Pyle

All of Ellicott City's Main Street knows about the handwritten newsletter printed on bright yellow paper. Depending on whom you talk to, The Main Street Gossip Rag is either the musings of a tasteless, mean-spirited man or the irreverent observations of a satirist with an absurd take on the town. It seems there is no middle ground when it comes to Bob Pyle's one-man newsletter, which usually is printed weekly. The 47-year-old, who has a gutter-cleaning business, has ruffled some feathers on the genteel, quaint street lined with antiques shops, restaurants and art galleries.

On December 4, 2003, THELMA M. PYLE, beloved daughter of the late and Leonore and Woodly Pyle, sister of William H. Pyle and his wife Elizabeth and aunt of Harry Pyle. A Memorial Service will be held at 4 PM Wednesday, December 17 at the Stella Maris Hospice, 2300 Dulaney Valley Road, Timonium, MD 21093.

On November 27, 2003, CHARLES A HOLLICK; devoted son of Linda Metz (nee Pyle) and Leonard Hollick, and step son Charlotta Hollick, dear brother of Lisa Hinkleman, Lisa Nemec, Heidi Hollick and Doanna, loving grandson of Mary Preston, Viola Dawson and Pauline Pyle; great-grandson of the late Frances Kriss. Also survived by many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and friends. Charles was an avid outdoorsman, a true artist of photography and taught everyone around him that angels walk the earth beside them.

On October 1, 2003, DAVID GIFFORD PYLE, dear father of Samantha Bradford; beoved son of Lois Anderson Pyle and the late Earl Cranston Pyle; devoted brother of Richard C., John M. and Charles B. Pyle. Services and interment private. Arrangements by the family ownedMitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home Inc.

While lava flows aren't likely to replace snowdrifts as winter's signature, a team of English and American scientists says our wintertime is volcano time. Analyzing 300 years of data, the researchers concluded that volcanic eruptions are most likely to occur during January, February and March. It's the piling up of snow and ice on the Northern Hemisphere's land masses, they say, that makes winter a molten wonderland. "Statistically, there are about 20 percent more eruptions between January and March than there are between June and September," said volcanologist David Pyle, a member of the University of Cambridge team.

On May 12, 2003 JUDITH E. (nee Dennis) UNKART; mother of Janice Davidson, Cynthia Browder, Terry Gamier, Sidney Pyle, Jr. and Wendy Pyle and the late James Anthony Pyle. Also survived by nine grandchildren, two great grandchildren, three brothers and five sisters. She was predeceased by four brothers. Services from the ELINE FUNERAL HOME, 11824 Reisterstown Road (at Franklin Blvd.), on Wednesday at 1 P.M. Interment Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. Friends may call Tuesday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. Those desiring please make contributions to the American Cancer Society, 8219 Town Center Dr., P.O. Box 43025, Baltimore, MD 21236

On April 9, 2003. FRANK W. PYLES, dear husband of Diane Bowman, beloved father of Richard L. Bowman, Jr., Robert G. Padgett, Jr. and Adrian Wentz. Devoted brother of Brickie and Bernie Pyles and Anne and Evelyn Stinchcomb and Theresa Salazar; proud and loving grandfather of Amber Wentz, Matt and Andrew Padgett and little Richie Bowman. The family will receive friends at FINK FUNERAL HOME P.A., 426 Crain Hwy., South (at 5th Ave.), on Friday, from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. where funeral services will be held on Saturday at 11 A.M. Interment private.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - One wonders how many people, when they heard of the death of a young CIA officer in a prison revolt in Afghanistan, then saw his blunt-jawed photograph in their newspaper, thought of Pyle from The Quiet American, Graham Greene's novel of Vietnam in the 1950s, before the deluge. Pyle too was a company man, and earnest; "with his crew-cut and his wide campus gaze, he seemed incapable of harm." One is speculating, of course, about Johnny Michael Spann, 32, of Winfield, Ala., who might well have been tougher and more seasoned and not so easily led or out of his depth as poor, murdered Pyle.

A casual visitor to Wyman Park in North Baltimore likely will see a neighborhood park where locals walk their dogs, and a field where college students play soccer alongside a grassy stream bank. But what Baltimore park forester Patricia Pyle notices is the Jones Falls' most polluted tributary, Stony Run, next to a clearing where trees belong. Pyle hopes that by late spring visitors to the park will see about 300 more trees and shrubs beside the stream's banks. Pyle, who works for the city's Department of Recreation and Parks, has teamed with Jones Falls Watershed Association to organize a volunteer effort to build a riparian forest buffer at the banks of Stony Run. The man-made woods would mimic nature's first line of defense for streams against pollution, soil erosion and other threats.