Wagon

On a wagon behind the Lineboro Volunteer Fire Department, an electric chair sat empty, waiting for its next victim. A second wagon contained several brightly painted wooden boxes and a clown mannequin. In the garage, skeletons dressed in suits were resting in their coffins. "Most of what we do here is startle scares," said John Krebs, 52. "We try to come up with ways to scare people from a wagon that is a distance away." Krebs was giving a behind-the-scenes tour of the scary items that will be used to create the 14th Bedlam in the Boro Haunted Trail and the House of Horror haunted house.

MOSCOW -- A new book by Russian ultranationalist Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky begins with a chilling vision: On a cold November night, a train pulls out of Moscow bound for the far north. The last wagon -- a freight car -- is jammed with Mr. Zhirinovsky's enemies.He does not need to tell his reader where the condemned are going. By his gleeful tone and garish insults, we know they will be disposed of in the time-honored way -- in Siberian labor camps.The train holds the "Who's Who" of Russia's democratic experiment, including the "birthmarked reformer," former President Mikhail S. Gorbachev; the "suckling pig" Yegor T. Gaidar; even the "witch" Yelena Bonner, widow of dissident Andrei D. Sakharov.

25 years ago Kids all over town are getting baseball fever. Temperatures are running high. The kids need help -- coaches, managers, trainers, assistants. Taneytown has a long history of baseball players, teams, fans. There are "old-timers" and avid baseball fans of all ages around town, many with the playing skills and game knowledge that needs to be shared with the youngsters. Think back to the time when you had the help of the "older fellas" to guide you in learning the ins and outs of the game.

DALE RICKARDS, 88 Hollywood horse wrangler Dale Rickards, a self-styled cowboy who wrangled horses for Hollywood and turned his Malibu ranch into a faux Western town for location photography, died of emphysema Dec. 29 at his home in the hills above Malibu, Calif. After Mr. Rickards bought 11 acres in the Santa Monica Mountains in 1957, he built a home. By the early 1980s, he had opened a business there selling and renting Western props such as steers' heads, wagon wheels and horse troughs.

A WINDOW shattered this week -- a sure sign that summer is starting. This time it wasn't the traditional warm-weather culprit, a baseball, that cracked the glass. This time we broke a storm window while breaking and entering our own house. The "B and E" coincided with another popular seasonal activity, locking ourselves out of our home. The shattered glass, and the crawl through the window, are signs of a bigger domestic problem: key control. It is an issue many households struggle with.

ONCE YOU assume the moral high ground, your descent back to the basement of reality can be painful. The case of the missing car keys hammered that point home to me this week. Being a person of exceptionally good habits and lofty standards, I felt certain that I was not the one who had misplaced a set of keys to the station wagon. The fault had to lie elsewhere in the family. After all, I was the one who regularly preached the importance of "putting the keys back in the same spot every time, after each use."

A man was arrested yesterday on charges that include kidnapping after allegedly breaking into the Pasadena home of his ex-girlfriend's current boyfriend and abducting her and her 11-month-old son, county police reported.Police said the boyfriend, John Smith of the 700 block of 213th St., saw a man breaking into his parked car early yesterday on Cedar Hill Road in Brooklyn Park. Papers with Smith's address were taken, police said.A short time later, according to police, a man kicked open the back door at the home and witnesses said they saw him forcing Melinda Lambert, 26, and her son into a vehicle, police said.

Havre de Grace. -- The look on her face would have curdled milk.No doubt she was in a hurry and had reason to be annoyed. She was following a farm wagon carrying a couple of tons of baled straw down a narrow country road. The wagon was pulled by a truck carrying another ton and a half, and the whole rig couldn't go more than about 15 miles an hour without developing a bad case of the trembles.The driver of the truck knew she was there. He'd seen her in his mirrors as she kept edging her sporty little car out to the far side of the road and then jerking it back in irritation when she saw there simply wasn't room to pass.

Having recently returned from a trek to the beach, I have a warning for anyone thinking about strapping luggage to the top of his car. Remember that the minute you place a suitcase on your car roof, rain clouds begin to form.You may make it over to the ocean or to another vacation destination without getting wet. But eventually, a storm will strike you. The wind will howl. The heavens will open. Your suitcases will be soaked.While I'm in the advice-giving mode, here is some for anyone considering a weekend drive to the Atlantic Ocean beaches: Leave right now!