Waltz

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.It was a time of sun-bathed croquet lawns and gentle breezes that carried the music of a glass harp. It was a time for Queen Victoria to sit under a white garden trellis and accept the curtsies of girls in long dresses.But, alas, it was not Kensington Gardens but Quiet Waters Park inAnnapolis. And assembled there were children of the '90s -- the 1990s. The students of Arundel Junior High School in Odenton strained against the steamy restrictions of their formal clothing and balked at the waltz.

"Pageant," the musical about beauty queens who are a real drag - that is, played by men in drag - opens a four-weekend run at Columbia's Rep Stage tomorrow. An off-Broadway cult hit, the show has also won a local following thanks to held-over incarnations at the Spotlighters and F. Scott Black's Towson Dinner Theatre under the direction of Terry J. Long, who repeats his directing duties here. The seven-member cast - Dave Allen, Stuart Goldstone, Randolph Hadaway, Ty Hreden, Brian Jacobs, Douglas Lisenbee and James Waltz - includes six holdovers from Long's earlier stagings.

MANHEIM, Pa. - In the heart of this Lancaster County farming community are 168 acres of some of the richest soil in America. On top of it is asphalt. And on top of that, 10,000 used cars and trucks waiting to be sold. On sunny days at the Manheim Auto Auction, the glare from the vast meadow of metal and glass is blinding. At night, 200 security lights towering as high as 100 feet set the sky ablaze and overpower the stars. Finding the Big Dipper is not about to get any easier. If auction management gets its way, the operation will soon more than double in size, spreading onto an adjacent 268 acres of farmland.

The one-day blitz motto is a modest one for Christmas in April volunteers who launched the new chapter's first event yesterday.About 100 volunteers spent yesterday fixing up five homes belonging to people who are elderly, handicapped or otherwise unable to get the work done alone.But several of the volunteers plan to return this week to finish what couldn't be done by the time it started raining in the late afternoon.At many of the homes, the first step was clearing away accumulated garbage, crates, broken appliances and furniture and piles of wood, to make way for the construction improvements.

With just five weeks until wedding bells ring, there are seating charts to be made, flowers to be ordered and playlists to be finalized. But Bri Fletcher and Matt Terry put all that aside to spend their Friday evenings following the directions “slow, slow, quick-quick” over and over ... and over. They, like a growing number of couples, want their first dance as husband and wife to rise above the hug and sway. They want a dance floor debut that sparkles (not to mention twirls, turns and dips)

Two music series wrapped up their seasons on Sunday, with the promise of more attractions to come in 2002-2003. There was good reason for all the cheering during Garrick Ohlsson's recital for the Shriver Hall Concert Series at the Johns Hopkins University. The pianist could not have been much more brilliant technically, much more riveting interpretively. From the first notes of the opening work, Mendelssohn's Variations serieuses, it was clear that it would be a very rewarding night. Anyone who ever dismissed Mendelssohn as a lightweight would be quickly disabused of that notion by hearing Ohlsson perform this darkly colored, drama-tinged work.

There might be no grand conspiracy behind the burnings of black churches -- no small group of angry white men plotting each arson -- but, as I heard an African-American woman say in Baltimore yesterday, "It's a conspiracy of the heart." The Southern arsonists might not know each other, they might live in different states -- they might only be teen-agers copying each other -- but they are united in their racism.The rest of us should unite in outrage.It would be good, for instance, if some of our esteemed Southern politicians rose up and joined the president in deploring the attacks -- instead of criticizing him for playing politics with them.

Here are our picks for what horses to bet in the 2011 Preakness Stakes: Race 1 10:45 a.m. Analysis: Expect Boreal Forest to set the early fractions, as he has in his previous starts. He will have less competition on the lead than in previous efforts. As a result, he could carry his speed a long way. He is tested at this level, so the class is no problem. Issues and Answers comes in off just a maiden win, but he did win at a good level and should compete well here.

A special performance of Paula Vogel's "The Baltimore Waltz" will be held at Center Stage, 700 N. Calvert St., at 8 p.m. on Monday to benefit AIDSWALK '92. The play is a metaphorical journey loosely based on the author's experiences caring for her brother Carl, who died of AIDS in 1988.AIDSWALK '92 is coordinated by Health Education Resource Organization (HERO) and raises funds for AIDS service providers throughout central Maryland. The fifth annual walk will be held May 31 and is expected to raise $500,000.

The weekend's NBA all star game gave halftime show junkies a fix after their Super Bowl withdrawl, Danica Patrick ran a fast qualifying lap, and Christoph Waltz shows everyone the lighter side of Hitler. Welcome to the post-weekend edition of your daily trends. The all-star game had by far the most related searches this weekend, with Kobe Bryant, Lebron James and halftime performer Alicia Keys among the big names sought by online readers.  There was also heavy interest in WWE coverage, the roster on SNL and the Walking Dead plotline.