Shirt

Graphic tees are all the rage, and we can understand why. There are so many varieties - bold, cutesy, retro, tongue-in-cheek, edgy rock 'n' roll - that the wearer of the right one speaks volumes to the world without ever saying a word. Conveying a message is what the best fashion does, whether the message is, "I'm rich," "I'm a fashion victim," "I'm serious," "I'm funny" or "I just don't give a good gosh darn." It doesn't really matter what your clothes say, as long as they say - as in this case - what you intended.

Editor's note: Ten-year-old James tries to hold his own on the basketball court when he's finally invited to play with the big boys.Wump, wump, wump. The ball bounces as my big brother Nate and I walk into the park.At the court everybody shakes hands, and the guys split into two teams of four, Shirts and Skins. I wish I was big enough to play, but because I'm only ten I go to the side court.No other kids are here, so I practice my game. I dribble, aim for the hoop, shoot, get the ball, shoot, over and over.

He has been dead for more than 121 years now, stabbed in the back by a U.S. soldier during what he thought was a meeting called to halt killing on the American frontier. For the descendants of the famed Sioux warrior Crazy Horse, some degree of peace has arrived since then.Trust is another matter.In a case that underscores the generations-old struggle of American Indians trying to reclaim their heritage -- from moccasins to the bones of their ancestors -- Crazy Horse's family has filed a federal lawsuit against tiny Washington College on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Calvin Edwards -- that's Lt. Calvin Edwards of the Baltimore City Fire Department -- remembers his grandfather going to his job as a crane operator in a suit, hat and top coat.Nobody had to know he slipped into overalls on the job, because at day's end, he'd shower and put the suit on again.That meticulous attention to first impressions has gone a long way in shaping Edwards' approach to dress and life since he was a youngster. Now 40, Edwards also physically resembles his grandfather, who died about 15 years ago."

In its 23-year history, Actors Theatre of Louisville's prestigious Humana Festival of New American Plays has helped launch such impressive works as D.L. Coburn's "The Gin Game," Beth Henley's "Crimes of the Heart," William Mastrosimone's "Extremities" and John Pielmeier's "Agnes of God."This year's festival kicks off in Louisville, Ky., on Feb. 23 with the theater's most unusual lineup yet. In addition to five full-length plays and eight 10-minute plays (a format the theater began presenting in 1979)

The latest computer peripheral is - the iron.No, it hasn't gone digital. But an iron - teamed with a personal computer, an inkjet printer and the right software - lets you decorate T-shirts with drawings, photos and words. You can go beyond T-shirts to almost any fabric surface, such as golf shirts, sweatshirts, visors, aprons, tote bags, boxer shorts and mousepads.It works like this: You install the software. Then you run it and choose a basic design - with some sample images and words already in place that you can alter - or you start a new design from scratch.

Last time, my shirt came within 3,800 votes of beating Bob Dole in the New Hampshire primary. My shirt came closer to winning the nomination than I did.-- presidential candidate Lamar Alexander, speaking earlier this year about his former signature red plaid shirtAnd now, from Washington, Larry King...Larry King: In all my years in this business, I've never interviewed anyone quite like our next guest. Folks, this is not only his first prime-time television interview, this is his first interview of any kind!

Not only does Eric Parker get to work at the FBI in Washington before 7 a.m., he does it with smashing good looks. Parker, 31, is one of those intuitively fashionable men, who can sense change and trends without even flipping through GQ.And when everyone else catches up to him, wearing cowboy boots with a suit, for example, Parker, model-handsome, is off and running in a patent leather suit and amazing green boots. If the masses decide to dye their hair, Parker has already shorn his faux blond locks for a bold, bald look.

Men's fashion does not change dramatically from year to year. It evolves gradually -- until suddenly you sit up and go, "Wow! That's different."Now the fashion pendulum has completed its slow swing from full-cut clothes, muted colors and natural fabrics, to clothes that have a slimmer fit, brighter colors and a lot of man-made fabrics. An updated look can be a total overhaul or a minor adjustment. Either way, remember these 10 directions:1. Something colorful. After years of being dominated by neutrals and naturals, fashions now are infused with strong and cheerful colors.

Even from his secret grave, Crazy Horse continues to bedevil the establishment, this time a small Eastern Shore college and a prestigious New York auction house.His war shirt -- or one purported to be his -- was sold in May by Washington College for $211,000. That action has raised the ire of the Sioux Indian Nation and the interest of the FBI.Tribal leaders say the college and Sotheby's auction house violated federal laws that protect American Indian artifacts. They recently filed a complaint with the National Park Service, which turned it over to the Justice Department and the FBI.The tattered buckskin shirt, beaded and decorated with buffalo strips and quill-wrapped human hair, was part of the Albee Collection.

