Tent

Last year, 8.8 million viewers saw NBC's coverage of the Preakness. That's the kind of big-tent mass audience that makes the race one of Baltimore's showcase events. And that doesn't count the hundreds of thousands who will watch pre- and post-race coverage on the NBC Sports Network cable channel. But how Baltimore is seen by all those eyeballs largely depends on how NBC Sports chooses to cover the race and related events starting Saturday at 2:30 p.m on NBC Sports Network. NBC's network coverage of the race starts at 4:30 p.m. and runs until 6:30 p.m., with a closing half hour from 6:30 to 7 on NBC Sports Network.

Jeremy Gardner is getting lucky with first-time horse gambles, and he isn't planning to stop anytime soon.  Gardner, who recently moved to Baltimore with his fiancée Tracey Richter fromLlos Angeles, turned $100 in bets into $700 in wins by 2 p.m. "I'm going to bet until it's gone," he said giddily. "I'm only betting on the long shots. " "I'm having so much fun," he added as he waited to make more bets at the infield windows.  A steady stream of bettors put down cash at the open windows, next to a tent sponsored by The Daily Racing Form and horseplayernow.com.

J ean-Michel Frederick lives at the Petionville Club, near the golf course's ninth tee, with a grand view of the valley and the harbor. That would have meant prestige a few weeks ago. Today it means sleeping with his family on the side of a hill inside a patchwork tent made of sticks and bed linens, wedged into a human collage of 30,000 fellow Haitians displaced by the earthquake. "Of course, we do not choose to live here, but it is safe from the earthquake and the Americans are here," said Frederick, as he stood in line with his mother and a thousand others, clutching the green Catholic Relief Services ticket that promised his family a two-week supply of food.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz is a Marylander right down to his board shorts. Born in Lochearn, he attend Gilman School, the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Baltimore School of Law. Elected county executive in 2010, he also served for 16 years as a county councilman. So it's no surprise that when asked about his favorite vacation destination, he named the state's summertime staple, Ocean City . He and his wife, Jill, "love to go to beaches," Kamenetz said.

IF YOU ARE the parent of a young child, at some point this summer, your child may turn to you and ask: "Can we buy a tent?" Here's a little piece of advice: Don't do it. Unless you're really into camping, this is one of those ideas you want to squash right away, before he gets his little hopes up and starts dashing around the neighborhood like a ferret on Dexedrine shouting: "We're getting a tent! We're getting a tent!" See, as soon as you buy the little monster a tent, he'll ask for one of two things.

A homeless man was found dead Monday in a tent under the Route 100 exit ramp off Mountain Road, county police said.Police have not identified the man, and a medical examiner has not determined the cause of death. But police said exposure to the elements may have been a factor in his death.The body was discovered around noon by a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. worker who regularly saw the man's tent from the roadway, police said. The worker noticed the tent had collapsed, and when he went to check on it, he found the body, police said.

DURHAM, N.C. -- They had been here for a while, some for nearly two months. They had turned the grounds around Cameron Indoor Stadium into a yuppified tent city, an L.L. Bean catalog come to life.Camping out in line for basketball tickets has been in vogue at Duke for several years now. But nothing compares to what had happened this season. And, as a result, the tradition might end with last night's final home game against Maryland."We appreciate their support, but I think we have to do something about them waiting so long," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said earlier this season.

A large tent and lumber that former Carroll Sheriff John H. Brown purchased to build outdoor housing for inmates at the county detention center has been earmarked for donation, Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning announced yesterday.Complaining that the county jail, which was designed for 144 prisoners, was too crowded when inmate population exceeded 190, Brown vowed in November 1997 to set up a tent in the jail's fenced yard and form a posse of unarmed civilian volunteers to help stand guard.Brown's project ran into trouble when a wooden platform was constructed without proper building permits.

When the air gets so heavy and dirty that it sits on the Baltimore skyline like an old wool Army blanket, I start thinking about camping. I am thinking about it right now. This past week was just a calling card for the humid weeks of summer ahead. Time to plan a trip to the hills of Pennsylvania or Virginia, or the mountains of northern New England. Sure, you can spend on camping gear the equivalent of the gross national product of some small nation. You'll look wicked cool setting up under the trees with stuff from The North Face or Sierra Designs.

Down the lane past the row of apple trees, it looks as if the circushas come to the country.Similar to the circus, because there's abig tent.Although there's something for the whole family under this big top, it's home to the Firm Foundation "Rock" Church, not the circus.The 70-member church is described as a non-denominational Christ-centered family ministry, said the Rev. Tom DiMaggio, the pastor. The church is affiliated with the "Rock" Ministerial Fellowship Family.The group meets in the spacious yellow, white and green tent on 31 acres it owns.

