Yellow

Theodore M. "Ted" Abrams, a retired advertising executive, died April 7 of pneumonia at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Timonium resident was 78. The son of a vaudeville actor and a homemaker, Mr. Abrams was born and raised in New York City, where he was a 1950 graduate of Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx. He enlisted in the Army Intelligence Corps and served as a clerk/typist at the old Fort Holabird in Baltimore. After being discharged in 1954, he remained in Baltimore and went to work the next year as a beer salesman for the old American Brewery.

It’s Rolling Papers Week at Louder Now. Wiz Khalifa, hip-hop’s young pothead-in-charge, drops his highly anticipated major-label debut Tuesday. Every day this week, I’m going to analyze the tracks: what works, what doesn’t and what it means for a rap star clearly interested in crossing over to mainstream success. 3. “Black and Yellow” (Produced by Stargate) What else is there to say about “Black and Yellow”? It’s the best pure rap single in years, and it rose to No. 1 in a beautiful way. It was an ode to his city without sounding like a showtune (Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind”)

Although Wiz Khalifa’s Pittsburgh-repping calling card “Black and Yellow” still sits at No. 18 on Billboard , the song will soon likely fade just as the Steelers’ Super Bowl hopes did last month. So here’s “Roll Up,” another Stargate-produced track poised to dominate radio. The beat’s shimmering synths and surprisingly knocking drums will sound at home on pop radio (get ready, Z104) and rap station 92Q. If you’re not sold on Wiz’s lyrical ability, “Roll Up” won’t change your mind – these are elementary lines easy to memorize, recite and regurgitate.

Recreational anglers and state fisheries managers struck gold — literally — a few years back when they decided to work together to coax the first fish of spring back to its rightful place at the front of the calendar. Saturday, they celebrated their success. At North East Town Park, a waterfront spot in Cecil County with plenty of piers and shoreline, anglers of all ages reeled in a mess of yellow perch. These golden fish with distinctive black markings are welcomed at any fish fry. As the sun played peek-a-boo with the clouds, little guys barely bigger than a bait bucket, fashion-conscious teen-aged girls and senior citizens cast and retrieved, laughed and teased, and knocked the rust off fishing skills that most of them had put on the shelf before Thanksgiving.

Rockfish, or striped bass, holds a treasured place in Marylanders' hearts and palates. It, along with the black-eyed Susan, the skipjack and the diamondback terrapin, serves as a symbol of our state. It swims in our waters. It tastes really good. So the news this month that Department of Natural Resources Police had pulled up almost 3 miles of illegally anchored gill nets that had trapped thousands of rockfish near Kent Island was a shocker. The illegal catch was so large — some 10 tons, almost fulfilling the allowed catch for the month — that Maryland officials rightly closed the February harvest in the bay. A $10,000 reward has been offered for information leading to conviction of the poachers who set the nets.

BEDFORD, Pa.—The Steel Curtain that hangs across this section of the Keystone State is sturdy and true. To the south and east live the flocks that take comfort in Ravens and Eagles. To the far west, color football happiness and loyalty Cleveland brown. Despite being at about the halfway point between Baltimore and Pittsburgh, this town of 3,100 that knows a thing or two about ugly border conflicts has pledged its allegiance to the boys in black and gold. But there is a tiny rip in the Steel Curtain, a hint at an insurrection that started with one and is growing.

Like many dogs, Mae likes a good couch, long walks and a scoop or two of her Purina Pro Plan. But unlike others, the 6-year-old yellow Lab can be called away from her warm futon to help fire investigators search charred debris for flammable liquids, helping to determine whether arson might be the cause of a blaze. Mae is one of a half-dozen "accelerant" detection dogs in the state called out to fire scenes as far away as Cumberland or the nation's capital — sometimes as additional alarms are called for a structure fire and sometimes weeks after the debris has been soaked in heavy rain.

Like a lot of taverns in the Baltimore area, the Yellow Dog Tavern in Canton has a lively first floor dominated by the bar and a quieter second floor filled with tables and chairs. When my wife and I showed up there for dinner on a recent weeknight, we picked the upstairs dining area. It is a lovely space, with windows looking out on neighborhood rowhouses. Framed photos of dogs owned by staff members serve as decoration, along with paintings hanging on the brick walls. While almost every seat was taken downstairs, we had plenty of privacy upstairs.

Georgia Tech didn't dwell on the mistakes that nearly put a depleted North Carolina team in control of the game. Instead, the Yellow Jackets focused on what they do best: running the ball, fighting for every yard and wearing down the defense. Joshua Nesbitt ran for a touchdown and threw for another to help them beat the Tar Heels, 30-24, on Saturday, extending Georgia Tech's recent dominance in the series against a team left short-handed again by an ongoing NCAA investigation. Nesbitt ran for a tying touchdown late in the third quarter, then directed the drive that ended with Scott Blair's go-ahead field goal early in the fourth.

Trends mystify me. It's hard for me to imagine buying something just because it's currently in fashion. In fact, I normally do just the opposite. Still, when it's time to buy new furniture or redo the drapes, better to follow the trends than risk being passé. And while trends are often "created" by marketing gurus in effort to sell new products, trends with staying power, those that eventually morph into classics, emerge organically, because somewhere, someone smart was paying attention and filled a need before it even existed.