Paradise

In the wake of WWE's Over the Limit pay-per-view, a new Intercontinental champion has been crowned, four other champions continue to hold onto their titles and John Laurinaitis remains employed. Sunday night's show delivered an evening of quality entertainment and good in-ring performances. On a non-major PPV event, WWE delivered a product that surpassed the expectations of many. Here's a match-by-match look at the show: Battle Royale This last-minute addition to the card was a means of crowning a No. 1 contender for one of the midcard titles.

Rap radio's reigning king Drake will bring his "Club Paradise" tour to Verizon Center on May 25, it was announced today. J. Cole, Waka Flocka Flame, Meek Mill, French Montana and 2 Chainz will join the Young Money rapper. For many fans, a headlining Drake show is enough incentive to grab a ticket, especially coming off the critical and commercial success of his last album, "Take Care. " But this line-up includes some of hip-hop's most promising rappers, giving this edition of "Club Paradise" the potential to be one of the best concerts of the year.

New Orleans.--The biblical Garden of Eden always seemed to me an unbelievably boring place, begging for vandalism. Every day the same weather, no sex, no fruit, no thought, no language. Adam sees Eve. Eve sees Adam. Nothing to say. Nothing to do. No hello. No goodbye. Keep circling. God always spying. No wonder they went nuts. Went for the nuts. Blame the nuts.Now comes ''The Lost Book of Paradise,'' restored by David Rosenberg from old manuscripts and ancient longings, a poetic rendering of a paradise stormy with emotional deprivation and strife.

Many bottles of pinot noir have been sold in the seven years since director Alexander Payne's "Sideways" took moviegoers through California's wine country. His long-overdue new movie, "The Descendants," was worth the wait. Maintaining a delicate balance between its comic and dramatic elements, "The Descendants" is one of the year's most emotionally satisfying movies. Although some of its later scenes seem forced and its overall tone flirts with being facile, these are relatively minor reservations.

News reports of the horrific flooding on the Portuguese island of Madeira refer to it as a popular tourist destination, and it is -- if you happen to be British or German. It is not so well known here, even among Americans affluent enough to take vacations abroad. In fact, before the scary videos of the mudslides hit television over the weekend, I would bet most Americans had never heard of Madeira, one of the most beautiful places on earth. And I don't make such an assertion because my father was born there, or because my visit to Madeira rekindled some strange, almost haunting bond with the place, as if I'd been there before.

I t is possible in this day and age to fly south in December and three hours later land in a city where you can sit comfortably in your T-shirt and linen jacket and eat your dinner at a cafe under palm trees and still enjoy the protections of the U.S. Constitution, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Paradise, in fact. The problem with paradise is that it's temporary: You don't belong here, and the neighbors are nobody you care to know, so it's only blissful for a week or so. You're in a city built on sandy marsh in a boom period, and when you look around at the freeway, the office parks, the malls, the curvy streets of houses, your hotel, you see nothing that predates 1980, nothing that distinguishes this city from Scottsdale or Fort Lauderdale or any other suburb in America, which is exhilarating to some people but not to you. And the people around you are all in the throes of relaxation.

MONTSERRAT is a Leeward Island in the Caribbean, a self-governing dependency of Britain. Its 39 square miles supported nearly 12,000 people in a lush, green, tropical paradise with hills above, a playground for the rich.Until two years ago, that is, when the Soufriere Hills volcano, four centuries dormant, roared to life. Now villages are gone. Much of the south is covered in ash. Clouds rise 10,000 feet. It may yet blow. Of some 4,000 residents huddling in the north of the island, half were being ferried by the British navy to the neighboring island of Antigua.

WHENEVER I GO to a beautiful place I imagine myself living there. I went to Boone, North Carolina, a mountain-sheltered paradise where rustic craftsmen sell quilts from shops that smell like pine. On the way there, Moravian cookie makers in 16th-century clothes sell you paper-thin ginger wafers. They bake them in the huge ovens that scared the daylights out of Hansel and Gretel.What is it with paradise that inspires instant terror? I asked Lynn Doyle, local poet and observer, after we bought these great cookies.

