Old Fashioned

Looking for a mid-summer outing? What could be better than an old-fashioned ice-cream festival? It's one of the popular events of the year at Rockwood Museum in Wilmington. This year's 12th annual event is scheduled Saturday and next Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.Rockwood is a mid-19th-century manor house of rural Gothic design, set on 72 wooded acres. Next weekend the grounds will take on the appearance of a Victorian fair with hot-air balloons, high-wheel bicycles, brass bands and people in period costume.

Fifty-eight years after it opened in Highland, Boarman's Old-Fashioned Meat Market is still, in many respects, living up to its name. Boarman family members still mix spices for the pork sausage made in house, the staff butcher still stuffs the sausage skin, still cuts meat to order and, more recently, started smoking bacon with apple wood he gets from a neighbor. Boarman's is possibly Howard County's last all-purpose market that's not part of a chain, offering everything from household cleaners to beer and wine, canned goods, produce, house-made crab cakes and custom cuts of meat.

Abandon all humbug, ye who enter the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Holiday Spectacular. Part old-fashioned sentiment and part old-fashioned show-biz, the extravaganza that opened Friday night before a packed house has turned Meyerhoff Symphony Hall into a Radio City Music Hall South, complete with orchestra, chorus, costumed production numbers, a juggler and a full-blown kick line (Santas, in this case, rather than glam-figured Rockettes). If you go The BSO's Holiday Spectacular will be performed at 2 p.m. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St. Tickets are $25 to $75. Call 410-783-8000 or go to baltimoresymphony.

Kaitlyn Hughes had no trouble picking out her favorite in the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department's 19th annual train garden display. The 12-year-old, who came with her cousins, liked the autumn scene the best. "I like it because I like fall," said Kaitlyn, of Edgewood, as she watched the trains circle the various scenes. "It's my favorite time of year. " She was baffled by the dinosaur sitting in the scene, however, as were Vanessa and Allison Carroll, of Halethorpe. "We're not sure about about the the dinosaurs," admitted Vanessa, who was visiting for the first time before getting a Christmas tree from the parking lot. "It's nice.

Uncle Sam, patriotic music, a flag raising, picnic foods, clogging and Colonial children's games will be part of the Carroll County Farm Museum's annual Old-Fashioned July 4 celebration beginning at noon tomorrow on the grounds at 500 S. Center St., Westminster. The event concludes with the county's only major fireworks display, sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Carroll County, starting at 9:30 p.m. Family activities will include stage entertainment, vendors offering wood crafts and jewelry, tole painting and fine art and food.

Lisa Marie found an old-fashioned husband: good provider, doesn't wander, likes children and animals.

A story in the Carroll County section Sunday should have said that the old-fashioned rose garden at the Farm Museum was started by the museum's volunteers.

Poor Dole.Lamar and Honey were Bill and Hillary's role models. Arkansas is Tennessee writ small.Forbes acquired his good fortune the old-fashioned way. He inherited it.Keyes and Buchanan stand for the same things. But where Keyes is inspirational, voters prefer Buchanan's negative hostility.

Psst, buddy, wanna buy a still life resembling a Cezanne, but for only about half of what his fetched?China is milking the goof-up bombing of its embassy for everything it's worth. Well, wouldn't you?Don't look now, but something about Cleveland really agrees with Roberto Alomar.Coleman Craten made its money the old-fashioned way: Out of thin air.Pub Date: 5/12/99

I talk about everything from show business to fashion to crime to celebrity to television, advice to kids who want to become old-fashioned juvenile delinquents, to tips on style. It's a self-help seminar for people who want a bad influence. I hope to be a filth elder for people."- JOHN WATERS, Baltimore director, on his lecture tomorrow at the Florida Film Festival

Elaine Marie Smith from Reisterstown was looking for a recipe for making creamed cucumbers like the ones her mother used to serve. She said she remembers that her mother used to soak the sliced cucumbers overnight in salt water then drain them and mix them with a creamed dressing of some kind. Virginia Terzian from Santa Rosa, Calif., sent in her family recipe for creamed cucumbers that she is certain Smith will enjoy. She said her mother, Viola Knapp, who was wonderful cook from Pennsylvania Dutch country, always served this cucumber dish with string beans, potatoes and ham or as a side dish with Weiner Schnitzel when she was growing up. She said the recipe must be at least 100 years old and is still one of her favorites.

