Pony

They don't make many power couples like this: He's a self-proclaimed whistle blower, the focus of international headlines and Obama administration ire. She describes herself as a "world-traveling, pole-dancing super hero. " Edward Snowden and Lindsay Mills lived in a modest blue clapboard house with white trim here in a Honolulu suburb until about six weeks ago. Their former neighbors described them as quiet and private. On Sunday, Snowden announced that he was responsible for leaking secrets about America's telephone and Internet surveillance pograms to the media, reviving a global debate about Big Brother-style government surveillance of private citizens.

Four horses, five ponies and three goats suffering from various levels of emaciation were removed from a property in Severn this week, according to the Anne Arundel County Police Department. Animal Control officials have been investigating the property since January, when they received an anonymous complaint about a dead horse on the property, said Robin Small, Animal Control administrator. At that time, one dead horse and two dead baby goats were removed, and three ponies were turned over to a rescue organization, police said.

CHINCOTEAGUE, Va. -- Dozens of wild ponies grazed yesterday in a corral on Assateague Island, where they usually roam free among the marshes and woodlands.Today, most of the ponies will swim across the narrowest point -- about 600 yards -- between Assateague and Chincoteague islands in an annual event that attracts tens of thousands of spectators.Tomorrow, about 60 foals will be auctioned at the Fireman Carnival Grounds on Main Street in another annual event -- the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company fund-raiser.

Patricia du Pont, founder of the Fair Hill Pony Club who was active in animal rescue work, died Feb. 16 of complications from a stroke at her home in Fairview, Cecil County. She was 94. The daughter of Archibald du Pont, who had been CEO of the Delaware Trust Bank, and Elizabeth Hayward du Pont, a homemaker, she was born and raised in Wilmington, Del. She was a graduate of St. Timothy's School. An accomplished horsewoman, show rider and avid fox hunter, Miss du Pont enjoyed fox hunting with the Elkridge-Harford Hunt Club, and hunted with her own pack of foxhounds.

Washington -- WHITE HOUSE chief of staff John Sununu, mileage champ in the Air Force's frequent flier program, sortied into town, saw the world scene turning sour and decreed: Let education rise to the top of the agenda.The Department of Education promptly popped its plans for an "America 2000 strategy"; the media dutifully scheduled takeouts and Sunday TV shows; the Congress warily extended its cooperation. Attention was paid; now on to the next subject.Wait.As Education Secretary Lamar Alexander says, "In an era of nine-second sound bites and 100-hour wars, we're talking about a nine-year crusade."

Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express, by Christopher Corbett. Broadway Books. 288 pages. $23.95. The Pony Express was a flop. It lost vast sums from the start, even at a cost of $5 per letter. Eighteen months after the first rider spurred his horse west from St. Joseph, Mo., the telegraph, the real wonder of its time, connected coast to coast. Two days later, the Pony Express closed down. But in a country hungry for lore, it had a second life. The Pony Express was American enterprise, personal grit and Manifest Destiny rolled into one. And it never lacked for mythmakers eager to inflate reality into legend.

Jimmy Richardson, a well-known trainer on the Maryland circuit for nearly 40 years, died after he collapsed from an apparent heart attack at Pimlico yesterday.Richardson, 62, was atop a pony leading a horse to the post for the fifth race, when he suddenly fell from his mount near the finish line.Rescue workers tried to revive him, but he died after being taken to Sinai Hospital.Richardson, his wife, Sally, and five children have all at various times been involved in Maryland racing in a number of capacities.

The annual Montpelier Spring Festival will be held from noon to 6 p.m. May 7 at the Montpelier mansion grounds, Route 197 at Montpelier Drive in South Laurel.The festival is sponsored by the South Laurel Recreation Council volunteers, who are celebrating 25 years of service to the community.This year's festival includes a concert by the National Concert Band of America, country western dancing, arts and crafts, free rides on the Remax hot air balloon, free pony rides and a children's parade.

Boston. -- Maybe I'm feeling too mellow this morning, although not quite mellow enough to invite Mrs. Gingrich to tea. But from my post outside the infamous Beltway, the first sight of partisans spoiling for another fight is surprisingly unwelcome.We're not even two weeks into the new -- that's new, not Newt and puhleeze trash that headline! -- Congress. We've already had the ethics flap: the $4.5 million dollar book advance. We've already had the appointment disaster: the hiring and firing of historian Christina Jeffrey.

