Shaft

Beware, residents of Fells Point. Again the Baltimore Running Festival will proceed through Lancaster Street and Aliceanna Street to Boston Street on Saturday morning, Oct. 13 ("Street closures for the Running Festival," Oct. 11). As usual the organizers have chosen to hold hostage residents of the Fells Point community by blocking all egress from south of the above-mentioned streets - unless you have a boat - from 8:10 a.m. to noon. The race starts at 8 am and travels to Druid Hill, Locust Point and then around the Inner Harbor before getting to Lancaster Street.

Beware, residents of Fells Point. Again the Baltimore Running Festival will proceed through Lancaster Street and Aliceanna Street to Boston Street on Saturday morning, Oct. 13 ("Street closures for the Running Festival," Oct. 11). As usual the organizers have chosen to hold hostage residents of the Fells Point community by blocking all egress from south of the above-mentioned streets - unless you have a boat - from 8:10 a.m. to noon. The race starts at 8 am and travels to Druid Hill, Locust Point and then around the Inner Harbor before getting to Lancaster Street.

Almost 30 years ago in the movie "Shaft," detective John Shaft made an impact on the fashion world with his turtleneck sweaters, leather jackets, bell-bottoms and Afro. Tough, sexy, suave, Shaft was, as the movie tagline went, "Hotter than Bond, Cooler than Bullitt." If you think Samuel L. Jackson looks as cool in this year's Shaft as Richard Roundtree did in the 1971 version of the movie, you've got Giorgio Armani to thank. Armani, Jackson's designer of choice for the role, reportedly told Jackson: "I'll design the clothes.

Anne Arundel County's youth soccer Blackhawks have played this season with Trooper Shaft S. Hunter's memory firmly in mind. Hunter, who was killed in an on-duty crash this spring, was a major benefactor of the team. His son, Deion, is a midfielder for the Blackhawks, and Hunter regularly worked extra shifts to help pay for players who could not afford team fees and travel costs. "Those are sort of like his sons," his wife, Rose Hunter, said. The Blackhawks, ages 13-14, won their regional championship this year and earned a second-straight bid to the US Club Soccer national finals.

A broken metal shaft caused the Camden Yards escalator accident that injured 44 people last month, Bruce E. Hoffman, executive director of the Maryland Stadium Authority confirmed yesterday. But investigators still haven't determined why the shaft broke, he said.Meanwhile, he announced that four of the five escalators at the ballpark will be operating for tonight's game as the Orioles return to town for a 10-game homestand.The right field-side escalator that malfunctioned June 18 will remain out of service while a San Antonio laboratory examines parts damaged in the accident, Mr. Hoffman said.

NEW YORK -- Jose Naranjo was retelling the chilling moment when he saw Rebecca Rosado get into the elevator Saturday night and fall into the darkness."

The Camden Yards escalator accident that injured more than 40 baseball fans Saturday was caused when a metal shaft broke, sending the moving staircase "freewheeling" downward at high speed, specialists close to the investigation say.The tear in the shaft left the escalator's safety brakes ineffective, and the staircase continued its near free fall until several steps were mangled at the bottom. After the accident, a sneaker was left wedged in the jumble.Michael T. Shiflet, a consultant hired by Forensic Technologies International of Annapolis, said the break occurred within a large assembly that moves the steps along and is supposed to stop the escalator when problems occur.

Who's a really swingin' Jedi master? SHAFT!It's not a great theme song, but it's descriptive. Samuel L. Jackson, who's a Jedi guru in the forthcoming "Star Wars" prequel, is also in final talks to reprise the title role in a remake of 1971's "Shaft." Variety reports that Paramount Pictures will update the original film, which was adapted from a novel by Ernest Tidyman and starred Richard Roundtree as a tough-talking P.I. enlisted by a Harlem mob boss to rescue his kidnapped daughter.PAINTED LADY: Sports Illustrated porn issue -- uh, swimsuit issue cover wench Rebecca Romijn-Stamos endured as many as 14 hours of body-painting at a time for some of the painted-on swimsuit shots in the magazine.

A 14-year-old boy was trapped for almost two hours yesterday morning in an elevator shaft in an East Baltimore high-rise before firefighters rescued him with the help of air bags, electric saws and a quart of borrowed dishwashing liquid.Embarking on a joy ride on an elevator car in the Lafayette Courts public housing complex, Kevin Glenn slipped and fell from the roof of the car as it was descending from the eighth to the seventh floor of the 11-story building, according to housing authority and fire officials.

A 14-year-old boy was in critical but stable condition today at Johns Hopkins Hospital with injuries he suffered when he was trapped for almost two hours in an elevator shaft in an East Baltimore high-rise.Firefighters rescued him yesterday with the help of air bags, electric saws and a quart of borrowed dishwashing liquid.Embarking on a joy ride on an elevator car in the Lafayette Courts public housing complex, Kevin Glenn slipped and fell from the roof of the car as it was descending from the eighth to the seventh floor of the 11-story building, according to housing authority and fire officials.

