Twist

Howard County can be proud of the fact that there are a number of interesting little individually owned eateries that provide sustenance for locals who live a tad outside the plethora of "usual" Columbia and Main Street, Ellicott City, haunts. Such a "hidden" treasure is the Twist and Turn Tavern in the Highland Crossing Center, which is basically at the crossroads of routes 108 and 216. The Tavern is just over two years old now, and while it is enjoying a certain success, the four owners have hired (read: "strongarmed" )

By dumping $300,000 in taxpayer funds on Towson University's baseball team, Gov. Martin O'Malley has temporarily solved one problem and created a multitude of others. The frustration that led Mr. O'Malley to intervene is understandable. But his proposal to use a supplemental appropriation to buy the team two more years sets a dangerous precedent while failing to address any of the problems in Towson's athletics department that got the university into the unwelcome position of cutting two men's sports in the first place.

S ometimes you can look at your life almost objectively. In these rare instances, you are permitted to pause and reflect a moment about what is really important. Some people have these epiphanies when they least expect it - at baseball games or in the shower or on long nature hikes. I suppose that's just happened to me. Over the past two weekends, for the better part of both Saturdays, my husband and I have attended funerals. Ordinarily, funerals do not come to mind as an appropriate subject for my column, but I think things happen for a reason - and the reason I am writing this week's column about funerals is they have a message for the living.

The season's chilly weather calls for comfort food, but that's no reason to pack on the pounds. After all, spring is right around the corner. We asked local chefs to share their comfort food favorites, lightened up a bit in honor of the season ahead. Many of our chefs gravitated toward seafood, and some added fresh vegetables and herbs. Eat and enjoy! Cyrus Keefer Birroteca 1520 Clipper Road, Baltimore 443-708-1934 bmorebirroteca.com "I've always found pasta comforting," says Cyrus Keefer.

The modern woman needn't cut the laces and ribbons that are tied to styles of the past; she can tie them into the way she lives today.Baltimore designer Kate Burch has done just that. For the past two years, Ms. Burch has been creating one-of-a-kind hats from her studio at the Mill Centre. Now she has expanded to clothing design and into a new shop called Magpie, in Mount Washington Village.The magpie is a bird addicted to indiscriminate hoarding of bright bits and pieces, a habit Ms. Burch indulged in her work with theater and vintage clothing.

Jeff Hardy seemed to be sliding back to his former role of being the company's most popular mid-carder. Rather than taking his near misses at the WWE title in stride, Hardy came out swinging Friday night on SmackDown. His frustration boiling over, Hardy wielded a chair to show he wasn't taking a back seat to anyone in his ongoing quest for the title. A desperate Hardy willing to use extreme measures to get what he wants adds a new layer to his character and is a logical progression of his story line.

Oliver's Twist went down to his first defeat at Gulfstream Park on Friday, but his trainer, Billy Boniface, is undeterred in his plans to run the Maryland-bred colt in two weeks in the Grade II Fountain of Youth Stakes."

An airplane shuttle service introduced Charles Oliver to an inner circle of Maryland horsemen. However, it has been a homebred 2-year-old that is making Oliver a regular to a more coveted circle.Oliver's Twist, the first racehorse owned by Oliver, sped to victory in the $60,000 Rollicking Stakes yesterday at Laurel Park, taking Oliver to the winner's circle for the second time this month."I didn't expect two wins in two starts, that's for sure," said Oliver, 55, a full-time insurance man and part-time charter pilot from Bel Air. "Actually, I was just hoping to get my first start."

In one week, you can "Hooka Tooka" like you did last summer.You could also "Twist," "Limbo Rock" and "Hucklebuck," because the man who performed those hits and revolutionized the dance floor is coming to Ellicott City.Chubby Checker will present a "Rock and Roll Dance Party" with his band, The Wildcats, March 5 at Turf Valley Hotel and Country Club, singing several of his biggest numbers and pop rock classics from the last four decades.Mr. Checker, who put 23 songs on Billboard's Top 40 chart, including nine on the Top 10, achieved what no parent could.

The major twist on this season of The Apprentice has been dividing the teams into "haves" and "have-nots" by forcing the losing team to sleep in tents outside the mansion where the winning team is living it up. On Sunday's episode, members of undefeated Kinetic muffed their task big time, meaning they not only lost but also had to move to the outdoors camp for the first time. While the just desserts were fun to watch, it was also nice to see Arrow finally win (thanks to the efforts of project manager Aaron, who is from Columbia)

Anna Di Pierno's little charmer of a restaurant has been around for about seven years, operating under the name Pasta Blitz. If you go looking for it, though, look for Il Basilico. Di Pierno has taken a deliberate approach to the name change, but the transition is almost complete. The neon sign above the restaurant, located in a Timonium strip mall, still carries the old name, but virtually everything inside is now emblazoned with the Il Basilico logo. The menu has been changing gradually, too. The main part still consists of Italian-American favorites - lots of them - things like veal Parmigiana, homemade lasagna Bolognese and chicken cacciatore.

