TIN

Names can be deceiving. Penny toys, small colorful lithographed tin plate amusements, no longer cost a penny. First sold a century ago by street vendors, penny toys recently have taken on an air of respectability, which comes from appreciating up to 200,000 times their original value. In part that means collectors scour antiques shows for them, they're listed in pricey auction catalogs, a lavishly illustrated "coffee table" book is now available, and an exhibition will open in October at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore.

Captain Larry's With nautical murals and a crazy history, this corner bar in Federal Hill is a solid destination - regardless of whether you live in the neighborhood. Where -- 601 E. Fort Ave. Call -- 410-727-4799 Web site -- captainlarrys.com Notable -- The captain himself is no longer at the helm - he headed for Florida a couple of years back. But there are still remnants of the place's wilder days, such as the bullet holes in the pressed tin ceiling. Vibe -- Fun and friendly. The service is down to earth.

THE YEAR in which Germany's capital moves back to Berlin and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder insists it is a great nation is the same year the Swedish Academy had to award the Nobel Prize in literature to Guenter Grass. He had been mentioned for 20 years."The Tin Drum," his breathtaking novel that cries out for honor, was published 40 years ago. Awarded to a living writer whose works have withstood the test of time, the Nobel Prize is for doing "something important" at a young age and living long afterward.

St. Martin's Players, the Severna Park theater group that took its name from the church that rented it space for its productions, has a new name, Second Stage Playhouse. After this month it will be searching for new space.St. Martin's in the Field Episcopal Church has decided not to renew the group's lease on the church hall on Benfield Road.For two more weekends, the theater company will bring us the magic of "The Wizard of Oz" with some 50 children in Munchkin costumes, clever choreography, hilarious character parts and a beautifully played Dorothy, the child from Kansas who follows the yellow brick road.

Summer has barely begun, and we've already enjoyed three productions exhibiting some extraordinary young talent.In mid-May, Second Stage Playhouse presented 50 talented youngsters in "The Wizard of Oz." A week later, Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre opened its season with a largely high-school-age cast in "West Side Story," the best show I've seen at ASGT. This month, we welcome Talent Machine Company's "The Wiz,'" with a 60-member cast of 4- to 18-year-olds offering a great show."The Wiz" is an excellent vehicle for these young players, displaying their energy, acting, singing and dancing, and the professional expertise of the director, choreographer, music director, staging and lighting crew, costume designer and sound technicians.

TELEVISION reminds me of microwave dinners and my father passed out in his reclining chair with a cigar hanging out the side of his mouth. Memories of children's television and Saturday morning cartoons leave me with a strange empty feeling in my stomach.I watched TV alone most of the time, when there was nobody around.I don't watch much television any more. I decided a couple years ago that I could be doing more productive things in my spare time than sitting in front of a box zoning out on the screen.

Q. Would you send me a listing of foods that cause gas? I have been declining invitations because I don't want to embarrass myself.A. The best way to determine which foods cause you difficulties is to keep a diary recording what you eat and counting flatus events. This way you will be able to tell if you react to bagels and pretzels, as some people do, or to apples and radishes. The most notorious culprits are beans, of course, and vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower.For those who are lactose intolerant, milk causes gas or diarrhea.

In his memoirs, Tennessee Williams wrote that "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" was his favorite play, the one that "comes closest to being both a work of art and a work of craft." The current production at Everyman Theatre, co-produced with Columbia's Rep Stage, does Williams' assessment proud.The second-act confrontation between Timmy Ray James' mean-spirited Big Daddy and his son Brick, played with intense self-loathing by Kyle Prue, is some of the best acting seen yet at this small gem of a theater.

WALKING AROUND the harbor the other day, I noticed the train rails on Light Street. They reminded me of the little freight train that often interrupted our ride home from a Sunday evening visit to my grandmother's house on Poultney Street in South Baltimore.The train seemed to materialize from nowhere, and with my father's car stopped in front of the tracks, we'd watch the engine move purposefully around the harbor's edge, with a trail of much-used freight cars in tow.One open car always carried a load of shiny scraps hauled out of the old Federal Tin plant.

Tennessee Williams(1911-1983)Otherwise known as Thomas Lanier, Williams was born in rural Mississippi. He experienced serious tensions as a young man because of his homosexuality and his family's financial circumstances. For these reasons, Williams used writing as an outlet.He wrote the autobiographical play "The Glass Menagerie," treated the theme of homosexuality in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," but "A Streetcar Named Desire" won him regard as the leading playwright of his generation.A Reader's Guide to Twentieth Century WritersPub Date: 10/25/98

THURSDAY DAVID KELTZ: POE IN PERSON: The Edgar Allan Poe impersonator performs tales of the macabre all weekend at Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston St. The celebration starts at 8 tonight with performances of "The Black Cat," "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "Annabel Lee" and "The Raven." Classic tales will also be performed at 3 p.m. Saturday. Other programs, "Beyond the Grave" and "Humor & Horror," are performed throughout the weekend. Single tickets are $10-$20. A three-play package is available for $20-$40.