Tucked behind trees off a street in Glen Burnie are about a dozen mostly makeshift tents and a small trailer, forming a small community of homeless people who have been there off and on for several years. Now, Anne Arundel County has ordered the homeless to leave the site by April 3 — the second time in about a year there's been a push to clear the site. County agencies and nonprofit organizations — the Department of Social Services and the nonprofit Arundel House of Hope among them — are trying to connect the homeless people there with shelters and other services.

The 2012 Spirit Awards, honoring films made outside the major Hollywood studios and for limited budgets, got started with a ringing endorsement from host Seth Rogen.   "Welcome to the only awards show that is completely inconsequential," said Rogen, setting the tone for an awards show that likes to think of itself as Oscar's feistier, edgier cousin.   Rogen, to much laughter and applause from the audience, went on to poke fun at their determinedly anti-mainstream movies -- "I made it through the first five minutes of every one of them," he said -- and the giant oceanside tent here in Santa Monica in which the awards were announced.

I was at the Occupy Baltimore "Schools Not Jails" action on Monday, the 18th - Martin Luther King Jr Day. The police actions to which I was witness that evening would have left anyone feeling angry at the overreaction of our government and police. Once they had pushed away all the "official" media, I saw police in riot gear corral and intimidate young activists, smashing their meeting tent to the ground and shoving it into a garbage truck. The police and other officials have issued the excuse that the tent was "blocking a right of way" - I assure you, nothing critical was blocked.

The moment was 20 years in the making. That's how long Earl Geoghegan of Pasadena had tried talking his wife, Michelle, into buying a crossbow. . But there were the Geoghegans last Thursday morning waiting in line, like thousands of other local outdoors enthusiasts, turning their Christmas and holiday gift cards into guns, bows, fishing rods, camping equipment and other coveted necessities — and a few luxuries — to help them pursue their favorite...

Yesterday, we reported on the stabbing at the Occupy Baltimore encampment , which organizers condemned but critics of the protest say is another example of troubles the site has attracted. Police said the stabbing came after an argument over a cat, which begged a little elaboration. Early this morning a member of the movement, Elise Heroux, clarified the circumstances on their message board: "The true story is: the suspect was keeping a cat in her tent. She hadn't been there for a week, so the cat was left alone in the tent for that time.

Yellow caution tape encircled half of the sidewalk in front of the Rosedale Best Buy Wednesday evening, blocking off a space for the tents and folding chairs of shoppers dedicated to the cause of getting a deal. "Occupy Best Buy," shouted Edgewood resident Christina Johnson, who was huddled under blankets and enshrouded by a hood to keep off the cold. "This is our one opportunity to get a flat-screen TV. … We've been waiting all year. " Johnson and her husband, Shaka, were the second of four groups in line at the store by 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Three-year-old Anthony Carlson didn't really care that he was recovering from surgery in a tent. He just sat up in his bed, played with his Jell-O and smiled for the television cameras that had gathered around to make him the media star of the day.Anthony was one of nearly 1,000 patients who have been operated on since April at Fort Meade's deployable medical station, sort of a high-tech MASH unit. Anthony's father, Mark, an Army specialist stationed at Fort Detrick in Frederick, had seen one before, but just the same said he was surprised with the facility.

County police have identified the body found Monday in a collapsed tent under the Route 100 exit ramp off Mountain Road.Tests are being made to determine what caused the death of Robert Joseph Beach, 44, of no fixed address, officials said.Mr. Beach's body was discovered by a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. worker who regularly saw the man's tent from the road, police said. The worker noticed the tent had collapsed when he passed by around noon and found the body under it, police said.Two Pasadena men charged with stealing steaksPolice arrested two Pasadena neighbors Tuesday and charged them with stealing almost $150 worth of meat from two grocery stores.

One of the more popular public figures in the corporate tent area Saturday afternoon was new Maryland football coach Randy Edsall, who was attending his first Preakness along with his wife, Eileen. Edsall's choice to replace Ralph Friedgen back in January was not universally accepted among Terps fans, but most of those who introduced themselves to Edsall at Pimlico were polite and supportive. Even Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, who introduced himself recently to Edsall and told him that he was in favor of the university hiring former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, had friendly greetings.

I got a tip that Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff was competing in the Preakness Infield cornhole tournament. If I wasn’t looking for Cundiff -- who was wearing a polo, shorts and a pair of shades -- I wouldn’t have recognized him among all the college kids and young professionals tossing bean bags inside the tent. But I was able to flag down Cundiff, who was there with his wife, Nicole, at their first Preakness. “We wanted to do something to be a part of the Preakness because we’ve never been,” Cundiff said after beating a pair of twenty-somethings.