Robin Hood

Editor: I think most would agree Harford County Executive David Craig's decision to give a bonus to Harford County teachers is most appropriate and deserved.  What raises concern, however, is whether Mr. Craig has the authority to use public funds in such a manner? We as Harford county tax payers paid more tax than was necessary to fund the county's budget which resulted in a tax surplus. Can the county executive utilize that surplus of public funds to give bonuses to his county employees?

The Harford County Department of Public Works said Robin Hood Road between Route 40 and Titan Terrace near Aberdeen will be closed to thru traffic for construction for 45 days effective Monday, July 16. Motorists who normally travel this route should make other arrangements during the period of the road closure, the department said in a news release For further information about the project, contact the Department of Public Works, Bureau of...

Harford Dance Theatre will present "Robin Hood" on Friday and Saturday, May 18 and 19, at 5:30 and 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 20 at 1 and 4 p.m. in Harford Community College's Chesapeake Theater. Enter Sherwood Forest if you dare and discover this delightfully clever telling of the famous legend of Robin Hood. Join Friar Tuck, Brave Beverly, Cordial Cordelia and the rest of the Merry Men as they hip hop, tap and dance their way through one zany misadventure to another. Tickets are $8 to $10 and are available at the Harford Community College Ticket Office in the Chesapeake Center or by calling 443-412-2211.

Silent films are never really silent. They speak through literal communication, as when frames of dialogue or plot detail pop up on the screen, and, of course, through even the slightest changes on an actor's face. They also speak through music, a key ingredient since the glory days of silent movies in the early 20th century. Scores were composed to complement each scene, underline each emotion. Back in the day, these scores were performed live — by orchestras in the grandest movie palaces, more commonly by an organist or pianist — as the films were shown.

Silent films are never really silent. They speak through literal communication, as when frames of dialogue or plot detail pop up on the screen, and, of course, through even the slightest changes on an actor's face. They also speak through music, a key ingredient since the glory days of silent movies in the early 20th century. Scores were composed to complement each scene, underline each emotion. Back in the day, these scores were performed live — by orchestras in the grandest movie palaces, more commonly by an organist or pianist — as the films were shown.

Of all the magical folkloric stories that used to be part of growing up, none has a more intense appeal than the saga of Robin Hood. Just thinking of it can make all those grown-up children who devoured the storybook retellings - and drank in the wonders of Douglas Fairbanks' 1922 spectacle or Errol Flynn's 1938 swashbuckler - feel refreshed and rejuvenated. The noble outlaw who fights for the commoners of England while King Richard the Lion-Hearted gets mired in the Crusades, Robin Hood embodies youthful idealism in action.

"Robin Hood," at 8 tonight on WBFF-TV (Channel 45), is a real movie-movie.It has real stunts, real staging, great period detail, clever casting and lots of mud. In this telling of the adults' and children's classic, you need galoshes to survive Sherwood Forest. Being an outlaw in 12th century England required lots of mucking about.The film had been scheduled for release in movie theaters this summer. But because Kevin Costner is Robin Hood in another movie-movie scheduled to be released in real theaters this summer, this movie was sold to TV. Patrick Bergin plays this Robin Hood, and he's splendid.

If there was a quintessential Robin Hood in the movies, it had to be Errol Flynn, who did ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' in 1938 with Olivia De Havilland as Maid Marian and Basil Rathbone as the evil Sir Guy Gisbourne. Claude Rains was Prince John.Flynn, who died in 1959 at the age of 50, would never repeat the success he enjoyed as the bandit of Sherwood Forest. That was his peak movie, and the film, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley and done in color, plays as well today as it did 53 years ago.The pace is fast, the action exciting, and the score, by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, is rich and appropriate.

THE TRAILERS did not mislead us. ''Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' is a thoroughly exciting film, one that is well-paced and well-staged. Its trouble is that it is really two films in one. Part of it is action with occasional comedy. The other part is almost camp.Alan Rickman is responsible for the camp. He plays the Sheriff of Nottingham, who takes over the country while King Richard is off to the Crusades.As the sheriff, Rickman is almost low comedy. His footage is exceptionally funny, but it doesn't necessarily go with the rest of the film.

Washington. -- President Clinton has provoked some outrageous cries of pain from the wealthiest precincts of America. Polite privileged people accuse him of playing ''Robin Hood,'' trying to take money from the rich and give it to the lazy poor. Crasser fat cats call him a ''fraud,'' saying he campaigned as a ''new Democrat'' and quickly reverted to the worst ''tax and spend'' president of the century.Those who are very rich and very conservative say he is a wild man who thinks foolishly that he can ''tax our way to prosperity.