For about half a century, the stocky brick building that stands on the border of Remington and Charles Village languished as tenants and owners came and went. Redevelopment efforts stalled, leaving pigeons, graffiti, vandals and the elements to steadily wear on this one-time tin can manufacturing plant. But for the past several months, neighbors have watched as workers in hard hats cleared decades worth of trash from the 80,000-square-foot building, which was built in 1874. Workers have installed new plumbing and are working on renovations that will maintain the building's status as a historic structure.

Officials ask speedy aid in the wake of Ike WASHINGTON: Gulf Coast officials asked lawmakers yesterday for fast federal money for hurricane recovery and a minimum of bureaucratic red tape. Texas is looking at $11.4 billion in damage from Ike, including $16 million in damage to Houston, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said. Devastation in Galveston is $2 billion, that city's mayor said. Louisiana is facing $1 billion in damage from Ike and Gustav, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said in prepared testimony that the $40 million cost of evacuating his city for Hurricane Gustav has led to hiring freezes and a halt of any new expenditures until disaster costs are reimbursed.

Halloween is just around the corner, and while there's no shortage of pirate costumes, gory masks and creepy lawn ornaments, we thought we'd scare up some more creative decorations offered by area shops and museums. Here are some items we found: 1. String Witch Doll Price: $10 Where to get it: Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive, 443-573-1700 Why we like it: Handmade in Thailand from one continuous piece of string, this delightful green doll is about 4 inches tall. She's topped with a felt hat and carries a little broom.

My neighbors will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 2500 block of Guilford Ave. next week. They promise the name and spirit of Patricia Trimp will be honored as they toast the centenary of a classic Baltimore stand of porch-front rowhouses. Pat Trimp didn't quite make it to her block's centennial. She died at home March 14, just short of her 85th birthday. A visit to her 1907 home was a trip to a section of the Smithsonian not yet open to tourists. She had a classic parlor with a Philco radio, rotary dial phone (it had a nondigital shrill ring)

The late Ingmar Bergman gave us a classical dance of death, but it's more like a madcap macarena in Death at a Funeral, a half-hilarious farce about a family's vain attempt to bury its patriarch with dignity at his suburban manse in the verdant English countryside. The movie maintains its comical, rocky equilibrium as long as the screenwriter, Dean Craig, sticks to domestic disasters and a Monty Python parody of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Death at a Funeral (MGM) Starring Matthew MacFadyen, Rupert Graves, Ewen Bremner, Daisy Donovan, Jane Asher, Alan Tudyk.

Captain Larry's With nautical murals and a crazy history, this corner bar in Federal Hill is a solid destination - regardless of whether you live in the neighborhood. Where -- 601 E. Fort Ave. Call -- 410-727-4799 Web site -- captainlarrys.com Notable -- The captain himself is no longer at the helm - he headed for Florida a couple of years back. But there are still remnants of the place's wilder days, such as the bullet holes in the pressed tin ceiling. Vibe -- Fun and friendly. The service is down to earth.

Who could resist a newspaper with a name like The Anti-Calamity Howler? It was published in Chanute, Kan., in the 1890s. Or its contemporary, The Artful Dodger, of Saco, Maine? Or the now-darkened Ohio Luminary? The Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities have jointly sponsored a Web site, called Chronicling America, that among other things lists just about every newspaper published in this country since 1690. There were thousands upon thousands of them - 137,667 titles, to be precise, though there's a certain amount of duplication with newspapers that have changed their names through the years.

Maryland: Taxes U.S. holding refunds of $2.2 billion from '03 The federal government is holding more than $2.2 billion for 1.8 million people who failed to file a tax return in 2003 and didn't get their refund. They have until April 17 to file a return with the Internal Revenue Service, otherwise the U.S. Treasury will keep the cash. About 41,300 of these non-filers are Marylanders who are due a total of $55.1 million. Get the forms to file previous years' returns at www.irs.gov or call 800-829-3676.

When Peter Shankman pictures a tin of Old Bay Seasoning, a childhood tableau leaps to mind. It's a "cold winter night in Manhattan. At 6 p.m., I'd come home and go into the kitchen and open the cabinet and I'd always see that can. It's a good feeling, a good memory there." It's also a good example of a positive image that has endured, says Shankman, who runs a marketing firm in New York. But when he thinks of Yoo-hoo, the chocolate drink once trumpeted by baseball great Yogi Berra, "warm and fuzzy" isn't in the picture.