Rope

Sure, you know your knots and can tie down a tent or tie off a kayak in the blink of an eye. But why would you want to fumble around in the rain or the dark when a Figure 9 rope tightener will do it for you in a fraction of the time? Figure 9, by Nite Ize (www.niteize.com), provides a secure, knot-free way to make camp, boat or cartop rack shipshape. Just follow the instructions engraved on the device: wrap a rope around the Figure 9 aluminum arms, pull tight and you're done. Backpacker magazine gave the Figure 9 its 2007 Editors' Choice Award in recognition of its cutting edge design and performance.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Angry crowds in the Iraqi town of Tikrit fired weapons in the air and chanted "God is great" yesterday as they received the flag-draped bodies of two former aides to Saddam Hussein who were hanged early in the day. Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar were executed for their roles in killing scores of Shiite Muslim villagers in the 1980s. The hanging by rope ripped off the head of Ibrahim, Hussein's half brother and a fellow native of Tikrit. Ibrahim had served as leader of Iraq's feared intelligence service, while al-Bandar headed the Revolutionary Court that sentenced 148 villagers to death after a 1982 assassination attempt against the late president.

The firefighter who reported finding a knotted rope and a drawing of a noose in an East Baltimore station house is in the process of being fired for unrelated issues, Fire Department officials said yesterday. Donald Maynard, a six-year veteran who reported the discoveries, acknowledged last week that he was the one who brought the items into the station house. Even before that admission, Maynard, who is black, had been suspended without pay for failing to complete emergency medical technician-intermediate training or making any plans to do so, said Roman Clark, a department spokesman.

Girls Rule The lowdown -- Monday, the Sidebar Tavern hosts Girls Rock Girls Rule Fest. The female-centric lineup includes Odd Girl Out, Grandma's Mini, Emiko, Loki the Grump, RewBee and headliner G Spot. Expect some driving punk rock delivered with plenty of moxie. If you go -- Doors open at 8 p.m. For ticket prices and more information, call 410-659-4130 or go to sidebartavern.com. The venue is at 218 E. Lexington St.STS9 at Sonar The lowdown -- West Coast electro-jammers Sound Tribe Sector 9 come to Sonar's main stage Saturday.

On most Monday nights for 27 years, Melvin S. Laszczynski, the Baltimore City Council's sergeant-at-arms, unfastened the council chamber's red velvet rope to admit members to their seats.After fastening his rope and counting heads, Mr. Laszczynski would bellow to the council president: "We have a quorum, Mr. President." Then the council meeting would begin.Mr. Laszczynski, a retired fuel tanker driver who joined the council as a part-time clerk in 1971, died Saturday of a massive heart attack at his Highlandtown residence.

WASHINGTON -- When Daniel Johnson, who is now 23, was transferring from Wake Forest University to the University of North Carolina, he went to Chapel Hill to find an apartment. When he called his parents in Hickory, N.C. -- his father, Wallace, is the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church; his mother, Sallie, teaches history at Hickory High School -- they asked him if he had found one. He said yes, and oh, by the way, I've joined the Navy. From his hospital bed in Walter Reed Army Medical Center he says he has no regrets about that decision.

Gerri Leder knows what stands between her and fitness -- breakfast meetings and the need to catch the Metroliner to New York for business.Leder, 43, who has been in securities since 1986, recently left a job at Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown to start her own financial marketing strategy and communications company, LederMark Communications. But despite the demands of business, she makes a commitment to exercise on the weekends and to squeeze in a couple of workouts during the week.An avid biker, Leder has a standing Monday night date with a friend to pedal 15 miles on the North Central Railroad Trail.

WHEN MOST of us think of jump rope, images of energetic children skipping rope on the sidewalk or the playground come to mind. But for members of the Kangaroo Kids, a Howard County precision jump rope team, it means hours of practice in preparation for national and international competitions.Marissa Schwartz, a 17- year-old senior at Wilde Lake High School, practices jumping rope about 14 hours a week. Marissa's dedication to the sport helped her capture a trophy and a title, Grand National Champion, at the U.S. Amateur Jump Rope Championships last month at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. The competition will air on ESPN this summer.

LAST WEEK, 150 sixth-graders from Oakland Mills Middle School set off on a three-day adventure. The purpose: to make new friends and become a team.Mucking about a salt marsh is one way to make friends out of strangers. The squishy sound of boots being pulled out of mire and the smells of decaying sea life can get 10-year-olds to giggle and laugh together.Making the transition from elementary to middle school can be difficult. Oakland Mills Middle draws from four feeder schools: Atholton, Talbott Springs, Stevens Forest and Thunder Hill elementaries.

ELKRIDGE LANDING Middle School pupils jumped rope, shot baskets and swung Hula Hoops around their hips last week to raise money for the American Heart Association.Physical education teacher Carol Jones expected to raise about $4,000 through pledges for the school's Jump and Hoops for Heart events.Participation in the activities, held during physical education and health classes Thursday and Friday, was voluntary.Jones and her colleagues, Jeff Freimanis and Charles Stewart, organized the event to complement the physical education curriculum and help pupils reach their target heart rates and build endurance.

