Towels

Members of the Columbia Association's three gyms can wave their free towels goodbye starting Nov. 1, the result of an austere budget proposed for the next two years that would also reduce employee pay raises but leave residents' property lien fees unchanged. The towel move would save up to $5 million over a decade and also help the environment, officials said. But some of the few residents who've heard about the idea aren't buying it. "I no way agree it's environmental," said Cynthia Coyle of Harper's Choice, the elected CA board member who heads the committee examining the budget.

I'll readily admit that I think the Furminator is one of the greatest pet gadgets ever invented. Have you ever tried one of them on a double-coated dog? Or a short-haired cat? It's crazy how much fur those things comb away. So you can imagine how excited I was when the FURminator people invented another product. The new gadget is called a FUR Dry. It's a wearable dog towel that the company promises will help people dry their dogs "effortlessly" with a "patented solution.

Two gunmen got away with cash, a loaded coin tray and likely the most-stolen item of any motel - its towels - during the robbery of a Comfort Inn near Annapolis late Friday. Police said the robbers took the towels first - using them as masks when they jumped over the counter and ordered a clerk to turn over the money. They fled the Old Mill Bottom Road motel, apparently on foot, carrying the cash and coins in a motel trash can, police said. The Comfort Inn's general manager, Jim Crouch, said the robbery was the second in the motel's 11 years of operation.

Laura Vozzella joined The Sun in 2000 after working as a reporter for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Hartford Courant and The Associated Press in Boston. While at The Sun, she has written stories and columns on a wide range of topics, including Mayor Sheila Dixon's ill-gotten mink and the theft of towels from Columbia Association gyms. She currently writes about food and does a weekly column on Maryland politics and other local oddities.

HOWARD County is the seventh-wealthiest county in the United States and people in Columbia, the pleasure capital of Howard County, walk off with thousands of dollars worth of towels a year from the Columbia Association gyms. Which reminds me of a line from a famous sermon: "The meek shall inherit the Earth. The rich get the towels." Which reminds me of the pizza deliveryman who said the cheapest tippers on his route were in Ruxton. And which further reminds me of what my mother, the former Rose Popolo, always used to say for no reason at all. She'd stick out her hand, rub her thumb in a circle against her fingers and say: "People with money keep their money.

Like all those socks that get lost in the dryer, 3,000 towels disappear from Columbia Association gyms every month. That stolen terrycloth, along with the hefty cost of running a laundry, has the homeowners association thinking about dropping towel service at its three health clubs, a perk that costs about $230,000 a year. But taking gym towels away from Columbians is proving to be as tough as separating Peanuts' Linus from his security blanket. Hundreds of cards, letters and e-mails have poured in, to protest the plan.

We're remodeling a small bathroom -- so small that it contains only a shower stall, toilet and sink. We would prefer to avoid the usual cabinet/sink combination. Will it be possible to provide enough storage space for towels and toiletries if we install a pedestal sink?The photo basically answers your question. As you can see, the added ledge accommodates all the necessary toilet articles, while extra towels are stored on shelves in the small built-in cabinet.If you don't have enough space for a cabinet, the ledge can be made wider than the 6 inches seen here.

The Columbia Council has little doubt about where the public stands on the great gym towel debate. At a public hearing on the proposed fiscal 2003 budget Wednesday night, speaker after speaker said Columbia Association health clubs should continue to provide towels to patrons. No one spoke in favor of eliminating towel service, a move projected to save the Columbia Association $230,000 a year. "I urge the council: Don't rub Columbians the wrong way," said David Hatch, chairman of the Oakland Mills Village Board.

As the clock neared midnight Wednesday, a patient but angry Joel Prescott of Thunder Hill rose after waiting four hours to tell the Columbia Association board of directors exactly what he thinks of plans to eliminate free towels from the three association gyms. "I want my towels back," the tall, fit-looking Prescott said with some force. "It makes sense - sanitation common sense. For goodness' sakes, people, I've never heard anything so absurd." Prescott said he visited the private, for-profit LifeTime Fitness in east Columbia on Tuesday for the first time, where gym towels continue to be free with membership.

Columbia Art Center sponsoring 'Doghouse' Columbia Art Center, 6100 Foreland Garth, Long Reach Village Center, will continue to sponsor its Doghouse of Joy through Tuesday, in conjunction with Columbia Association's 2008 "Season of Giving." Items that can be dropped off include: laundry detergent and bleach, paper towels, tall kitchen drawstring bags, disinfectant floor cleaner, antibacterial dishwashing liquid, canned dog and cat food, cat litter, bathroom rugs, cloth towels and meat-flavored baby food.

With one exception — the woman who snapped that she no longer darns socks because "women have better things to do" — everyone who called or wrote to me on Sunday seemed quite pleasant, even charming. Each was a proud darner of socks: frugal menders and fixers who hate to throw things away and who refuse to participate in our disposable society. "I've been a darner all my life, I even darn towels," said Linda Foster, one of nearly 200 readers who responded to my survey questions: Does anyone darn socks in 21st Century America?

As if the Pittsburgh Steelers coming to town this weekend wasn't already making people nuts, now there's another monumental civic controversy to consider: Should Ravens fans wave those goofy purple towels or what? You've heard about the purple towels, of course. The Ravens will be handing out more than 71,000 of them as fans enter M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday evening. The idea is to have fans dress in purple and wave purple rally towels to fire up the team and look good for the NBC cameras.

Shawn Parsons has been going to Ravens games since the team first arrived in Baltimore, putting on his favorite purple jersey, tailgating with friends and cheering on the home team in customary ways. Now the local artist is set to combine his professional talents with his passion for his hometown team. Parsons is not trying to change the color scheme at M&T Bank Stadium for home games, but the 42-year-old illustrator and graphic designer from Fallston does hope to darken the mood — at least when it comes to creating a more intimidating home field advantage.

As the clock neared midnight Wednesday, a patient but angry Joel Prescott of Thunder Hill rose after waiting four hours to tell the Columbia Association board of directors exactly what he thinks of plans to eliminate free towels from the three association gyms. "I want my towels back," the tall, fit-looking Prescott said with some force. "It makes sense - sanitation common sense. For goodness' sakes, people, I've never heard anything so absurd." Prescott said he visited the private, for-profit LifeTime Fitness in east Columbia on Tuesday for the first time, where gym towels continue to be free with membership.

Members of the Columbia Association's three gyms can wave their free towels goodbye starting Nov. 1, the result of an austere budget proposed for the next two years that would also reduce employee pay raises but leave residents' property lien fees unchanged. The towel move would save up to $5 million over a decade and also help the environment, officials said. But some of the few residents who've heard about the idea aren't buying it. "I no way agree it's environmental," said Cynthia Coyle of Harper's Choice, the elected CA board member who heads the committee examining the budget.

As a public service, we begin a crash course in Ravensology that can be easily be transferred to flash cards for memorization. Despite what the rabid faithful might say, there's no shame in being a newly minted fan of Baltimore's only winning professional franchise that plays outdoors. With everyone watching Barack Obama and the economy, it has been tough to focus on the truly important issue of our time - playoff football. But now it's time to face the music and realize that, no matter where you go this week, chances are the talk will be all Ravens, all the time.