baltimoresun.com news blog

Tom Clancy's new digs, by the numbers [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-21T06:13:28-08:00

$12.6 million: What author Tom Clancy spent on his new penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton Residences in the Inner Harbor

3: Penthouses Clancy combined to make his new mega-digs

12: The number of 1,000-square-foot condos -- the sort of residence certain Wonks own -- that could fit in Clancy's condo

$285,768: Clancy's annual city property tax bill, either right away or -- if he gets the new-construction tax break that phases in the amount -- after five years

50: Buyers it would take to equal those taxes among folks getting $250,000 city homes

2: The number of prospective buyers the Ritz-Carlton developer says it is in talks with about combining units to make more mega-condos

38: New condos selling in the city during the first nine months of the year

530: New, ready-to-occupy condos that builders are trying to sell in the city

All of them: number of condo sellers who wish Clancy had wanted their place

Heads up: free food next week in downtown Baltimore, Timonium [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-20T11:32:48-08:00

Here are two freebies next week best suited for folks in downtown Baltimore and those who take the light rail from Timonium:

On Monday, MTA Light Rail passengers can sample Dunkin Donuts' new breakfast sandwich at the Timonium Light Rail stop in exchange for a donation of non-perishable food, personal hygiene items or money to the Maryland Food Bank. The promotion will be held from 5:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Nov. 23 and the samples will be given away while supplies last.

On Tuesday, the Downtown Partnership will throw its annual Holiday Lunch Party, with participating restaurants giving away free samples at one of six office building lobbies. Click the link to get details on the purveyors and locations for this Nov. 24 event.

Saturday is your best bet for the weekend [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-20T11:01:53-08:00

If you're hoping for at least one good outdoor day this weekend, it looks like Saturday will be your best bet. The next coastal storm in this autumn's continuing parade is fixing to spin on up the East Coast, and we're likely to fall under its rain shield as early as Sunday afternoon.

Saturday, however, looks great for a hike or a roll up the bike trail. High pressure centered in the Ohio Valley is building across the region today (Friday) and will bring us more sunshine Saturday, with a high in the upper 50s.

The relatively mild temperatures are the work of bright sunshine, and something called "downsloping." Winds out of the west or northwest flow across the Appalachians and slide down the eastern slope. And as they descend, the air is compressed, which warms it up. The average highs at BWI at this time of year are in the mid-50s.

By Sunday, however, clouds will be on the increase, with the chance of showers rising in the afternoon as a low-pressure system forming over the Gulf moves off the Southeast coast. The computer models disagree, of course, on the timing, and on how close the low will come to the shore. And, as it does with winter storms, that storm track will determine just how much precipitation we see.

Whatever we get, it's likely to arrive late Sunday into Monday. We may get a brief look at the sun again on Tuesday, but there's more rain likely at mid-week as the next cold front slides by. From this distance, Thanksgiving Day is looking like a gray one, too, with a 40 percent chance of rain.

(SUN PHOTO/Jerry Jackson/2007)

Price match on Black Friday : strategies to save [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-20T05:13:13-08:00

Here's one way to ensure that you get the products you want at Black Friday prices --- without worrying that the items will be sold out if you decide to sleep in on the day after Thanksgiving.

Dealnews.com has compiled a list of stores that will match competitors' prices on Black Friday, including Walmart, Home Depot and Lowe's. Sears, on the other hand, will not.

That way, no worries that an item will be out of stock and no need to stress out about early morning lines. As long as you're armed with a sales circular featuring your coveted product, you'll be able to stroll in hours after the retailers open, pluck your desired item off the shelves and then go camp out in the customer service line to get a manager to approve the competitor's price.

Just be sure to have an official circular, not one of the 'leaked' versions available on the Internet, warns dealnews.

I'd add this additional caveat:

Hidden gem: Lauraville [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-20T04:14:42-08:00

Neighborhood: Lauraville

Location: northeast Baltimore

Average sales price: $184,000 (January through June)

Notable features: Single-family homes -- some quite large -- on streets with a quiet, off-the-beaten-track atmosphere. Yet the eastern boundary is Harford Road, a major artery. Businesses in the area include a Safeway grocery store and Main Street-style independently owned shops.

Lauraville was mostly built in the 1910s and '20s, but it became a village with a post office just after the Civil War, according to the Lauraville Improvement Association. Much of the neighborhood is on the National Register of Historic Places.

It recently got a nod from This Old House magazine as the "Best Old House Neighborhood" in Maryland. (I pondered whether to disqualify it as a "hidden" gem for that reason, but I think it's still off most folks' radar.)

Here's the clincher: Residents here are super-enthusiastic about their neighborhood. I say that because lots of people put in nominations for Lauraville and the whole "Greater Lauraville" area, which includes the surrounding neighborhoods of Arcadia, Beverly Hills, Hamilton Hills, Mayfield, Moravia-Walther, Morgan Park and Waltherson.

Wonk reader bex gushed: "great people + open space + old growth trees + booming businesses + diverse homes + new restaurants & bars + local markets + organized, collaborative and progressive thinking = baltimore's best kept secret! and for you commuters out there, there's fairly simple access to 95/895/695."

Rob Walshe wrote: "Great new restaurants, pubs, friendly neighbors and a small town feel."

And sean noted in July, "In the past week alone, I've been able to walk a few blocks from my house to get a 3/8" - 1/2" shower adaptor, Harold McGee's book On Food and Cooking, and Sylvan Beach ice cream (honey graham and fudge brownie, no less). We have great neighbors who share food and flowers with one another, and my wife is teaching art lessons to a couple of the neighborhood kids this summer. I've lived in several neighborhoods in Baltimore, but buying our amazing house in Lauraville 6 years ago was the best decision we ever made."

There are more nominations, but you get the idea. You can really feel the love. Now -- take a look at the homes. This one, for instance:

Or this:

Here's an example of a Lauraville street, with a few of the grand old trees bex was talking about:

"I think some of these houses are comparable with what you can get in Guilford," said Mark Tough, executive director of the Neighborhoods of Greater Lauraville, a nonprofit community-development corporation. (Guilford, for you non-Baltimoreans out there, is one of the city's most expensive neighborhoods.)

Stroll through, and you'll find public art celebrating the place:

Greater Lauraville is part of Healthy Neighborhoods, the organization that focuses on "strong but undervalued" sections of Baltimore. That means most residents can get home-improvement loans with below-market interest rates, and home buyers on some blocks -- ones that could use more rehabbing -- qualify for free design advice along with low-interest-rate mortgages.

Do you have personal experience with Lauraville or its environs? Please share.

Want to see all the photos I took, including some in the Greater Lauraville area? Check out the hidden-gem gallery.

Next up -- on Monday: Loch Raven Village and Knettishall.

(All photographs by Jamie Smith Hopkins / Baltimore Sun)

Early exposure to language critical later [InsideEd]

2009-11-20T03:00:00-08:00

Silence is apparently not a good thing when it comes to babies.

Children between the ages of 2 months and 6 months who have a lot of exposure to language are more likely to have advanced language skills later in life, according to research being released this weekend. The research suggests that parents should be trained to make sure infants, particularly those at high risk, are around a lot of talking even before they can speak.

The researchers, who presented their work at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association meeting in New Orleans this week, said babies who heard many different words had more advanced skills by the time they were 18 to 32 months old.

Owner of 5-bedroom house hopes to downsize [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-19T19:04:51-08:00

I've told you about this story on the difficulties of downsizing in today's housing market, but I was so busy today that I didn't get a chance to point you toward the extras that go with it: a photo gallery and video of Bob Kean's Roland Park house.

Walmart confirms some Black Friday deals [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-19T15:28:27-08:00

Walmart has confirmed some of the deals it is offering on Black Friday.

They include:

Magnavox blu ray disc player for $78

Sanyo 50-inch plasma hdtv for $598

Tomtom 3.5 inch gps for $59

Reversible fleece jacket for $7

Children’s sleepwear for $3

The discount retailer hasn't officially released its Black Friday circular yet. But some websites are posting "leaked" Black Friday Walmart ads. You can find one version here.

An account of deadly 1926 La Plata tornado [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-19T14:06:42-08:00

Steve Zubrick, science and operations officer at the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., has sent me a link to an historic National Weather Service report on the Nov. 9, 1926 tornado that swept across parts of Charles and Prince George's counties, leaving 16 dead (or 17, depending on your source) - including 13 school children.

The F-4 twister demolished homes and barns, carved a cross-country trail of splintered trees and carried debris as far as 50 miles before dropping it. A school teacher describes how she and her students were lifted into the air and swept away, along with parts of their demolished schoolhouse.

Sun reporter Fred Rasmussen interviewed one of the school's students, who survived because she was not in class that day; but her sister was among the dead. (No, Fred's not quite that old; the woman was in her 80s when they spoke.) Read his story, below.

Fred tracked the woman down after a similar tornado struck La Plata in April 2002. Only the third F-4 in the record books for Maryland, the 2002 tornado ravaged the town and cut a path all the way across Southern Maryland. It then spawned a waterspout on the bay, and touched down again on the Eastern Shore. Six people died. The photo above was taken four days later.

DC promotion will be minus the live warrior [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-19T10:26:51-08:00

It seems the performance artist for tomorrow's terra cotta warriors promotion has run into a little travel issue at the airport. Chi Chang, I'm told by DC marketing officials, was not allowed into the country and was actually turned back to Taiwan.

Hmm. Was it the name? That wouldn't surprise me. The terror watch list is full of mistaken identities. Or was it the outfit? I'm betting it was the whole terra cotta look. It's hard to pull off and just so 200 BC.

The army of short soldiers will still march into the city tomorrow, and prizes will be given away, but their will be no live leader. Sad, really.

Exercising choice [InsideEd]

2009-11-19T08:55:13-08:00

This weekend, eighth-graders who live in Baltimore City will be taking the first steps toward exercising a choice that wouldn't have been open to them a decade ago. The city school system is holding its high school fair and about 4,000 students are expected to come with their parents to see what schools they might be interested in attending next fall.

The choices are staggering for any teenager. Do you want a large, comprehensive high school where you have many course offerings, a marching band and multiple varsity athletic teams? Or do you want a small intimate high school where you get to know your teachers and you can get that extra help you may need? There are high schools for those interested in the medical professions, those who want to be artists and those who think that getting through high school in two years is a good idea.

The event is being held at the Poly-Western complex and is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Mayor Sheila Dixon will be there in the morning to help judge which high school has the best display at its booth.

Best Buy, Toys R Us, Kohls announce more Black Friday plans [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-19T08:30:53-08:00

It's about a week until Black Friday and more retailers are announcing their plans.

Toys R Us said it is opening at midnight, five hours earlier than it ever has. It will offer more than 70 doorbusters from midnight to 1 p.m.

Shoppers can search the toy retailer's website starting at 12:01 Wednesday to preview more than 100 unadvertised "mystery deals" that will be available in stores on Black Friday.

Deals include a free $50 gift card with the purchase of any Ipod touch, 65 percent off of a sleeping beauty styling head vanity, $100 off of a 12-foot trampoline and 50 percent off Wii Fit accessories. The retailer will also give out 250,000 free boxes of 64-count Crayola Crayons with any purchase.

Best Buy said that it will start offering Black Friday-like prices at its stores today, a week before the traditional start of the season. It is selling 32" Dynex, LCD HDTV's for $299.99 and 40-inch Dynex LCD HDTV's for $499.99. It will also offer Black Friday prices on Samsung models starting this Sunday.

