Strangers

Major identity thieves obtain personal information from retailers, financial companies and other businesses about half the time, a new study suggests, undercutting a common perception that potential victims should worry most about being scammed by people they know. The federally funded study being released today paints a complex portrait of the signature crime of the digital age, one that has been the top consumer-fraud complaint to federal authorities for six consecutive years. Of more than 500 offenders arrested by the U.S. Secret Service between 2000 and 2006, 8 percent were related to or socially acquainted with victims whose sensitive data were used to write checks, take out loans or buy cars.

Earl Scriven was writing a letter in his Baltimore Highlands home when he heard a knock at the door.It was a woman, asking to borrow a pen and paper.As he handed the woman a pen, she started pushing her way into his home. A cool-headed 88-year-old, Scriven pushed back as three other women appeared behind the first woman. He stomped on the first woman's foot and slammed the door.Scriven is one of the lucky ones, said Baltimore County police, who are seeking help from the public to identify suspects responsible for deceiving elderly people to burglarize their homes.

"In 'Captain Underpants' by Dav Pilkey, there are two kids named George and Harold and a mean principal who makes George and Harold do bad stuff. George gets a hypnotize ring and turns the principal into Captain Underpants. Read the book and find out what happens."-- Sean PhillipsVilla Cresta Elementary" 'Little Red Riding Hood' by the Brothers Grimm is my favorite book because it taught me not to talk to strangers. Little Red Riding Hood talked to a stranger, and she and her grandmother got eaten up."

Kim Brittain has cried plenty over the past few months, but yesterday she wept tears of joy.That's because doctors have scheduled a bone marrow transplant for her 2-year-old son, Austin, after neighbors and strangers rallied to raise $56,000 to pay for the operation. Brittain tearfully thanked everyone who sent money, cards and letters."The response was overwhelming, more than we thought," Brittain said yesterday from her Norrisville home in Harford County. "I just want to let everyone know that Austin is doing well, that he is strong, and that we are so grateful."

I FELL asleep during Monica Lewinsky's famous interview on ABC. Two hours listening to strangers talk about sex is more tedious than might be supposed.Neither President Clinton nor Ms. Lewinsky came off well. He a heedless cad. She sadder, but only somewhat wiser. Don't you know about phone sex? It's fun!She seemed, by turns, peppy, ingratiating, contemptuous, fragile, savvy, coy, apologetic, unrepentant, victim, user, the modern woman, a kid. Mr. Clinton was, in her memory, tender and sensual, a soul mate.

TOKYO -- It's Wednesday night, and Hiroshi Ieyoshi and three dozen other gas station attendants are gathered for some tough after-hours training.They're learning how to smile.Or rather, trying to learn.Relax the muscle under your nose, teacher Akio Emi commands. Loosen up your tongue. Put your hands on your stomach and laugh out loud, feeling the "poisons" escape. Even if you're down in the dumps, Emi tells his sullen audience, deliver an artificial smile and your emotions are likely to follow suit.

Every month, Edward Linenthal travels from his Wisconsin home to Oklahoma City. And every month, he meets people who have different reasons for making the same pilgrimage.Relatives of those killed in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building visit the bombing site because there, they feel a connection with loved ones. Grieving widows leave love letters, and fathers bring teddy bears.But it is the countless strangers -- those who never met the victims -- who most intrigue Linenthal, a University of Wisconsin professor who is writing a book about the memorial site.

ONCE AGAIN WE ARE proud to present our annual Holiday Gift Guide -- the gift guide that has been helping holiday shoppers find just the right gift for the past 2,000 years.That is correct: This is the same gift guide that was consulted by the original Three Kings, who, following our recommendations, went to Bethlehem bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. These gifts were big hits, except for the frankincense and the myrrh, which turn out to be gum resins. This is not really what people are looking for in a gift.

A CHURCH social hall opened its doors yesterday to begin a fire sale for Spring House Designs -- one of the five businesses damaged in the Ellicott City fire Nov. 9.The Rev. Glenn Ludwig, pastor of First Evangelical Lutheran Church, offered the space to Bill and Carole Sachs, the shop's owners."

It can't be real. But it's true: MTV is about to inflict upo viewers a seventh season of its insufferable "The Real World." It starts Tuesday, this time set in Seattle.For six seasons now, audiences have endured the craftily edited "true stories" of seven attractive, strategically stereotypical young people with various personality disorders plunked into luxurious domiciles in one cosmopolitan locale after another. Once there, they proceed to whine incessantly.Enough! What are the spoiled brats complaining about, anyway?

