Strips

Doonesbury fans may have a hard time finding their favorite strip this week, as some newspapers shy away from Garry Trudeau's hard-edged lampooning of a Texas abortion law. In a week-long series , Trudeau takes direct aim at the law, which requires women to have an ultrasound procedure before an abortion. For some papers, phrases such as "slut" and "10-inch shaming wand" were a bit too hard to take. The harshest bit of dialogue may be the day-four bit comparing a transvaginal sonogram to rape.

The state on Friday will begin a weeklong project to install new safety measures on the westbound span of the Bay Bridge to guide traffic during two-way operation and eliminate some lane changes. Crews will install a buffer zone, rumble strips and continuous double yellow lines along the entire 4.3-mile length of the span, as recommended in a safety study last year. The result will mean motorists will not be allowed to switch between the left and center lanes at any time during a crossing.

Will Garfield become an animal-rights activist? Will the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles form a third political party? Will Nancy become a radical feminist and accuse Sluggo of sexual harassment?If there is little in the world that successfully resists change, the comics pages, it seems, are no exception. Reality increasingly colors the multi-paneled worlds of the imagination stuck inside hundreds of daily newspapers. King Features Syndicate, which distributes the Blondie comic strip, last week prepared its readers for the latest capitulation to modern custom: Dagwood Bumstead is not only giving notice to his tantrum-prone boss, Mr. Dithers, but is going to work for his wife, Blondie.

If you're inviting company over for the premiere of the HBO Beyonce documentary on Saturday night -- isn't everybody? -- here's a sandwich for you to make your guests, courtesy of Hooplaha.com - Life With a Smile. You can find the recipe and photos here . There's even a step-by-step video. The Beyonce sandwich stacks Popeyes fried chicken, three strips of bacon, hot sauce, blue cheese crumbles and jelly on Texas toast. There's some logic at play. Texas Toast celebrates the Houston native's home state.

Sykesville officials have rezoned two narrow strips of land at Raincliffe Center for industrial use, a move that should make the site more marketable.The Town Council voted Monday to change the zoning of the strips from conservation to industrial to make them compatible with the rest of the tract. The strips make up less than an acre of the 32-acre property along Route 32 at Raincliffe Road."With that industrial zoning, you can almost build anything with the exception of residences," said Mayor Jonathan S. Herman.

THE BEST THING THAT CAN be said about the stretch of U.S. 40 that runs through Howard County? It's a legitimate piece of Americana.Like the age rings on an old oak, the sporadic, sometimes tasteless, development that has occurred along it marks a half-century of history. Yet even when indoor shopping malls came into vogue in the '70s and power centers this decade, with their orderliness and aesthetic appeal, the U.S. 40 corridor remained vibrant in spite of its sprawling tackiness.For those who live in communities along its side streets, there is much criticism about the congestion and general ugliness.

Gary Larson of "The Far Side" was the first to quit, last New Year's Day. Then, in the spring, Berke Breathed, who created "Bloom County" and later "Outland," announced that he, too, was through with comic strips.And tomorrow, the curtain will close on another of the most popular strips in newspapers, "Calvin & Hobbes," about the raucous antics of a 6-year-old boy and his stuffed tiger companion. After 10 years, Bill Watterson, the reclusive creator of "C&H," wants out.What gives? In one year, three comics superstars in the prime of their careers -- Mr. Larson is the oldest at 45 -- will have walked away from strips that are loved by millions and that earned them millions.

Installing ceiling tiles is a fairly simple way to renew a badly deteriorated ceiling, or to give any ceiling an attractive finish during remodeling.Since some tiles also have acoustical or sound-deadening properties, the ceiling can have extra value. If installed on the ceiling of a family room under a bedroom, for example, the tiles can help absorb family-room noise that otherwise would reach the bedroom.When installing tiles for sound-deadening purposes, keep in mind that they are most effective for containing sound in the room where they are installed.

A couple months ago I came up with a chore/privilege board as a way to keep track of who's who in the job and privilege categories of daily life.For a sturdy chore board, we use:* 1 piece of white foam board, cut in an 18-by-9-inch rectangle* 6 adhesive-backed plastic hooks in bright colors* 6 metal rings* several plain index cards, cut in 1-by-5-inch strips with a hole punched at the top of each strip). If you have, say, two children and six categories, you will need 12 strips.* Markers and rulerDiscuss chores and privileges for a typical week, such as "set dinner table," "vacuum stairs," "choose Saturday bike route."