An Annapolis man dubbed the "pony-tail robber" admitted yesterday toa string of robberies at county businesses last January and February.Gregory Lloyd Gasper, 36, pleaded guilty to five counts of robbery in county Circuit Court. In exchange, prosecutors will recommend no more than 17 years in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for March27.Assistant State's Attorney Frederick M. Paone said Gasper, using a toy gun and passing off a taped bundle of flares as a bomb, robbed a Gambrills dry cleaning shop, a Glen Burnie sub shop, a Crofton doughnut shop and grocery stores in Arnold and Severna Park.

Thundering herds of "My Little Pony" fans will be descending on Baltimore next August for the fifth BronyCon, a bi-annual convention of rabid fans of the cartoon TV series "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. " Thousands of fans are expected to mass at the Baltimore Convention Center for the Aug. 2-4 event. Although targeted at a young, mostly female audience, the animated show has attracted a surprising number of young adult and teen fans - known as "bronies," short for "bro ponies.

Joyce V. Richardson, a Baltimore County riding instructor who taught hundreds how to ride during her nearly six-decade career, died Nov. 30 of complications from a stroke at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. She was 77. "She rode the day of her stroke, July 10. She had given several lessons," said Wendy Marchant, who began taking lessons with Miss Richardson in 1978 and later became her barn manager. The daughter of a Bendix Frieze inventor and a homemaker, Joyce Vickers Richardson was born in Baltimore and raised on Normal Avenue in Northeast Baltimore.

"I just want you to be my gangster" - Billie Kent "Boardwalk Empire" teased viewers with two pretty slow-and-go episodes heading into “The Pony.” Gillian's creepy disposal of Bizarro Jimmy aside, the show had crawled to a haunting, deliberate pace in the wake of Gyp Rosetti's personal Little Bighorn in "You'd Be Surprised. " The same could be said for the "The Pony" until the final 25 minutes or so, when all hell broke loose both in Atlantic City and Chicago. We spent a lot of time with Billie Kent in "The Pony," and when she was caught in the wrong place as Babette's Supper Club went up like a Roman candle, it was apparent as to why. This episode was a somber and appropriate farewell (I'm assuming it's farewell)

It was arguably Ronald Reagan's favorite joke. In one version, two kids -- one an optimist, the other a pessimist -- rush downstairs on Christmas morning. The pessimistic kid gets a new bike and weeps that he'll probably break it soon. The optimistic kid is presented with an enormous pile of manure and squeals with delight: "There's got to be a pony in here somewhere!" In fact, the joke took on a life of its own in the Reagan White House. Whenever bad news came in, someone would remark, "There's got to be a pony in there somewhere.

The deadline for submitting sports copy is 9 a.m. on Mondays. We prefer email (howardcountysports@patuxent.com). We do not accept results by phone. When two Howard County teams play, players from both teams (first and last names) must be mentioned in the write-up. Questions? Call 410-332-6606. Softball Western Howard County Fever The Western Howard County Fever 18-U girls fastpitch team tied for fifth place in the PONY 18-UA Softball National Championship in Cary, N.C. July 28 to Aug. 3. Teams from as far as the Bahamas came to compete in this season finale.

— As the herd of wild ponies emerged on the horizon Wednesday morning, Robin Dodge looked across the water to see her childhood fantasy come true. More than 145 horses were poised at the Assateague Channel for the annual 75-yard swim, a tradition that has outlived most people on this tiny Virginia island. "This has been my lifelong dream since I was 8 years old," said Dodge, 55, who drove from upstate New York with her husband. Moments later, a voice crackled over the loudspeaker, assuring a crowd that would eventually swell to 40,000 that this was not a dream: "If you can hear me talking, you're here now. " Unlike petting Black Beauty, watching the Pony Swim of Chincoteague is a fantasy that can be lived in adulthood.

She may be the holiday season's strangest elf: a shaggy, gray pony dressed in a Santa Claus hat and matching red velvet blanket.Standing 3 feet tall and weighing 400 pounds, Ralf the pony lives at Misty Manor Farm in Ellicott City.For the past 13 years, Judi Reinke, a Carroll County resident who owns the stables, has dressed one of her ponies in a Santa Claus outfit and sent the horse on visits to Baltimore-area nursing homes and hospitals.Ralf, as the pony is known, also is the mascot of an emergency fund called Ralf Anonymous, which provides gifts, food, and clothing for the needy throughout the year.

For the second time in three years, the Humane Society of the United States is advocating abolition of a decades-old tradition on Chincoteague Island: the annual pony penning and sale sponsored by the island's Fire Department.The swim and sale, nationally known because of the children's book "Misty of Chincoteague" by Marguerite Henry, are part of a monthlong carnival at the island fairgrounds that begins in early July. The ponies will swim from Assateague to Chincoteague tomorrow and the auction of the foals will be held Thursday.