SON

We were watching an episode from the first season of Seinfeld, wherein Jerry picks up an early portable, cordless phone to take a call. "What's that?" my youngest son asked. "That's a cordless phone," I said. "No way!" he replied. "Seriously," I said, "that's what the first cordless phones looked like." Sure enough, there's Jerry, walking around his cool New York apartment with what looks like a shoebox pressed to his ear. "It's so ... huge," my son said. "We had one just like it," I said.

Dr. Harold Seymour Farfel, a pediatrician, died yesterday of pancreatic cancer at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson. He was 82. A doctor who prided himself on making house calls, Dr. Farfel continued until his recent illness to attend pediatric rounds at Sinai Hospital, where he was a resident from 1950 to 1952. One of the patients at his practice in Catonsville, which he opened in 1955, was a boy who would grow up to be governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., said Dr. Farfel's son, Dr. Mark Farfel of New York City.

About 47 years ago, Ralph J. Roberts founded Comcast. He was a middle-aged man who had recently abandoned the belt and suspender business, and was looking for something new. He found it in a tiny company in Tupelo, Miss., which was erecting a giant antenna to provide the local citizenry with signals from the television stations in Memphis, Tenn., 90 miles away. At that moment, Roberts became a cable pioneer. Along with Ted Turner, John C. Malone, Charles F. Dolan of Cablevision, John J. Rigas of Adelphia and a handful of others, he was one of the men who built the cable industry, pulling off one of the more unheralded achievements in modern business: getting people to pay for something they had always assumed would be free.

DEAR CAL -- My son has been playing on a select basketball team for five years. We have seen all types of coaches, with three boys who all play sports, but this one is the toughest. If a player makes one mistake, he immediately pulls him out of the game. He has told them that he hates to lose. Most of the boys are too nervous to even shoot the ball, taking two or three shots per game. My son is usually a very outgoing, happy, confident kid who loves sports. Now he is nervous and worried before his games.

Confession: My son is in the gun phase. At least, I hope it's a phase. At 12, he has a collection of 20 or so. Most are Airsoft guns that shoot pea-sized plastic pellets; a few are BB guns. In addition, he has an arsenal of water-blasting guns. He also wants one that shoots little marshmallows. Another confession: I bought many of these guns, helped him buy others and let him use my credit card to buy yet more. So, I am enabling my son's gun habit. I protested the Vietnam War, and a sign in front of our house says, "Another Family for Peace."

ATLANTA -- Georgetown, its coach, John Thompson III, told reporters yesterday, is "the son-of team." He quickly added, "And look, Florida might be the son-of team also." Ohio State might also fit that description, except only one of its players is a "son of." Poor UCLA, then. The Bruins are the only participants in the Final Four without a player whose father's name is instantly recognizable - as an athlete, and most likely as a basketball player. How'd they crash the family picnic? The better question is: How did the other three teams manage this, to get so much from the sons of highly accomplished fathers?

"SO THIS is it?" my sister asks quietly as we sit and watch my oldest son laughing with his friends as they sign yearbooks and make plans for Senior Week activities in Ocean City.Yeah, this is it. Tonight, he walks across the stage with his friends and graduates from Glen Burnie High School, moving on to a world that will challenge, frustrate and amaze him at every turn."I wish there was something profound I could say to him " Her voice trails off. She remembers how no one could forewarn us.It's not that I haven't tried.

IT REALLY isn't nice to interrupt people when they're talking."The suggestion to my son was firm and loving. Instructions for life. The only problem was, this time it wasn't my suggestion."Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be impolite," he responded with a sheepish grin.Peering over the edge of my newspaper, I continued to observe the exchange between my son and his girlfriend."By the way, have you completed your applications to college yet? I really think you need to take care of this by the weekend or " She paused for effect.

WILLIAM A. "Sy" Seiler III, tennis teacher, golf instructor, financial adviser, Ferrari fanatic, speaks for himself -- and his son. He posted a sign in front of his office on Jarretsville Pike in Baltimore County. The sign says: "2 MEN DESIRE 2 WED TO HAVE 2 SONS BY 2002. Please call 410-692-6400."2 blunt?2 bad.2 men in search of life partners. Why not be straight and honest about it? And a sign is cheaper than a personal ad."I've had a few calls but no dates so far," says Seeiler, who spends half the year in Florida.

When Werner Ferrone received a call Feb. 16 that his father's wallet had been found, he was more than a little skeptical.After all, the wallet had been missing since the late 1930s, and Ferrone's father, Benjamin, died in 1982. But the next day, the younger Ferrone, who lives in Abingdon, flew to New York to retrieve the wallet and shake the hand of the man who found it."I thanked him because at first I didn't believe him," said Ferrone, 52. "My wife said I was a bit of a jerk to him."The story began more than 60 years ago when Benjamin J. Ferrone, then 22 and living in New York, visited the Paramount Theater in Peekskill, N.Y. His son said he believes his father's wallet was stolen and the thief stripped it of cash and dumped it."

