Why flock to same-old, same-old swimming pools and movie theaters when you can keep the kids cool and amused this summer at your neighborhood funeral home?
"Are you looking for something to do this summer that is fun, educational and air conditioned?" begins the news release from Loudon Park Funeral Home.
Funeral homes obviously know how to keep bodies cool. But entertained?
Loudon Park will give it a shot, with a replica of Abraham Lincoln's coffin. It will be on display from July 17 through 23, and - here's the really exciting part - it won't cost a single Lincoln penny to have a look.
An elaborate 6-foot-6 box made of walnut, the coffin is decorated with silver handles and studs and lined with black cloth. It is one of three replicas made by an Indiana coffin-maker, which allows them to be exhibited at funeral homes that carry its caskets.
The coffin made an appearance at Loudon Park about seven years ago, and more than 350 people came to check it out, said funeral home manager Eugene Lastner.
Lastner enjoys having people come to Loudon Park for something fun, though I'm not sure Abe would see it that way.
"They can look at the funeral home as more than, 'God, we have to go there,'" Lastner said.
Oh, put your shoes back on
Pink, a pro-feminist/pro-femininity national magazine that bills itself as "Fortune meets Oprah," has a Q&A; this month with Sheila Dixon. "Baltimore's First Female Mayor On Crime, Drugs and Shoes," reads the e-mail promo.
Dixon talks about the encouragement she gets from other women, about trying to tackle crime with new policing strategies, about her desire to "help break the cycle of drug addiction and poverty."
How did shoes come up? With this question:
"Pink: What's the craziest thing you've done during your political career?
"S.D.: In 1991 as a City Council member, I took off my shoe during a debate and waved it at a colleague after he made racially insensitive comments. I banged the shoe on a nearby table to stop myself from throwing it at him, and the media interpreted the whole scene as me saying 'the shoe is on the other foot now.' That was definitely the craziest thing I've done."
Second craziest? Bringing the shoe bit up with a reporter from outta town.
It pleases the court
Maryland Court of Appeals Judge Irma Raker is one of five lawyers in the nation chosen this year for the American Bar Association's Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award.
The honor, to be presented Aug. 12 in San Francisco, is named for America's first female lawyer - a Marylander who arrived from England in 1638. Brent was also a pioneering female landowner. By demanding a "voyce" in the Maryland Assembly, Brent is said to have been the first woman to seek the right to vote. (She got the thumbs-down, but historians give her props for trying.)
Raker probably appreciates the history more than most honorees, since she has given speeches about Brent at bar admission ceremonies.
"It's very nice to be able, as we say, to bring the award back to Maryland," Raker said.
Connect the dots
Elliott Cahan, the Republican who challenged Baltimore City Councilwoman Rikki Spector in 2004, but moved with his family to Israel before Election Day, reports that he hasn't completely escaped the gal he tried to unseat. "I moved to Modiin, Israel where luck would have it, our mayor is none other than ..... Mayor Spector," he recently e-mailed me. As it turns out, Mayor Moshe Spector is on a trip this week to Baltimore and several other U.S. cities, the Jerusalem Post reports. He is appearing at Reform congregations, encouraging members to immigrate to Israel. ... For the inaugural photo op of his campaign to reduce energy consumption, Gov. Martin O'Malley recently positioned himself near solar panels on the roof of a Department of General Services building, The Sun's Andrew Green reports. The panels were installed a year ago by the Ehrlich administration. ... Having poked fun at a Doug Gansler news release that referred to the attorney general's "administration," I am duty bound to note he's not the only guy getting gussied up in executive branch-y terminology. A recent Sun article about Comptroller Peter Franchot said this: "Franchot's focus on issues beyond taxes points to what is unusual about his administration." ... While performing at the African American Heritage Festival at Camden Yards, Philadelphia soul singer Musiq Soulchild gave a shout-out to Sheila Dixon, as Baltimore's first black female mayor.