It's that time again

For five years, the Seattle Mariners have held a back-to-school rally, with free entertainment and refreshments, to get Puget Sound-area youngsters pumped up for the start of another school year.

The M's sixth annual rally will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at Safeco Field. Gates will open a half-hour before the rally. No one will be admitted after noon.

The rally is free to all children and their families, but tickets are required for entry. Free tickets are available at all Puget Sound-area Washington Mutual financial centers. Group tickets can be arranged by calling 206-346-4366.

After the rally, youngsters will get an opportunity to run the bases. Parking for those who attend will be free in Safeco Field's garage.

Can you dig it?

A tunnel-boring machine without a name can be boring. That's why Sound Transit is co-sponsoring a contest, geared to youngsters, to name the giant machine that will carve out the twin tunnels for light-rail trains through Beacon Hill.

The tunnel-boring machine was delivered last month to the contractor constructing the Beacon Hill segment of the Central Link light-rail line. It is being assembled near the west end of the future tunnel, under Interstate 5 in the Sodo area, south of downtown Seattle. Once it's assembled, the machine will weigh about 360 tons and extend about the length of a football field.

The naming contest is open to youngsters 12 and under in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. Each contestant can submit one name. The winner will be recognized with a prize when the tunnel-boring machine is launched this fall.

Entries can be submitted on Sound Transit's Web site, www.soundtransit.org/projects, or mailed to Name the Tunnel-Boring Machine Contest, Sound Transit, 401 S. Jackson St., Seattle, WA 98104. Entries should include the entrant's name, address, phone number, age and school. The contest deadline is Friday.

The big picture

Your old 8mm home movies could make it big on the Museum of History & Industry's big screen.

Saturday is Home Movie Day at the museum, a salute to home movies and amateur films. Those who bring home movies to the museum may get them shown on the big screen in the museum's McEachern Auditorium between 1 and 4 p.m. Films will be screened continuously.

The museum also will be offering an information fair for those wanting to learn more about how to preserve those celluloid treasures.

Documentaries and industrial films are good for Home Movie Day, and so are animated films. But films must be 8mm, Super 8mm or 16mm. Home videos originally shot with a video camera do not qualify for this event, although film-to-video transfers of old home movies are welcome.

Home Movie Day is free with regular museum admission. The museum, which is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., is at 2700 24th Ave. E., in Seattle's Montlake neighborhood. Information: 206-324-1126.

Getting around

The Hood Canal Bridge that connects the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas will be closed from Thursday through Aug. 15, and also from Aug. 21 through Aug. 25, for work on bridge spans. Extra ferry runs — seven additional round trips — will be available on the state ferry system's Port Townsend/Keystone route. A schedule is posted at www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries.

Here & Now is compiled by Seattle Times staff reporter Charles E. Brown and news assistant Suesan Whitney Henderson.

To submit an item, e-mail herenow@ seattletimes.com or call 206-464-2226.