Herbert H. "Jack" Liggon Jr., a former Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. worker and World War II veteran, died Wednesday of bone cancer at his Westminster home. He was 85. Herbert Houston Liggon Jr. was born in Washington and raised in Hagerstown. After graduating from Hagerstown High School, he briefly worked for C&P before enlisting in the Army Air Forces. Assigned to the 922nd Signal Corps, Mr. Liggon served 18 months on Guam, where he established communications facilities and was communications chief.

On November 8th, 2009 ESTELLE L. LICHAROWICZ; survived by devoted husband Daniel, loving son Eddie Arnold, dear sister Marge, and her grandchildren Randee, Kera, Katie, and Edward. Friends may call at the family-owned AMBROSE FUNERAL HOME OF LANSDOWNE, 2719 Hammonds Ferry Road, Wednesday from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 P.M. A Mass of Christian Burial will take place Thursday 9 A.M. at St. Athanasius Church, 4708 Prudence Street, Curtis Bay. Interment to immediately follow at Holy Cross Cemetery.

On November 7, 2009, LORETTA M. DAVENPORT. She is survived by her son James Davenport, daughter Patricia Och, four grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and sister Catherine Wagner.

JANICE WADDELL FOERTSCH, 62, of 8 Sourwood Brook Court, died November 3, 2009 at his home. A native of Coal City, West Virginia, daughter of the late Clifton Arthur and Goldie Cooper Waddell, she was a retired employee of Giant Foods. Surviving are her husband, Joseph F. Foertsch of the home; a daughter, Teresa Goddar of Baltimore, MD; a son, Kenneth Schiminger of Greenville, SC; a daughter, Deborah Barlow of Greenville, SC; three sons, Michael Foertsch of Stevensville, MD, Tad Foertsch of Baltimore, MD and Troy Foertsch of Edgewood, MD; and a brother, Darrell Waddell of Dundalk, MD; a sister, Pat Spiker of Westminister, MD; a brother-in-law, Bob Gymerick of Perry Hall, MD; eleven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

On October 15, 2009, HAROLD D. RUSK, SR. aka "Bubby" son of the late Dorothy Tilghman and Lloyd Rusk and step son of Randolph Tilghman; loving father of Harold Jr., Michelle, Dorothy, Lisa and Christine. The family will accept condolences at 1520 W. North Avenue. Memorial services will be held at St. Katherine's Church, 2001 Division Street on Friday, October 23, 2009 at 1 P.M.

On October 15, 2009, HAROLD D. RUSK, SR. aka "Bubby" son of the late Dorothy Tilghman and Lloyd Rusk and step son of Randolph Tilghman; loving father of Earl Jr., Michelle, Dorothy, Lisa and Christine. The family will accept condolences at 1520 W. North Avenue. Memorial services will be held at St. Katherine's Church, 2001 Division Street on Friday, October 23, 2009 at 1 P.M.

On October 14, 2009 SAUL A. SCHAPIRO father of Simone Schapiro and Zoe Schapiro; son of Daniel and Jeannette Schapiro, brother of Carol S. Kekst and Benjamin S. Schapiro. Relatives and friends are invited to memorial services Sunday 11 a.m. at Joseph Levine & Son, 7112 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA. In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to The American Liver Foundation, www.liverfoundation.org/donate. www.levinefuneral.com.

Nathan Eleck Nusinov, the eldest son of the founder of Charles Nusinov & Sons, a Parkville jewelry store, died Sept. 24 of heart failure at Sinai Hospital. The longtime Owings Mills resident was 89. Born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, Mr. Nusinov and his parents fled to Buenos Aires to escape religious persecution and to wait until they were able to obtain a U.S. visa. In 1923, the family settled in Baltimore, and Charles Nusinov, a jeweler, established his business, Charles Nusinov & Sons, on Baltimore Street.

Raymond Morrison Geisendaffer Sr., a retired Amtrak passenger conductor whose railroad career spanned more than three decades, died of bladder cancer Aug. 21 at his Parkville home. He was 86. Mr. Geisendaffer, the son of a mover and homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on Lanvale Street. He was a semi-professional middle-weight boxer during the 1930s in Baltimore and was a 1939 graduate of City College. During World War II, he enlisted in the Army and served as a military policeman in North Africa and Italy, until he was honorably discharged in 1945.

A Sykesville woman has died of injuries suffered in a two-vehicle accident last week that killed her 13-year-old son and injured her 5-year-old daughter. Kyong Hae Kim, 51, of the 12200 block of Howard Lodge Road died Monday night at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where she had been taken in critical condition last Wednesday after the accident near her family's home. Kim, whose friends called her Jennifer, was taking her son, Vincent, and her daughter, Jacqueline, to a riding lesson at a nearby stable when she pulled out of the neighborhood at River Road and was trying to head south on Route 32. A flat-bed tow truck driven by a Westminster man was northbound on Route 32 when it collided with Kim's Mazda van. Vincent was pronounced dead at Howard County Hospital later that day. Jacqueline was taken to Children's Hospital in Washington and was released a couple of days later.