Nostalgia

Nostalgia can be a double-edged sword. There's a time and a place for the past in professional wrestling. The "nostalgia pop" garnered by superstars like "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and "Road Dogg" Jesse James during the Royal Rumble are one example. The return of Shawn Michaels to Raw this Monday is another. Michaels and Triple H had the crowd eating out of their hands during a segment on the show, in which Michaels pleaded with Triple H to accept the Undertaker's challenge for a rematch at WrestleMania.

Toby's Dinner Theatre of Columbia often delivers the unexpected - even in a show called "Hot Nostalgia II," billed as "an original musical review. " It's all that and more, featuring a kaleidoscope of musical moments from the 1920s through the 1980s, performed by a talented cast backed up by pianist Ross Scott Rawlings and a five-piece combo. The near-capacity audience at a recent Sunday matinee ranged across all ages and shared a common goal of extending celebration of the new year.

GLIMPSES is supposed to be the keeper of local history (or at least one of the keepers). We don't specialize in serious history, the kind you'd expect school kids to know. We specialize in the people, places and events of the last half-century or so that might be lumped under the heading "nostalgia."But there's a discipline to nostalgia, too. What might a nostalgia historian be expected to know about the Monumental City? Here's a partial curriculum:You would want to know the story of the bail-skipping disappearance in broad daylight of Block figure Julius Salsbury.

Since the Towson Times' story last week about the closure of Harry Little Submarines in Anneslie, we've received comments from residents and former residents who wanted to share their memories of the shop. For those starving for a little local nostalgia, here's a lunchtime special - some of those comments. You can join the feast by responding in the comments section below, or by sending your own recollections to jmeoli@tribune.com. Bon appetit. An icon of my childhood Growing up in Anneslie, Harry Little's was an icon of my childhood.

A WOMAN sent me a photograph of the large rowhouses of North Broadway in the 1940s. It was exquisite -- shiny black cars parked along the curb, large and healthy trees, American flags flying from poles anchored just below second-floor windows, clean marble steps, women and children on the sidewalk. Today the same area has abandoned houses, trash-strewn streets and, in some blocks, no signs of life at all.Is it unrealistic to wish North Broadway could be what it was, that a photograph taken 10 years from now might show the same block restored to its once-thriving condition?

Warsaw.--Marcin Zamoyski is a TV cameraman by trade. He has neither a political activist's history nor an administrator's experience.But last year, in one of the more evident signs of Polish nostalgia for yesterday, a group of conservative Catholic intellectuals in the southeastern town of Zamosc asked him to become their mayor.He won two thirds of the city councilors' votes, beating two veterans of the Solidarity labor movement."They voted for the Zamoyski name," Marcin Zamoyski commented, "a name which guaranteed honesty and justice."

It's all there: Henry Winkler and Marion Ross necking on the set of "Happy Days"; Winkler explaining how ABC wouldn't let his character, Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, wear a leather jacket at first because network executives thought the jacket made him look "too much like a hood"; Robin Williams' first network TV appearance as an alien named Mork visiting the Cunninghams of Milwaukee.Yes, it's all there in the "Happy Days Reunion," at 9:30 tonight on WJZ (Channel 13). But, as promising as those three moments might sound, that's as good as it gets.

History can be fleeting, and that's why, for three years, Union Bridge has spent an afternoon every spring recording the town's life through the stories of its residents.On Sunday, the fourth "Afternoon of Nostalgia" will bring together another round of townsfolk willing to share their experiences and observations on the second-smallest municipality in Carroll County."Things are really starting to change here, and we want to preserve the past," said Kathleen D. Kreimer, Union Bridge's clerk-treasurer and a member of the town's Heritage Committee.

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- The car of the Japanese ambassador was stolen while he walked from the car to his residence. Thieves hijacked the car of the papal nuncio on a busy highway, leaving the nuncio on the side of the road as they drove away.So pervasive is crime in Bulgaria that the former government minister responsible for the police has suggested that citizens acquire guns."It is better for ordinary citizens to have a gun to protect themselves," said Viktor Mihailov, the former interior minister, "since the state cannot fully defend them."

OK, examination time:How many readers can still sing the lyrics to "Gilligan's Island?"Do you remember when Fred MacMurray finally got married on "My Three Sons," and to whom, and the circumstances of their meeting?And do you know the link between the Saturday morning series "Circus Boy" and the prime-time comedy, "The Monkees?"If any of these trivia tests stir the slightest memory currents, you may be suffering from Nostalgia Vision.The area's first fan gathering devoted to a broad range of television began last night at the Towson Sheraton Inn and continues today and tomorrow.

Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, a Republican, spoke at Johns Hopkins University last week. He mostly avoided partisan politics, instead focusing on the roles of China and technology in determining America's future. However, he did address his failed presidential campaign, noting that his serving as ambassador to China under President Barack Obama hurt his standing with conservatives. To thunderous applause, Mr. Huntsman said (and I paraphrase), "No matter your party, when your president calls on you to serve, you do it. " This sentiment is anathema to many of our government officials today.

Nostalgia can be a double-edged sword. There's a time and a place for the past in professional wrestling. The "nostalgia pop" garnered by superstars like "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and "Road Dogg" Jesse James during the Royal Rumble are one example. The return of Shawn Michaels to Raw this Monday is another. Michaels and Triple H had the crowd eating out of their hands during a segment on the show, in which Michaels pleaded with Triple H to accept the Undertaker's challenge for a rematch at WrestleMania.

Nostalgia can be a double-edged sword. There's a time and a place for the past in professional wrestling. The "nostalgia pop" garnered by superstars like "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and "Road Dogg" Jesse James during the Royal Rumble are one example. The return of Shawn Michaels to Raw this Monday is another. Michaels and Triple H had the crowd eating out of their hands during a segment on the show, in which Michaels pleaded with Triple H to accept the Undertaker's challenge for a rematch at WrestleMania.

"American Idol"kicked off its 11th season with a retrospective feel as it took us back to 2002 and reminded us of the moment when waitress Kelly Clarkson won the inaugural season. Video clips of Idol hopefuls as kids performing were flashed before our eyes.  But you know what everybody tuned in for: the auditions! Some notables: Sixteen-year-old David Leathers Jr. (who, let's be honest, looked 12) sang "Remember the Rain" and sounded as if he could have been the sixth member of the Jackson 5. And then Jennifer Lopez went on to ask him to sing a Michael Jackson song ... imagine that!

The dining review for Friday's Live section is of Gino's Burgers & Chicken, the rebooted franchise that opened it first Maryland restaurant last August in Towson. Here is the review of Gino's Burgers & Chicken by John Houser III, who concludes that "Gino's still has plenty of hometown burger-joint charm. " Meanwhile, we're still waiting for some confirmation about a Gino's coming to Perry Hall .

After a four-year hiatus, the HFStival, one of the largest rock festivals on the East Coast in the '90s and early 2000s, returned last September with a lineup of forgotten '90s alt-heroes such as Third Eye Blind, Lit and Everclear. The festival's return was a bigger deal than its time capsule of a concert, but this year's HFStival — with headliners the Avett Brothers and its focus on indie-rock over nostalgia — should put the focus back on the music. It's another step of bringing HFS, which returned to airwaves at 97.5 FM last month, back into the conversation of alternative-rock relevance in Maryland.

JOHN UNITAS glanced at a TV monitor high on a distant wall, like a quarterback spotting a secondary receiver downfield. The guy always had such great peripheral vision. Spread before him were sculptures and trophies and a crowd packed into the Babe Ruth Museum. But Unitas kept looking deep to the monitor, where it showed a grainy black-and-white game film he hadn't seen in half a century. It was the old Baltimore Colts quarterback in his youth, at St. Justin's High School in Pittsburgh, where Unitas was ducking a linebacker while a coach named Max Carey hollered from the sidelines and kids named Tom Boyle and Rich Keeling tried to throw protective blocks.

"I'll be home for Christmas - if only in my dreams." Long derided as wimpy and a waste of time, nostalgia nonetheless often sweeps in this time of year and settles in for the holidays. In calling up memories of people and celebrations past, it can evoke feelings buried by time and daily life. Now psychologists are rethinking the purpose of that peculiar sentiment - and are drawing some surprising conclusions. Depending on how it's embraced, they say, nostalgia can be a healthy emotion that buffers people from loneliness and eases them through hard times.

If the Backstreet Boys and new Kids on the Block concert has you wanting to relive the '80s and '90s, there's plenty of options available, including several dance parties, nostalgia acts and even laser tag. The Ottobar 's upstairs floor has long been a shrine to the kind of unadulterated pop that flourished then. On Saturday, DJs Sarrs and Starlight host a no cover "All Excess" night that will feature a selection of the best of INXS, Depeche Mode, The Cure and other new wave classics.

It is no surprise that beer drinkers have a taste for nostalgia, a point that will be reinforced Thursday when National Bohemian, which was once brewed in Baltimore, will once again be served on tap here. National Brewing Company once ruled the city. John Steadman, the late longtime Baltimore sportswriter, described the Baltimore beer scene of the 1950s and '60s this way: "If you walked into a bar and ordered a Budweiser, everybody knew you were from out of town. " In those days, the man who owned National Brewing Company, Jerold Hoffberger, also owned the Baltimore Orioles.