Sleeper

The Ravens haven't just uncovered a sleeper talent at training camp. They've discovered a sleeping giant. Ravens training camp Through Aug. 18, McDaniel College, Westminster Today: 8:15 a.m. to 10:35 a.m.; 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Online: baltimoresun.com/ravenscentral

The search is on for holiday sleepers. Not just the kind you try to tuck into bed on Christmas Eve with visions of dancing sugar plums and all that, either.We're talking toys, the kind that prove unexpectedly popular. They are playthings that don't necessarily come from the major manufacturers or have multimillion-dollar TV campaigns and movie tie-ins.Pokemon, for instance, is no sleeper. Although it's expected to be the biggest toy craze of the season, it's been in full-hype mode all year.

Sleeper actors in Hollywood are said to have three stages of fame. The first is the totally unknown stage, followed by the stage where every director can't wait to work with the actor. Then, there's the final stage, where the actor becomes unknown again.The same is becoming true for women's college basketball, and Bonnie Henrickson and Virginia Tech, who went through the first and second stages last season and hope that stage three doesn't come to Blacksburg this season.Henrickson, 36, the coach at Virginia Tech, guided the Hokies to a 28-3 record last season and the school's first berth in the Sweet 16, as well as a second straight Atlantic 10 title.

It's official. "There's Something About Mary," the gross-out comedy starring Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz, is the sleeper hit of the summer, taking on a mantle that "My Best Friend's Wedding" wore last summer and "Babe" the summer before that.Sleepers - big hits that seem to come out of nowhere, taking film studios, critics and audiences alike by surprise - now seem to be staples of the summer movie season, on a par with the biggest explosions and the most humiliating bomb. But in an age when marketing and publicity are manipulated to within a hair's breadth - when there are computer programs that predict a film's box-office performance before the cameras even start running - is such a thing as an authentic sleeper even possible?

Margery "Midge" Sleeper knits woolen slippers.A man they call Jack the plumber fixes toilets.Dr. James Greeley takes aim with his dentist's drill.They and scores of other volunteers form a web of support that sustains one of the largest Gospel missions on the East Coast -- the Baltimore Rescue Mission for as many as 200 homeless men and its next-door Karis Home for as many as 36 homeless women and children.Sleeper, 72, is the kind of person on whom some shelters and nonprofit agencies rely, no matter what governments decide about social service funding.

A few weeks ago I took a ride through the countryside between Washington and Baltimore. It was a glorious day, and as I drove I listened to Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," broadcast live from Yellowstone National Park. When the sounds of park visitors greeting the eruption of Old Faithful came through the speakers, I cheered right along with them. What a great, beautiful country this is, I thought.I felt guilty immediately, as if I had commited some unforgivable racial transgression.

LONDON -- Sunday night, Tina Cuenco sold candy bars to one of her regular customers, Diarmuid O'Neill. Yesterday, at her corner convenience store, she was selling newspapers that contained pictures of the red-haired 27-year-old beneath the headline: "Face of the IRA Sleeper.""I can't believe it," Cuenco said. "Nice boy. He was quiet. He had a sweet tooth and would come in for sweets and milk. IRA? I wouldn't know. I just can't believe it."O'Neill's life as a suspected Irish Republican Army member and his violent death during a Monday morning police raid are the stuff of front-page headlines and controversy.

The pizza party, provided by coach Courtney Vaughn, was courtesy of sophomore Teresa Sleeper.It was Sleeper's first varsity goal eight minutes into the second half that enabled the Liberty Lions to get past county rival South Carroll, 1-0, in yesterday afternoon's Class 3A West Region opener in Eldersburg.A visit to the pizza shop followed, with North Carroll, a 1-0 winner over Linganore yesterday, up next for the Lions (8-5) on Tuesday."I had to bribe the kids with pizza," Vaughn said jokingly.

Police logJessup: 7400 block of Assateague Drive: A man leaving a truck's sleeper cab Tuesday was grabbed by an assailant and cut slightly on the neck, hands and thigh. After the victim's wallet was taken, he got back into the truck and fell asleep.North Laurel: 9100 block of Blues Alley: Someone entered a unit at the Seasons Apartments, but nothing was taken.Pub Date: 10/23/96

All those who deride airline service as an oxymoron, take note: Somebody out there is worrying that your head could flop around as you snooze.True, travelers must pay first-class fares or cash in hefty mileage awards to get this level of concern for their welfare. And whether anyone notices or appreciates the fine points is another matter. But one thing is certain -- airlines are churning out new ideas for the front cabin at an unusual pace of late as they compete for the loyalty of the well-heeled traveler.

