Mice

Even in the Great Depression of the 1930s, dreamers hoped for something better. In John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," itinerant field hands George Milton and Lennie Small dream of buying land of their own someday. At Tidewater Players, director Todd Starkey leads a group of talented actors in a moving production of the classic, which opens today (March 2). It is set in a sunny harvest season in northern California, 1937. "Of Mice and Men" runs upstairs at 121 N. Union Ave. at Tidewater Players, the community theater of Havre de Grace, weekends through March 18. Friday and Saturday shows are at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $10. Visit http://www.tidewaterplayers.com or pay at the door.

I have been reading a lot of anti-cat rhetoric in The Sun for some time now ("The destructive invasive species purring on your lap," Feb. 26). If cats are dangerous to birds and other creatures - mice, rats, toads and the like - why are so many of them still running and flying around my house? My cat has eradicated dozens of mice and other rodents from my basement, laundry room and yard. He does occasionally get a bird or two, but so what? It hasn't stopped them from destroying the paint on my car with their excrement, or jamming up my chimney and vents with their nests There may be ecologically sensitive areas in this country where feral and domestic cats are destroying vital wildlife habitats.

Help! Mice have invaded the garden shed and taken my tools hostage.I stepped into the shed for a shovel and something furry ran across my foot. I reached inside a bag of bone meal and pulled out a handful of mouse droppings. And when I tried to start the lawn mower, it squeaked.Telltale signs, all. But I never had come face-to-face with the rodents until recently, when I discovered a nest of baby mice inside a roll of agricultural cloth I'd stored on the top shelf of the shed.Mrs. Mouse had chewed through the cloth to make her nest, thereby destroying the whole $20 roll.

Description: Johns Hopkins researchers may have narrowed in on nerve cells in mice that signal when something feels itchy, but not when it causes pain. Even if a stimulus that would normally be perceived as painful is introduced to the nerve cells, the brain interprets the stimulus as itchy, the research found. Researchers: Eleven authors from the Hopkins school of medicine: Xinzhong Dong, Liang Han, Qin Liu, Hao-Jui Weng, Zongxiang Tang, Yushin Kim, Kush Patel, Zhe Li, Benjamin McNeil, Shaoqiu He and Yun Guan.

Apparently it's not just humans who enjoy BWI Marshall Airport's "easy come, easy go" atmosphere. Mice, enticed by indoor warmth and crumbs from strangers, have made themselves at home in the cavernous interior of the region's busiest airport. Last Friday evening, passengers waiting for a Southwest flight at Gate 5 in Concourse B watched as mice foraged for dinner. "It was more than one. There was one by the window and one in the middle of the room. People were startled, horrified.

Of Mice and Men," John Steinbeck's enduring fable of human caring on the bottom of the social pyramid, is so simple and rugged almost nothing can go wrong with it. And almost nothing does in the new film version with John Malkovich and Gary Sinise, directed by Sinese.Sinise keeps the texture parable-simple and the performances unfettered and non-neurotic. In fact, in many ways, this version of the story could have easily appeared in 1942, when the Lon Chaney-Burgess Meredith version saw light of day -- it's not revisionist at all, it's reverential.

MY CAT has killed three mice in our apartment. More precisely, she arrested them; I did them in with my size 8 1/2 wide boat shoe. Flo, my cat, is not humane. Cat's aren't, though they are capable of human-like affection, as dogs are. This is according to my pretty good source on cats and dogs, whose identity will be revealed below. Flo wasn't finished with the mice when I came upon them, each time in the dining room. I'm not sure what caused me to dispatch them -- a desire to end their suffering or fear they might get away from her?

I haven't seen this development reported anywhere else, but lately there has been a major mouse migration. Last weekend, the mice of the world, or at least those of the Baltimore-Boston corridor, stirred from their summer lairs (do mice have condos on Nantucket?) and tried to establish winter quarters. In particular, they attempted to set up residency in my house and that of my brother outside Boston. As siblings do, my older brother and I have regular telephone conversations to discuss the affairs of state, the baseball standings and the latest domestic amusements.

