Pride

Congrats to the Orioles on a terrific season, and boos to the Red Sox, who got a chance to pay us back for losing to us last year ("The suspense comes down to the final day," Oct. 3). Unlike the O's, the Sox couldn't find the pride to field the best team they could. I've seen Little Leaguers play with more heart then the Sox. We gave them the Bambino and this is how they repay us? Dan Shannahan, Fullerton

A Towson University student says he's gathering support for a white-pride organization on campus, a semester after his efforts to start a related group stalled amid a campuswide debate over race and free speech. Matthew Heimbach, a senior U.S. history major, is leading the effort to create a White Student Union. His former group, Youth for Western Civilization, had sparked controversy with its public displays against Islam, same-sex marriage and multicultural education. That group disbanded after it lost the support of its faculty sponsor, but Heimbach said he hopes his new organization will promote white identity without disparaging other people.

Heading into Saturday's game at Temple, Maryland's defense, which certainly looks like the team's strongest unit this season, will get back a couple players who had been injured. Defensive linemen Keith Bowers (knee) and Isaiah Ross (hamstring) will both return Saturday. Strong safety Matt Robinson (shoulder) had hoped to play, too, but coach Randy Edsall says he's not quite ready. Neither is linebacker Kenny Tate. “With each week that goes by, I think we're getting closer with Kenny,” Edsall said.

A black nylon sign hangs over the entrance of St. Frances Academy's gymnasium with a simple, three-word message: "Protect this house. " Playing before a packed hometown crowd Tuesday night, that's exactly what Will Barton did. The rookie Portland Trail Blazers swingman led "Baltimore's Best," a makeshift squad featuring NBA role players and high school talents from the Charm City, to a 124-109 win over "Team Armour" - a group comprised of...

As the sounds of Latin music filled the Timonium Fairgrounds, Efren Perez and his workers helped fill the bellies of hungry festival-goers with tenderly grilled flank steak cooked at his vendor booth. The 37-year-old owns a Colombian restaurant, Rancho Mateo, in Paterson, N.J., and, on weekends, looks to make extra money by serving food at Latin festivals. This year, he added Baltimore County to his itinerary, where he served food as part of the first Maryland Latin Festival. "It's a big community," Perez said as he looked around at the vendors representing other Latin American countries.

The snide comments surprised Randy Kurtz, who figured she was suffering the same harrowing rites of passage as her U.S. Naval Academy classmates as they trudged through the plebe summer of 1978. "You don't belong here," the male midshipmen might say. A few seemed to take particular glee in pulling her down as she attempted the Herndon Climb, which culminates plebe year. Kurtz, a Connecticut native, was part of the third academy class to include women, and the spirit of equality had not sunk in with everyone.

Although Jane Austen lived nearly 200 years after William Shakespeare, they shared a literary sensitivity to the social rituals that make courtship such a trying experience. That's why it isn't much of a stretch for the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company to do a theatrical adaptation of Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice" at the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park in Ellicott City. "Pride and Prejudice" is a comedy of manners that resembles some of Shakespeare's comedies. A strong-minded young woman, Elizabeth Bennet, seems to enjoy fending off any romantic overtures made by the eligible bachelors swirling around her. Equally proud, Fitzwilliam Darcy seems to enjoy being rude to Elizabeth.

As Maryland continues to gear up for a gay marriage question on the ballot this fall, another snack food has taken sides on the issue. Following in the footsteps of Ben & Jerry's gay marriage ice cream flavor , Oreo is showing support for same-sex couples with a rainbow cookie. The "Pride" cookie isn't something people can buy -- at least not yet. Rather, the company released a picture of it Monday on its Facebook page. The rainbow layered Oreo with the tagline "Pride" garnered more than 145,000 likes and nearly 35,000 shares in less than a day. Supporters immediately began campaigning for Oreo to make the icing-heavy creation real, something people could buy and eat. (It would be like extreme Double Stuff with all that icing.)

"And all I ask for is a tall ship and a star to sail her by. " Those words are from John Masefield's "Sea-Fever," a poem that evokes strong feelings of nostalgia for the maritime life of the past and all the beauty and adventure that came with it. Baltimore had its own bout of sea fever this past week, and it was just what the doctor ordered. It will be months before Sailabration organizers have an official tally of exactly how many people came to Baltimore to see the 17 tall-masted ships and 28 military vessels that arrived last Wednesday to launch Maryland's War of 1812 bicentennial celebration, but it's safe to assume tourists numbered in the hundreds of thousands (if not 1 million or more)