Kohl's said it will post its Black Friday print ad on its website on Nov. 22. It will include more than 300 early bird specials. The store will open at 4 a.m. that day and offer specials until 1 p.m. Deals include a $69.99, 7" portable LCD TV, $34.99 cashmere sweaters and 50 percent off toys by Fisher-Price, Playskool, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Play-Doh, Tonka and other brands.

City warriors can win an overnight stay in DC [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-19T08:25:23-08:00

Destination DC, Washington's tourism group, is invading Baltimore on Friday to promote the new "Terra Cotta Warriors" exhibit which opens today at the National Geographic Museum in D.C. They're bringing along an artist, Chi Chang, who performs as a live terra cotta warrior and who will "delight crowds with his interactions." I'm told he will be popping up at locations around town between 9 a.m. and noon tomorrow (if you see him, snap a photo and send it to me and I'll post it here.)

In addition - as if we needed more - Chi Chang is bringing his army. A very small one. Some 200, 8-inch tall terra cotta warrior statues are being placed in high-traffic areas throughout Baltimore. If you find one, you're supposed to log on to a Web site (presumably noted on the statue) where you will find out if you have won a trip to Washington, including round-trip Amtrak tickets, a one-night stay at the very lovely Madison Loews hotel and two tickets to the warriors exhibit. There's only one vacation prize, but lots of other consolation loot like museum tickets etc.

UPDATE: Sorry to disappoint anyone who was looking forward to seeing Chi Chang, but his trip got derailed. Check out Michelle's update on the DC travel promotion. -- lfk.

Photo courtesy of Destination DC

Eggo, pumpkin shortages leave supermarket shelves empty [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-19T08:14:33-08:00

Leggo that box of Eggos!

Apparently flooding in Atlanta and mechanical problems at a waffle plant in Tennessee have left the Kellogg Co., manufacturers of the iconic round breakfast pastries, predicting Eggo shortages that will last through the middle of 2010.

Then over at Garden Variety, gardening blogger Susan Reimer fills us in on the latest canned pumpkin crisis news:

Two faces of the housing market [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-19T07:16:18-08:00

You might be excused if, reading the paper today, you wondered what on earth is going on with the housing market.

On the one hand, there are owners of larger homes having a hard time downsizing because -- agents say -- it's a hard-hit part of the market. On the other hand, the Ritz-Carlton Residences just sold a nearly 12,000-square-foot penthouse condo -- a unit that was originally three separate penthouse condos -- for a record-setting $12.6 million.

Does the really, really high end have more going for it than the merely high end?

Before you start adding thousands of square feet to your home in hopes of attracting a buyer, remember that few have the financial heft of novelist Tom Clancy, who (The Daily Record reported in a keen scoop) is the buyer of the huge penthouse.

How big is 12,000 square feet? As big as five typical new U.S. houses.

But the prevailing trend is smaller, not bigger -- as you might expect during a prolonged downturn. Last year, the median new house was smaller than it was the year before, the first drop since 1995.

Free turkey chili at California Tortilla: Cheap Trick Thursday [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-19T06:04:14-08:00

All California Tortilla locations will be giving away a free 4 oz. cup of its turkey chili with any purchase today (Thursday, Nov. 19), heretofore known as "Free Turkey Chili Day".

Customers will also receive a coupon for a free 8 oz. cup of chili that can be redeemed within the next two weeks.

The nearest California Tortilla locations seem to be on Pratt Street in downtown Baltimore, near BWI Airport and at Quarry Lake, although there are also shops in Laurel, Mount Airy and Annapolis.

The reason for the promotion, according to the press release that Sun dining blogger Elizabeth Large shared?

Hidden gem: Lake Walker [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-19T04:17:12-08:00

Neighborhood: Lake Walker

Location: northern Baltimore

Average sales price: $235,000 (January through June)

Notable features: This neighborhood hard against the city-county line is, architecturally speaking, the opposite of the suburban cul-de-sac where every house looks exactly the same. Here you'll find nineteenth-century farmhouses, modest Depression-era homes, bungalows, brick townhouses, stylish Tudor townhouses (pictured above) and even some homes that could participate in a suburban cul-de-sac exchange program without anyone being the wiser.

There's no lake -- the neighborhood is named after two streets. But the tree-lined Lake Avenue looks awfully nice even without water as a draw.

Lake Walker, bounded on the west by York Road, is within walking distance of a Giant grocery store. Because it's just south of Towson, it's not far from malls, colleges and Interstate 695. But never mind that for a moment. See what I mean about the homes:

Brick townhouses in a sea of greenery:

Bungalows:

White house, black shutters, lots of windows:

A bit of the suburbs inside city lines (there's even traffic-calming speed humps on the street in front of these homes):

And the tree-lined Lake Avenue:

Janet Abramovitz, president of the Lake Walker Community Association, said the variety of styles among the 770 homes allows for upsizing or downsizing without moving out.

"In fact, we're now on our second house in the neighborhood," said Abramovitz, who moved to Lake Walker in 1996 when she married her husband. Their first place was a small house with a small yard, circa 1930. Now they live in a Gothic-style farmhouse built around 1860 with a "very large yard" that appeals to the gardening couple.

It's not just the property that Abramovitz likes. "It's a kid-friendly, dog-friendly, people-friendly neighborhood," she said. "We have an annual block party, which is just for the neighborhood, which is tons of fun and several hundred people come to that."

She added: "It's such a nice neighborhood in every sense of the word 'neighborhood.'"

Have personal experience with Lake Walker? Do share.

Want to see all the photos I took? Check out the hidden-gem gallery.

Tomorrow: Lauraville.

(All photographs by Jamie Smith Hopkins / Baltimore Sun)

Baltimore's 10 best deals, discounts and bargains: more candidates [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-19T04:01:56-08:00

Folks, I've got a few more candidates for inclusion on our list of the top 10 deals and discounts in the Baltimore region, part of baltimoresun.com's 10Spot feature counting down the 10 weeks to 2010.

Consuming Interests, The Sun's consumer blog, has been charged with finding the Baltimore region's best deals and discounts, and that list will be published Nov. 27 in honor of Black Friday.

In reviewing the ideas we've compiled thus far, I'm having a hard time gauging which of these bargains are too well known to mention and whether any have too small an audience to be deemed a valuable tip.

Please let us know which (if any) are your favorites, or if we've missed any winners, by weighing in via the comments field below.

Here's the original list, with the new candidates at the top:

More rain due; east wind brings high water [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-18T15:16:07-08:00

Thursday looks like a wet one as clockwise winds around a high pressure system to our northeast continues to pump an east wind and Atlantic moisture our way.

Forecasters are calling for drizzle, showers or rain late tonight, followed by a 70- to 80-percent chance for more rain on Thursday as a cold front approaches from the west. In the meantime, the east wind is shoving bay water on the western shore, with flood advisories posted for the bay south of Baltimore and for the tidal Potomac River. Feels just like last week's forecast.

Behind the cold front we'll get some clearing for nice weather Friday and Saturday. But then the next coastal storm will be firing up off the Carolinas, with another bout of rain due late Sunday into Monday.

No wintry precip expected around the northwest side of that storm, except perhaps at the very highest elevations to our west. But this pattern of repeated coastal storms bodes well for snow lovers if it keeps up through the colder months.

Western "fireball" may have been small asteroid [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-18T14:22:05-08:00

A brilliant meteor that startled residents across parts of Idaho and northern Utah early Wednesday morning may have been a small asteroid, scientists say. It exploded in the atmosphere with a force equal to a thousand tons of TNT.

Spaceweather.com reports:

"Witnesses in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and elsewhere say the fireball "turned night into day" and "shook the ground" when it exploded just after midnight Mountain Standard Time. Researchers who are analyzing infrasound recordings of the blast say the fireball was not a Leonid. It was probably a small asteroid, now scattered in fragments across the countryside. Efforts are underway to measure the trajectory of the asteroid and guide meteorite recovery efforts."

Security camera footage of the event shows a flash that brightened the sky so much that a street light operated by a light sensor winked out for a time before the sky grew dark again.

Here's a video from local TV.

If this was a small asteroid (or a big space rock of some sort) entering the atmosphere, it would be second one in recent weeks to make news.

An opportunity to see what really goes on in classrooms [InsideEd]

2009-11-18T10:57:50-08:00

I don't usually share my personal opinions or experiences on this blog, but today I want to encourage all parents to take advantage of the last two days of American Education Week and go visit your child's classroom. No matter how busy you are, adjust your schedule and get there.

For those of you who have never been, I promise you will leave wiser about both your school and just how well your child is doing in the classroom.

There's really no better way of seeing what is going on than spending a day following your kids around. It is a wonderful idea, and I wonder why the private schools have not adopted it or why the private school parents don't demand it.

Until my children got to tenth grade and told me they would die a million deaths if I showed up in their classrooms, I never missed this opportunity. I remember the moment when I dreaded spending 45 minutes in Algebra II. I was one of those kids who wasn't happy about math. I admit it. But this math teacher was so inspired that the parents in the back of the classroom began to whisper, give each other smiles and wish that they had been so lucky when they were in eighth grade. Wow. No one could believe how good he was! I thought maybe this was a special lesson, but no, my daughter told me her math class was always like that. I doubt any parents there that day cut their child much slack about math, knowing they were in a class with a gifted teacher. I saw other classrooms over the years that were just plain dull, and I took pity on my kids. In another case, I saw another new teacher who barely had control.

I also had moments when I watched and suddenly "got it," realizing why my elementary school child was struggling and why we needed to work harder on something at home.

Whatever those classrooms were like, I had been there and had a glimpse into their world that helped me better support my children. The experience left me able to understand and be kind when they had had a bad day with Mrs. James, or to be less than sympathetic when they had forgotten an assignment because I knew it was probably posted up there in the left-hand corner of the board.

A friend of mine just reported that her trip to school this morning included watching a child with disabilities fall apart and have to be taken out of the room. She had a new appreciation for the dynamics of her son's classroom and what the teacher had to juggle.

I would love to hear comments from parents here who have been to classrooms this week. Give us a short description of your experiences. And go ahead and criticize me for chickening out and not going during those later years of high school. I can take the heat.

Coinstar bonus: get an extra $10 for coin counting [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-18T10:49:25-08:00

Time to check under the sofa cushions and break open the piggy bank! Coinstar is offering a $10 gift card if you exchange more than $40 in coins for a gift card or eCertificate.

Normally, Coinstar charges 8.9 percent to change coins into a voucher that can be exchanged for cash, but that fee is waived if you select to receive your currency in either an eCertificate (for Web merchants like Amazon.com or iTunes) or a gift card for stores like Old Navy or Pier 1. Check the Coinstar locator to find machines that offer eCertificates and gift cards (search for specific products).

And now through Dec. 6, if you put more than $40 in a Coinstar machine, you'll receive a claim form at the end of your voucher that can be redeemed for a $10 gift card or (updated) a $10 eCertificate. Just follow the mailing instructions on your slip and send it in by Jan. 6, and you'll get the $10 card in the mail.

Remember to keep a copy for your own records, and bear in mind that it will take 6 to 8 weeks to process the claim, so don't bank on using that $10 for any holiday gifts.

Thanks to the Frugal Living forums over at About.com for the tip.

Turn your holiday shopping into charitable donations: Consumer Web Site of the Week [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-18T06:12:05-08:00

Friends, here's a way to use your holiday shopping to support your favorite cause --- and maybe save a little money!

When you're hunting for gifts online, start your search at GoodShop.com, which partners with national merchants and retailers such as the Gap, Amazon.com, Dell and Target to donate a portion of sales to charities.

