New York City in the third game of the American League Division Series. "We're sending a message up [Interstate] 95 to let our players know we are behind them all the way," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who co-hosted the midmorning gathering with the Oriole Bird mascot. "We have your back. " The crowd, awash in a sea of orange shirts and black caps, paid tribute to Orioles past and present.

Instead of receiving the usual jeers that go with their profession, NFL referee Gene Steratore and his crew were treated like conquering heroes Thursday night at M&T Bank Stadium. Steratore was greeted by fans with a standing ovation prior to the Ravens' game against the Cleveland Browns less than a day after the league and the NFL Referees Association hammered out a new eight-year collective bargaining agreement. A veteran official from Washington, Pa., who doubles as an NCAA basketball official, Steratore tipped his cap to the crowd in recognition of the applause.

On Sunday night, Ravens fans spoke for millions of fellow football fans across the nation when they repeatedly thundered an 8-letter response to what might easily have been the worst officiated professional football game ever held at M&T Bank Stadium. For much of the end of the 4 t h quarter, and even as the Ravens came back to defeat the New England Patriots with a last-second field goal that, appropriately enough, was disputed by the losing team, the crowd seemed to speak with one (very loud)

UPDATES WITH RESPONSE FROM NETWORK SPOKESMAN: NBC said Monday that the problems experienced over the weekend with its Olympics live stream had been worked out. Not exactly. But after a morning of signing in and getting bounced offline repeatedly, and then spending long stretches looking at freeze frames instead of action while the little wheel on the screen went round and round in the afternoon, I have to admit I saw both of Phelps' races in real time Tuesday -- sort of. I didn't actually see him touch the wall at the end of 4X200 freestyle relay where the American men took the gold and made Phelps the most decorated Olympian in history.

The Orioles played Friday night's game in front of an announced crowd of 29,270 -- about 2,600 more than Baltimore's average 2012 attendance. The crowd was one of the loudest of the season, and the Orioles, especially manager Buck Showalter, noticed. "They were instrumental in that motion in the ballpark, especially this time of year when it's so draining physically," Showalter said. "It's uplifting. Don't think our players don't hear it and don't feel it. " Camden Yards was rocking on Friday night for a variety of reasons -- it could have been that the game had four lead changes and was back and forth in the late innings, or that it was fireworks night, or that the team handed out bucket hats before the game.

When Baltimore rapper DDm began writing the songs for his new mixtape, he looked to Omar Little, the ruthless-yet-honorable stickup man from "The Wire," for inspiration. Omar, like DDm, was raw, aggressive — and gay. DDm saw enough in common with Omar that he named his mixtape, which drops next month, "The Omar Tape. " "Omar was, of course, homosexual — but was respected and feared in a lot of cases, and I feel such a correlation in terms of that," said DDm, who performs on the main stage at the Baltimore Pride Block Party on Saturday.

Decked out in Orioles garb, 35-year-old Garry Kvech of Catonsville, howled at the top of his lungs, cheering a strikeout by Mike Mussina and intent on one mission:"Our main goal is to make it so you can't hear cell phones ringing," said Kvech, referring to the notion that some fans at Camden Yards come with flip-phones in hand for business calls. "Everybody's got to yell loud enough to drown 'em out."For Kvech and the other fans at yesterday's game -- 49,075, the third-largest crowd in Oriole Park history -- there was a gauntlet thrown down in front of them.

A 51-year-old Eastern Shore man has been charged with building and selling improvised bombs after investigators spent four months trying to learn the source of loud noises in Queen Anne's County, according to the Maryland State Fire Marshal. Dale Anthony Rocknak of Lee Road in Chester was charged in a criminal summons with five counts of manufacturing and selling explosive devices. He faces a maximum 20 years in prison if convicted of each count; his trial is scheduled for June.

Amid a flurry of international flags, thunderous fireworks and rowdy pirates Tuesday, Baltimore invited the world to its star-spangled salute to the bicentennial of the War of 1812 that starts next week. State and local officials gathered to publicize Sailabration, a maritime and air festival that begins its six-day run in the city on June 13. The city will welcome 18 tall ships and dozens of Navy vessels to its harbor and all will be open for free tours throughout the festival. The Navy's celebrated Blue Angels will perform shows over Fort McHenry and numerous activities for all ages are scheduled throughout the city and at Glenn L. Martin Airport in Baltimore County.

Jonathan Safran Foer has been a favorite author of mine since I read "Everything is Illuminated" for my book club. So I'm interested to see the adaptation of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," his take on the destruction of the World Trade Center, as seen through a young boy's eyes. Here are some excerpts from reviews: Los Angeles Times: "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" is a handsomely polished, thoughtfully wrapped Hollywood production about the national tragedy of9/11 that seems to have forever redefined words like unthinkable, unforgivable, catastrophic.