Mother And Son

How do you keep your kids from doing things you don't want them to do? Barack and Michelle Obama try reverse psychology. The president told an interviewer on the Today show that's the approach he and Michelle are taking when it comes to tattoos. “What we've said to the girls is, 'If you guys ever decided you're going to get a tattoo, then mommy and me will get the exact same tattoo in the same place. And we'll go on YouTube and show it off as a family tattoo,'” President Obama said.

How do you keep your kids from doing things you don't want them to do? Barack and Michelle Obama try reverse psychology. The president told an interviewer on the Today show that's the approach he and Michelle are taking when it comes to tattoos. “What we've said to the girls is, 'If you guys ever decided you're going to get a tattoo, then mommy and me will get the exact same tattoo in the same place. And we'll go on YouTube and show it off as a family tattoo,'” President Obama said.

Lanny Ross struggled to push his 78-year-old mother through the surf toward shore. On a cool, cloudy October afternoon, his two-seater plane had smacked into the Chesapeake Bay, stranding them both amid five-foot waves. His mother's right eye was swollen shut, her teeth had pierced her bottom lip, and her nose was broken. Miles from land, the sun was setting and they were shivering, when his mother spoke. Hold my hand, she told him. What's wrong? he asked her. Hold my hand, she said again.

Upset that his mother would not pay off his debt to drug dealers, Genesis Collins Jr. set himself on fire and embraced her, leaving Audrey Collins with burns that ultimately killed her, prosecutors said. On Wednesday, a Baltimore jury convicted Collins, 42, of manslaughter and other charges in connection with the attack. He faces as much as 40 years in prison when he is sentenced in March. Jeremy Reed, Genesis Collins' nephew and Audrey Collins' grandson, said the family felt some relief that he had been convicted but that there was no real feeling of closure.

A Pasadena mother and son died late Friday night in a head-on collision on the Sparrows Point viaduct near Bethlehem Steel Corp.Peggy Watson, 55, and Clarence Charles Fox Jr., 28, both of the 800 block of Swift Road, died in the crash, which also seriously injured Fox's fiancee and an 11-year-old passenger.The driver of the second car, Clifton Ken Phillip, 32, of the 800 block of Corktree Road in Baltimore County, suffered an ankle injury but declined treatment, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority.

NEW YORK -- Rosemary Holmstrom and her son, C. J., wer watching Magic Johnson talk about the AIDS virus on television when the bright, active 7-year-old asked his mother a natural and innocent question."

Kevin Hughes and his mother, Terry, have always been close. As a boy, he loved to sit and chat with his mother and her girlfriends when they came over for coffee. When he was teased by other kids, his mother was there for him, shoring him up, complaining to school officials. When it appeared that sports would not be his thing, she got him involved in what became his love: theater. Today, though he's in New York City and she's in a Detroit suburb, they get together whenever they can. "We shop together; we dine together; we talk about boys and sex together," said Hughes, who is gay. "My mother has said on a number of occasions that it's like having the perfect son and the perfect daughter all wrapped up into one person -- not only a son, but a daughter."

A mother and son were killed yesterday afternoon when a car driven by the woman's husband was struck by a vehicle at a Frederick intersection, the Frederick County sheriff's office reported. David Mervin Meck, 49, was trying to cross Route 15 at Willow Road and failed to yield to oncoming traffic when his 1999 Chevrolet Malibu was struck by a southbound 1998 Jeep Cherokee driven by Charles Douglas Flammia, 61, of Charlottesville, Va., the sheriff's office said. Flammia was released after hospital treatment, while Meck was in critical condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

A mother and son were rescued early yesterday from the second floor of a burning rowhouse in East Baltimore.Firefighters arrived in the 100 block of N. Port St. at 7: 50 a.m after receiving a call from a neighbor, said Battalion Chief Hector Torres.Torres said the single-alarm fire was quickly contained.Mary Anne Geiser, 34, was taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital, and her son, David Green, 10, was transported to Johns Hopkins Bayview. Both were listed in stable condition and were being treated for smoke inhalation.

"The Art Fair," by David Lipsky.Doubleday. 271 pages. $22.50.The novel's narrator, Richard Freely, is a precocious youngster who is shuttled between his artist mother in Manhattan and his writer father in Los Angeles. Their split was brought on by their mother's sudden arrival in the art world.Before she gained fame, their lives were idyllic, but as her work garned attention, the family life crumbled.If Lipsky's book reads so remarkably assured, perhaps it's because his story is drawn from real life: He is the son of painter Pat Lipsky Sutton.