It could well have been Howard County's Kangaroo Kids auditioning for television's "America's Got Talent" several weeks ago instead of a rival team from the Midwest. The Colorado-based precision rope jumpers waited 10 hours to perform on the popular summer program, but errors soon set off the dreaded triple buzzers from the judges. In less than a minute, they found themselves trooping back off the stage beneath three illuminated red X's, said local coach James McCleary. He commiserated with the other team's bad fortune as if his own team had been axed.

Henry "Sonny" Schloss, president of a Southwest Baltimore manufacturing plant who was prominent in Baltimore Zionist circles and assisted in the refitting of the ship that became the doomed Exodus in 1947, died July 1 of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the Arden Courts assisted-living facility in Pikesville. The longtime Pikesville resident was 86. Mr. Schloss, who was born in Baltimore and raised in the 2200 block of E. Baltimore St. near Patterson Park, attended city public schools.

Fourteen-year-old Brittany Archer stood at the base of a 40-foot climbing wall in Leakin Park and confidently declared, "I'm going all the way up there." But after watching friend Tre Smith, 14, slip and stumble to the top, the East Baltimore eighth-grader suddenly wasn't so sure. Wearing a harness and helmet, she approached the wall, closed her eyes and put her hands over her face. "I'm scared!" she squealed repeatedly. With six Baltimore City police officers cheering her on, Brittany made it to the top, triumphantly rang a bell and rapelled back down, where she was congratulated with a hug from Smith and high-fives from the officers.

1 'Happy Gilmore': Adam Sandler trades in his hockey stick for golf clubs and gets beaten up by Bob Barker. Great start to your Sunday viewing (2 p.m., USA). 2 Baltimore's team?: Grab some friends and cowboy gear. Then line-dance your way around the tube and root for the Cowboys to rope the Steelers (4:15 p.m., chs. 45, 5). 3 Mids get a test: The streaking Navy men (7-1) step into ACC basketball competition vs. Virginia Tech in the BB&T Classic at Verizon Center (5 p.m., MASN). 4 By George: First Georgetown, now George Washington.

I'm not sure when it happened, but trees seem to have taken on the sentimental baggage usually associated with the family pet. At least at our house. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the death of the maple that was planted to celebrate my daughter's birth 22 years ago and the pall of sadness, as well as dread, that fell over our family. My daughter wondered fearfully if that meant she was doomed as well, and my husband brooded about how much it would cost to remove the poor tree. So far, Jessie is just fine, but my husband is about a grand lighter in the wallet.

One thing's for sure, neither Jeff Holland nor any of the conspirators who were on hand a decade ago - plotting the mock battle for independence that defines the Maritime Republic of Eastport - is ever going to reveal the whereabouts of the 1,800-foot strand of rope that has become the symbol for tongue-in-cheek competition between downtown Annapolis and its breakaway republic. The sacred cord turns out to be an artificial fiber that was twisted to exacting standards by a manufacturer in Maine for the original Tug of War between the would-be nation and indifferent conscripts who in recent years have been gathered off the streets of downtown Annapolis.

Instead of a walkathon or a cookie sale, Big Brothers Big Sisters went to the buses for a tougher fundraiser yesterday. They recruited seven corporate teams willing to drag 13 1/2 -ton MTA buses 60 feet to the finish line. Baltimore's first ever Biggest Little Bus Pull, which raised about $15,000 for the organization, played out yesterday at the Reisterstown Metro Station. The community event "gave us an opportunity to recruit mentors and raise visibility," said Robin Tomechko, president of the Central Maryland chapter of the national organization.

Call it kindergarten prep. That's the mission of Howard County's newly expanded seven-week summer Head Start session - to sharpen the skills of 144 4- and 5-year-olds who attended Head Start during the just-ended academic year and who are to begin kindergarten next month. "There's enough studies out there to show that children not academically stimulated over the summer lose a lot of that information. The goal of Head Start is to prepare children for kindergarten," said Jena Smith, the county's Head Start director.

UHHH ... I can't jump rope in high heels!" "Really?" "Well, not that high a heel." OK, folks, who do we know who would jump rope (double-dutch, too) in heels? Of course! It is our old friend, the indomitable Madonna. La Ciccone has been rehearsing her "Sticky and Sweet" tour in a massive space in New York. Her latest troupe of beautiful dancers is present, as is every other member of a massive Madonna undertaking. When the boss works, everybody works! It is 80 degrees and humid outside.

Jeffrey Brauner of Baltimore spotted an odd-looking tornado on TV news recently. It was no funnel, he said, "just a big, dark blob of clouds sagging down going the same speed as the clouds in the sky. Is this type of tornado more or less dangerous than the funnel type?" Tornadoes take many forms (wedge, funnel, cone, tube, rope) and colors. Some start as funnels, broaden, then die as ropes. There is no correlation between shape and strength. They're all bad news.