Here's how it works: search for your favorite nonprofit on the site, or add it to the database.

Then, look for your retailers. Be sure to check for any restrictions, as well as additional coupon codes. Some retailers offer free shipping or other offers to GoodShop customers, which they post on the individual store page.

Finally, click through to the merchant and make your purchase. Don't forget to hunt around for other coupons that might apply to this sale.

Goodshop is brought to you by the people behind GoodSearch, which we have written about before. It allows Internet users to designate charities to receive a portion of the advertising dollars generated through web searches.

Hidden gem: Havre de Grace [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-18T04:03:37-08:00

Neighborhood -- or, in this case, community: Havre de Grace

Location: Harford County

Average sales price: $241,000 (January through June)

Notable features: Water, water, everywhere. Havre de Grace's northeastern boundary is the Susquehanna River, and along its southeastern edge flows the Chesapeake Bay. There's a boardwalk promenade along the river and boats galore, plus a quaint downtown on the National Register of Historic Places.

Some of the homes here are historic and stately. Some are just darn cute. Take a look:

Stately:

Cute:

You'll see lots of porches:

And neat architectural touches:

And, naturally, boats. Lots of boats. (Plus some waterfront condos, too.)

Beyond old-town Havre de Grace, you'll find newer subdivisions in the 21078 ZIP code with the sorts of homes that fans of suburbia are accustomed to seeing:

While in town, I stopped to chat with artist Debra Moffitt. She was painting a Havre de Grace streetscape that caught her eye:

"It's just a charming scene," said Moffitt, an Arbutus resident participating in a painting contest. "It's sort of iconic of Havre de Grace."

About 13,000 people live in the incorporated part of Havre de Grace. Meghan Simmons, manager of economic development there, said she was attracted to the area by the downtown waterfront. She and her husband live in a Victorian house that's big enough for them plus four apartments.

"There's a lot of really neat Victorians that people have invested [in] and turned them into all hardwood, brick-exposed apartments," she said. "Just a lot of really neat places to rent."

Havre de Grace markets itself as a tourist destination. You can rent kayaks in town, visit museums in unique spaces (a lighthouse and a skipjack sailboat), hike on recreational trails, check out the art galleries or simply stroll along the streets and imagine what the town looked like when it was incorporated in 1785. Its name was suggested three years earlier by the Marquis de Lafayette, who crossed the river by ferry and was struck by a resemblance to Le Havre in France. (Locals translate it as "harbor of grace" or "harbor of mercy.")

Outside the historic district is Bulle Rock, a gated community with a golf course that hosted the LPGA Championship for several years.

If you're looking for a short commute to Baltimore, Havre de Grace isn't the place for you. It's a 40-mile drive to downtown. Wilmington, Del. is several miles closer, in fact. But you don't have to rely on back roads to get where you need to go.

"We are right off 95," Simmons said.

Have personal experience with Havre de Grace? Do share.

Want to see all the photos I took? Check out the hidden-gem gallery.

Tomorrow: Lake Walker.

(All photographs by Jamie Smith Hopkins / Baltimore Sun)

Mustache growing race raises money for classrooms [InsideEd]

2009-11-17T14:23:22-08:00

And you thought that city schools chief Andres Alonso and Omari Todd, director of Teach for America Baltimore, were on the same side when it comes to kids. Well, think again. They are dualing it out for the Mustaches for Kids program, beginning tonight when they will make their chins and upper lips free of all facial hair so that everyone has a fair start in the race to grow a mustache. So will other men around Baltimore who are participating in the program.

Those men participating, called Growers, will ask friends and family to donate money to buy needed supplies for classrooms around the area. Teachers will post their needs on the DonorsChoose.org Web site.

It is a bit like a runner gathering donations to run a marathon, except that this race is a month or so long so we won't know who grows the better mustache for awhile. We will keep you posted about the results as soon as they are in. In the meantime, teachers get out there and put your requests up!

Do you have to sell to get the repeat home buyer credit? [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-17T14:21:58-08:00

Many of you have wondered if you have to sell your current home in order to qualify for the $6,500 repeat-buyer tax credit on a new-home purchase. The Internal Revenue Service weighed in on that question today, and the answer is no:

Q: I’m already a homeowner. If I buy a replacement home to use as my principal residence, do I have to sell my home to qualify for the homebuyer tax credit?
A: If you meet all of the requirements for the credit, the law does not require you to sell or otherwise dispose of your current principal residence to qualify for a credit of up to $6,500 when you buy a replacement home to use as your principal residence. You must buy, or enter into a binding contract to buy, a principal residence on or before April 30, 2010 and close on the home by June 30, 2010. Additionally, you must have lived in the same principal residence for any five-consecutive year period during the eight-year period that ended on the date the replacement home is purchased.

I'm still waiting for an answer to the question that many of you have posed: Is a couple eligible for the $6,500 if only one of the spouses meets the five-year ownership requirement?

Looking for more information about the repeat-buyer tax credit? This link will take you everything I've written on the topic. And here's the link for blog posts on the first-time buyer credit.

Tell The Sun about your Black Friday plans, even if you don't have any [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-17T14:10:47-08:00

Every month The Baltimore Sun invites readers to share how they are dealing with today's economic realities.

This month's topic is Black Friday, the popular post-Thanksgiving shopping day that is the official start of the holiday retail season.

Are you shopping Black Friday? Where will you go and what will you be buying? Can you really find deals on Black Friday or is it a marketing ploy by retailers to get people to spend money?

We want to hear from you. Check out our light source page to find the questionaire and other information about our "be a news source" effort: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-lightsource-about,0,2031869.htmlstory.

Also, check out the real estate wonk to find out her take on the question.

Thanks in advance to all of you who participate.

Be a news source on all subjects Black Friday [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-17T13:03:07-08:00

Once a month, The Baltimore Sun invites everyone -- yes, you too -- to share experiences that will help us better understand how folks are dealing with day-to-day economic realities. The newest topic: Black Friday, that frenzy of post-Thanksgiving shopping.

Will you partake? Have your plans changed from previous years thanks to the downturn?

You can find the Black Friday questions here. Or go to baltimoresun.com/lightsource, our main page for our "be a news source" effort.

Why are we doing this? Because economic news coverage is better and more relevant when it's not just the pundits talking.

Grateful thanks to all who participate and -- better yet -- spread the word.

Walmart Black Friday prices to come a week early [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-17T12:46:37-08:00

Walmart said today that it will sell items at savings "resembling day-after-Thanksgiving prices" one week early.

The savings will run Nov. 21 - Nov. 27.

The world's largest retailer has already announced $10 toys and electronics deals as it tries to get ahead of its competitors in what is expected to be a tough holiday season for retailers. It is also opening for 24 hours on Thanksgiving Day.

Examples of the savings include:

* 26" Vizio LCD HDTV $248, was $347

*Disney Princess Scooter, $99, was $129

EZ Bake Oven, $16, was $28

Baby Alive Newborn Doll, $8, was $15

Nerf Capture the Flag, $19, was $39

Shoppers who buy "Hero" game packages will receive $40 Walmart gift cards. The game packages eligible include Band Hero, DJ Hero and Guitar Hero.

Top 10 hidden deals and discounts: 10Spot [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-17T12:27:13-08:00

UPDATE: Don't miss this post with even more deals and discounts for the Baltimore area.

The countdown to 2010 races at baltimoresun.com with our 10Spot feature. Every Friday for 10 weeks one Sun blog will post a top 10 list. Next week, in honor of Black Friday, your faithful Consuming Interests staff will bring you the region's top 10 hidden deals and discounts.

But first, we need your help! Let us know what you think of our suggestions below, and feel free to chime in with your own ideas.

Keep in mind, we are trying to highlight bargains that are local and unique to our area, but we're not restricting things to the city of Baltimore.

Without further ado, here are what we think are some of the best bargains in the region:

"Vomitoxin" disaster declared in 10 Md. counties [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-17T12:18:08-08:00

A fungal grain infestation caused by last spring's wet weather in Maryland was bad enough to earn a federal agricultural disaster declaration for 10 Maryland counties. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack approved the state's request for aid in a Nov. 13 letter to Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Wheat and barley crops planted here became infected with the Vomitoxin (deoxynivalenol toxin, or DON) during May and June. The toxin is produced by a fungus called "Fusarium head blight," and the contamination makes the grain unmarketable, and unusable as feed.

The North Dakota State University describes its impact this way: "Grain with DON would have to be ingested in very high amounts to pose a health risk to humans, but it can affect flavors in foods and processing performance. Human food products are restricted to a 1-ppm level established by the FDA. This level is considered safe for human consumption. The food industry often sets standards that are more restrictive. DON causes feed refusal and poor weight gain in some livestock if fed above the advisory levels."

Maryland Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance said, "Farmers in the disaster designation areas experienced market value losses ranging from 30 to 55 percent."

The federal disaster declaration makes farmers in the primary designation areas, and all adjoining counties, eligible for "consideration" for assistance from the USDA Farm Service Agency.

The primary counties in the disaster declaration are Baltimore, Carroll, Cecil, Harford, Howard, Kent, Montgomery, Queen Anne's, Talbot and Washington.

BWI Marshall Airport recorded more than 9 inches of surplus rain during April, May and June. Since then, more than 3.5 additional inches of surplus rain have been added.

(SUN PHOTO/Glenn Fawcett 2008)

Tom Turkey on the road to ... dinner [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-17T11:50:46-08:00

I was driving to work on I-83 Monday when I pulled alongside this flatbed truck from Locust Point Farm in Elkton, loaded with cages holding dozens of turkeys. It wasn't hard to imagine where they were headed. Fortunately for these guys, we celebrated early. All turkeyed out.

Speaking of seasonal critters, anyone else under siege by box elder bugs and ladybugs? They all want to come indoors. Crickets, too.

Last week's rain totals mapped [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-17T11:39:19-08:00

The National Weather Service has produced a map of the 72-hour rain totals during last week's nor'easter.

The map makes clear just how much more seriously affected counties to our south were, and especially those in southeast Virginia (left). Rain totals there ran above 10 inches in some places.

Out in far-western Maryland, meanwhile, there was little or no rain from the coastal storm.

(AP Photo/Jason Hirschfeld in Hampton Roads. Va. Nov. 13, 2009)

Antarctic ozone hole shrinks, a little [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-17T08:02:56-08:00

The ozone "hole" over Antartica reached its southern springtime peak in September, according to researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Measurements there indicated the size of the gap in the layer of the planet's atmosphere that protects us from dangerous ultraviolet radiation was the 10th largest on record.

That sounds bad, but the data suggest that the hole has actually begun to shrink thanks to international restrictions in the early 1990s on the production and sale of products containing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), mostly as propellants and refrigerants. The chemicals were discovered to be responsible for high-altitude chemical reactions in the coldest places on Earth that were destroying ozone molecules. Man-made ozone is a pollutant at ground level, but naturally occurring ozone high in the atmosphere acts as a shield against harmful solar radiation.

The other piece of the measurement is the amount of ozone in a vertical column of air over South Pole Station. That's measured in something called Dobson Units.

The least amount of protective ozone ever measured there was 89 Dobson Units, in 1993. This September, the lowest reading was 98 Dobson Units. That's the seventh lowest on record, but an improvement.

The chart at right shows the average Dobson readings for the last half of October each year. You can see that the depletion appears to have ended during the 1990s, and ozone readings have stabilized and perhaps ticked up a notch.

