Mickey Mouse

Fat Elvis is at home in HampdenYou have to love it when the trendiest neighborhood in Baltimore is Hampden. The newest shop to open there: Fat Elvis at 833 W. 36th St.Don't ask owner Joe Leatherman where the name comes from. He'll just laugh and say, "I'm a little cagey about that one!"The shop's contents are as offbeat as the name. Antiques, collectibles, old things, new interpretations, trinkets, vintage fabrics turned into decorative pillows: You never know what you'll find. Leatherman, who has a background in interior design, may -- for instance -- redo an antique chair with a great animal-print fabric.

Salvador Bru's paintings, at the C. Grimaldis Morton Street gallery (through April 13), look in some ways as if they could have been painted in the 1940s, when surrealism contributed to the birth of abstract expressionism.The biomorphic shapes that wander across paintings such as the huge (7 1/2 -by-30 feet) "Baltimore Triptych" are reminiscent of surrealism. One can think of Gorky, and here and there of Tanguy. These mix with other elements, some of which are specific enough to be named: a pyramid, for instance, which to Bru stands for knowledge or God.But what unifies these works and gives them their presence is their use of paint in abstract ways: the expression of mood and emotion through gesture and color, and the lyrical painterliness of individual passages, which at times become almost separate paintings within the painting, but still relate to the whole.

The 6-year-old tore into his gifts before Santa even left the room."Oh yeah! Cowabunga! Cool dude," Garry Ensor Jr., of Westminster, said about the black Golden Wing truck and the two crazy troll doll warriors he received yesterday at a party sponsored by Maryland Troopers Association Lodge No. 20.His 7-year-old sister, Heather, wearing a forest green velvet dress and red Christmas bow earrings, already had opened her present -- a troll tree house.Their...

Piney Run Park will again offer pontoon rides on the lake during the summer. Programs are available for all age groups.Registration is required for all rides, and payment is due within one week of registration.The park's policy is to notify participants as soon as possible in the event of a cancellation. If inclement weather appears suddenly, participants will be notified at the park.If a program is canceled because of bad weather or lack of people, credit will be given. Registrants who cancel at least 24 hours in advance will be given credit for another program.

Larry M. Blizzard wanted to be an artist, but he couldn't paint or draw. So he put his creativity in another place: his closet.His designer labels and accessories have garnered praise around Catonsville Community College, where he's director of the Educational Talent Search Program. Colleagues there compare his outfits to "works of art."But it's not work for him."Shopping is a recreational activity for me that relieves stress," says Mr. Blizzard, 46, of Southwest Baltimore. "I try to exercise daily."

When people walk into the Margaret Smith Gallery, they never know what the owner may be wearing.A Talbots dress. A Mickey Mouse T-shirt. Purple suede boots.They all grace the closet of Ms. Smith, 35, who lives in Oella, not far from her Ellicott City business.More than anything else, color and comfort guide her selections. While many artists favor black, Ms. Smith prefers jewel tones that set off her black hair and ivory complexion. And if she doesn't feel relaxed in an outfit, don't expect to see her in it."

To baby boomers, Mickey Mouse is the perpetually cheerful and wholesome host of the "Mickey Mouse Club." To senior citizens, he's the star of movies and shorts dating back to 1928. But to youngsters today, he's mostly a corporate icon - a shill for Walt Disney theme parks and DVDs and the familiar symbol on a gargantuan inventory of merchandise, from bed linens to pancake molds. This week's announcement that Disney plans to re-engineer the character into something edgier, more irascible, clever and heroic is no doubt disappointing to the older set. This is Mickey as some Bugs Bunny wannabe, without the Brooklyn accent.

Robert Thomas Fischer never knew he was missing.But lucky for him, an employee at the Towson Sheraton did. And with a little help from Mickey Mouse, hotel driver Bud Schneider FTC spotted Mr. Fischer yesterday morning, helping police end a hectic search for the 31-year-old Navy seaman reported missing Wednesday in the Loch Raven Reservoir area where two men were slain last month."

John Cooke, president of the Disney Channel, doesn't exactly want to accentuate the un-positive.That would be so un-Disneylike.Still, Mr. Cooke doesn't deny that the good old days weren't so good for the cable network that is now a phenomenal success. Back when the Disney Channel began, it occasionally looked like Goofy was in charge of programming.The schedule was a sorry mishmash that included old cartoons, reruns of shows like "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin," big band concerts from Disneyland and a series of lectures by Dr. Joyce Brothers.

NANCY Kerrigan grew up in Stoneham, Mass., a medium-sized town a few miles north of Boston.But these days she must feel as though she's living in old Salem Village, given the witch hunt to which she's been subjected.Unless you were a figure skating junkie, you hadn't heard or thought much about Ms. Kerrigan until early January. Then she was criminally assaulted in a Detroit arena, an attack that easily could have left her in a wheelchair.In the aftermath of the assault, Ms. Kerrigan made no comments at all about her skating opponent Tonya Harding, who may yet prove to have been directly involved in planning the attack.