Buzz

Students from Grace and Saint Peter's School have a date at the Pratt Library with Jillian, Shiloh and Chester.

The Pratt's newest children's program is "Paws to Read."

Students between the ages of 6 through 12 can practice their reading skills. The volunteer listeners, the dogs, are all ears to help their new friends read.

A recently aired PBS documentary looks at the problems and threats putting the Chesapeake Bay and its wildlife at risk.

Here's an excerpt:

In Poisoned Waters, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith examines the growing hazards to human health and the ecosystem.

"The '70s were a lot about, 'We're the good guys; we're the environmentalists; we're going to go after the polluters,' and it's not really about that anymore," Jay Manning, director of ecology for Washington state, tells FRONTLINE. "It's about the way we all live. And unfortunately, we are all polluters. I am; you are; all of us are."

 Watch the video here.

The accolades continue to come in for Baltimore's Western High School, the oldest all-girl high school in the U.S. Named among the top high schools in the nation by U.S.News & World Reports in 2008, Western has been honored as one of the 2009 National Blue Ribbon Schools in the country.

Here's an excerpt:

Baltimore City Public Schools' Western High School has snagged a top national honor today.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced that the oldest all-female public high school in the country is one of the nation's 2009 National Blue Ribbon Schools.

The National Blue Ribbon program honors public and private schools that demonstrate sustained academic excellence or dramatic student achievement gains among disadvantaged students, according to the City school system. Western was named a Maryland Blue Ribbon School last December.

Western is one of about 300 public and private schools across the nation being honored for academic excellence and major student achievement gains this year.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has a dream in the cover of an autographed memoir. Malcolm X defies a detractor in a typed letter from 1963. Rosa Parks sits, Tommie Smith clenches and Thurgood Marshall reasons in framed and signed artifacts that form Foxworth's growing museum of the civil rights movement.

"Other players around the league, their basements are all jerseys of themselves and their friends in the N.F.L. and the N.B.A.," Foxworth said. "I feel more comfortable with these people around me."

Foiled in his attempt to bring the Guinness World Record for the rotation of the worlds largest hula hoop to Bmore, Hula hoop maker Andreas "Spilly" Spiliadis has a new plan to enlist city residents in his quest to spark a Hoop Revolution and take home $10,000 for the cause.

Here's an excerpt

On Sunday, September 13, 2009, hula hoop maker Andreas "Spilly" Spiliadis attempted to break the record for hooping with the world's largest hoop. Sadly, the hoop broke, but now he will attempt to win the Ideablob in order to bring hula hoops to every man, woman, and child in this city.

Idea Description

The Hula Hoop Revolution has hit Baltimore big time. This summer the Hula Hoop maker known as Spilly began a campaign of public hula hooping throughout the city, at parks, festivals, block parties, and on top of the highest structures available. He began selling them like hotcakes, causing hula hoop scenes wherever he went, making more as they sold.

What will you do if you win the $10,000 for this idea?

Proceeds from this contest will allow a sliding scale to be applied to...

Read more here.

Take a look at our swanky setup: a stone fire ring, two cinder blocks, some metal rods and the grate from the grill balanced on top. Yes, we were improvising a bit, but that's half the fun.

The kids helped fill aluminum foil packets with the following:

15 shellfish (we used clams and mussels)

1/2 ear of corn

a few canned potatoes

1 pat butter

a drizzle of olive oil

salt, pepper and oregano

Then we placed the packets over the wood fire for about 15 minutes, until the shellfish opened. The smoke from the fire gave this a wonderful flavor. Even the broth left over in the bottom of the packets was amazing and we ended up dunking pieces of sourdough bread in it. So good.

Whatever you may think of the situation or how it came about, I'd have to challenge anyone who would argue that there has been a better venue in Baltimore in which to experience a motion picture than at The Senator Theatre.

I have never experienced the level of presentation excellence anywhere in the Baltimore area (since I began attending The Senator in the mid-80's) � Not to mention I've never had issues trying to simply watch a film without interruptions/distractions, I have, at least once, in every other movie venue I've patronized� In many cases, the first was the last.

And perhaps that is a contributing factor as to why even the multiplexes are experiencing financial difficulties? Why put up with rude audiences, below par projection and sound? I mean really. Compared to many local venues, I've seen better presentation staying at home watching a DVD (or if you've got the TV & player for it, Blu-ray)!

Think I'm imagining or alone in this?

Read more here.

ANYONE WHO THINKS BALTIMORE cuisine begins and ends with crab cakes doesn't have a sweet tooth � or has somehow managed to get through life without ever taking a bite of a Berger Cookie, Charm City's most legendary dessert and a perfectly legitimate reason for swinging by lexington market (400 W. Lexington St.), where they're sold by the pound.

"What's not to like about shortbread and chocolate frosting?" asks Deborah Robinson, a 53-year-old lawyer who devotes her free time to chronicling the spread of sugar in her hometown with the blog B More Sweet.

Just about the only correct answer to that question is that it might spoil your appetite before you're able to fully explore Baltimore's rich dessert culture.

Our Baltimore tweeters are still feeling the love for their far city...

@shatherl, suggests the city could cure what ever's got you bumming, "Feeling beaten down? Have some Baltimore. It cures what ails you."

Vistors to the city got in on the love fest...

@LZZYHALE, says "Baltimore Rocks us... Sooo hard! Thank you to everyone for always making us feel like family!"

and @AshleyIsADork jokes that, "ace of cakes has taught me that people from baltimore are beautiful. john waters has taught me that all those people are transexual."

@arandamusic, says "We love you Baltimore. All the bands rocked...it was great to see them all. We're honored to even be around em!!!! Drivin to Indiana manana!"

Meanwhile, @hollisthomases got a little deep and philosophical, "Heard a quote tonight:'The truth spreads slowly and gets diluted as it goes while lies spread quickly & gain in strength.' So true."

Baltimore's second Twestival organizers sent some love to the Twitterati...

@AmyWoo, gives a shout out to Baltimore, "I love Baltimore! AMAZING Community we've got here. Thanks to sponsors, friends, supporters for making @BmoreTwestival a success! #Twestival!"

You can follow Bmore on Twitter here.