But the progress is painfully slow. At this rate, the ozone hole won't return to normal until the 2060s. By then, lots of us (including me) will be dead. But our children and grandchildren will be around, and I hope they throw a big party and thank their ancestors for thinking for the long-term (for a change).

You can read more about this year's measurements here.

Target, CVS settle over sale of expired products: Naughty Businesses of the Week [Consuming Interests]

2009-11-17T06:11:14-08:00

We've told you about problems with expired products on supermarket and drug store shelves, but both Target and CVS have recently settled with attorneys general in other states after inspectors found old items on shelves.

In New Jersey, Target is paying $375,000 for selling expired baby formula as well as charging incorrect prices at the register, according to the Associated Press. Under the settlement Target admits no wrongdoing but the company is adding a senior manager to ensure prices charged match advertising and training employees in price accuracy for the next two years.

New Jersey has already settled similar suits with Rite Aid and Duane Reade.

After breaking a previous agreement to stop selling expired baby formula, food and medicine, CVS Pharmacy Inc. is paying $875,000 to the state of New York, the Associated Press explains.

How do you stop yourself from bringing home expired goods? I can't say that I routinely check items not sold in refrigerator cases. I try not to buy items like over-the-counter medicine from low-traffic locations that might not rotate stock frequently, but that's not always an option.

Remember ...

Hidden gem: Brewers Hill [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-17T04:02:59-08:00

Neighborhood: Brewers Hill

Location: Southeast Baltimore

Average sales price: $223,000 (January-June). The cheapest home that sold was $157,000; the most expensive, $271,000.

Notable features: Ask people in the region to name a funky Baltimore neighborhood near the water, and they'll probably come up with Canton. Brewers Hill, its small next-door-neighbor to the east, gets a lot less attention. But it has neatly-kept rowhouses, cool beer-brewing history (wave hello to Mr. Boh, pictured above) and easy access to Canton hot spots without the bustling activity.

As reader EL put it when nominating this neighborhood for gem consideration, "We have all the fun of Canton, but none of the parking headaches or intoxicated frat boys."

Some of the blocks look very much like Canton:

Other rowhouses have an older-Baltimore feel to them, with neat little touches. For instance, stained glass:

Back-yard gardens:

Whimsical decorations, part I:

Whimsical decorations, part II:

And even rowhouse art:

The morning I visited to see if Brewers Hill was as nice as advertised, I stopped to chat with Henry and Judith Flores, who lived there for years. They kept their rowhouse when they moved to Baltimore County, and daughter Christina lives across the street in the house her mother grew up in, so the family has a lot of ties to the neighborhood.

Henry Flores calls it the "forgotten" neighborhood because it's so quiet. "For city living, it's an incredible place," he said. "Here we are, standing in the middle of the road!" (We had a long conversation and never got interrupted by a passing car.)

Judith Flores remembers the days when many of the residents worked at the breweries. "You could always smell the beer," she said. Now the buildings where National Bohemian once was made have been redeveloped into offices and shops that play off their brewery roots:

The mix of residents is different nowadays, too. More young professionals. Fewer families with school-aged children.

"When I was growing up, people lived here their whole lives," Judith Flores said. "Now you have a lot of young people moving in."

Former residents tend to come back to visit, though. The gathering place is often the annual summer carnival at Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic Church on South Conkling Street.

Got personal experience with Brewers Hill? Please share.

Want to see all the photos I took? Check out the hidden-gem gallery.

Tomorrow: Havre de Grace.

(All photographs by Jamie Smith Hopkins / Baltimore Sun)

Gov. Martin O'Malley says Maryland is not behind [InsideEd]

2009-11-16T15:00:42-08:00

We wrote in Saturday's paper about the fact that Maryland appears to be lagging behind other progressive states in positioning itself to be competitive in the race to get a portion of $4 billion in federal funds. Education advocates around the state have questioned why Maryland has not been more proactive in talking about the competition for dollars that the Obama administration is saying could start a revolution in education.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan would like, for instance, to have every state have a data system that has the capacity to say how much progress a student has made in the past year of school. This involves being able to look at the test scores from one year to the next and draw conclusions. The "growth" a student makes, Duncan says, should be part of a teacher's annual evaluation. I am not aware of any school system currently creating this link between test scores and teacher evaluations and it is a concept that is deeply concerning to the Maryland State Education Association, which is part of a national teachers union.

Gov. Martin O'Malley quickly responded to the criticism this morning and Laura Smitherman's story is now up on the Web site.

Forecast hopeful for Leonid meteor shower tonight [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-16T11:52:46-08:00

With the moon entering its "new" phase tonight, the skies should be ideally dark for viewing Tuesday morning's peak of the annual Leonid meteor shower. And the weather forecast, while not ideal, calls for partly to mostly clear skies. With cooler air moving in with a high-pressure system out of the Great Lakes, our skies should be drying out from this morning's foggy humidity. That will help clear the atmosphere for the best view of the "shooting stars."

The Leonids occur each November when the Earth, in its annual orbit around the sun, passes through remnants of the dust trails left behind by the passage of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which passes through this area of the solar system every 33 years. Astronomers say the trails we'll be intersecting tonight were laid down by the comet in AD 1466 and 1533.

Here's more from Sky & Telescope.

UPDATE: Here (left) is a meteor captured by amateur astrophotographer Mike Hankey, in northern Baltimore County, during the Leonid shower. It may be a "sporadic," rather than a Leonid. Still a nice shot, better than anything I've ever managed. Mike said:

"At the time I was focused on Procyon and shooting continuously and waiting and watching. I saw a meteor radiate directly out of [the bright star] Procyon and was like, NO WAY! But I check the camera screen and couldn't see anything. I didn't realize I caught it until this morning when I was reviewing the pics.

"It was much brighter in person, it's a little faint in the pic. Still really happy I caught it."

Here's Mike's Web site.

Earlier post resumes here:

Some Leonid showers have reached "storm" proportions, with counts of more than 1,000 per hour in some locations. This year's show, for eastern North America, is expected to produce rates of a more conventional 20-30 per hour. But any time you can spend an hour under the night sky and see 20 meteors, some with persistent trails, is a memorable night out.

The best time to look will be in the hours before dawn - say, 3 or 4 a.m. until the dawn begins to brighten the sky.

Intrepid meteor watchers should find the darkest location they can, as far from urban light pollution as possible. Look for a place with a broad view of the sky. The shower's "radiant" is the constellation Leo - the place in the sky from which the meteors seem to emerge as the Earth plows into them.

Leo rises in the northeast after 11 p.m. By 4 a.m. it will be high overhead, and the meteors will appear to be flying away from it in all directions. So you can look anywhere for them.

When it's over, as always, come back here, leave a comment and let everyone share the experience. Good luck!

Hidden gem: Ashburton [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-16T04:10:31-08:00

First up on the hidden-gem list: Ashburton.

Location: Northwest Baltimore.

Average sales price: $141,000 (January-June).

Notable features: Beautiful single-family homes -- some brick -- and lots of mature trees. An old-money feel without the price tag. Directly to the south is Hanlon Park, with Lake Ashburton.

A 2002 study of city neighborhoods, prepared by Johns Hopkins University graduate students, called Ashburton "a well-defined enclave in northwest Baltimore that has established itself as the home of Baltimore's black elite." In fact, I almost disqualified Ashburton from this list because I thought it was an unhidden gem, a place most people know about. Until I started asking around and got puzzled looks, that is.

Here's the view down Ellamont Road:

And more Ashburton greenery:

Wonk reader Alonzo LaMont Jr. said in his nomination of the neighborhood, "There are PLENTY of big old homes in this area, and it's very close to Loyola, Hopkins, Notre Dame (even Morgan [State University] is a stone's throw away). People are paying all those big bucks to live in Charles Village (upper and lower), Homewood, and Hampden when they could have alot more house in Ashburton."

When I visited to get photos, I chatted with resident Alfred Nkere and heard how he came to live in Ashburton seven years ago: "One day I was driving in this area and it just struck me," said Nkere, who owns an import-export business. He moved to a street lined with big trees, a place so green and suburban that "we have this idea that we're not in the city."

Nkere, a father of six, said the neighborhood is a good place to raise a family. "We can have the kids play in the back without worrying," he said.

Here he mows his lawn while 6-year-old daughter Amini rolls by:

Another thing Nkere likes about the neighborhood: It's just north of Hilton Street, and thus much quicker by car to Interstate 95 than it might appear.

The Johns Hopkins study notes Ashburton's "architecturally diverse houses," and you've probably gotten some idea of that from the pictures. Here's another example:

Do you have personal experiences with Ashburton? Please share.

Want to see all the photos I took? Check out the hidden-gem gallery.

(All photos: Jamie Smith Hopkins / Baltimore Sun)

Happy anniversary to me [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-15T05:15:39-08:00

I've been a staff reporter at The Baltimore Sun for 10 years. Amazing how quickly a decade can fly by.

Here's hoping for another 10 years at least, assuming the newspaper industry still exists at that point.

On that note: Thanks to everyone who subscribes to a newspaper, whichever one it may be. Newspapers' online offerings -- including blogs -- would not be possible without you.

Your take on city property taxes [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-15T04:13:46-08:00

An overwhelming majority of the people who took last week's Wonk poll think Baltimore should lower its property tax rate significantly, and now -- despite (or because of) the tight budgetary times.

As of last night, 92 percent of you poll-takers said you agree with Baltimore economist Anirban Basu that the city's rate of $2.268 per $100 of assessed value needs to be cut now.

Six percent said not now, but when the economy's doing well.

Just two percent opted for the straight "no."

And one person felt so strongly about this that he or she skipped over the "yes" option to write in an answer: "Hell yes."

People usually like the idea of having less taxes to pay, so that was a pretty easy question for you all to answer. Now I challenge you to tackle a harder one: What cuts or adjustments should the city make to account for the (at least short-term) drop in revenue? What can the city do to avoid counteracting the "come on in" message of lower taxes with the unwelcome-mat of decreasing quality of services?

Proponents of rate reductions say a big cut would bring more residents, increasing the sources of revenue, but let's assume for this exercise that tens of thousands of people won't immediately drop everything to move in. (Also, you'll want to take into account that the city is already grappling with reduced revenues. Mayor Sheila Dixon announced in September that the city would have to "immediately reduce spending" to deal with a $60 million decline in revenue and state aid.)

Extra points to anyone with an idea more specific than "reduce waste." Here are two proposals from commenters to get you started.

MCG suggests a tax-related strategy:

The city can immediately reduce the overall property tax rate and recover any lost revenue by doing the following:
1) Crack down on all homestead cheats by collecting back taxes, penalties, and interest for any years in which property owners were wrongfully claiming the homestead credit.
2) Discourage people from cheating on the homestead credit in the future by pursuing perjury charges against the most blatant cheaters (e.g. those who own multiple properties in the city and claim the credit on all of those properties).
3) Follow Washington DC's lead and raise the property tax rate for all vacant properties by 800% or more. With over 30,000 vacant properties throughout the city, this would seem to be a no-brainer.

Josh Dowlut has a budget-cutting suggestion:

Property taxes make up roughly half the general fund revenue. Public safety, education, and pensions/retirement plans make up the #'s 1, 2, and 3 expenses.
Roughly speaking you could trim property tax rates by 30% simply by eliminating pension benefits for government workers. We don't get them in the private sector, so why should they?

Dowlut points out that you can find the Citizens' Guide to the Fiscal 2009 budget here.

And here is the Fiscal Year 2010 budget -- the one we're currently in -- along with the mid-year budget-cutting plan.

