Teddy Bears

Kids: Bring your best teddy-bear pal to a "Teddy Bears Picnic Concert" Sunday at the Gordon Center for Performing Arts in Owings Mills. In honor of the teddy bear's 100th anniversary, kids' entertainer Gary Rosen will sing teddy-bear songs and more at the concert. President Theodore Roosevelt gets the credit for starting the teddy-bear craze in 1902, after the editorial cartoon "Drawing the Line in Mississippi" appeared in the Washington Post. The cartoon, by Clifford Berryman, showed Roosevelt refusing to shoot a baby bear while on a hunting trip.

Baltimore's mayor wants people to be more responsible, and the police commissioner wants people to be more accountable, and I couldn't agree more. So let's start trying to understand why somebody would steal at least four teddy bears that were part of a public memorial for this year's victims of homicide. I, for one, had thought I'd lost the ability to be outraged. Who could - who would - steal teddy bears? Each was attached by a wire to the railing at the entrance to the city branch headquarters of the NAACP on West 26th Street.

LOS ANGELES -- Today is Day 14 of the teddy bear hostage crisis.Inside a warehouse at Los Angeles International Airport, more than 2,000 stuffed toy animals that had been collected for Iraqi children remain in cardboard boxes, detained by U.S. Customs. Nearly a year after the liberation of Kuwait, the fate of these teddy bears is in limbo, awaiting the outcome of a dispute that pits a Santa Barbara, Calif., nurse against the collective authority of the United States government and the United Nations.

The teddy bears, all 80 of them, are piled in a living room at a home in Northeast Baltimore. Most are hand-me-downs - "pre-loved," Faith Bocian calls them - each representing one of the persons who has lost a life to violence in the city this year. Wednesday night, the bears will be displayed as part of a vigil called "Teddy Bears Crying" at the Baltimore branch of the NAACP at 8 W. 26th St. Each will be wearing a laminated name tag of a victim: "Andre Thorpe, 17, Jan. 2, 2009, 800 block of N. Kenwood Ave., shot; Andrew Goodwyn, 22, 11:10 p.m., March 13, 2009, Normandy Ave. Shot."

Earth can be a stressful planet, and humans rely on all kinds of things to cope with it: booze, television, rock and roll, and prayer among them.Shirley Sanborne depends on 600 teddy bears to keep her life together."

Baltimore's mayor wants people to be more responsible, and the police commissioner wants people to be more accountable, and I couldn't agree more. So let's start trying to understand why somebody would steal at least four teddy bears that were part of a public memorial for this year's victims of homicide. I, for one, had thought I'd lost the ability to be outraged. Who could - who would - steal teddy bears? Each was attached by a wire to the railing at the entrance to the city branch headquarters of the NAACP on West 26th Street.

Teddy bears have a great mystique. Cute and cuddly and with lovable personalities, they are irresistible.But why?Other stuffed animals are just as cute and cuddly, but they don't win the same lifelong affection and loyalty as teddy bears from humans young and old."It's because there's something mystical about teddy bears," says Susan Wimbley, 45, of Parkville. "They take you out ofyourself. They give you the tactile pleasure of holding something soft and warm and they have sweet faces with loving eyes."

Seventh-graders at Oakland Mills Middle School donated teddy bears to Howard County General Hospital yesterday and dedicated a flag to promote the new identity of their school.The 23 teddy bears were made by the students to help fulfill their service learning requirement and will be given to children who are in the hospital."I'm glad we'll able to help the kids and make them feel better when they're sick," said Ashley Hardester, 12, one of the two students who led the project.Before presenting the bears to hospital President Victor A. Broccolino, the students unveiled their flag -- a red falcon with yellow and orange around its wings that includes the school's name, the words "Falcons Achieve" and the opening date of the school, 1972.

Ruth Frank, a Phoenix resident with a collection of 351 teddy bears, died of cancer Thursday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. She was 78. Born Ruth Zinkhan, Mrs. Frank was one of two girls in a German family with 12 children. She was raised on a farm in Monkton, called to do chores alongside all her brothers. She met her husband, Paul J. Frank Sr., because two of her brothers had married two of his sisters. He was trained as a carpenter and later worked as a construction contractor.

THEY GREETED me with open arms and sly smiles. Some were aloof, and others so friendly that they begged me to hug them.A particular circle of friends was dressed in Sunday-best finery, gathered around the dining room table waiting for tea. Another group clustered on an antique tricycle in the living room. Still another rode an antique sled suspended above the staircase.What a group it was that filled the home of Bonnie and Perry Miles of Union Bridge when I visited.This was no ordinary gathering, but the collection of hundreds of dolls and teddy bears that Mr. and Mrs. Miles have accumulated over the years.

