Earlier this month, a 7-year-old boy’s nibbling got him into hot water at Park Elementary School in Anne Arundel County.

The boy nibbled a “rectangular strawberry-filled bar” — let us refer to it as a Pop-Tart — into a gun.

“Bang, bang,” he allegedly said.

“Suspended,” was the response from the principal’s office.

The case attracted attention from around the country. George Will referred to the boy, in jest, as “The Pop-Tart Terrorist.”

(The following story is from the Capital News Service)

Maureen Burke marks every item on her menu at One Dish Cuisine in Ellicott City with a color-coded stamp that identifies potential allergens, and her kitchen is divided into two parts, real cheese and fake cheese. She special orders the rice flour from Oregon.

While many restaurants have two ovens, hers has four — the better to keep the dairy and soy away from the rest.

Burke opened the restaurant because of her own allergy to gluten, and she is a walking Google of hidden allergen knowledge. She keeps a master notebook of all ingredients in every item of food, logs each loaf of bread that she sells and changes her gloves after touching anything.

Burke does not eat out. After all, not everyone has color-coded stamps.

She is doing with her restaurant what a bill in both the state House and Senate would ask all Maryland restaurants to do: Understand food allergies.

The Damascus booze ban is over.

How long had the ban been in place? A long time. As in Darwin long, my colleague Steve Hendrix noted last month: “Charles Darwin was still alive the last time a legal beer was sold in Damascus.”

Things evolve, as Darwin liked to say, and so have the historically Methodist town’s ways, at least according to residents who voted to lift the ban in a November referendum.

New York J&P Pizza was the first establishment to win an alcohol license. The restaurant, celebrating its 20th year in Damascus, began selling beer and wine on Saturday night.

“Nobody has gotten drunk,” said owner Tina Kiima. “There were no protests.”

Just happy drinkers.

“We pretty much have regular customers,” Kiima said. “They were all waiting for it.”

Kiima actually got the license on Thursday, but she had to a) buy beer and wine and b) write a beer and wine menu.

Saturday was mostly a wine night, she said. Sunday was wine and beer. Kiima said the restaurant did about $200 in alcohol sales for the weekend.

“It’s just the beginning,” she said.

Some producers of Maryland’s state drink. (Ty Wright/Bloomberg)In light of my colleague John Wagner’s report on an effort to give Maryland another state bird — the raven, in addition to the Baltimore oriole, given the Ravens’ recent Super Bowl win — I thought it was time for a refresher course on some of our lesser-known state symbols.

(But before I get to that, I must say this: How many state birds does one state need? One seems like more than enough.)

Anyway, Maryland has lots of symbols, some more known than others:

Our state boat is the skipjack.

Our state folk dance is the square dance.

Our state exercise is walking.

Our state drink is milk.

Our state dinosaur is Astrodon johnston .

Our state sport is jousting.

Our state cat is the calico cat.

Dear readers: What do you think of these state symbols? Would you replace any?

And would you add categories? I’m thinking: state traffic jam, state tax, state governor who wants to be president, state pollution, state to hate (Virginia), state blackjack hand, state corking fee, and state blog (hint, hint).

Leave your thoughts below.

(The following post is from the Capital News Service)

When Tamarra Thomas first opened her small artisan candy shop in Bowie two years ago, she never dreamed her passion for sweets would someday land her a spot on a Food Network reality show.

She also never dreamed she would beat out three other pastry chefs on national television to take home the $10,000 prize and the title of “Sweet Genius.”

Last week, Food Network viewers across the country watched as the Bowie resident was named the winning contestant on “Sweet Genius,” a competition where chefs battle it out to create desserts in timed challenges with surprise ingredients.

At T.J. Elliot’s Restaurant, dozens of friends and neighbors gathered to watch the episode. When Thomas was named the winner, the whole room exploded with loud cheers and applause.

“It was exhilarating, it was fun, it was way harder than it looks on TV,” Thomas said of her experience on the show.