Offspring

The offspring of a Maryland stallion delivered a one-two-three punch yesterday in the inaugural Maryland Spring Breeders' Challenge.Multiple victories by the offspring of Two Punch, on the card that featured Maryland-bred horses at Pimlico Race Course, kept the sire in the national spotlight. Two Punch leads the country in the number of winners in 1994.A son and two daughters of the 11-year-old horse, who stands at the Northview Stallion Station in Chesapeake City, won the first stakes races of their careers, sweeping three of four added-money events.

There is good news - and some familiar bad news - in recent research into the stubborn question of why our babies have babies when it is such a spectacularly bad idea for both mother and child. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that teen births have hit an all-time low. In 2010, there were 34.4 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19, a 9 percent drop from the year before. What makes this news even more welcome is that the birthrate among teens ticked up in the mid-2000s after 20 years of declines, and researchers were at a loss to explain why. Researchers are cautiously attributing the decrease to the public service campaigns that urge kids to delay sex for a while, and then to use contraceptives the first time and every time.

Punk rock - at least as pioneered by the Ramones and Blondie - was built upon such basic rock and roll virtues that it's hard to believe the music was ever considered a menace to society. Sure, the music was harder and faster than the previous generation's rock and roll. But it was also uncluttered by needless gimmickry and self-indulgent solos, meaning that the emphasis was always on the song itself. And at its best, punk rock could be as catchy and tuneful as anything Chuck Berry ever wrote.

At age 21, Not For Love is a little bit spoiled. Set in his ways, he knows what he likes. He likes grass. He likes being outside, away from the hustle and bustle. And when he comes inside, he likes a little warm water and honey in his mash. He also likes mares who have been to the breeding shed more than once. "I think he's a just a wise old man," Northview Stallion Station manager Louis Merryman said. "He's had enough of putting up with younger women. " Over the years, 16 of them in the breeding shed now, Not For Love has had more than average success.

Northern Dancer, who died yesterday at 29, has been hailed as the greatest progenitor in thoroughbred history. Through three generations and counting, his offspring have been named champions in the United States, Canada and, most significantly, Europe.Although he never sired a winner of an American Triple Crown race, his grandsons and great-grandsons have accounted for all three: the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. He was leading sire in North America in 1971, but soon thereafter, Europeans began to buy virtually all his high-priced offspring at American auctions, and his sphere of influence was transferred overseas.

Radio hits make strange bedfellows.There was a time when the only place you'd hear a song by the Offspring was on an alt-rock or underground station. Nobody thought that odd, either, as the California punk quartet was not aiming for the Top-40. These guys made music for their own amusement, not to push their album to the top of the charts.Imagine their surprise, then, when "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" -- a cranky satire of suburban wannabe- homeboys from the band's latest album, "Americana" -- wound up becoming one of the winter's biggest hits.

For most of the past decade, Bryan "Dexter" Holland figured his future would be in a science lab, where as a budding microbiologist he'd been cloning viruses in hopes of improving treatments of genetic diseases.Lately, though, as his "hobby" has begun to take on a life of its own, Holland has had to put his scientific plans on hold.Holland, guitarist/singer for the Orange County, Calif., punk band The Offspring, has watched two of his band's songs -- "Come Out And Play" and more recently "Self Esteem" -- become major alternative radio hits.

In the fall of 1991, a 4-year-old bay colt named Polish Numbers, boasting one of the most desirable pedigrees in the American Stud Book, first set foot on Maryland soil.But the son of the country's leading sire, Danzig, out of the champion filly Numbered Account, was still essentially a former racehorse nursing an injured ankle.He was set to be bred to his first group of mares in the spring, but his future was as uncertain as his ankle.Now 8, Polish Numbers is the most valuable thorough bred in Maryland.

SEATTLE - As federal investigators search for cows that were imported from Canada with the Holstein that was found to have the nation's first case of mad cow disease, Washington state officials have begun a process that will kill the sick animal's offspring. The cow - which was sent from a dairy farm in Mabton, Wash., and slaughtered Dec. 9 - gave birth to a bull calf shortly before slaughter. That calf was sent to a feedlot in Sunnyside, about 10 miles north of the Mabton ranch. But because officials cannot pinpoint the calf, they plan to kill all bull calves in the feedlot herd of 464 animals that are younger than 30 days, the same age as the sick cow's offspring, said Linda Waring, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Agriculture.

The Utopian dairy farm would be an exclusive female club: cows giving birth to cows, bulls represented solely by their sperm.It would be more efficient and would make possible more rapid improvements in genetics, the sort of changes that have already tripled the average American cow's milk production in the last 50 years.,.5l The trouble is, nature likes a balance in births, roughly half male and half female. And no one's been able to figure out how to change that.Until now.At the National Agricultural Research Center in Prince George's County, scientists have devised a high-tech answer to the ancient question of how to select the sex of offspring.