For a kid sentenced to the gloom of a cancer ward, it seems a stuffed animal wouldn't mean much. And that facing the prospect of needles and tubes and scary machines, a plastic action figure would be little consolation. Not true. One little girl from Mount Airy will tell you that a plush bear to hug, delivered unexpectedly while she was in the hospital, made quite an impression. "It didn't make me feel better," says MacKenzie Stuck, a 10-year-old who has battled a brain tumor for two years.

. Nina Woehlke, 8, of Millersville gazes at shelves full of fancy dolls. She strokes the soft fur of an antique teddy bear, made from mohair. For her and her sister, Rachel, 11, a visit to the Bearing Gifts store is a treat. "It's bribery for the children," said their mother, Nancy. "They get to pick something ... and [then] they have to be nice while we antique." Owner Kathleen Warshauer enjoys the shop almost as much as her youngest customers. "I love selling. ... Putting together displays is fun," she said.

Ruth Frank, a Phoenix resident with a collection of 351 teddy bears, died of cancer Thursday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. She was 78. Born Ruth Zinkhan, Mrs. Frank was one of two girls in a German family with 12 children. She was raised on a farm in Monkton, called to do chores alongside all her brothers. She met her husband, Paul J. Frank Sr., because two of her brothers had married two of his sisters. He was trained as a carpenter and later worked as a construction contractor.

David Stollery recalls arriving for dinner at the house of an acquaintance. It was supposed to be a meal for two, but Stollery noticed eight place settings. "One by one, he brought in six big, beautiful, teddy bears," Stollery said. "He introduced the bears to me by name, told me a story about each one and then sat them in a chair at the table." After dinner, Stollery beat a hasty retreat. "I remember driving home and thinking to myself that I had just met my first nut case," he said.

The Laurel College Center, a partnership of Howard and Prince George's community colleges, will hold a drop-in open house from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Aug. 16 at 312 Marshall Ave., Suite 205, Laurel, adjacent to the Laurel Shopping Center. A tour of the center will be offered. There will be an opportunity to talk with academic and financial aid advisers and learn how to register for credit or noncredit classes. Representatives from the Career Services Office of Howard Community College and the Laurel College Center's higher-education partners -- the College of Notre Dame, Towson University, University of Maryland, University College -- will be on hand.

The Free State Happy Wanderers Walking Club will sponsor a 9/11 memorial walk Sept. 11 at Montpelier Mansion, 9650 Muirkirk Road, in Laurel. The 5K and 10K trails include a walk along residential sidewalks, and are suitable for wheelchairs and strollers. A commemorative button will be given to the first 200 walkers. Registration is to be held between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Walks should be finished by 7 p.m. Information or to request a brochure: 301-717-3604, or e-mail, kindfellow@comcast.net.

When eight teddy bears were sent on a hitchhiking adventure by the fourth and fifth grades at Hampstead Elementary School in February, no one knew for sure where in the United States the bears would go or even if they would return.The bears had a mission: to collect postcards and mementos for the school's study of our nation's geography.Each bear was taken under wing by an adult traveler, who corresponded with the students at Hampstead concerning the bear's whereabouts. As the adults' travels ended, the bears were passed to other travelers.

MARK YOUR calendars for a round robin of craft shows. From Frizzellburg to New Windsor and on to Westminster, you'll find lovely things to admire and buy and good things to eat.Where to start? You might want to begin your tour of crafts at the St. Paul's United Methodist Church Early Bird Christmas Show.This one is a perennial favorite, with flower arrangements by Trudy Jo Snader of New Windsor and teddy bears and other fanciful crafts by Nikki Alban of Pennsylvania.The rooms, upstairs and down, will be filled with things that have been crafted by hand by area artists.

Everyone is familiar with the signs that shout out the cost of driving these days, the ones that say $2.97, $3.08, $3.16, $3.27, that chronicle the rising price of a gallon of gasoline. Those signs get the public fuming, the politicians posturing and the president investigating. But there are many other signs of the cost of America's love affair with the automobile that seem to fade into the background like drab wallpaper. Take those small memorials - the crosses, the plastic flowers, the teddy bears - that mark the site of a death by automobile.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Five days before he faces World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman in perhaps the most important fight of his career, James Toney was in the lobby of the Bally's Hotel & Casino being the impish character only those close to him get to see. Known as much for a surly image, menacing stare-downs and obscenity-laced tirades aimed at intimidating rivals, Toney had grabbed the purse of publicist Rachel Charles. He then playfully started distributing Charles' money to members of his small entourage.