Spice

Fall is a time for fresh starts, and there is no better place to begin than the kitchen. The kids are back in school, no longer hanging on the refrigerator door, waiting for the contents to change like some kind of Web page that's updating. But the kitchen will be the hub for meals, homework and holidays in the months ahead, and there's no reason why it shouldn't have some eye-catching new looks to please its regular occupants. In the interest of expediency, we did some shopping in a newish wing of Towson Town Center, where Sur La Table has just joined Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn in a trifecta of kitchen chic.

Old Bay is painting Baltimore blue and gold. The indispensable seafood spice blend is being celebrated with the Summer of Baytriotism, a season-long celebration of the Baltimore-born shelf staple and the iconic tin can its shaken from. A visual highlight of the promotion, which includes Baltimore-centric billboards and a series of nostalgic "Old Bay Radio" ads, was unveiled Thursday morning — the PMI Garage on the corner of Pratt and President streets has been crowned with what's being billed as the world's largest Old Bay can. The oversized can of Old Bay is set to stay on display for one year, according to Jill Pratt of McCormick & Co., the Hunt Valley-based spice company that purchased the Old Bay brand in 1990.

Khalid Chaudry won't give up the recipes behind the food at his new Mount Vernon restaurant, Alladin Kabob. When pressed about the magic behind the meat samosas, or the sprinkle of red powder on a lemon sitting atop a small salad, the restaurant's owner demurred. "Those are our spices," he said. "It's our secret. " Whatever those secret spice combinations are, they work. Alladin Kabob's menu stretches across the Middle East and through India, with a few American dishes thrown into the mix. Regardless of point of origin, Chaudry's food is expertly seasoned.

A shipment of Indian cumin seed contaminated with the larvae of a dead Khapra beetle, an invasive insect, never made it to McCormick & Co.'s Hunt Valley facility and was to be sent back to India, the spice maker said Tuesday. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists discovered the larvae and other seed contaminants during a search of the shipment at the port of Baltimore on April 17. The next day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed that the insect was a Khapra beetle, considered one of the most destructive pests, damaging grain, cereals and stored food.

Spice maker McCormick & Co. plans to make more acquisitions, especially in emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Asia, where sales are expected to account for 13 percent of the firm's overall revenue this year, the company's chief executive officer and chairman said Wednesday. "We still have a pretty good pipeline," Alan D. Wilson said of potential opportunities. "Again, it's hard to time acquisitions, but we have a focus on continuing to grow. A third of our growth over the last five years comes from acquisitions.

It isn't often that I find myself agreeing with columnist Dan Rodricks , but his idea of more really local TV and less redundant reporting is one I've had myself ("Let's put more 'local' in local TV," March 11). Why not add even more topics to his list? How about a 30-minute spotlight on local historical sites, of which our area has literally hundreds. Or a scenic cruise segment, for which, again, there are many candidates in our region? You could ask for viewers' home video input.

A year after the U.S. Naval Academy expelled seven midshipmen for using synthetic marijuana on the zero-tolerance Annapolis campus, the "spice" investigation is over, and college officials say the drug problem is past. Sixteen midshipmen were expelled from the academy for use or possession of synthetic marijuana between December 2010 and August 2011, when the formal investigation ended. Only one midshipman has been investigated for spice since, said Cmdr. William Marks, academy spokesman.

Now that Cam Cameron has been appointed offensive coordinator by Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti and head coach John Harbaugh again, hopefully they demanded he tweak the passing game. It needs more flavors than just vanilla. There needs to be more creativity and more variety. If he adds a few wrinkles the Ravens could be more explosive next season and make it to the Super Bowl providing receivers catch the ball. For the past four seasons, Cameron has suffered a lot of criticism from just about everybody in town, and a lot of it justified because he was determined to turn the Ravens into the Green Bay Packers or the New England Patriots, minus an Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady.

The 1200 block of East Joppa Road in Towson has its share of bright, shiny chain restaurants, packed to the hilt with people eating the same old bland, homogenized food. But right across the street, in a nondescript business park, sits Spice and Dice, a self proclaimed "Thai-Asian fusion" restaurant that serves vibrant, delicious food in an extremely colorful setting. At first glance, the inside of Spice and Dice resembles a kindergarten classroom. The tables all have different tablecloths, and none of the chairs match in style or color.

Tom "TK" Kuegler is a New England-based venture capitalist who grew up in Baltimore — and who hasn't quite left the city behind. He finds himself here quite often, visiting family and volunteering with the board of sponsors at Loyola University Maryland's Sellinger School of Business. Lately, though, he finds himself in Baltimore on scouting missions — for the next hot startups. Kuegler is general partner and co-founder of Wasabi Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that funds and incubates technology startup companies.