On December 9, 2005, MILDRED M. PARADISE (nee Kasda); beloved wife of the late Michael W. Paradise, Sr., devoted mother of Michael W. Paradise and his wife Jane, and Michele M. Paradise; dear sister of the late Charles and William Kasda; loving grandmother of Michael R. Paradise-Kruger and Caitlin A. Paradise-Kruger; loving step-grandmother of Jessica Telesca, Bonnie Combs and Robyn Layfield. Friends may call at the CVACH/ROSEDALE FUNERAL HOME, 1211 Chesaco Avenue, on Sunday and Monday, 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Tuesday, 10 A.M. Church of the Annunciation.

Baltimore-native Stacy Keibler kicked off her birthday in "paradise" with superstar boyfriend George Clooney this week. The former wrestler and "Dancing With The Stars" alum, Keibler, was spotted in Mexico with "The Ides of March" star and friends just days before her 32 n d birthday this Friday, according to people.com. On Sunday, Keibler Tweeted a picture of the lush Cabo San Lucas location with the caption: "Chasing the last days of 'summer.'" With the hash tag "paradise.

An East Baltimore church was destroyed in an early morning blaze Sunday after a burglar stole sound equipment from the building, according to police. No injuries were reported in the fire and burglary, which occurred shortly after 4 a.m. at the Paradise Christian Center, located in the 3000 block of E. Oliver Street, according to police spokesman Kevin Brown. Brown said the fire started when a burglar attempted to steal the sound equipment, and eventually consumed the entire building.

• PHILLIES: Second baseman Chase Utley (patellar tendinitis) missed another spring training game after getting a cortisone shot in his right knee. The 32-year-old Utley got the shot Friday. He has not appeared in any of the Phillies' eight exhibition games. … Possible starting right fielder Domonic Brown suffered a fractured right hand Saturday and will be out three to six weeks. • MARINERS: Catcher Miguel Olivo strained his groin while running home in an exhibition game.

The aiding and abetting of the pedophile priest and fugitive, Laurence Brett, continued long after his days at Calvert Hall College in Towson, and it wasn't monsignors and bishops who gave him cover. Even in exile in the Caribbean, this old abuser — described by the newspaper that hunted him down as "a predator blessed with charm" — got some help from friends, including at least two other priests, as well as a Maryland businessman and a Baltimore psychologist. Father Larry, as he was known, seduced teenage boys, but he apparently could get grown men to do things for him, too. Mr. Brett, who reportedly died on the island of Martinique on Christmas Eve, merits Top 10 standing among the most notorious American figures in the Catholic Church's gone-global priest-abuse scandal.

The volunteers who run next weekend's annual Smith College Book Sale are determined, patient and love the volumes they offer. They spend a year soliciting, then organizing, the donated books and entire libraries, then stage an annual springtime sales event that serious readers consider their own secret. "We're praying for cold and rain," said Mary Anderson, president of the Smith College Club of Baltimore. "Bad weather brings us our best crowds." For 52 years, Baltimore Smith College Club volunteers have been gathering and selling a yearly haul of about 50,000 used books.

News reports of the horrific flooding on the Portuguese island of Madeira refer to it as a popular tourist destination, and it is -- if you happen to be British or German. It is not so well known here, even among Americans affluent enough to take vacations abroad. In fact, before the scary videos of the mudslides hit television over the weekend, I would bet most Americans had never heard of Madeira, one of the most beautiful places on earth. And I don't make such an assertion because my father was born there, or because my visit to Madeira rekindled some strange, almost haunting bond with the place, as if I'd been there before.

It is possible in this day and age to fly south in December and three hours later land in a city where you can sit comfortably in your T-shirt and linen jacket and eat your dinner at a cafe under palm trees and still enjoy the protections of the U.S. Constitution, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Paradise, in fact. The problem with paradise is that it's temporary: You don't belong here, and the neighbors are nobody you care to know, so it's only blissful for a week or so.