Harford Dance Theatre will present "Robin Hood" on Friday and Saturday, May 18 and 19, at 5:30 and 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 20 at 1 and 4 p.m. in Harford Community College's Chesapeake Theater. Enter Sherwood Forest if you dare and discover this delightfully clever telling of the famous legend of Robin Hood. Join Friar Tuck, Brave Beverly, Cordial Cordelia and the rest of the Merry Men as they hip hop, tap and dance their way through one zany misadventure to another. Tickets are $8 to $10 and are available at the Harford Community College Ticket Office in the Chesapeake Center or by calling 443-412-2211.

Editor: I think most would agree Harford County Executive David Craig's decision to give a bonus to Harford County teachers is most appropriate and deserved.  What raises concern, however, is whether Mr. Craig has the authority to use public funds in such a manner? We as Harford county tax payers paid more tax than was necessary to fund the county's budget which resulted in a tax surplus. Can the county executive utilize that surplus of public funds to give bonuses to his county employees?

In Oliver Stone's limp biopic W., George Bush is a washout as a student and a president, and brilliant as a frat boy. Other pledges during rush week cower as upperclassmen "torture" them. W., under duress, recites the names of everyone in the fraternity, nicknames included. Later, when Vice President Dick Cheney sells him on enhanced interrogation techniques, W. reasons that they sound no worse than what he went through at Yale. Although Stone has gone out of his way to say that he has treated Bush as a figure to be understood, not simply pilloried, the movie plays like a dunk-the-clown game at a carnival.

It was not a prince, but farm owner Martha Clark who rescued Snow White from her imprisonment in a dark, cold trailer at the defunct Enchanted Forest amusement park in Ellicott City this winter. Thought to be lost, sold or stolen long ago, the fairy tale figure -- made of wire, newspaper and papier-mache -- was discovered along with Robin Hood, an armor-clad villain, three fairies and some dwarf-size beds in a trailer tucked behind a stand of bamboo on a remote corner of the property. The figures will be on display for the first time in 12 years when Clark's Elioak Farm opens for the season tomorrow.

WASHINGTON - In a perfectly equitable world, would the government have passed legislation that would give older Americans a prescription drug care plan that will cost $400 billion over 10 years? To some economists, the prescription-drug benefit approved by Congress on Tuesday looks like Robin Hood in reverse. After all, there are millions of American workers who don't have any health insurance at all, yet the government has chosen to expand the Medicare program for older Americans. But while some economists on the left and right might wring their hands, younger workers don't seem to be complaining.

Of all the magical folkloric stories that used to be part of growing up, none has a more intense appeal than the saga of Robin Hood. Just thinking of it can make all those grown-up children who devoured the storybook retellings - and drank in the wonders of Douglas Fairbanks' 1922 spectacle or Errol Flynn's 1938 swashbuckler - feel refreshed and rejuvenated. The noble outlaw who fights for the commoners of England while King Richard the Lion-Hearted gets mired in the Crusades, Robin Hood embodies youthful idealism in action.

SOUTH CARROLL'S Stagelighters return to the stage tonight and tomorrow in the drama club's fall presentation "The Legend of Robin Hood" (sort of).Curtain is 7: 30 p.m. in the school's auditorium, 1300 W. Old Liberty Road, Winfield.The play is a comedic remake of the classic tale of Robin Hood's desire to win the heart of Maid Marian. Student Melissa O'Brien is directing the play. She is assisted by Anthony Fish. Faculty advisers are Kevin King and Brian Iron.Melissa, a senior at the school, describes the play as a farce of the classic story, full of quirky jokes.

Apparently nobody likes the new Robin Hood movie except the people. Critics have given it a thorough drubbing, but attendance seems to be holding up.That is appropriate. The Robin Hood story has been considered disreputable ever since reference to it first started showing up in the 14th century.The very earliest reference to ''rhymes of Robin Hood'' is in William Langland's poem, ''The Vision of Piers the Plowman," where a dying priest is condemned for not knowing the Our Father though he could recite the adventures of Robin Hood.

HAVRE DE GRACE - A 9-year-old boy was killed and six other people, including three children, were injured yesterday when two vehicles collided at an intersection. City police said a 1993 Ford Explorer driven by Louis Stecker, 43, of the 3700 block of Fifth St. in Baltimore, collided with a 1988 Buick driven by Melissa J. O'Brien, 25, of Robin Hood Road in Havre de Grace, at Pulaski Highway and Lewis Lane about 1 p.m. Pronounced dead at Harford Memorial Hospital was a passenger in the Buick, Jerry Verl Holmes of the first block of Robin Hood Road.