One in a series of profiles of Maryland delegates to the Republican National Convention O.P. Ditch almost didn't make it to the Republican National Convention - not because of Tropical Storm Isaac, but rather a missed deadline. The retired Air Force colonel decided in January he wanted to be a delegate for Mitt Romney. But after making up his mind, the 73-year-old Vietnam veteran learned that the deadline to put his name on the ballot was only hours away. There wasn't enough time.

With three nights of record ratings, NBC's coverage of the London Summer Olympics is winning on the prime-time TV front. But it looks to be losing in major ways in the world of social media, as a rising tide of complaints about the network's policy of tape-delaying major events - such as those involving Michael Phelps - appear on Twitter, accompanied by such hashtags as #nbcfail and #nbcdelayed. The disconnect between NBC's success on TV and failure in social media highlights not only the landmark transformation taking place in media these days, but also the radical change in audience expectations and behavior, analysts say. Like many media companies, NBC has tried to lure viewers to its digital platforms with promises of providing information 24/7, whenever the consumer wants it. But now, the network is feeling the heat in social media for not feeding the very on-demand appetite it helped create “This kind of reaction to tape delay in Olympics coverage has always been there.

Hampden's Alchemy may have one of the tiniest upstairs bars in Baltimore. But there are some serious, high-end cocktails being crafted in this small space. Dubbed "Potions" (see what they did there?), the cocktail menu features an extensive selection of hand-crafted and tweaked blends of traditional drinks that demonstrate a lot of care, craftsmanship and, best of all, lots of flavor. "It's fun, I love doing it. We find what's trending and give it our own twist," said bartender Matthew Ballinger.

Adrian Ross-Boon, head bartender at Wit and Wisdom in Harbor East, won't make you a drink - he will build you one. The bar and restaurant, located on the ground floor of the new Four Seasons hotel, adheres to the sage-like philosophy of layering flavors to ensure a distinct, high-quality taste experience. At the bar, Ross-Boon and company take the technical aspect of serving drinks to a whole new level. "We make classic cocktails the way they should be done: fresh juices daily, we make our own syrups, bitters, and infusions ... we even use cold draft ice cubes so that your drink never waters down," said Ross-Boon.

People who want chocolate a cut above the stuff found near grocery store checkout lines have plenty of big-name national brands to choose from. But connoisseurs know the only way to get truly fine chocolate is to find a local chocolatier. In the Baltimore area, there are a number of chocolatiers making confections the old-fashioned way — by hand. There's the Velvet Chocolatier, a tiny shop riding high after a recent shout-out by O, The Oprah Magazine. There's Cacao Lorenzo, run by a man who prides himself on upholding meticulous European chocolate-making techniques.

A NEW biography of British thespian Laurence Olivier reminds us of this quotation from the man regarded as the finest actor of the 20th century:"Never be afraid to be outrageous. You will always be shot down in flames because people are going to dislike you whatever you do. It is your fear of being criticized that stops you being outrageous."* * *IN THIS era of telecommunications, we have grown accustomed to correspondents providing us with several phone numbers (attached to answering machines, car phones, office and home telephones and, of course, FAX machines)

I have glaucoma, diagnosed about 35 years ago. I loved black licorice, but it raised my eye pressure nearly off the charts. A pharmacist friend was curious to see what caused it to rise so rapidly when it had been under control. He discovered that it was due to the licorice. All people with glaucoma should be warned. Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) has been used medicinally for coughs, digestive problems and inflammation. It is also used to flavor candy and chewing tobacco. But licorice has some potentially serious side effects, including fluid retention, potassium depletion and high blood pressure.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died this week after a long battle with cancer, is rightfully being lauded as a visionary, a person who brought technology seamlessly into our lives and who could all but see the future in his development of new ideas that would change whole industries. But for all the cutting-edge sleekness of the Apple he envisioned, there was something decidedly old-fashioned about him. At a time when corporate executives are being picketed by an encampment on Wall Street, Mr. Jobs stood apart.

Michael Scheyer lost his wife five years ago, then lost work as demand for electricians withered with the economy. Things have been so tight that he recently went through some old boxes in a back room at his North Carolina home to see if there might be anything in there he could sell. What he turned up might just belong in a museum - or an aquarium: an old-fashioned yellow-and-red striped bathing suit, zebra-striped bathrobe and inflatable Donald Duck. Looks a whole lot like the Victorian swim suit and props that William Donald Schaefer used in his famous 1981 dip in the aquarium seal pool.