HARTFORD, CONN. -- Mice that lack the gene stathmin lose their instinctual aversion to open areas and do not demonstrate anxiety when exposed to unpleasant conditions they have been taught to fear, according to a study published today in the journal Cell. The gene appears to regulate both inherent and learned fears and might prove to be a boon for scientists who want to study the many facets of anxiety. If similar genes function in the same way in humans, they could form the basis for a new generation of anxiety drugs, experts said.

BILL ELIOT has unusual pets ''of a sort,'' he says.Several months ago he thought he had the largest mice infestation in his house that anyone could have.However, his mice visitors are apparently no more than three very persistent ones who have become fat, unafraid and loyal to Eliot's humane mouse trap, where they eat as often as four or more times a day.When he first spotted evidence that he had a mouse in the house, he bought a small plastic box trap that would hold one mouse without killing it. Every time he set it, he'd catch a mouse.

Apparently it's not just humans who enjoy BWI Marshall Airport's "easy come, easy go" atmosphere. Mice, enticed by indoor warmth and crumbs from strangers, have made themselves at home in the cavernous interior of the region's busiest airport. Last Friday evening, passengers waiting for a Southwest flight at Gate 5 in Concourse B watched as mice foraged for dinner. "It was more than one. There was one by the window and one in the middle of the room. People were startled, horrified.

Even in the Great Depression of the 1930s, dreamers hoped for something better. In John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," itinerant field hands George Milton and Lennie Small dream of buying land of their own someday. At Tidewater Players, director Todd Starkey leads a group of talented actors in a moving production of the classic, which opens today (March 2). It is set in a sunny harvest season in northern California, 1937. "Of Mice and Men" runs upstairs at 121 N. Union Ave. at Tidewater Players, the community theater of Havre de Grace, weekends through March 18. Friday and Saturday shows are at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $10. Visit http://www.tidewaterplayers.com or pay at the door.

Santo A. "Sonny" Miceli Sr., a 38-year veteran of the Baltimore Fire Department, died June 18 of lung cancer at his Pasadena home. He was 71 Born and raised in South Baltimore, Mr. Miceli was a graduate of Southern High School. Mr. Miceli, who was also called "Sam," entered the department in 1961 and served for many years as a firefighter at Engine 38, at Baltimore Street and Fremont Avenue. When the fire station at that location was closed, he moved with Engine 38 to the Steadman Fire Station, next to the Bromo-Seltzer Tower in downtown Baltimore.

When her family was thinking about moving to Texas three years ago, Maggie Mei Lewis, then barely in her teens, so wanted to stay in Maryland that she hatched a seemingly far-fetched plan. "I thought, 'I'll write a book, and I'll make enough money to stay here,' " says Lewis, 16, who lives in Turkey Point. She still hasn't earned enough to be independent, but the result of her labors — "Moonlight Memoirs: Remembering That Family and Friends Are Forever," a richly illustrated children's book — recently took first prize in the spirituality category of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, a competition for self-published authors around the world.

Scientists have discovered what could be the ultimate workout for couch potatoes: exercise in a pill. In experiments on mice that did no exercise, the chemical compound, known as AICAR, allowed them to run 44 percent farther on a treadmill than those that did not receive the drug. The drug, according to the researchers, changed the physical composition of muscle, essentially transforming the tissue from sugar-burning fast-twitch fibers to fat-burning slow-twitch ones - the same change that occurs in distance runners and cyclists through training.

Having spent 40-plus years as a touch typist - and at least 15 years on computers running Windows or Mac software - I pay more attention than most to keyboards and mice. Like all important tools, they can increase your productivity, but they can also be dangerous - through faulty design, carelessness by the user or both. Extensive keyboard and mouse use can hasten the onset of repetitive stress injury, so like others who work with tools for a living, I try to be careful. And I'm not averse to spending money for good equipment.

Taking the next step in a series of breakthrough stem-cell experiments, scientists have cured sickle- cell anemia in mice by rewinding their skin cells to an embryonic state and manipulating them to create healthy, genetically matched replacement tissue. After the repaired cells were transfused into the animals, they soon began producing healthy blood cells free of the crippling deformities that deprive organs of oxygen, scientists from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass.