Tipper

Which fairy tale was Susan Reimer reading? ("Al and Tipper: They break up, we suffer," June 7.) I cannot imagine spending even one chapter with the wooden, monotoned and artificial Al Gore. His life is about accumulating great wealth and living like a prince. That awkward kiss at the Democratic National Convention obviously turned Albert into a frog. May Tipper live happily ever after. Kathy Novak, Towson

Which fairy tale was Susan Reimer reading? ("Al and Tipper: They break up, we suffer," June 7.) I cannot imagine spending even one chapter with the wooden, monotoned and artificial Al Gore. His life is about accumulating great wealth and living like a prince. That awkward kiss at the Democratic National Convention obviously turned Albert into a frog. May Tipper live happily ever after. Kathy Novak, Towson

On January 4, 2007, DOROTHEA TIPPER APGAR . Memorial Services on Saturday, July 14, 11 AM at St. David's Episcopal Church, 4700 Roland Avenue, Roland Park.

They should have stayed together. If not for the kids, then for the rest of us. That seems to be the tone of the national hand-wringing over the news that Al and Tipper Gore are separating after 40 years of marriage. "How could they do that to us?" the chattering class is asking. "Were they even thinking about us? What are we supposed to do at Christmas? And who gets custody of our notion of a good marriage?" At a time when we seem to be at some kind of cosmic peak in marital misbehavior, the Gores were the national model of a successful public marriage.

Political wags are already suggesting that the best presidential debate of the campaign would pit Tipper Gore against Hillary Clinton. Tipper bakes cookies, according to current stereotyping, and Hillary does not. Tipper is the ultimate homemaker, Hillary the high-paid lawyer who spends her odd hours on big corporate boards. Tipper the prudish pecksniff, Hillary the liberated feminist.Both of these political wives are as immersed in the issues, as hopped up with intellectual firepower, as their husbands.

Sunny Sunrise gets a chance for redemption and could top the $1 million mark in earnings today in the eighth running of the $175,000 Baltimore Budweiser Breeders' Cup Handicap for 3-year-olds and up at Laurel Race Course.In last year's race, Excellent Tipper -- trained by Howie Tesher -- drove past Sunny Sunrise in the stretch to win by a head and set the Laurel track record for 1 1/8 miles: 1 minute, 47 3/5 seconds."[Sunny Sunrise] ran his heart out," said Grover "Bud" Delp, the horse's trainer.

LAUREL -- Sunny Sunrise was running easily on the lead without any company in the $175,000 added Baltimore Budweiser Breeders' Cup yesterday at Laurel.But Edgar Prado, winning jockey in 13 previous stakes races in Maryland this year, was not about to let him get away.Prado moved New York invader Excellent Tipper into contending position from the outside, took aim on the leader and passed Sunny Sunrise in the final strides to win by a head.Excellent Tipper finished the Grade III stakes race in 1 minute, 47 3/5 seconds, a track record for 1 1/8 miles.

On October 2, 2008, ROSALIE MARY LORRAINE SCHILLING (nee Romansky); beloved mother of Rosalie M. Hurd and Kenneth P. Schilling, Jr.; dear grandmother of Lisa Marie Hurd Tipper; dear great-great-grandmother of Noah Elliot Tipper. A graveside service will be held Monday 11 A.M., at Woodlawn Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Progress Unlimited Incorporated, 11431 Cronhill Drive, Suite C, Owings Mills, MD, 21117. Arrangements by the family owned Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home Inc.

Constance Tipper, 101, a metallurgist whose test for determining the brittleness of steel kept Britain's Liberty ships afloat during World War II, died Dec. 14. in the northwest England town of Penrith. She was a researcher at Cambridge University when Britain began looking for an explanation for why some of its Liberty merchant vessels cracked like glass at sea. Military authorities blamed engineering design or welding, but Ms. Tipper said the problem was with the steel. She developed what is now known as the "Tipper Test" to determine the metal's brittleness.

Suzie Talaat, executive director of the Parents' Music Resource Center (P.M.R.C.), agrees that it's easy to get the wrong idea about where she works."Most people think that the P.M.R.C. is manned by hundreds of little old women with little 'BANNED' stamps, thinking, 'This is not good, this is not good,' " she says. "There are a lot of misperceptions about the P.M.R.C. That's just the result of people's negative perception of what we do."What they do is provide information about popular music groups to concerned parents, an innocent enough calling on the face of it. And by most appearances, this would seem just another advocacy group -- until, that is, the Tipper Factor comes into play.