As reported March 2, 1988, in The Howard Sun: Marian Sleeper has a special birthday party every four years. None of her friends ever forgets it. She's one of those chosen few who just happened to be born Feb. 29 - a leap year birthday baby. The 36-year-old mother of three and part owner of an outdoors supply store, Patapsco Outfitters on U.S. 40, officially celebrated her ninth birthday Monday. Actually, 25 people celebrated her birthday with a party Saturday at her Sykesville home.

The Ravens haven't just uncovered a sleeper talent at training camp. They've discovered a sleeping giant. Ravens training camp Through Aug. 18, McDaniel College, Westminster Today: 8:15 a.m. to 10:35 a.m.; 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Online: baltimoresun.com/ravenscentral

Remember the revolving circular bed from which the Mike Meyers' character Austin Powers proclaimed his shag-ability? Laugh if you must, but the Lazy Susan sleeper - that semaphore of swinging bachelorhood - is no longer a joke to be found solely in Hollywood comedies and special-interest hotel suites. The latest models, available from prominent Italian furniture showrooms, come equipped with streamlined leather headboards, custom-fitted linens and optional side pieces that function as nightstands and footboards.

Stop the train, Melvin. At 5:16 p.m., Amtrak's No. 29, more commonly known as the Capitol Limited, had just picked up a handful of passengers at Harper's Ferry, W.Va., and was slowly lumbering forward when the conductor called for the engineer to slam on the brakes. What emergency had brought the hulking, two-story train to a screeching halt? She'd spotted a mitten on the station platform and was worried one of her new overnight guests, Chicago-bound holiday travelers from suburban Baltimore, had accidentally dropped it. All aboard the charming, entertaining, horribly inconvenient and maddeningly lethargic anachronism that is U.S. interstate passenger rail service in the yuletide season.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration declined to downshift yesterday on the number of hours a long-haul trucker can drive without rest, and drew immediate criticism from highway safety activists. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced new "hours of service" regulations on the trucking industry, but it left intact a controversial, two-year-old provision allowing drivers to stay on the road 11 hours without a required rest. The new rules apply to 3 million drivers in the $600 billion trucking industry, including Canadian and Mexican truckers who drive within U.S. borders.

The Sleeper, by Christopher Dickey. Simon and Schuster. 273 pages. $24. It was inevitable that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, would produce, for better or worse, a literature, and equally inevitable that one of the genres would be the thriller. Fortunately for readers, Christopher Dickey has produced in The Sleeper one that is both sophisticated and compelling. The towers of the World Trade Center are coming down as the novel opens. Kurt Kurtovic, an American of Balkan descent living peaceably in Kansas with his wife and small daughter, is compelled to action.

One of this year's sleeper hits - and deservedly so - is "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg," Aviva Kempner's engrossing documentary about the trailblazing player who, as America's first Jewish baseball star, helped redefine sports, heroism and American culture while playing for the Detroit Tigers in the 1930s and 1940s. Kempner's film has enjoyed successful runs at the Charles and Rotunda theaters; today it opens at the Loews Valley Centre in Owings Mills. This hasn't exactly been a boffo summer, especially for grown-up filmgoers - see "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg" for a pleasant respite.

The search is on for holiday sleepers. Not just the kind you try to tuck into bed on Christmas Eve with visions of dancing sugar plums and all that, either.We're talking toys, the kind that prove unexpectedly popular. They are playthings that don't necessarily come from the major manufacturers or have multimillion-dollar TV campaigns and movie tie-ins.Pokemon, for instance, is no sleeper. Although it's expected to be the biggest toy craze of the season, it's been in full-hype mode all year.

Sleeper actors in Hollywood are said to have three stages of fame. The first is the totally unknown stage, followed by the stage where every director can't wait to work with the actor. Then, there's the final stage, where the actor becomes unknown again.The same is becoming true for women's college basketball, and Bonnie Henrickson and Virginia Tech, who went through the first and second stages last season and hope that stage three doesn't come to Blacksburg this season.Henrickson, 36, the coach at Virginia Tech, guided the Hokies to a 28-3 record last season and the school's first berth in the Sweet 16, as well as a second straight Atlantic 10 title.

It's official. "There's Something About Mary," the gross-out comedy starring Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz, is the sleeper hit of the summer, taking on a mantle that "My Best Friend's Wedding" wore last summer and "Babe" the summer before that.Sleepers - big hits that seem to come out of nowhere, taking film studios, critics and audiences alike by surprise - now seem to be staples of the summer movie season, on a par with the biggest explosions and the most humiliating bomb. But in an age when marketing and publicity are manipulated to within a hair's breadth - when there are computer programs that predict a film's box-office performance before the cameras even start running - is such a thing as an authentic sleeper even possible?