Brenna Doherty's dream of becoming a world-class figure skater has had its share of bumpy landings. They began when Doherty was a freshman at Oakland Mills High in Columbia. After making the finals at junior nationals at ages 13 and 14, Doherty thought she wanted to try being a typical teenager. "When I first entered high school, I wanted to be a part of the Homecoming committee, and all kinds of stuff like that," Doherty, now 18, recalled recently. "I followed my friends and joined some of their clubs, but I definitely decided it wasn't for me. I wanted to go to the ice rink every day and train.

Country music stars will get a whiff of Eldersburg next week. After being chosen as the official candle of the gift tent at the Country Music Awards on Nov. 1, in Nashville, the Eldersburg-based company, Unwined Candles, will have its products in gift bags for all participants. For owners and creators Dave and Anna Neith, that means late nights and full weekends as he makes more than 300 candles to take to Nashville. "It's a little overwhelming … a good problem to have," Dave Neith said.

Wedding day: Sept. 29, 2012 The bride: Salmah Y. Rizvi, 26, grew up in Laurel. She works for the Department of Defense. Her father, Anwar H. Rizvi, is a plant pathologist for the United States Department of Agriculture. Her mother, Shamoon H. Rizvi, is a dialysis nurse at Bon Secours Hospital in Baltimore. The groom: Imran M. Akram, 29, grew up in New York before moving to Baltimore. He is a chemical engineer for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. His mother, Zahida Rashid, is a special-education teacher in New York.

Salt is a solid destination for new American cuisine in the heart of Upper Fells Point, boasting a clean, stylish interior awaiting your dinner or happy hour needs with bright solid color motifs and independent art on virtually every wall. Whether you're there for some lavish entrees like foie gras stuffed grilled quail or something simple like their coveted duck fat fries, chances are fairly high there's a cocktail to match. Bartender Harry Philavanh, an Eastern Shore native, explained that, "The list is seasonally rotating, we like to change it up to reflect the changes in the menu every few months.

This week's episode opened with Emily dreaming about her mother, who then morphed into Victoria. Talk about going from a pleasant dream to a nightmare. When Nolan tries to wake Emily from her nap she manages to strangle him in her sleep -- the list of this woman's skills just keeps on growing. This episode had nearly everyone conniving someone to get what they wanted. Emily used Daniel to help get Charlotte out of rehab, and then used Amanda to keep Charlotte from leaving the country with Victoria.

For a couple of moments, Dennis Carr felt his Grade I mount, Twist Afleet, struggling yesterday on the backstretch of Pimlico Race Course and thought the horse was in trouble.Twist Afleet had torn off a front shoe, but in the true fashion of a legitimate 4-5 favorite, the filly continued on gamely and won the $100,000 Columbia Stakes by three quarters of a length over her New York-based rival, Penny's Reshoot.Normally a front-runner, Twist Afleet didn't have a smooth trip. Outrun early partly because of the shoe trouble, Carr had to angle the horse out from the rail on the final turn and go three horses wide.

To a generation of Baltimore teen-agers, Buddy Deane was a pioneering rock 'n' roll disc jockey, host of a must-see television dance party in the '50s and '60s, and an undisputed arbiter of cool.Now at 72, he's a grandfather of four, great-grandfather of three and owner of six Arkansas radio stations. But for 220 of his now middle-aged fans who turned out over the weekend at the Timonium Holiday Inn Select for one of Deane's classic record hops, he hasn't changed much."Ladies and gentlemen, here's the man on the scene with the record machine " And with that familiar introduction, Deane was home again.

George Orwell would be proud to see his ideas vindicated this election year. What Orwell called "Newspeak" - the deliberately impoverished fictional language created by an all-powerful state in his novel "1984" - is now the full-blown language of the day. Take the words "courage" and "cowardice. " Those demonizing others while running for office have convinced us that bullying and attack, even if it leads to death, is courage, while dialogue or compromise with those who hold opposing points of view is cowardice.

In "Bloody Murder," 2nd Star Productions offers a parody of British murder mysteries with surprising twists and turns. Charles Maloney, director of more than 20 plays for 2nd Star, is introducing Bowie Playhouse audiences to this amusing 2009 mystery written by his longtime friend, Ed Sala. Here a stock set of characters — including the wealthy lady of the manor, her loyal maid, a retired army major mired in his past, a mysterious countess, a fading, often-inebriated actor, an ingenue, a worthless nephew, an inscrutable Chinese man and a bumbling inspector — play out their roles, aware they are playing characters in a developing mystery story.