Ready, set ... go.

'Fiscal Haiku': a poetic outlet [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-14T04:15:26-08:00

Frustrated about the national debt or the state of your own bank account? You could write a thousand-word rant. Or you could write 17 syllables.

That's what the website Fiscal Haiku invites you to do, namely "express your thoughts and concerns about the state of America's finances in the form of this most ancient and concise of international literary forms." Haiku, or at least the version as most of us know it, is three lines of five, seven and five syllables.

Fiscal Haiku is on Twitter, too.

Here's a housing haiku from a San Diego woman:

Home values are down
Foreclosures are plentiful
I still cannot Buy

I see some Maryland submissions, though none from Baltimore. Here's one from a Greenbelt man:

Work'd for fifty years
401(k), zero K
Work for fifty more

And by a D.C. 'burbs guy:

Lament of the wind -
"Don't spend money you don't have."
"You bloody idjits."

Got one? Share!

Searching for a home? Tell your story [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-13T09:12:13-08:00

We're looking for a buyer to write dispatches from the home-buying front, starting with the search and ending with move in, with lots of updates in between. Take us with you on your treks to open houses, share your observations about conditions and prices, show us contract negotiation, tell us about all the paperwork -- you get the idea.

You'll be helping demystify the process for other would-be buyers. Better yet, you get to weigh in on what works and what drives you up a wall.

We're specifically looking for a first-time home buyer or someone who wants a foreclosure or short sale to live in. (Or you could fit into both categories.)

If this is you, and you're fairly early in the process, drop me a line at jamie.smith.hopkins(at)baltsun.com.

Hidden-gem guesses [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-11-13T08:50:04-08:00

Several folks guessed at the hidden-gem neighborhoods based on these photos -- and good guesses they were -- but only one reader correctly named any of them.

So congratulations, bryanintowson! For identifying the twin neighborhoods of Loch Raven Village and Knettishall, you win due praise, a copy of Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us by Alyssa Katz and a Real Estate Wonk magnet.

Send a mailing address to jamie.smith.hopkins(at)baltsun.com and I'll ship them your way.

Thanks to you all for playing the guessing game. If you other guessers would like a magnet, email me and I'll send you one, too.

24-hour rain totals top 5 inches in St. Mary's Co. [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-13T07:35:41-08:00

While Baltimoreans may simply be tired of the gray, and the gloom, and the drip, residents of Maryland's southern counties - on both sides of the Chesapeake, are dealing with a serious deluge of rain and high tides from the big coastal storm that remains almost stationary off the Carolina coast, driving wind, rain and water inland.

Here's an animation of the storm's water vapor movement, from satellite sensors.

Precipitation totals in St. Mary's County for the past 24 hours have topped 5 inches, with some locations reporting nealy six inches and one - Great Mills - exceeding 7 inches. Normal rainfall for the month of November at BWI is 3.12 inches.

Here is a rain total map for the storm.

High water and fallen trees have forced a number of road closings in the Leonardtown area, and delayed delayed school for some students Thursday as buses were re-routed around flooded roadways.

Ocean City has received 3.69 inches of rain since the storm arrived, the heaviest falling early Thursday evening. That's the Rehoboth Beach Web cam below.

Coastal Flood Warnings remain in effect Friday morning for Charles, Calvert and St. Mary's counties. Tides were expected to run 2.5 to 3 feet above normal into Saturday before the storm begins to drift away from the mainland. Colton's Point and St. George's Island in St. Mary's County, and Solomons Island in Calvert were warned to expect significant flooding.

In addition, Ocean City was under Wind Advisories until 7 p.m. Friday. An earlier hHigh Wind Warning was cancelled. Winds are now forecast to average 25 to 35 mph, with gusts to 50 mph before weakening late in the day. With the soil saturated, such winds can be expected to topple some trees, causing more power outages. The Atlantic coast is also under a High Surf Advisory until 6 p.m. Friday. Tides at the Inlet are expected to exceed predictions by more than 5 feet, with moderate flooding in Ocean City.

Coastal Flood Advisories were up for Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties. Gale warnings and small craft advisories were posted for the Chesapeake.

The rain amounts decrease as you travel north almong the Western Shore. Prince Frederick, In Calvert County, recorded 4.18 inches by Friday morning. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport reported 1.24 inches. The storm has left just under an inch here at The Baltimore Sun in downtown Baltimore.

Here is a list of rain reports, as of Friday morning, from the National Weather Service.

As thick and damp and gloomy as it is here, it's interesting to note that clear, dry, sunny weather lies barely 150 miles to our west, beyond the reach of this slow-moving nor'easter.

Oakland, in Garrett County, is reporting "a few clouds" this morning. Elkins, W.Va. is sunny. So are Pittsburgh, Pa., and State College, Pa.

Baltimore appoints new chief of human resources [InsideEd]

2009-11-12T09:00:00-08:00

The Baltimore City school board has appointed Shawn Y. Crowder as the new Chief of Human Capital, a new name to describe the human resources chief. Crowder was the former chief of staff and head of human resources for the Philadelphia school district before being assigned to her current job as deputy for Strategic Partnerships for the Philadelphia school district.

She also spent 13 yeras with Cigna Insurance Co. where she oversaw recruitment and customer service operations. She is scheduled to begin on Nov. 30.

High school years remembered [InsideEd]

2009-11-12T08:58:16-08:00

Our colleague, reporter Mary Gail Hare, wrote an op ed piece this week about her 45th high school reunion from the Institute for Notre Dame, an all-girls school that has educated many Baltimore women.

The response from readers surprised her. She got more than 50 e-mails in one day, which just goes to show how powerful a time in our lives high school is and that our memories of those times survive whether we like them or not. In this case, most of those who wrote to Hare had happy memories.

Here's one of the comments:

Storm sits and spins; we get wet [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-12T07:18:09-08:00

That storm off the Carolinas continues to churn on Thursday, stoked by energy and Gulf moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida. Coupled with the high over New England, the two weather engines are sending northeast and east winds onshore, bringing us a steady drip of rain, and driving tides high onto the east-facing shores of the Atlantic and up the Chesapeake.

Here's the view from orbit. Here's Weather Underground blogger Jeff Masters, calling the storm surge at Norfolk "historic." And here is more on the storm from NASA.

The National Weather Service has issued a slew of watches and warnings today as tides swell toward minor-to-moderate flood levels. High winds and heavy rain mostly south and east of Baltimore and Washington are adding to the local problems, which have already resulted in some road closures in Southern Maryland. More are expected.

Leonardtown and Hollywood, both in St. Mary's County, have already reported more than 2 inches of rain from the storm. Ocean City, too, was getting hammered by rain, wind and high water.

The forecast for BWI coming out of Sterling calls for a pretty steady rain Thursday and Friday, with rain chances only slightly reduced for Friday, but diminishing overnight and into Saturday morning. The drying out should begin later on Saturday, with sunshine on tap for Sunday and the early part of next week. In all, Baltimore could see as much as an inch of additional rain, on top of the inch or so we've already recorded. If this were January we'd be out shoveling.

Among the many watches and warnings out this morning:

The NWS has issued coastal flood advisories for the Western Shore of the Chesapeake, where tides were running a foot above predicted levels Thursday morning at Annapolis (right), with higher levels expected at high tides times on Friday.

Flood watches and warnings are up for Friday from Anne Arundel County south to St. Mary's. Md. 244 near Redgate and Old Rolling Road in Great Mills were flooded in spots this morning as heavy rains drove streams over their banks, county authorities there reported.

Gale Warnings (winds 34 to 47 knots) are up for the northern portion of the Chesapeake, including Baltimore Harbor, with Storm Warnings (winds 48 to 63 knots) until 6 Thursday evening for the southern portion.

A High Surf Advisory is up for the ocean beaches, with rip currents and local beach erosion expected. Here are some OC Web cam views of the surf.

Developing coastal low deals us rain into weekend [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-11T07:20:00-08:00

Persistent northeast winds, energized by a slow-moving coastal storm intensifying off the Carolinas, and high pressure over New England, will keep Maryland in a northeasterly flow off the Altantic for the rest of the week. And that will mean a series of cool, gray, drippy days, with gusty winds and increasingly high tides. So much for what had been a sunny forecast for the end of the week.

Some of this mess can be linked to the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida, including much of the rain that has moved into the region overnight and the energy that is fueling the coastal storm.

The counter-clockwise flow around the coastal low is combining with the clockwise flow around the New England high-pressure center. And that is funneling northeast winds into the region.

The storm is shoving Gulf and Atlantic moisture northward into the region, where it is running up against the cold front and clear, dry air, that lies to our north and west. And that flow is what's delivering our drizzle and rain today. (Those are The Sun's ginkgo trees, on Calvert Street, at right. The photo doesn't do them justice.)

The heaviest rain is expected to remain south and east of the Baltimore-Washington area. So will the gale-force winds forecast for the central and southern portions of the Chesapeake. Along the coast, winds will reach 15 to 20 mph in the next day or two, with gusts to 25 or 30 mph.

All that wind, coupled with an approaching new moon, will drive more water onto the beaches, and hold it against the Chesapeake shoreline. Coastal Flood Watches have been posted for Friday on the Chesapeake Bay and the tidal Potomac River. Minor to moderate flooding is possible at periods of high tide Friday afternoon and Saturday.

A Gale Warning is up for Thursday on the lower tidal Potomac and the Bay south of Sandy Point.

Out on the ocean beaches, there is heavy rain in the forecast. (Ocean City's beaches, left, were deserted this morning.)

The National Weather Service's Wakefield, Va. forecast office has posted High Wind Warnings from Maryland to the Outer Banks, effective from 6 p.m. Wednesday evening until 11 a.m. Friday morning. Winds will average 30 to 40 mph with higher gusts.

High Surf Advisories Coastal Flood Warnings are also up for the Delmarva beaches, with tides two to four feet above predicted levels.

October was wettest, third-coolest on record for U.S. [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-10T13:02:28-08:00

NOAA's October data are in, and the agency is rpeorting the October in the U.S. was, on average, the wettest, and the third-coolest October on the 115-year record for the lower-48 states.

Temperatures were below-normal in all regions except the Southeast (and in New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, which were near-normal). Florida was the only state to report above-average temperatures. (Left)

The cross-country average of 4.15 inches of rain was the highest on record, nearly doubling the long-term average for October. Moderate-to-exceptional drought covered 12 percent of the contiguous United States, the second-smallest drought footprint of the decade, based on the U.S. Drought Monitor.

You can read the entire release, here. (Cue the global warming skeptics...)

On the other hands, atmospheric scientists say the proportion of record high temperatures to record lows across the U.S., is going up.

Ida's remnant rain may stay mostly south of us [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-10T08:32:28-08:00

Forecasters at the National Weather Service's Sterling forecast office are wrestling with computer models that can't quite agree on how much of Ida's moisture will make it to Maryland this week.

Remnants of what was once the third hurricane of the 2009 season have crossed the Gulf Coast and swept inland, bringing heavy rains to parts of the Deep South. But there is high pressure to our northwest, and a cold front ahead of it that appears to constitute a barrier to the northward advance of Ida's rains.

"It's the remnants of Ida, and how quickly/how far its rainfall spreads northward that will determine the outcome of this forecast," the forecasters say in this morning's discussion.

For now, the official forecast out of Sterling is calling for a chance for rain to develop after 10 p.m. this evening as the Gulf moisture begins to run up against the cold front. Veterans Day comes with a 30 percent chance for rain or drizzle, with temperatures held in the mid-50s. The drizzle chances continue in to the evening. But the rest of the week, and right into early next week, looks sunny with seasonable highs near 60 degrees.