Molly Shattuck left the hubby, kids and credit cards in Roland Park to spend a week waiting tables and ringing up groceries in a poor Pennsylvania coal mining town. For the new reality TV show Secret Millionaire, the wife of Constellation Energy Group CEO Mayo Shattuck lived incognito and on minimum wage as she looked for someone who could best use a bit of her wealth. She mopped floors and stocked shelves. Took out the supermarket trash. Went hungry. And eventually gave away at least $100,000 of her own money to someone she barely knew.

Graphic tees are all the rage, and we can understand why. There are so many varieties - bold, cutesy, retro, tongue-in-cheek, edgy rock 'n' roll - that the wearer of the right one speaks volumes to the world without ever saying a word. Conveying a message is what the best fashion does, whether the message is, "I'm rich," "I'm a fashion victim," "I'm serious," "I'm funny" or "I just don't give a good gosh darn." It doesn't really matter what your clothes say, as long as they say - as in this case - what you intended.

When it comes to back-to-school shopping, why should the kids get all the goodies? What about the mothers who have to keep track of the soccer games, bake sales, music lessons and doctor appointments? So here are a few items to celebrate the cool and organized mom. Leopard-print organizing tote Price: $20 Where to get it: Aaron Brothers Art and Framing, 55 W. Aylesbury Road, Suite A, in Timonium and 9097 Snowden River Parkway, Suite A, in Columbia. Why we like it: A stylish way to organize all the many mom papers that come your way. Mom Family Desk Planner and Mom's Family Calendar Price: $13 each Where to get them: At bookstores, online book retailers and mass merchandise stores Why we like it: The cute Sandra Boynton drawings add a touch of humor to these practical organizers that come with stickers, phone lists and plenty of space to write down the family's activities.

THE T-SHIRT BAKERY 1706 Fleet St., Fells Point / 410-276-7171 / Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday ........................ The T-Shirt Bakery has just opened in Fells Point, and it is so cute. The slogan is "We make fresh shirts daily." Ardie Braxton, who says he's a distant relation of Toni Braxton, and his wife Sandy make one-of-a-kind custom T-shirts out of pima cotton and unusual fabrics like bamboo, soy and hemp. "Come in with a concept or no idea," says Ardie.

This summer, top fashion magazines have declared that the T-shirt is the hot style staple to have. In multipage fashion spreads, the style guides show T-shirts of all kinds that are in this season: bold graphic tees, attention-grabbing logo tees, edgy rock 'n' roll tees. All the shirts are versatile in ways a good T-shirt should be - they're interesting enough to wear casually dressed down, and slightly dressy enough to pair with a jacket and designer jeans for a night on the town. But the Hollywood-endorsed tees, fabulous as they are, can be pricey.

At 8 p.m., the exact hour the vigil was supposed to start, Margaret Hamlett rose from her porch chair and addressed those assembled at her home on Wylie Avenue. "Y'all come on. We're gonna have prayer." Then she prayed. Prayed for her relatives who had died within the past year. Prayed especially for her grandson Jerrod Hamlett, who was only 23 on June 25, 2005, when a boy shot him to death. The boy was only 13. He's since been committed to a juvenile facility until he's 21 years old. Margaret Hamlett even prayed for "the boy that took Jerrod's life.

Single Fin's There's nothing fancy about Single Fin's, which is just fine. Why shell out an extra couple bucks per beer just to pay for decor? This bar has a stuffed deer head on one wall and two framed Ravens jerseys on the other. Where --1453 Light St. Call --410-539-0231 Notable --Pabst Blue Ribbon is one of the beers on tap, and most of the other drafts cost about $2 -- even less during happy hour. Vibe --Easy does it. What to wear --Jeans and a T-shirt or shorts and a T-shirt.

Baltimore County police said today they have found a sweat-shirt believed to belong to a man wanted in the alleged rape of a 90-year-old woman in Cockeysville last week. According to police, a man knocked on the door of the woman's home in the 10500 block of Howard Ave. between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. last Thursday. When she answered, the man asked her for a light for his cigarette and then forced his way into her home and raped her on her bed, police said. The man robbed the woman of her purse and an undisclosed amount of cash.

The mercury is stalled near 40 degrees, but Anne Offermann is the very vision of spring as she picks her way through the parks of Mount Vernon Place in a pale lemon jacket so thin it's almost see-through, featherweight khakis and a wide-brimmed straw visor. Yet now, as the wind rakes frozen fingers through just-blossomed cherry trees, she barely shivers. Her sartorial strategy? "Long underwear," she says, hiking up a cuff to reveal an ankle armored in thick black fabric. Offermann is visiting from the harsh climate of Buffalo, N.Y., but even she is unsure how to dress for the atmospheric free-for-all that is Baltimore's early spring.

YOU HOPE this doesn't happen, but it just might. Someone -- probably someone in his teens or 20s -- is standing on a corner wearing one of those T-shirts that have hit Baltimore's streets in the past week or so. You know, the ones that say "[Expletive] the police" or have the logo of the Baltimore Police Department as the bull's-eye of what is clearly a target. The implied message is that the person wearing the shirt would either approve of somebody gunning down a cop or would gleefully do so himself.