Two Tickets

Two tickets bore the winning numbers in Maryland's $15 million Lotto game -- one bought in Baltimore County, the other in Montgomery County -- a State Lottery spokesman said today. Only once since the Lotto game began in 1973 was the jackpot larger, the $21 million pot won last August. The prospect fueled ticket sales of close to $2 million in the last 2 1/2 hours before last night's drawing, said spokesman Carroll H. Hynson Jr. The prize for each ticket is $375,000 a year for 20 years, before taxes.

The local trucker who police say was driving the tanker that leaked a 40-mile ribbon of roofing asphalt onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike last week, snarling holiday traffic and damaging hundreds of cars, has been issued two tickets. George Delaney, 50, of Glen Burnie, received citations from Pennsylvania State Police for failure to secure a load and failure to obey a state trooper. The trucking company, MTS Express LLC of Stevensville, has placed Delaney on administrative leave and impounded the truck.

THEATERTom Hulce's 'Hamlet'Washington's Shakespeare Theatre, 450 7th St., N.W., has mounted a gleaming production of "Hamlet," even though Tom Hulce's gentle, impressionable depiction of the title character tones down much of the play's complexity. Show times are today at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Although the remainder of the run is sold out, $10 standing-room tickets go on sale two hours before each performance; purchase is limited to two tickets per customer.

New Year's Eve 'Golden Ticket' at Harrah's What's the deal? This New Year's Eve, just about every casino in Atlantic City is offering parties open to the public - not just those on the casinos' invitation lists like it used to be. At Harrah's Atlantic City, you can get the "2010 Golden Ticket" package, which includes a Waterfront Tower premium room, two tickets to a celebration in the resort's lush indoor-pool area, three-hour open bar and...

The Baltimore Arena will be a first- and second-round site for the 1995 NCAA men's tournament, Thursday, March 16 and Saturday, March 18 of next year. UMBC will serve as host, and tickets will be available through a public lottery sale from 10 a.m. to noon on April 2 at the Arena and the UMBC Fieldhouse.Or, you can send a self-addressed, 3 x 5 postcard to: NCAA Tickets, UMBC Fieldhouse, 5401 Wilkens Ave., Baltimore, Md. 21228-5398. There is a maximum of two tickets per person. One all-session ticket, for six games, is $96; individual game tickets will not be sold.

Days until opening ceremonies: 28.Torch update: Louise Logan, a volunteer worker at a Prince George's County hospital, carried the torch up the Capitol steps in Washington.Update: Several thousand tickets to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Games go on sale at 9 a.m. today. The tickets, which cost $636 apiece, can be obtained by calling the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (404-744-1996) and through ACOG's Internet site. There is a limit of two tickets per customer, and a Visa card is the only form of payment accepted.

A Pasadena construction company owner signed a check for $17,500 yesterday to take possession of two tickets to Cal Ripken's last game, which he secured through a radio station auction. The money will be used for disaster relief. Joe Memmel bid on the tickets, both autographed by Ripken, on Wednesday in an auction conducted by WQSR. The tickets were donated by Andrew Levine, president, and Mark Luterman, vice president, of the Baltimore-based Stone Care International. The company manufactures and sells maintenance products for stone.

About 10,000 tickets will be up for grabs in two lotteries for tickets to Opening Day, April 4 against the Kansas City Royals. Fans wishing to enter the general-public lottery should send postcards to: Orioles Opening Day Ticket Drawing, P.O. Box 29999, Baltimore, Md. 21230-0999.Entries must be postmarked by Feb. 21, and there is no limit to the number of postcards that can be submitted. Winners may buy as many as two tickets, and there is a limit of one winning postcard per household.The mini-plan lottery will be conducted by the Orioles, using the team's season-ticket list.