Whatever happens here, it appears the coastal counties will see some considerable wind and rain in the next few days, with some chance for minor coastal flooding as a series of offshore lows keep persistent northeast winds shove more water onto the bay and ocean shorelines.

Reader recalls early 1953 snowstorm [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-11-10T07:43:18-08:00

Last week I wrote a brief comment on the print weather page about the early snowstorm that paralyzed Baltimore back on Nov. 6-7, 1953. I wondered if anyone would remember the storm, which was the earliest "heavy" (four inches or more) snowfall in Baltimore weather records.

This week I received the following note from Joan Parr, who clearly did. She writes:

"Mr. Roylance:

"If my memory serves me right, the storm you mentioned in your blog (on Friday, Nov. 6. 2009) was indeed a traffic-snarler. Drivers acted as if they had never seen snow before, and they just kept moving, right into intersections, creating gridlock.

"This storm was, I believe, the impetus for Baltimore City to lure Henry Barnes away from Denver to come and make sense of our streets and traffic lights. He did a very good job; one of his legacies which still exist in Baltimore is the "Barnes Dance," where all vehicular traffic is stopped and pedestrians are free to walk across the streets unobstructed by cars and trucks.

"Thank you for the reminder of that storm. Joan K. Parr "

(SUN PHOTO/Nov. 6, 1953/Cecil County)

The chocolate milk debate [InsideEd]

2009-11-09T08:50:12-08:00

The National Dairy Council is fighting back. They sent information out today to try to combat what they see as the growing threat to milk drinking in public schools. The food activists who got soda out of school cafeterias may be moving on to chocolate milk. Horrors.

But the National Dairy Council says if we take the chocolate out of the lunch line, kids will stop drinking milk, which everyone seems to agree has some nutrients students need. The Dairy Council is launching a "Calling all moms to raise their hands for chocolate milk" campaign. Even though flavored milk has sugar in it, the council says studies show that children who drink chocolate milk don't have overall higher intakes of sugar than kids who drink plain old white milk.

About 70 percent of the milk that kids in the lunch line are choosing is flavored, they say.

So what do parents think? If chocolate milk wasn't an option, would your children drink white milk instead or reach for juice or water?

Most states offer alternatives to high school tests [InsideEd]

2009-11-06T14:50:20-08:00

The Center on Education Policy, a non-partison group that has tracked the No Child Left Behind Act since its passage, has come out with a new report on how states are doing with high school exit exams. Maryland is now in its second year of requiring that students pass the Maryland High School Assessments.

The report doesn't have any shocking news, but it does say that 22 of the 26 states now offer some alternatives for students with disabilities. And there's a growing trend among states to offer struggling students alternative assessments, different diplomas, flexible cut off scores and waivers. In Maryland, we have the bridge plan, which allows students to work on projects instead of passing the exams.

CEP also says across the nation students are more often passing their high school tests on the first try, an encouraging sign.

CEP recommends that states begin looking at increasing money for remediation of students, do a better job of collecting data on pass rates and spend some time researching the effects of the exit exams on students.

Should the age for mandatory attendance be raised? [InsideEd]

2009-11-03T17:06:26-08:00

The Associated Press reported recently that Montgomery County's school board has made a symbolic push to get the Maryland General Assembly to raise the age a student must stay in school to 18.

Currently, students can drop out at 16 and, the AP reports, only the legislature can change that. But Montgomery County, whose graduation rate has fallen to its lowest level -- 87 percent -- this spring, is hoping to change the tide by voting on a measure last week to make the change to age 18. Most of the students who drop out in the county are 16 and 17 year olds.

Should other school boards take the same stand to encourage the state legislature to pass a bill requiring all students to be in school until 18?

Loyola professor sounds off on teaching math [InsideEd]

2009-11-02T10:57:18-08:00

On the paper's editorial pages today is a column by Loyola University's Joseph Ganem about the teaching of math.

He argues that some students are being taught overly complex math at too young an age. It is an interesting piece to read, although some commentors have suggested that perhaps his premise is wrong. Are we really teaching difficult concepts too early because of tests?

I wonder if that is correct because last week we wrote that the Maryland School Assessments for fourth-graders are some of the easiest in the nation.

What do math teachers think of Ganem's argument?

Panelists to talk about race, segregation and achievement in schools [InsideEd]

2009-10-30T04:00:00-07:00

The Open Society Institute-Baltimore is hosting a panel discussion Monday evening called "Can We Talk About How Race Affects Our Classrooms?". It's the next installment in OSI's "Talking About Race" series, and will focus on the impact of continued segregation in public schools on achievement, among other issues.

Monday's panel discussion, which is free and open to the public, is to be led by Beverly Daniel Tatum, president of Spelman College, and David Hornbeck, the former superintendent of Philadelphia schools.

The event will be in the Wheeler Auditorium at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral Street, and starts at 7 p.m.

Win a technology makeover for your classroom [InsideEd]

2009-10-29T07:50:43-07:00

I received an email about a national "Classroom Makeover Contest" put on by the company eInstruction, involving a prize of $30,000 in educational technology - i.e., interactive white boards, Dell netbooks and a range of software for teaching and testing students - for each of three grand-prize winners. This is the third year of the contest, which is open to primary and secondary students and teachers.

Entrants have to create "short, creative music videos demonstrating how they would use advanced technology to enhance their learning experience in the classroom," according to the company. For your information and entertainment, you can check out some of the entries.

Considering the difficult economic times we're always talking about, I thought I'd share the information in case any of you enterprising and creative teachers might be interested. Deadline is Nov. 10.

Of course, if you do enter, we'd like to see your video.

City school board continues debate on expulsion [InsideEd]

2009-10-28T13:00:00-07:00

The Baltimore school board delayed a vote on the hottest topic of the season, permanent expulsions, but there continued to be some spirited dialogue during the public comment session last night on the issue.

As the story in the paper today says, the board received a lot of last-minute suggestions on the policy that hadn't been aired sufficiently to warrant a vote last night, according to school board members.

Dennis Moulden, who represents the Parent and Community Advisory Board, spoke in favor of a permanent expulsions policy. "We all have the belt in our closet; we hope that we'll never use it," he said. He suggested the permanent expulsions should be used only as a last resort, but that the threat of an expulsion provides a boundary for students.

After his comments, two other members of the board, Neil Duke and George VanHook, commented that belts had been a common threat used in their families. But David Stone asked Moulden why he would compare an expulsion to an outdated and possibly illegal form of punishment.

Absenteeism affecting schools? [InsideEd]

2009-10-28T07:55:14-07:00

I'm working on a story about how high rates of absenteeism and illness among students are affecting schools. Several school systems throughout the country have already begun to make adjustments: A Florida county is looking to suspend its exam exemption policy to prevent sick students from dragging themselves in to make sure they can get out of finals. Some student athletes in New York are no longer allowed to shake hands after games.

Please send me a note with your stories about how things have changed in your school or district. Are you having to adjust things in the classroom, such as assignments and project deadlines - or facing challenges in terms of just getting through curriculum with so many students out?

Moving to a new blog - come on over! [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-26T08:48:35-07:00

The one constant in life is change, it seems. Here at The Sun, that means I'm moving to a new blog. Today marks the debut of "B'more Green," devoted to showcasing some of the efforts of Marylanders to live more gently on the land.

This marks farewell for Bay & Environment, a blog I shared for years with now-former colleagues Rona Kobell and Tom Pelton. For nearly a year now, I've held down the B&E fort solo, and I appreciate your patience and dedication. Now I'll be joining Meredith Cohn and Christy Zuccarini at the new blog, where we'll be highlighting green issues around Baltimore while still sharing news and views about the Chesapeake Bay and our environment. So come on over, please!

You can find it by going directly to this link: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/green/ Or go to www.baltimoresun.com and look it up in the blogs. Those of you who've been getting RSS feeds of blog posts will need to subscribe to the new blog.

From Rona: Goodbye (again) and thanks! [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-21T16:18:27-07:00

About nine months ago in this space, I said goodbye. I was embarking on a journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan, where I would spend the year studying economic approaches to environmental sustainability. I promised I would come back, though, and continue to report on the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

I'd called the movers, packed the house, talked to my new bosses about how they want me to cover my beat in the brave new world of Facebook and Twitter. I was working on story ideas, calling sources and looking forward to deadlines again.

Then last week, I heard that two colleagues - both older than I am, both with families to support - were about to get laid off. So I volunteered to be laid off instead, so one of them would be spared. The company will provide me with a severance package that gives me some breathing room to figure out what to do next. I hope the next thing includes environmental reporting, but my next gig isn't lined up yet.

It was a quick decision, and yet one that had been marinating in my mind for months. In a year when we were challenged to figure out what our heart's desires were and to follow them, I realized, for the first time in 16 years, that some of mine lay outside the newsroom walls.

This year, I wrote a screenplay. I read good books. I put more miles on my bike than I did on my car. I picked up my daughter early from school and took her out for ice cream and to the library. I went out with my husband. I cooked dinner occasionally. I traveled - to Russia and Argentina and Northern Michigan and New York. I had time - a luxury foreign to journalists and working mothers - to think about what I want. And what I want is to keep doing all of those things. The two journalists in danger of losing their jobs want to keep them; to the extent that I can make that happen, I want to do that, too.

When I got the Bay beat in 2004, I felt like the luckiest person in the newsroom. I had a job where I got to be out on boats all the time, where I interviewed fascinating people, and where I learned something new every day. To tell you the truth, I never stopped feeling that way - even when I had the worst seasickness you can imagine, it still beat a day sitting at my desk. My mother worked at the same job for two decades and was miserable nearly the whole time, so I knew how rare it was to get to do something I loved and get a bit of a suntan in the process.

My heart may not be in the newspaper anymore, but it will always be with my current and former colleagues - terrific journalists, and great people.

I'll be back in Baltimore at the end of May. Feel free to send any correspondence, love letters, hate mail, life coaching, lunch invitations, freelance work or job offers to rkobell2002@yahoo.com I'll answer. Seems I'll have some time on my hands.

Sincerely,

Rona Kobell

Chesapeake Bay reporter

The Baltimore Sun

"Ghost pots" haunt Maryland waters, too [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-15T07:50:00-07:00

There apparently is an answer - or at least an estimate - of how many derelict crab pots there are bumping around the bottom of Maryland's portion of the Chesapeake Bay.

A few days ago, I posted here about the results of an effort last winter by Virginia watermen to retrieve lost aka "ghost" pots in their waters. They pulled up more than 8,600. At the time, I wondered how many more there might be north of the Old Dominion, still catching and killing crabs and other fish and animals in Maryland waters.

Kim Couranz of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Chesapeake Bay office reports that her people have been hard at work studying the impact of ghost pots in Maryland's portion of the bay. A couple years back, in collaboration with the state Department of Natural Resources, they did a survey and determined there are about 42,000 "ghost" pots loose in Maryland waters.

Next question is, what if anything is to be done about them?

Clearing Maryland's air with cleaner diesel engines [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-15T04:29:30-07:00

You may not fix every problem by throwing money at it, but it sure can help. Maryland is getting $1.73 million in economic stimulus funds to spend on reducing harmful diesel emissions from buses, trucks, ships and construction equipment like the crane pictured above at the Port of Baltimore.

Diesel exhaust contains soot, or fine particulates, and other toxic air pollutants, which research has shown can aggravate asthma, contribute to cardiovascular disease and even cause premature death. Millions of Americans live downwind of places where lots of diesel engines are at work, such as rail yards and ports.