A child long lost and long forgotten is found, and returns home in time to spend Christmas at the side of a dying parent. It would be a Hallmark holiday movie special if it involved people. But this is a story about cactus. Seven years ago, Alex Boulton of Homeland bought a small agave at a plant sale held by Baltimore's Rawlings Conservatory in Druid Hill Park. It was a "pup," an offspring, of the enormous agave in the Conservatory's Desert Room. "It was ugly and had a very long, protruding root," said Boulton.

Contemporary Hollywood can feel like a creatively stagnant place, stocked with remakes, sequels and vehicles inspired by toys and television. But for anyone worried that the movie business has an originality problem, 2009 offered plenty of evidence to the contrary. Could that be a harbinger for the new movie year? True, studios in 2009 ransacked the 20th century for time-tested properties like "Star Trek" and "G.I. Joe" and went back to the global-disaster well for the umpteenth time with "2012."

Kathryn Boganowski and her daughter, Grace, made a pact six weeks ago when it was time to say goodbye: no tears. The truth was, both felt nervous and scared about Grace Boganowski's matriculation from Towson High School to plebe summer at the U.S. Naval Academy. But aside from some quivering of the lips, they refused to break down in front of one another that July morning. On Friday, Boganowski stood on her tip-toes, probing a long line of midshipmen - each ramrod straight and clad in pristine white - for any sign of her girl.

Columbus, Ohio -- B.J. Surhoff has not changed that much since his days as an Orioles outfielder and first baseman. He is still stoic and quiet, careful with his words and wary of attention. He still has the thick and tanned forearms of a furniture mover and the strong and confident chin of a leading man, even though he always seemed more comfortable in a supporting role during his baseball career. But instead of spending his afternoons honing his smooth left-handed stroke at Camden Yards, Surhoff, now 43, can often be found poolside in places like this, the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion at Ohio State, sitting alone up in the bleachers.

Lillian "Libby" Charles, whose creative side inspired her progeny to pursue careers in the arts and entertainment, died of heart failure Friday at Aventura Hospital in Florida - not far from where she lived for the past 20 years. She was 85. Born Lillian Matz in Baltimore, she was a 1940 graduate of Patterson Park High School. She was married in the 1940s to Aaron Charles, who died when Mrs. Charles was 35. After her husband's death, Mrs. Charles began a lengthy career at the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn.

WASHINGTON -- Meat and milk from cloned farm animals are safe to eat, the government said yesterday in a move that paves the way for the sale of the food. But limits on production are expected to keep the products from reaching grocer's shelves for years, and continuing consumer skepticism prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ask yesterday for an indefinite delay so it can educate shoppers before they face the choice. After reviewing numerous scientific studies, the Food and Drug and Administration decided that food derived from cloned cows, pigs, goats and their offspring is as safe to eat as products from conventionally bred livestock.

Iggy Pop has proven there's punk life after 50 with still-explosive performances at 56, yet the question of how long a punk rocker can stay angry remains relevant to many of his musical offspring. "I think we have a few good years left," says Bryan "Dexter" Holland, lead singer and songwriter of the Offspring, the Orange County, Calif., punk outfit that will reach its 20th anniversary next year. "It's always hard to imagine still doing this more than a few years out," Holland, 37, says.

TEHRAN -- Atefeh is one of the younger members of Iran's merchant class. Her sales territory is the notorious traffic jams of north Tehran. She moves in on potential clients when the light turns red, pressing her face to car windows, cocking her head to one side and putting on a plaintive face. At 12, she isn't as good at plaintive as some of her younger competitors, two boys who are hawking Quranic inscriptions and balloons just up the street. Sometimes her face looks more furious than sad. But she still can clear 55 cents a day selling her packages of pink-and-red strawberry chewing gum to bored and surly drivers.

Arecord crowd of 26,788 came out to Laurel Park on Saturday for the 22nd annual Maryland Million Day races. The horses participating in the Maryland Million - a racing day second only to the Preakness - are offspring of Maryland-based stallions. The races were founded in 1986 by ABC Sports' Jim McKay, who is still a driving force in the event.

TEHRAN -- Atefeh is one of the younger members of Iran's merchant class. Her sales territory is the notorious traffic jams of north Tehran. She moves in on potential clients when the light turns red, pressing her face to car windows, cocking her head to one side and putting on a plaintive face. At 12, she isn't as good at plaintive as some of her younger competitors, two boys who are hawking Quranic inscriptions and balloons just up the street. Sometimes her face looks more furious than sad. But she still can clear 55 cents a day selling her packages of pink-and-red strawberry chewing gum to bored and surly drivers.