Perry Hall

The season may be over and they may be former Ravens, but excitement for all things purple and black still drew a crowd on Saturday to the Giant Food store in Perry Hall for an event with former Baltimore Ravens Matt Stover and Kyle Richardson. The two Super Bowl champions came to the store, 8905 Belair Road, Perry Hall, on Saturday, Feb. 16, to meet with residents, sign autographs and perform a little kicking demonstration in the Giant parking lot. Stover was the place kicker, and Richardson was the punter, on the Ravens' 2000-2001 Super Bowl champion team.

This week, beginning Tuesday, Feb. 19, Seven Oaks Elementary School in Perry Hall will help students celebrate diversity through the school's annual “African American Read-In Chain.” Throughout the week, visitors to the school will share with students some of their favorite  literature written by African American authors.   Some of the school's scheduled readers are Sen. Katherine Klausmeier, Delsgates John Cluster and Eric Bromwell, County Councilman David Marks, and several Baltimore County Public Schools friends and educators, as well as former Seven Oaks Elementary administrators and teachers.

Indoor archery   Mondays, Thursdays in February, March: Vingt Neuf Bowmen, 8735 Honeygo Blvd., Perry Hall, 7 p.m. to 9p.m. $5 registration. Shoot 20 yards inside heated Maryland State Game and Fish Protective Association hall. No crossbows. Information: Call Bob at 410-746-3424. Depth-finders Monday: The Broadneck/Magothy River MSSA offers a free seminar by Capt. Ken Lahr of Reel Draggin' Tackle about how to use side-scan depth-finders to increase your catch. The session starts at 7:30 p.m. at American Legion Post 175 at 832 Manhattan Beach Road in Severna Park.

Emma Gorray of Dundalk turns 100 years old on February 23. Emma will celebrate with her children, Dot and Dick Randall of Edgewood, Carol Reuter of Dundalk and Bob Gorray of Dundalk; grandchildren, David Randall of Aberdeen, Natalie and Doug Johnson of Bel Air, Jeff and Kelly Randall of Bel Air, Scott and Debbie Randall of White Marsh, Cherie and Jay Cunningham of Perry Hall and Jamie and Tim Pasko of Dundalk. Also celebrating will be great-grandchildren Jason Randall of Perry Hall, Lindsay and Adam Randall of Nottingham, Katelyn Randall of Aberdeen, Stephanie and Zack Johnson of Bel Air, Heather and Sean Randall of Bel Air, Tyler and Jacob Cunningham of Perry Hall and Emma Pasko of Dundalk; and great-great granddaughter, Addison Walker of Bel Air.

Fifty years ago this month there was a knock on our apartment door. With a baby on my hip, I greeted my downstairs neighbor: "You've got to read this!" she said, pushing a book toward me. "It will change your life!" That was my introduction to The Feminine Mystique. It was a pleasant change from Dr. Spock. Although I was part of Betty Friedan's target audience - - a white, middle class, college-educated woman relegated to changing diapers and keeping house while her husband enjoyed a fulfilling career - The Feminine Mystique did not speak to me. It was a powerful, revolutionary book that should have made me mad as hell, but this then 25-year-old, happily married wife and mother felt blessed every day to be able to stay at home, care for her baby and keep house for an appreciative husband.

Every year around this time, the media are replete with stories, both serious and funny, about the density, complexity, and inanity of our tax code ("The Carson monologue" Feb 12). One has to wonder if maybe we've gone a little too far in punishing, rewarding, and buying votes via the tax code. A shout out to Steve Forbes, and a huge amen to Dr. Ben Carson, for their pleas for a flat tax akin to the Biblical tithe wherein God asks a fixed, flat 10 percent year-in and year-out with no loopholes, no deductions, no exemptions.

Officer Gary Gephardt heard a loud pop from the Perry Hall High School cafeteria, which he thought could be firecrackers, an exploding milk carton or a gunshot. As teens spilled out of the cafeteria, he drew his service weapon with one hand and blocked fleeing students with the other as he headed into the room. There he found two staff members restraining the alleged shooter and a student lying wounded on the floor, the officer testified Friday in a Baltimore County court hearing.

Baltimore County Circuit Judge Robert E. Cahill Jr. said Thursday that he will rule next week on whether Robert W. Gladden Jr., the teenager accused in the Perry Hall High School shooting, will be tried as an adult or a juvenile. In a separate court proceeding Thursday, Gladden's mother's live-in boyfriend, Andrew Piper, pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession of a regulated firearm. After the shooting at the school, county police and officials with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives searched Gladden's mother's home, where they found several rifles and a handgun belonging to Piper.