Here in Maryland, the state is working on reducing those unhealthy exposures, with federal help. The Department of the Environment will distribute the funds it's receiving from the Environmental Protection Agency to retrofit existing diesel engines.

The funds were authorized under the Obama administration's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to provide grants and loans for retrofitting diesel engines. It hasn't been decided yet precisely how the new funds will be spent, but an EPA spokeswoman said they'll generally go to reduce emissions from ships, construction equipment, school buses and trucks.

The diesel-powered dredging equipment shown above at the Port of Baltimore was retrofitted with particulate filters (seen at right) that are supposed to reduce soot emissions by more than 90 percent. The crane was among the retrofits paid for with a $295,000 "clean diesel" grant EPA awarded the state last year. The federal grant - and matching state funds - also paid to retroft buses in Rockville and in Prince George's and Washington counties.

Government funds can be spent on cleaning up government-owned diesel emissions, but the privately owned oceangoing vessels that call at ports also are a significant source of harmful air pollutants. A recent report by the EPA Inspector General's office estimated that commercial marine vessels accounted for 69 percent of the sulfur dioxide emitted at the port, and more than a quarter of the soot, or fine particulates that can get in lungs and cause health problems.

EPA announced earlier this year that it plans to reduce ship pollution within 200 miles of U.S. shores under a new international agreement. U.S. and foreign-flagged ships are to be required to use dramatically cleaner fuel and more effective pollution controls for their engines, the agency said. For more on that, go here.

(Photos supplied by Bill McAllen, Charm City Publishing)

A jaundiced view of the Bay cleanup [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-14T04:50:35-07:00

While the press coverage of the annual Chesapeake Bay summit this week focused on President Obama promising a stronger federal role in the cleanup effort, and state officials pledging to accelerate their pollution reductions, Howard Ernst isn't buying any of it.

The associate professor of political science at the Naval Academy has written one critical book on the shortcomings of the restoration effort, Chesapeake Bay Blues. He's got a new, updated account heading to the printer now.

"It certainly doesn't seem like a new direction for the bay restoration effort," Ernst said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "There's nothing new about more deadlines, more promises. What's missing .... is the funding and statutory powers that would make those deadlines accomplishable, make those goals attainable. "

Ernst was similarly dismissive of the new 2025 long-term cleanup "end date." He noted that officials were careful to say that would not be the year when the bay is actually restored but when all the policies and reductions are in place that they believe should restore it.

"It's back to business as usual," he says, "creating a deadline (when) none of these elected officials will hold their positions. So much for accountability."

As for the executive order issued by Obama, Ernst says it does nothing except delay action by another four months. It gives the Environmental Protection Agency 120 days to determine what regulatory powers it has or needs to require the bay cleanup, he contends, even though the Clean Water Act outlining those powers was enacted in 1972. The order also sets up a "federal leadership committee" to coordinate the bay cleanup efforts of the various federal agencies and departments - "another layer of bureaucracy," the critic says.

"There's never been a better opportunity for doing something tangible and big right now," Ernst concluded, "and the EPA and the bay states missed that opportunity."

Anyone share Ernst's criticism, or maybe have a different view? Is this about the best that can be done, perhaps, given our lousy economy and traditional resistance by many to being regulated or taxed to pay for cleanup? Will new deadlines every two years prod the politicians to do more now, instead of putting off the tough decisions to their successors?

Uh, about those milestones .... [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-13T12:36:14-07:00

There was a lot of talk at Mount Vernon on Tuesday about "a new day" dawning in the long struggle to restore Chesapeake Bay, with President Obama declaring the bay a national treasure and states agreeing to short-term pollution reduction plans, aka "milestones." Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, head of the bay Executive Council (pictured at right), called it a "turning point," though he acknowledged there was still a lot of work to do. The cleanup effort now is being ramped up and is going to be much more accountable, we were told.

But take a look at those milestones, at least the two-page summaries handed out to the press and now posted online. They skimp on key details, especially on what the backup plans are in case those measures fall short, and on what the consequences will be if the states blow these new milestones. We'll have to wait for those information gaps to be filled, we were told.

Next, look at the graphs showing how much nitrogen and phosphorus pollution each state promises to eliminate. The graphs start at several million or tens of millions of pounds. not at zero. Had the graphs had a scale that showed how far pollution ultimately has to be reduced by the "end date" of 2025, the divergence between past reductions and future promises would have looked a lot smaller.

Then there's the case of the mysterious missing information on a few of the states' milestone statements. The two-page outlines of cleanup efforts for the entire six-state bay region and for Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia showed graphs with two diverging lines, depicting pollution reductions already in progress and even greater efforts those states were committing to make by 2011. The graphs projected accelerations of cleanup ranging from 52 to 502 percent.

But the summaries handed out Tuesday for Delaware, the District of Columbia, New York and West Virginia showed only one line on their graphs. Each graph depicted the pollution reductions that were being pledged through 2011. Missing was any line projecting the rate at which pollution would go down based on efforts already under way.

Drafts of the milestone documents circulated only a few days before Tuesday's summit did show current and future rates of cleanup. The District, New York and West Virginia all were shown making less progress in the next few years than they had been making up to now. That's right - negative progress. For New York, the drafts showed a 15 percent backslide on the rate of nitrogen reductions, and for West Virginia a 61 percent slippage in nitrogen and a 45 percent decline in phosphorus removal rates.

The graph lines and calculations showing negative progress were missing from the final milestone documents handed out Tuesday at Mount Vernon. What would George Washington think?

"Ghost pots" kill crabs - and more [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-12T06:57:42-07:00

The roundup last winter by Virginia watermen of derelict crab pots found there are plenty of them lurking in the Chesapeake Bay - and they keep catching and killing crabs, and other aquatic life.

Virginia paid out-of-work crabbers $300 a day plus fuel to scour the bay bottom for the "ghost pots,"as they're known - wire-mesh crab traps that get lost when cut loose from their markers by storms or passing boats. Using side-imaging sonar, they found and retrieved more than 8,600, according to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which set up and supervised the effort. They also collected 61 abandoned fishing nets, plus assorted other debris, including a baby stroller.

The pots evidently keep catching years after they've been lost. As seen in this photo from VIMS, the recovered pots held almost 5,000 crabs and other animals, including fish, eels, turtles, a duck and a muskrat. Scientists figure each derelict pot, if still functional, can catch and kill up to 50 crabs a year.

If that many abandoned pots were found in Virginia waters of the bay, how many might there be in Maryland?

A plugged-in bay cleanup summit - sort of [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-12T05:28:57-07:00

State, federal and local officials gather at Mount Vernon in Virginia today to chart a new, reputedly more accountable course for jump-starting the long-running effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay. Gov. Martin O'Malley says he'll lay out a plan for accelerating pollution reductions by 2.5 times the current pace. He joined scientists Monday for a look at the Bush River near Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County, one of a handful of places in the bay where noticeable progress has been made in recent years. You can read more about it in The Baltimore Sun.

For those who can't make it to George Washington's Potomac River home, much of it will be Webcast live. Go here, starting around 11 a.m. You should also be able to get live updates via Twitter @chesbayprogram Starting around 12:30 p.m., there'll also be a panel discussion with scientists, an ex-politician (former Maryland Rep. Wayne Gilchrest), activists and a waterman about the economic, cultural and ecological importance of restoring the bay. Billed as a first, this "Chesapeake Chat" will be moderated by Sheilah Kast, host of public-radio WYPR's "Maryland Morning" show.

Of course, you'll only be able to follow the public proceedings - not the lengthy closed-door huddle of the governors, EPA administrator and others as they chew over what they're going to publicly announce at the end of the shindig, around 2 p.m. How accountable is that?

Shore rural land preservation bid fails [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-06T05:14:02-07:00

An effort to slow the loss of forest and farmland in Wicomico County fell short yesterday as the Eastern Shore county's council narrowly defeated a measure that would have tightened rural development rules.

By a 4-3 vote, the council rejected a hotly debated proposal to delete the county's so-called "clustering" rule, which allowed builders to put homes on three-acre lots as long as half the farm is spared from development. If approved, the measure would have scaled back the number of homes that could be built in rural areas.

The move, which was unanimously recommended by the county's planning commission, was supported by environmental and conservation groups, by residents upset with sprawl and even by some farmers. But other farmers and real estate interests vehemently opposed the change, saying it would deprive rural landowners of income they could make by selling to developers.

Development of rural land fragments wildlife habitat and increases pollution of streams and the bay. Wicomico, in the heart of the Shore, has been losing farmland at a rapid clip. According to an analysis by environmental groups, more home lots were approved outside of the county's designated growth area in 2007 than at any time since the mid-1990s. USA Today reported that six out of 10 homes in the county are beyond the reach of fire hydrants.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which had backed the downzoning, issued a statement calling the vote disappointing. The environmental group noted that the downzoning had been proposed by a group the county council had appointed to study how to preserve more rural land.

"Our current policies put the future of the county's rural lands at risk," said Alan Girard, head of CBF's "Heart of the Chesapeake" office in Salisbury.

The Salisbury Daily Times reported that after the vote, Wicomico County Executive Richard M. Pollitt Jr. said he would form a commission to try again at drafting the "nuts and bolts" of a land preservation scheme.

New downtown local farmers' market [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-05T16:35:45-07:00

For all the locavores out there, there's a new farmers' market in town. Every Tuesday from now until October, local farmers will be selling fresh fruits, vegetables, artisan cheese, eggs and more in the park in front of the University of Maryland Medical Center, along the Paca Street sidewalk.

The medical center, University of Maryland Baltimore and the local community have teamed up to bring fresh, locally grown food to the workers, patients, visitors and residents of that busy corner of downtown. Local food reduces the energy and air pollution caused by long-distance transportation, according to advocates, and the types of food offered are generally pretty healthy.

Ed Fishel, the university spokesman who took the accompanying photo of the market's opening day today, reports that vendors were selling French bread, range-grown chickens, cheese from western Maryland goats' milk, apples and flowers. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

A contest to cheer: Local students team up to save streams [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-05T09:23:45-07:00

If you're a little tired of overhyped TV game and talent shows, here's a contest with some real green behind it. A pair of Hanover middle school students has made it to the finals of a national contest aimed at encouraging American youth to make environmental change in their communities.

Luke and Jack Andraka, students at Chesapeake Science Point public charter school in Anne Arundel County, are representing Maryland in the "Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge." Team AMD, as they are known, are vying with 21 other states' teams for either the grand prize or one of two national prizes. Besides bragging rights, they stand to win an appearance on the "Planet Green" TV network or even an "adventure trip."

The Andraka team is trying to develop a grassroots campaign to clean up the acid mine drainage that plagues many streams and rivers in the coalfields of western Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The boys' dad and team mentor, Steven Andraka, explained that his family spends its summers and many weekends at a place near Morgantown, W.Va. and they noticed that the local stream there, a tributary of the Cheat River, was impaired by acidic seepage from mining activity.

Various state and federal government agencies are working to curtail acid mine drainage, which can impair and even kill off fish and other aquatic life in streams contaminated with metals and acid from old coal mines. But with the encouragement and guidance of their dad, the boys - Luke, 14, and Jack, 12 - set out to devise a way for school or community groups to do something about the problem on their own.

Scientists urge cutback in DDT use in Africa, Asia [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-04T10:49:12-07:00

An international group of environmentalth health experts is warning against the growing practice of spraying the pesticide DDT in homes in malaria-plagued African and Asian countries.