Lanny Ross struggled to push his 78-year-old mother through the surf toward shore. On a cool, cloudy October afternoon, his two-seater plane had smacked into the Chesapeake Bay, stranding them both amid five-foot waves. His mother's right eye was swollen shut, her teeth had pierced her bottom lip, and her nose was broken. Miles from land, the sun was setting and they were shivering, when his mother spoke. Hold my hand, she told him. What's wrong? he asked her. Hold my hand, she said again.

Nothing seemed outwardly amiss Monday at the Columbia home where a mother and son were found dead by relatives Friday night in a tragedy that Howard County police suspect may have been the result of a suicide. A pleasant man in a blue tank top who seemed to be cleaning answered the door at the house with white siding and gray shutters. He politely refused to discuss the events of Friday night, when relatives called police to a disturbing scene inside — the bodies of 46-year-old Tracy Denise Hawks and her 18-year-old autistic son, Christopher Melton, on a bed in the master bedroom.

Maryland State Police say a Washington County mother and her son have been indicted on murder-for-hire charges. State police say the indictments were issued by a Washington County grand jury against 67-year-old Grace Marie Fink and her 39-year-old son, Clarence F. Meyers, both of Hancock. Police say that Meyers was conspiring with Fink to murder his former girlfriend, who is the mother of two girls he was convicted of killing. Meyers is in prison following his August conviction for those deaths in a February fire.

Debbie Phelps has cast off the mantle of "America's Mother" for something a little more Sir Thomas More. Henceforth, the world's most famous swimming mom is to be known as "A Mother for All Seasons." That's the title of her memoir, which hit bookstores last week. Why not invoke the saint who stood up to Henry VIII in a tale about a single mom who raised an Olympic phenom? Only Phelps doesn't lose her head, even in the part - page 272 of the 274-page book - about Michael Phelps' bong picture.

In a time of war, an American woman named Rosie worries about her son, a guard overseas, while a Middle Eastern woman named Zaira worries about her son, a taxicab driver who has gone missing. In the play The Blessed Mothers of War, the two mothers are miles apart but their stories are similar because of their worry and fear for their sons. "I think my play will evoke a great deal of emotion from audiences," said Ty DeMartino, the author of the play, which is one of nine included in this year's Baltimore Playwrights Festival.

At the tender age of 6, Isaac Yohn knows how it feels for a kid to miss his daddy. He knows how it feels to pray, night after night, for him to come home safely from war. And he knows how it feels to finally wrap his arms around his hero, once again. But Isaac didn't always know these things. Starlight, star bright, Keep my daddy safe tonight. My daddy is in Iraq, Please hurry and bring him back. After living without his father for a year - save for a two-week visit last summer - Isaac, with the help of his mother, Debbie, has published a 22-page book that he hopes will help other children who have parents away at war. "I hope it helps remind them of their dads and moms," the precocious Manchester boy said.

Dear Mr. Azrael, I have a friend who is a senior citizen and she has her son on the deed of her home as a joint tenant. She lives in the house, pays the mortgage, the taxes, the insurance, the repairs, etc., and he contributes absolutely nothing toward the property. He denies her access to buildings on the property, and he has destroyed and vandalized the property. He wanted his mother to sell the house, but she refused; he has filed in court to force a sale of the house. She put $67,000 down on the property and has made all the payments.

As Thelma Semone stood by the front window of her home yesterday waiting for her son to arrive, she looked like any anxious mother with news to tell. But it wasn't any ordinary day.When 57-year-old Roy Semone drove up to the Glen Burnie house and stepped inside, he said hello to a mother he hadn't seen in more than a half-century.Roy Semone was just 10 months old when he was taken from his mother and placed into an orphanage. Until a month ago, he didn't even know if she was alive -- let alone that she lived in Glen Burnie, not that far from his Southwest Baltimore home.

Kevin Hughes and his mother, Terry, have always been close. As a boy, he loved to sit and chat with his mother and her girlfriends when they came over for coffee. When he was teased by other kids, his mother was there for him, shoring him up, complaining to school officials. When it appeared that sports would not be his thing, she got him involved in what became his love: theater. Today, though he's in New York City and she's in a Detroit suburb, they get together whenever they can. "We shop together; we dine together; we talk about boys and sex together," said Hughes, who is gay. "My mother has said on a number of occasions that it's like having the perfect son and the perfect daughter all wrapped up into one person -- not only a son, but a daughter."

BOSTON - I'm not supposed to like Desperate Housewives. It's either post-feminist or pre-feminist. It's too racy or too retro. It's either an example of the backlash or a product of the cultural collapse. The show's steaminess has the American Family Association railing against its sex in the suburbs. Its locker room promo on Monday Night Football has the FCC in wardrobe malfunction mode. So sue me. This show had me from hello. It wasn't the mystery or the lingerie. It was Lynette. In the very first episode, the woman who left her high-powered job to be overwhelmed by four kids ran into a coiffed and manicured former co-worker who asked how she likes her new life.