When I was a teenager running errands with my mom, I often thought, "Why does she always have to get into a lengthy conversation with the woman behind the deli counter?" I communicated this by standing behind her with a surly expression on my face and an impatient, toe-tapping stance. And now I find myself all grown up, shopping with my own children and chatting with the employees behind the deli counter. Recently, one worker announced that she always enjoys waiting on me because I have a very nice aura and I make her feel happy.

Earlier this year, I listed 10 Reasons to Hate the Kindles, including this one on the downside of reading e-books in public: Beautiful Russian ballerinas won't introduce themselves upon noticing your copy of Secrets of Nijinsky. As someone who often carries a book around Baltimore, the inwardness and anonymity of the e-book reading experience seems very odd. I don't mean that we should brandish the latest "hot" book in public like some designer handbag. "Look, the new Pynchon!" It's sad if books become just another way of broadcasting our feelings, like T-shirts or bumper stickers.

NFL pre-game shows 11 a.m., noon [various channels] Watch the ESPN, NFL Network, Fox and CBS pre-game shows and take note of how little the Ravens are mentioned. Then call your friends and rail against the blatant disrespect. Then post about it on message boards. Tomorrow, call into talk radio shows about it. At the New Year's Eve party, engage strangers in conversation about it. Sounds like a fun week.

THE TOP FIVE 1 Giants Brandon Jacobs is a runaway truck. 2 Titans Kerry Collins put his Ravens nightmare to bed. 3 Redskins No offensive turnovers through five games. 4 Steelers Their bye comes at an opportune point. 5 Cowboys Playing like a team of strangers. THE BOTTOM FIVE 28 Bengals Two straight near misses vs. NFC East. 29 Chiefs After a bye, Brodie Croyle comes back. 30 Texans Collapsed against the Colts. 31 Lions They did Matt Millen a favor. 32 Rams It wasn't just the coach.

At Woodstock, the rock moment that heralded today's mega music events, after days of peace, love and groovy guitar licks, fans and bands left behind a stunning mass of garbage, some pushed lovingly into the shape of a peace sign. The essence of rock rebellion then. Now? So uncool. When Virgin Festival opens today in Baltimore, young fans will carpool, buy carbon offsets and compost. They'll eat local, sip from cups made of corn and use recycled toilet paper. They'll take home sustainable cotton souvenir shirts and clutch programs printed with soy-based ink. At this, as at some other major outdoor concerts in the U.S. this summer, acts come and go but greenness is non-negotiable.

Whichever candidate you want to pick up the White House phone at 3 a.m., The Strangers makes one choice clear: Scott Speedman is not the actor you want to answer a knock at the door at 4 a.m. As James, the male half of the couple terrorized in a remote vacation home by three masked marauders in The Strangers, Speedman is the weak, silent type. And his better half, Kristen, played by Liv Tyler, isn't that much better. Sure, they go through a choppy tunnel of love right at the start. Figuring she'd be in the right mood for a proposal after a friend's wedding reception, he intends to win her hand with rose petals, champagne and an engagement ring, only to find his puppy-dog eagerness has the opposite effect.

Imagine letting perfect strangers order you around, mess with your head and demand that you do stupid, demeaning things just so they can laugh at you. After a while, even the most compliant souls would likely rebel. But not Rebecca Nagle, a sweet-faced, 21-year-old senior at the Maryland Institute College of Art, who's given new meaning to the phrase video on demand. If you go Rebecca Nagel's Fifteen Minutes starts Sunday and runs through April 11 at the Bunting Center, 1401 Mount Royal Ave. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Major identity thieves obtain personal information from retailers, financial companies and other businesses about half the time, a new study suggests, undercutting a common perception that potential victims should worry most about being scammed by people they know. The federally funded study being released today paints a complex portrait of the signature crime of the digital age, one that has been the top consumer-fraud complaint to federal authorities for six consecutive years. Of more than 500 offenders arrested by the U.S. Secret Service between 2000 and 2006, 8 percent were related to or socially acquainted with victims whose sensitive data were used to write checks, take out loans or buy cars.

I read a funny article recently noting that New Yorkers love to eat outside, even though sitting at a sidewalk table in Manhattan often means enduring diesel fumes, the sounds of jackhammers and the rudeness of passing strangers. I thought of this recently as I enjoyed a wonderful outdoor meal at Desert Cafe, the six-year-old Middle Eastern restaurant in the trendy heart of Mount Washington. -- Poor:]

The portrayal of Baltimore in the media too often focuses on the violence bloodying its streets, and the impression left is often of a ruthless city bereft of compassion and courage. But then along comes Angel Burrell, who with one gesture shatters that misperception and restores a sense of the city's pride. Angel, who is just 16, told The Sun's Gus G. Sentementes that she had never seen anyone shot before. But as she got off the bus from school last Friday and was walking home, Angel saw a girl running toward her and there was blood on the girl's shirt.