On October 2, 2008, ROSALIE MARY LORRAINE SCHILLING (nee Romansky); beloved mother of Rosalie M. Hurd and Kenneth P. Schilling, Jr.; dear grandmother of Lisa Marie Hurd Tipper; dear great-great-grandmother of Noah Elliot Tipper. A graveside service will be held Monday 11 A.M., at Woodlawn Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Progress Unlimited Incorporated, 11431 Cronhill Drive, Suite C, Owings Mills, MD, 21117. Arrangements by the family owned Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home Inc.

The man who on TV gave us the re-gifter, double-dipper, anti-dentite, low-talker and bad breaker-upper proves to be something else entirely in real life: a great tipper. Jerry Seinfeld left a $40 tip on a $40 lunch tab at Regi's in Federal Hill on Saturday. So says Jessica Pickard, happy recipient of said gratuity. The tab-doubling tip was the only thing that made Seinfeld, in town for an appearance at the Meyerhoff that night, stand out. No funny banter with the server. No witty repartee with the two guys seated with him. No riffs on their wings and wraps.

On January 4, 2007, DOROTHEA TIPPER APGAR . Memorial Services on Saturday, July 14, 11 AM at St. David's Episcopal Church, 4700 Roland Avenue, Roland Park.

Jimmy Johnson Shoe Shiner Shoe Shine Gallery, Baltimore Salary --About $100 a day, depending on the number of clients Age --65 Years on the job --17 How he got started --Johnson started shining shoes when he was 14. But he has been shining shoes professionally for 17 years. He started in his hometown of Norfolk, Va. Nine years ago, his father-in-law introduced him to the owner of the Shoe Shine Gallery in the Gallery mall at the Inner Harbor. He's worked there ever since. Typical day --Johnson rents the space from the Shoe Shine Gallery owner and runs the operation on his own, six days a week.

ELKTON - Ever since she showed up here in a skimpy sundress, fishnet stockings and a red feather boa, Gertie has been the talk of this cozy, old-fashioned town. Fans admire her flamboyant sense of style. Detractors call her a floozy. She made newspaper headlines when she fell (or was pushed) and needed plastic surgery. And she won a local popularity contest. It's quite a bit of buzz for a statue of an elk. Then again, Gertie is an attention getter, a large piece of public art, by far the most conspicuous of eight elk statues on display in this community at the northeastern tip of Maryland.

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Al Gore stood under a stoplight and next to a low, chiming bell tower here the other crispy autumn afternoon and, ignoring the distractions, made his pitch to several thousand listeners at an intersection off the Michigan State campus. With his determined, resolute voice and manner, the vice president told the crowd that "prosperity is on the ballot" on Election Day and that Michigan with its 18 electoral votes might well decide the outcome. Only hours after America had adjusted its clocks for standard time, he warned that a vote for his opponent, George W. Bush, would turn the clock back eight years to when the senior Bush was president and Michigan was wracked with recession and high unemployment.

When Dave Barry booked his summer vacation in New York, little did he know the Democratic National Convention was scheduled for the same time. A lesser man would have pretended not to notice, but Dave, supremely devoted to his craft, insisted on covering the proceedings. Selfless Dave will report on the convention this week while his family is busy tossing down lobster salad at four-star restaurants.New York -- I finally caught up with the New Hillary Clinton. She has replaced the Old Hillary Clinton, who was unpopular with the public because she was going around discussing the issues and acting forceful and just generally appearing to have opinions.

A mid-autumn night's dream:Morning in America. Sunlight streams through an open window. Birds chirp merrily. Children frolic in a lush field. Oh, look, here's me and Hillary and little Chelsea in the White House! Hillary's throwing her headband at the maid and shrieking: "I said we'd have coffee in the Blue Room!"Just like in Little Rock.God, I love that woman!Look, here comes Ross Perot for a visit. He's stepping out of his limo. Wearing a big smile. Get outta here, you wacko little creep!

The poet John Donne once wrote of a kiss "which sucks two souls, and vapors both away." The public kiss presidential candidate Al Gore planted on his wife Tipper at the Democratic convention may not have vapored any souls, but it's sucked up plenty of airtime and newspaper pages since it happened. Not since Ellen DeGeneres bussed her lesbian love on television three years ago have tongues wagged so over a simple snog. And not since Michael Jackson's improbable smooch on new wife Lisa Marie Presley during the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards has there been so much speculation about what's behind a kiss.

Tipper Gore underwent surgery yesterday afternoon at Johns Hopkins Hospital to remove a nodule from her thyroid gland, which doctors will test for cancer. They'll know the results in about a week.Earlier tests on the lump had been inconclusive, so physicians recommended that Gore have the surgery, according to statement released last night by Gore's spokeswoman, Camille Johnston."The only way to find out what this is is to have it removed and have it tested," Johnston said. She said Gore and her husband, Vice President Al Gore, planned to stay over at Hopkins last night.