Straw

Flowermart, the official start of spring in Baltimore, is as much about food as it is about flowers. So it makes sense that among the women wearing hats covered in blooms there would be a guy dressed as a slice of pizza. Antoine Hays of Baltimore — he was a slice of pepperoni — was at Mount Vernon on Friday to promote an online food delivery service, as another edition of the century-old city tradition got under way. Even the plants eat at Flowermart. Carnivorous Plant Nursery, located inf Derwood in Montgomery County, was featuring a hanging basket of tropical pitcher plants that are guaranteed to attract, trap and eat your stink bugs.

Flowermart, the official start of spring in Baltimore, is as much about food as it is about flowers. So it makes sense that among the women wearing hats covered in blooms there would be a guy dressed as a slice of pizza. Antoine Hays of Baltimore — he was a slice of pepperoni — was at Mount Vernon on Friday to promote an online food delivery service, as another edition of the century-old city tradition got under way. Even the plants eat at Flowermart. Carnivorous Plant Nursery, located inf Derwood in Montgomery County, was featuring a hanging basket of tropical pitcher plants that are guaranteed to attract, trap and eat your stink bugs.

On March 3, 2005, CLARE C. STRAW, of Columbia, MD, beloved husband of Eileen B. (Nicholson), loving father of Laura, Jeffrey, Scott and the late Lawrence Straw, cherished grandfather of seven and brother of Susan Campbell and George White. Mr. Straw is also survived by his mother-in-law, Lucille Nicholson and his stepmother, Emily Straw. Friends may call at the family owned Slack Funeral Home, P.A., 3871 Old Columbia Pike, Ellicott City, on Saturday, 7 to 9 P.M. and Sunday, 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. Funeral Services Monday, 11 A.M. at Gary Memorial United Methodist Church, Daniels Road, Ellicott City, MD 21043.

Apparently, consumers have a breaking point — a $5 monthly debit-card fee. Since news broke late last month that Bank of America planned to introduce such a fee next year, the uproar hasn't abated. Legislation was introduced in Congress to make it easier for consumers to switch accounts. A "Bank Transfer Day" campaign has been organized on Facebook to encourage consumers to switch to a nonprofit credit union by this Saturday. And now some major banks are backing off debit-card fees.

At the age of 60 I made what I feel was my most embarrassing fashion faux pas. The members of our local bridge club decided to dress up and wear hats for a club outing at a fine restaurant.Hats have never suited me, so I went into the local department store and bought the first festive one I saw -- a bright red straw covered with matching flowers. At the luncheon I stood by as my friends exchanged compliments with each other, but they just glanced at me and said nothing.While we were waiting to be seated, I took a good look at myself in the mirror and realized I looked ridiculous.

Editor's note: Bitten by an ink-drinking vampire, Odilon has become an ink drinker himself and uses a straw to devour books. But he has no one to share his secret with. Ever since my encounter with Draculink, the ink-drinking vampire, I've been drinking books like crazy. How, you ask? With a straw, of course! Chapter after chapter I suck in the stories. They're absolutely delicious! As soon as the ink from the books makes its way into my mouth, I feel a tickle on the tip of my tongue.

PARIS -- Paris is off on a hayride. Left behind at the spring couture shows are the usual luxurious trimmings of satin ribbons and lace. Instead, the braids, edgings, fringes and accessories are mostly of straw or raffia. In the sensitive fingers of couture artisans, these materials have been transformed into gilded objects. The prevailing whim is to dip the straw into gold paint.Every designer seems to have at least one pair of gauntlets with straw cuffs. And at Christian Lacroix's presentation, the big-brimmed farmer-style hats glistened with their lacquer finish.

WASHINGTON -- When 8-year-old Erica Gorochow of Potomac built a straw designed to cool scalding liquids, she never imagined it would be an idea hot enough to win her a national title in a 1992 inventors competition called Invent America!Erica's cooling straw won out over a gadget that keeps fizz in soda, a device that helps blind people shop and two other student inventions to seize the championship in the category for second-graders.Nine champions -- one from each of nine grades -- were honored at an award ceremony Thursday at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Avoiding a potential pitfall on the road to the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. Bob Dole finished first in a nonbinding straw vote yesterday in Florida.In the first GOP test of strength since Colin L. Powell decided not to enter the presidential race, Mr. Dole came away with one-third of the ballots cast. Texas Sen. Phil Gramm was second, and former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander was third.Dole campaign aides were quick to claim the result as further evidence that their man "is still the overwhelming front-runner," as deputy campaign manager Bill Lacy declared.