Although Shaft S. Hunter evidently took very seriously his job as a Maryland state trooper, he always hailed his supervising officer with the same impish greeting. "Hey, Sarge, what's crackalackin'?" Hunter would say, according to the supervisor, Sgt. Dwayne Lightsey, now retired. "He was full of energy," Lightsey said. " Too much energy. " The recollection was one of a litany of remembrances — many of them humorous, others bitterly sad — at Hunter's funeral service Friday, a week after he was killed in an accident on Interstate 95 in Howard County.

Maryland State Trooper First Class Shaft S. Hunter made one of Howard County's biggest drug busts in 2004, pulling a half-million dollars in heroin from a Mitsubishi he had stopped for speeding along Interstate 95. Early Saturday, the 39-year-old trooper and father of six was killed on that same highway, about five miles from that traffic stop, when his cruiser slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer parked along southbound lanes near Route...

Baltimore City Police have identified a woman who fell down an elevator shaft of a vacant building downtown Thursday. Tracey Baird, 43, and two others had been walking inside a dark, vacant building in the 300 block of N. Howard St. around 8:30 p.m., when the witnesses who were with Baird told police she fell, said Detective Jeremy Silbert, a Baltimore police spokesman. An autopsy was completed Friday, ruling the manner of death as accidental and consistent with a fall. jkanderson@baltsun.

I was working last Saturday on a travel story in Garrett County centered around Wisp, the only Alpine ski facility in Maryland. I started the day there carrying my cameras while skiing the slopes. Later, the snow grew heavier as the sky darkened, and my fingers became increasingly numb as I looked for a setting to make night skiing pictures before heading for home. After 30 minutes I spotted a shaft of light near the end of Deer Run. People rarely came through the light, so I heavily photographed each instance to increase my odds of a good shot.

With the passing of a multitalented artist and public figure like Ossie Davis, it's tempting to recall his most solemn accomplishments as an orator, an activist, a spokesman for the power of film and theater, a friend to Martin Luther King Jr. and eulogist of Malcolm X. But Davis was a virile and complex creative force who did sublime, engaging work as a popular entertainer. Whether acting in a Western called The Scalphunters (1968) or directing that milestone in soul cinema, Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)

On Thursday, December 16, 2004, JAMES "GIMMEL" HOWARD, loving husband of Beverly Howard (nee Glick), formerly of Richmond, VA. Beloved father of Judy Silverman of Atlanta, GA, J. Michael Howard of Richmond, VA, Linda Shaft of Atlanta, GA, Neil Howard, Sandy Crutti, both of Baltimore, MD, Rochelle Mc Donald of Atlanta, GA and Scott Howard of Baltimore, MD; devoted father-in-law of Dr. Harvey Silverman, Lenette Howard, Jack Shaft, Jo Anne Howard, Thomas Mc...

Let's talk trash. There's bad trash - those summer movies on the order of "M:I2" and "Gone in 60 Seconds," whose cardinal emotional effect on filmgoers is the feeling that they've been bludgeoned to death by the filmmakers' egos, cynicism and newly laden coffers. Then there's good trash - throwaway, intellectually undemanding action movies that, despite their heavy body counts and hard edges, are executed with a touch of class and a sunny disposition. The good news is that "Shaft," John Singleton's eagerly anticipated updating of the 1971 Blaxploitation classic, can be happily tossed into the latter bin. Featuring a magnetic performance by Samuel L. Jackson in the very cool lead role, "Shaft" is a throwback in the best sense of the word.

JAMESTOWN ISLAND, Va. - A determined team of archaeologists working in a pit more than 10 feet deep recently removed a cache of early-17th-century armor from one of historic Jamestown's earliest wells. The fragile artifacts appeared after weeks of digging at the site, which was discovered in June during an attempt to locate the town's west palisade wall. And as each new piece emerged from the bottom of the narrow, brick-lined shaft and then was followed by yet another rust-encrusted example the sight provided dramatic proof of the military edge that marked the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

IT'S NOT ONLY the legion of baby boomers who never fell out of love with folk crooners Simon and Garfunkel. For their children, captive home audiences for furniture-size hi-fis also playing the likes of Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Judy Collins, that color of their music is the clarion of first memories. Spare, coordinated, harmonic. Melody over rhythm, perfect for dancing one of those otherworldly child-dances in a shaft of afternoon sunlight, staying out of mom's way so she can have a quiet hour.

Harford, Frederick share $300,000 education grant Harford and Frederick counties are the first two counties to benefit from a $300,000 grant to help establish a voluntary high school curriculum more challenging than current graduation requirements. The State Scholars Initiative, introduced last summer by President Bush and U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, will expand to other interested Maryland counties next year, said June Streckfus, executive director of the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education, the nonprofit coalition that will administer the program with the state Department of Education.