The next time you want to grill something a little a different, but very simple and delicious, try sesame veal Kebabs.The marinated strips are threaded onto skewers and cooked just until done, which takes only four to five minutes.Serve the Kebabs with easy accompaniments such as a colorful vegetable medley or a rice and snow pea salad.The recipe is from the National Live Stock and Meat Board.Sesame Veal Kebabs1 pound veal cutlets, cut 1/4 -inch thick1/3 cup dry white wine2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion2 teaspoons sesame oil1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger2 garlic cloves, minced1/4 teaspoon saltCut veal cutlets into one-inch wide strips.

More than 150 Baltimore County firefighters tackled a fire in a Rosedale strip mall Saturday afternoon, which appeared to have started in Jackie Chen's Chinese Restaurant, officials said. At least six stores were involved in the three-alarm fire in the 8400 block of Philadelphia Blvd., officials said. Firefighters, who were dispatched around 12:40 p.m., got it under control around 3:05 p.m. No injuries have been reported, and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Continuous rumble strips and a vividly painted buffer will be added to the Bay Bridge to protect motorists when the westbound span is running with two-way traffic. The Maryland Transportation Authority board voted unanimously to accept the recommendations of a safety committee that evaluated the conditions surrounding five fatal crashes over the last 12 years and looked at modifications — from permanent barriers to temporary markers — to protect the public. The rumble strip installation and paint job, expected to cost less than $500,000, will be carried out next spring in time for summer traffic, officials said.

Eric Hutchinson's success as a singer-songwriter could be measured by the Baltimore venues he's played. After honing his skills on smaller, now-defunct stages such as Fletcher's and the Funk Box, the 32-year-old Takoma Park native headlined the considerably larger Rams Head Live this past June. The rapturous response, according to the Warner Bros. recording artist, was impossible to ignore. "It was one of the best shows on the tour," Hutchinson said. "It felt like a hometown show.

The narrow margin of the Ravens' 9-6 win against the Kansas City Chiefs might have been more comfortable if Deonte Thompson had not committed the biggest gaffe of his rookie season. The kick returner opened the second half by returning a Ryan Succop kickoff 32 yards. But at the 29-yard line, former Ravens wide receiver Terrence Copper reached out and stripped the football from Thompson's right arm and former Ravens linebacker Edgar Jones pounced on the loose ball at the 29. According to both Thompson and inside linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, Copper's play was the only hurdle that prevented Thompson from reaching the end zone and giving the team what would have been a 10-3 lead.

The drug ring was taking in $14,000 a week selling cocaine and heroin in East Baltimore Street's strip club district, but court documents say Monica McCants, who ran the gang with her son, had grown concerned about one of the dancers in her network of dealers on The Block. Cherrie Gammon, who worked at Club Pussycat, owed money to gang members, and they suspected she was feeding information about the operation to police, according to prosecutors. Police found Gammon near Leakin Park on Dec. 12, 2010, suffering from five gunshot wounds.

A Baltimore police officer shot and killed a 20-year-old man just before dawn Saturday after chasing him from a 7-Eleven to a nearby block in the Langston Hughes neighborhood near Pimlico Race Course . Police received an anonymous call shortly before 6 a.m. about an armed man at the 7-Eleven near West Belvedere Avenue and Reisterstown Road, Sgt. Anthony Smith said. When officers arrived, the suspect ran away and was chased to the 5100 block of Arbutus Ave. The suspect was armed with a semiautomatic pistol.

"Mort Walker's Private Scrapbook: Celebrating a Life of Love and Laughter" by Mort Walker (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 323 pages, $29.95). If the United States had official National Living Cultural Treasures and also had a national sense of humor, Mort Walker surely would be high on the list. Beetle Bailey -- with Sarge and other archetypal military antiheroes -- lives on, apparently immortal. Hi and Lois still lead the pack of family comic strips -- neck and neck with Blondie and Dagwood.

If you're inviting company over for the premiere of the HBO Beyonce documentary on Saturday night -- isn't everybody? -- here's a sandwich for you to make your guests, courtesy of Hooplaha.com - Life With a Smile. You can find the recipe and photos here . There's even a step-by-step video. The Beyonce sandwich stacks Popeyes fried chicken, three strips of bacon, hot sauce, blue cheese crumbles and jelly on Texas toast. There's some logic at play. Texas Toast celebrates the Houston native's home state.

The food at several Baltimore strip clubs is surprisingly delicious. And that's the naked truth. We tried dishes from five clubs -- here are the results. --By Wesley Case View the photo gallery

City health officials want to strip the licenses of dozens of liquor stores in predominantly poor Baltimore neighborhoods, linking the outlets to higher levels of violent crime. Health and planning officials said Friday that they will use a citywide rezoning effort to force some stores that don't conform to current law to move, shut or change their offerings. "Clearly alcohol and violence are two of the major issues affecting the city," said Dr. Oxiris Barbot, city health commissioner, who is helping to lead the effort against the stores.