On the day when Cal Ripken immortalized himself alongside Lou Gehrig in the annals of baseball history, Avrum Weiss got himself a ticket to the game for only $9."I just want to pay face value. I'm a taxpayer," said the 48-year-old Northwest Baltimore resident as he stood in the scalp-free zone outside Camden Yards before the game. "I'm not a big baseball fan. I want to be here for the history of the great moment. But I'm not going to pay hundreds of dollars for a ticket."Despite all the pageantry of the record-tying game, tickets were readily available for those willing to wait patiently in the scalp-free area.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Since he found a .357 Magnum in his backyard several years ago, Al Carey has had the powerful handgun hidden in a cardboard box in his garage.Mr. Carey said he occasionally worried about the gun, although never tried to do anything about it. But this weekend he did. After driving across town to a Baptist church, he left it with police officers and in exchange, Mr. Carey got some peace of mind, and two tickets to a Luther Vandross concert, to boot.In an unusual program organized by a local company, Bass Tickets, people can exchange guns for a pair of tickets that will get them into sports events, concert and comedy clubs, onto ski lifts or even buy them clothing or restaurant meals.

Corcoran Gallery of Art Where:: 500 17th St. N.W., Washington When:: Through Jan. 25 What:: Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power. Exhibit shows the artist's work on the subjects of politics and power. Composed of more than 200 images of government, media, business and labor officials, along with photographs of artists, activists and ordinary citizens caught up in national debates. How much: : Tickets are $14, $12 for seniors and military members, $10 for students with ID. Free for museum members and children ages 6 and younger.

Ben Cummins of Baltimore purchased two Nintendo Wii game consoles during pre-Christmas shopping: one to give his 7-year-old daughter, Lauren, the other to trade for two tickets to Tuesday's Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana concert at 1st Mariner Arena. Cummins, who last week had yet to tell Lauren that he was trying to secure tickets for her and her mom, wasn't picky about seating for the eagerly anticipated concert. "I'm just trying to get them in the building," he said. Yet since he advertised the console-for-concert trade on Craigslist on Dec. 20, he's had no takers.

A day after clinching the AFC North, the Ravens received a dose of disappointment: They had only five players named to the Pro Bowl - a list that excludes linebacker Ray Lewis. Offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden, safety Ed Reed, linebackers Adalius Thomas and Terrell Suggs and cornerback Chris McAlister were the only Ravens selected for the NFL all-star event. Ravens@Steelers Sunday, 1 p.m., Ch. 13, 1090 AM, 97.9 FM Line: Steelers by 3 PLAYOFF TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY The Ravens said yesterday that a few remaining tickets for their first playoff game will go on sale Friday.

If you were planning to grab a spot in line and settle into a lawn chair to buy Ravens playoff tickets, you can put away the thermos and the blankets. The limited number of available playoff tickets, expected to be between 500 and 1,000, will be sold online or over the phone Friday morning beginning at 10 a.m., the team announced. The sale is expected to last just minutes, Ravens spokesman Kevin Byrne said yesterday. As AFC North champions, the Ravens are assured of playing at least one playoff game at home.

Hello Bal-tee-more, hello Bal-tee-more," says the 26-year-old lead singer for the Rolling Stones. "You know," Mick Jagger continues, "it's getting very boring, because I'm the only one trying to dance."

IF YOU'RE looking for a feel-good baseball story, if you're sick to death of all the talk of steroids and congressional hearings and home run records with asterisks, maybe this will help. It begins on a sunny afternoon almost three weeks ago in Mesa, Ariz., where Mryl Hartman, 81, a retired manufacturer's rep from Glen Burnie, was visiting relatives. Hartman and his uncle, Jack Campbell, 76, decided to take in the game between the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants at HoHoKam Park, the Cubs spring training headquarters.

Passengers who are too large to fit into standard 17 1/4 -inch airline seats will soon have to buy extra tickets when flying Southwest Airlines, reigniting a long-simmering debate over how airlines treat obese passengers. The Dallas-based airline, which handles more than a third of the passengers at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, said it has had the policy since the 1980s but enforced it only on fully booked flights. The practice confuses large passengers who find that they might be charged extra on one flight but not on another.