OUGHTERARD, Ireland - The house where Denis Geoghegn was born still stands, right next to his own, and the ceiling still looks like it's smeared with black mud and grass, which it is. There are two reminders of Geoghegn's family craft in his tiny village, and one of them is that ceiling - evidence that the house used to have a thatched roof. The other is Geoghegn himself - the last thatcher left in this rugged corner of western Ireland. Thatch, the roofing material of choice for centuries in this country's poor, rural outskirts, is now mostly a postcard novelty.

At a time when governments at every level are desperate to find and save money wherever they can, it shouldn't surprise anyone that county officials might have reached a little in trying to score some federal disaster-relief money, or that the state agency charged with dispersing Maryland's share of it would say no. Howard County lost its bid to recoup some expenses incurred when the Maryland Emergency Management Agency deemed ineligible ...

The stereotypical Southern rednecks indulging in uncivilized behavior in the remake of "Straw Dogs" seem like they grew up watching the original 1972 movie. They also seem likely to have tossed back a few beers while watching "Deliverance," released that same year. Although the new version would be a disastrous choice for a romantic date movie, it's a bluntly effective reminder of what happens when polite people encounter impolite people. Once the rules of etiquette have been breached, it's survival of the fittest.

When one of our two major political parties does not hold the White House and has no clearly identifiable prospective presidential nominee for the next election, it often falls to that party's national chairman to become its temporary leader and spokesman. Such is the circumstance these days in the Republican Party, with Democrat Barack Obama in the Oval Office and the job of 2012 GOP standard-bearer up for grabs among a field of retreads and wannabes of little notoriety or distinction.

One of the most rewarding pleasures of this job is interacting with readers who contact me with colorful comments or additional insights and observations about someone or something I've written about. Sometimes they also write letters and e-mails or call on the phone to correct me, and I'm most grateful for informed and correct criticism. The death last month of noted Baltimore artist Ann Didusch Schuler, who co-founded the Schuler School of Fine Arts with her husband, Hans C. Schuler, brought calls and e-mails from several former students who are now professional artists or teachers.

Eddie Jacobs, the venerable Light Street haberdasher, remembers when May 15 — Straw Hat Day in Baltimore — was a big deal. "I'll never forget when I came home from the service. It was in January," said Jacobs, 71, whose father established the men's store, Eddie Jacobs, in 1939 that is known for its conservative suits and men's furnishings. "He asked me how soon I could get to the store, and I said I'd take a shower and be there within an hour," Jacobs recalled.

T onight, the star of Bethlehem will shine brightly over the little town of Savage. The 12-foot wrought iron-and-rebar creation will dangle from a crane 60 feet above First Baptist Church of Savage, guiding visitors to the congregation's outdoor re-creation of Bethlehem as it was said to be more than 2,000 years ago on the night of Jesus' birth. Those who choose to follow the "everlasting light" mentioned in the beloved Christmas carol from 1869 will discover much more than a live Nativity awaiting them at an event called "A Walk Through Bethlehem."

On April 11, 2005 VERA; beloved wife of Alex Bidniuk; dear mother of Nicolas Bidniuk and Ana Straw; mother-in-law of Barbara Bidniuk and David Straw; grandmother of Brian and Ashley Bidniuk, Matthew, Philip and Paul Straw; great grandmother of Cameron and Daniel Bidniuk. Visiting hours at Kaczorowski Funeral Home, P.A., 1201 Dundalk Avenue on Friday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. Funeral services will be held at the funeral home on Saturday at 10 A.M., with interment to follow at St. Stanislaus Cemetery.

Laugh all you want, but Agnes Muhl has no doubts about what she, her husband and her mother saw in the front yard of their Thurmont vacation home eight years ago."It was a cougar," insists the 57-year-old Catonsville woman. "It was sitting there looking at the smoke coming out of our chimney."Mrs. Muhl isn't alone. Over the past 25 years, dozens of Maryland residents have reported cougar encounters, even though wildlife officials insist that mountain lions haven't roamed the state for at least a century.

Visitors have traveled for miles to see David and Laura Sill's new garage in Reisterstown. What makes this three-car garage worth the trip is that it was made out of about 200 bales of straw and features a toilet that heats waste into environmentally friendly ash. The Sills' garage was finished last week, just in time to be part of the B-more, B-Green Solar Tour on Sunday sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society, Potomac Regional Solar Energy Association...