Cool as a cucumber, he popped the question

Laura Vozzella

September 14, 2008

Well, now we know the whole locavore thing really has arrived. An aspiring groom opted against the old fancy-schmancy restaurant setting and popped the question a couple of Sundays ago at the Baltimore farmers' market.

After blowing an air horn to get the crowd's attention, Will Hester got down on one knee at his pickle booth and offered Gwynne Harper his briny hand in marriage.

"I was wearing the money belt pouch and smelling of pickles," said Hester, 31.

No telling what Freud would have said about a marriage proposal at a pickle booth. But Harper, 28, said yes.

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Hester works full time as a goldsmith for Smyth jewelers. He made the engagement ring himself, but even with the employee discount, he needed money for the rock. So he started working at the pickle booth, run by the cousin of a good friend, this season.

The moonlighting turned into a real passion, as Hester grew to appreciate the quality food and the "vibe" of the place. That made the market a fitting spot to propose.

"I feel it was kind of an appropriate place to have that kind of moment together," he said.

Must be something in the air in that part of town. Just up the JFX from the market, there's a Smyth billboard with Natty Boh on bended knee before the Utz Girl.

Ads might well draw a trickle of customers

And you thought M&T Bank had the best ad space at the stadium. It's really in the men's room, over the urinals.

"URINE HERE AGAIN?" screams one sign, brought to fans by Chesapeake Urology. "URINE DENIAL," warns another.

Chesapeake tells me the ads debuted last football season, but men's room news can be slow to, um, leak.

Anyone with problems in that department is urged, in the fine print, to visit the urology practice. There are similar signs in the women's room, but the fine print is different.

"Three out of five women over 40 who giggle at this headline may experience some degree of involuntary leakage due to incontinence," it says.

Great way to establish trust with future patients: Make them wet their pants.

Watch out for the woman murmuring to herself

Laura Bush and Lynne Cheney stopped at a produce stand outside Denton the other day, but workers didn't realize the gals checking out the flowers, fruit and veggies were the nation's first and second ladies.

Then they noticed the third lady - the one with the black suit and the habit of talking into her wrist.

"We realized the tall woman with her was probably a Secret Service person," said JoanneWooters, who waited on Cheney. "She had little microphones attached to her wrists. We could tell the more we looked."

The workers "were sort of in shock" but played it cool, Wooters said, never asking for pictures or autographs to commemorate the visit, which was first reported by The Star-Democrat in Easton.

"We didn't want to make a big to-do and make her feel uncomfortable," Wooters said, referring to Bush. "I think that's probably why they stayed a while. ... They commented how everything was so nice and looked so fresh here in the stand."

After about 20 minutes of browsing, Bush bought about $20 worth of grape tomatoes, peaches and corn. Cheney, who has a home on the Eastern Shore, spent about $30 on tomatoes, peaches, mums and pansies.

Connect the dots

Marc Steiner, the deposed WYPR host, made his triumphant return to the daily airwaves on WEAA last week, and he had a big-name guest lined up for his very first show: Gov. Martin O'Malley. The program kicked off at 5 p.m., but without the gov, who was running late. The veteran broadcaster had to make do without a guest for the first 15 minutes. Never at a loss for words, Steiner said he muddled through just fine. "Been at this too long to panic," he said. ... WBAL's Kate Amara returned to work last week after a month in Beijing, where she helped cover Michael Phelps at the Olympics. One of her very first assignments had her traveling again, to Manhattan, to watch Phelps rehearse for Saturday Night Live. "I swear to God, I am sending the guy a thank-you letter," Amara said. "Because of him, I get the greatest assignments." ... China, incidentally, wasn't all that foreign to Amara. "I couldn't believe how many people from Baltimore were there," she said. "I had drinks with Billy Murphy and his girlfriend at the Ritz-Carlton in Beijing." ... Beverly O'Ferrall, a former preschool teacher who lives near Cambridge, is a finalist in Cooking Light's answer to the Pillsbury Bake-Off. She'll compete Thursday with 11 others at the Cooking Light Ultimate Reader Recipe Contest, which takes place at the magazine's Birmingham, Ala., headquarters. Top prize: $20,000. Her entry, sausage-stuffed manicotti, uses turkey sausage and part-skim mozzarella. What else? "I can't tell," she said, noting contest rules requiring secrecy. "But it's delicious." ... Sheryl Goldstein, director of the Baltimore Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice, ran the Sept. 11 memorial road race alongside police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld. When they neared the finish, she poured it on and came in a few seconds ahead of the chief's 23:48 finish. We'll have to take her word for it. Goldstein didn't show up in the final race results. Defective chip, she says. Will Bealefeld vouch for her? Goldstein said, "Hard to say."

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Cool as a cucumber, he popped the question

Ads might well draw a trickle of customers

Watch out for the woman murmuring to herself

Connect the dots

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