Marla Cone, writing for Environmental Health News, reports that the group of 15 scientists, led by a University of California epidemiologist, urges that DDT be used only as a last resort, even to fight a deadly disease like malaria. People are at risk of serious health effects from the pesticide when it is sprayed in their homes to kill malaria-bearing mosquitoes, the group said.

The scientists' stance is likely to reignite a debate about the safety of DDT, which has been banned for decades in the United States and much of the rest of the world. The US banned it in 1972 after scientists found it building up in the food chain and that it was behind steep declines in populations of bald eagles, pelicans and other wildlife.

Public health experts, however, have argued that the pesticide is the only one effective at fighting malaria in Africa and Asia. Spraying it in homes was officially endorsed by the World Health Organization and by a U.S. aid program to fight world malaria that was launched by former President George W. Bush. Here's a link to WHO's guidelines for indoor residential spraying.

Malaria remains one of the world's deadliest diseases, claiming about 880,000 lives a year. But Cone reports that the scientists, who reviewed some 500 studies, concluded that because of the health problems that could be caused by DDT, it “should be used with caution, only when needed, and when no other effective, safe and affordable alternatives are locally available.”

Among the health risks the scientists cited: reduced fertility, genital birth defects, breast cancer, diabetes and damage to developing brains.

Are Marylanders actually paying too little for electricity? [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-04T08:11:21-07:00

Are electricity rates in Maryland too low to promote conservation among consumers? That's what a local economist suggests. In an interview published in Maryland Commons, an online journal of news and commentary, Professor Tim Brennan at University of Maryland, Baltimore County argues that letting electricity rates rise is the best way to get consumers to conserve.

Brennan also says he favors putting a price on climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, either through some kind of tax or cap-and-trade scheme.

"One of those may be better than the other for environmental or political reasons, but either goes a long way toward preventing all of us from regarding the atmosphere as a free dump for the exhaust from our burning," he said.

Brennan also questions the recent efforts by legislators and Gov. Martin O'Malley to re-regulate power generation, suggesting that the current political pressures to hold down prices while also trying to reduce consumption may be discouraging power plant construction.

What do you think? How many are cutting back because it's the right thing to do, and how many to save money? Have you done anything to conserve energy in your life? Increase insulation in your home, turn down the thermostat or drive less? Were you conserving more when prices were higher recently?

To read more of Carrie Madren's Q&A with Brennan, go here.

See where Baltimore's water comes from [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-02T17:14:40-07:00

Ever wonder where your tapwater comes from On Sunday, you can see it, up close and raw. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., people can visit the three drinking-water reservoirs Baltimore city maintains to supply the region and learn how its safety is maintained.

Walk out on Loch Raven Dam, like you used to be able to do, and get a presentation from the engineers who oversaw reconstruction of the impoundment. You can hear, too, about the Gunpowder Valley and its role in the region's water supply. Up in the Pines area, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., check out a presentation by "Scales and Tales" of what animals occupy the reservoir watersheds.

Guided hikes, fly fishing lessons and more, including live music. All part of the kickoff of National Water Week. Call 396-3500 for more information. (Warning: Event may be canceled if it's raining cats and dogs.)

New blog [You Don't Say]

2009-05-01T09:19:21-07:00

Find John and "observations on language and the craft of editing, with additional reflections on subjects of no necessary connection with the former topics," at his new blog, johnemcintyre.blogspot.com.

A good run [You Don't Say]

2009-04-29T03:38:46-07:00

When in 2006 I celebrated my 20th anniversary at The Baltimore Sun, my wife, Kathleen Capcara, made a magnificent cake for the copy desk and wrote on it, "20 to life."

I did not anticipate then an early parole.

Yesterday, the grim economics of the newspaper business made April 28 my last day at the paper. It was, as they say in theatrical circles, a good run. I had more than two decades of the company of some of the smartest and funniest people I have ever known, working for supportive editors of the paper, and in all that time we struggled day after day to make The Sun a formidable newspaper. We succeeded more often than we failed, and no man has been more fortunate in his colleagues than I have.

But when the curtain falls, you are supposed to get off the stage, and this is my final post at baltimoresun.com. I expect to continue blogging elsewhere, but you will no longer find me at my post here. In addition to colleagues who have been great fun, I have had the good fortune to collect a remarkable corps of loyal readers, and I salute you all with gratitude and affection. You have enriched my life.

Maryland's air still a health threat, despite some gains [Bay & Environment]

2009-04-29T03:25:03-07:00

Despites some improvements over the past decade, the air most Marylanders breathe still can make them sick and even cause premature death.

That's the upshot of a new report by the American Lung Association, which after analyzing air quality readings from 2005 through 2007 finds that Baltimore city ranks 15th among U.S. counties with the worst short-term particle pollution.

The greater Washington-Baltimore region was judged to have the 14th worst ozone pollution, with 28.8 days a year, on average, when smog reached unhealthful levels. That's better than it used to be. A decade ago, the region averaged 42 days a year of bad ozone. But the short-term trend is headed in the wrong direction - the region only had 26.3 days of unhealthful ozone levels from 2004 through 2006, according to the group.

Though fine-particle pollution is worse in the city, it's a problem elsewhere in the state as well. Baltimore County joined the city in earning a "failing" grade from the lung association for short-term particle levels, while Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties got "D"s for having at least a handfull of days with harmful particle pollution every year.

Baltimore once ranked second only to Los Angeles for having the worst summertime ozone, or smog. Ozone levels have improved, with fewer days of really high readings. But that good news has been offset by research finding that air pollution is still harmful at lower levels. In response, the Environmental Protection Agency last year tightened its standards on ozone pollution.

Of 15 counties in Maryland where air quality is monitored, all but two scored failing grades for ozone pollution from the lung association. The only two that didn't flunk - Baltimore city and Worcester County - didn't have enough air data to analyze, the group said.

Ozone is produced when chemicals from vehicle exhaust and power plants mix in hot sunlight. It can cause a sunburn-like inflammation of lungs and bronchial passages, leading to shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing and coughing. It can worsen asthma and even cause premature death.

Particle pollution is also a silent killer. It's a toxic mix of microscopic soot containing chemicals and metals from diesel exhaust and other forms of combustion. Even short-term exposure to elevated levels can cause health problems, including heart attacks, strokes, asthma attacks and premature death.

Maryland's air picture is mirrored nationally. Despite progress in many cities over the past decade in curbing ozone pollution, the lung association found that 60 percent of Americans still breathe harmful levels of either ozone or particle pollution. The group wants EPA to tighten air pollution cleanup requirements even more - meanwhile, it urges people to drive less and use less electricity, avoid burning wood or trash and urge local school systems to replace old diesel buses with cleaner vehicles.

To read the ALA's latest "State of the Air" report, go here. You can also find out how the air is in your area by typing in your Zip code.

Regrettable errors [You Don't Say]

2009-04-28T05:39:00-07:00

I’ve always thought that one of the charming things about newspapers is the way they fess up to errors. The practice probably has its roots in law — making that correction to avoid getting sued — but it is consonant with publications’ efforts to maintain credibility with accurate reporting.

If you enjoy that sort of thing, at the Web site Regret the Error, Craig Silverman republishes the daily corrections of the news media, along with an annual summary of plagiarisms and other misdeeds.

We don’t typically run corrections of typographical errors or slips in grammar and usage (Complaints about the latter categories tend to be funneled to me); instead we correct errors of fact or omissions. I recall a correction from many years ago about a recipe for hearty cheese soup that had omitted the instruction to add half a gallon of warm water. Anyone who attempted the recipe as originally published is probably receiving high colonics to this day.

Superstitions accrue to newspapers like barnacles to the hull of a ship.* The superstition about corrections is that one must not repeat the original error. This, too, probably has a legal root, out of apprehension that republishing the error could widen exposure to a lawsuit. But observing this superstition leads to opaque corrections like this one from The Sun, one of my favorites:

In early editions of The Sun yesterday, the wrong sea turtle was pictured being released in Virginia.

It was corrections like this that led a former editor to issue a firm instruction that the error may be repeated in a correction whenever it is necessary for clarity.

I wish newspapers had more editors firmly insisting on clarity.

*Probably the most widespread superstition is the prohibition on whistling in the newsroom. I was told when just a tyro that it originated because someone was whistling in the newsroom of a San Francisco newspaper at the moment of the great earthquake of 1906.

So it has come to this [You Don't Say]

2009-04-27T13:06:56-07:00

A colleague who is taking a graduate-level course has asked a number of us to respond to questions about the nature and future — if any — of copy editing.

The means of production

Copy editors have always been the hinge between writing/editing and the physical production of newspapers and books. The great change that occurred on copy desks during the last quarter of the 20th century was the elimination of printers in composing rooms and the transfer of formatting and typesetting production to copy desks. Mention CCI., SSI,. DTI, Harris or Unisys to a group of copy editors, and you can watch the blood drain from their faces.

The process has accelerated in this century, with production of electronic copy added to the production of print copy. The new inspiration is the editing of "platform-neutral" copy: text that can then be manipulated for print and electronic publication.

The effect has been that as staffing on copy desks has declined, more and more time has been taken up by formatting and coding for production purposes, with less and less time allowed for the editing. The struggle to maintain the standards of factual accuracy, grammatical precision, and clarity remains.

One side effect: Because writers, most editors and many managers remain determinedly ignorant of the details of production, lest they lose caste, the copy desk’s immersion in these details has not generated an improved reputation for copy editors.

The schooling of editors

It’s impressive that some journalism programs are investing in state-of-the-art equipment for the training of their majors, but they will probably find that keeping the equipment state-of-the-art is an expensive and losing battle. But it’s likely that the young will embrace new technology — Facebook, Twitter and whatever will succeed them — faster than their elders.

What continues to be lacking in journalism education is a thorough grounding in the use of the language. Many Journalism majors have the sketchiest grasp of English grammar and usage, and much of what they do think they know consists of superstitions and bad advice. (Imagine a medical student who had either no training in anatomy or, worse, Galen’s.)

They have also had very little training in the structural analysis of texts. I don’t mean what used to be called structuralism, but the ability to identify the focus in a text, to anatomize its structure, to examine how effectively the elements are organized in that structure, to comment with authority on metaphor and the use of other rhetorical devices.

The future of editing

So long as people have difficulty writing with precision and clarity, copy editing will be useful. Whether that usefulness will be recognized, however, is questionable. The “dead-tree media” — newspapers, magazines, books — are dismissing their copy editors at an alarming rate to cut costs. Electronic media have never invested all that heavily in editors to begin with. These developments have been accompanied by a great deal of asinine rationalization to the effect that writers don’t really require all that much editing.

So, you smart young people who want to get into the paragraph game, who show some ability and enthusiasm for the act of editing, there is an enormous need for your services. The potential inner satisfactions of taking low-grade prose and turning it into something clearer, more forceful, and more precise have never been greater. Unfortunately, you may not be able to land a job, and any job you land is unlikely to lead to prosperity. For you, going into editing will be like following a monastic vocation. God bless you, and don’t forget to write.

Strict, stricken, Strunk [You Don't Say]

2009-04-25T12:24:48-07:00

In this, the last post I intend to write about The Elements of Style, I draw your attention to Geoffrey Pullum’s Language Log post with links to New York Times commentary on “the little book” by Language Hat, Grammar Girl and other eminences. Particularly telling is Language Hat’s evaluation of the beloved book as “the mangiest of stuffed owls.”

Of my own comments on the matter, I have only this to add. I have a sentimental recollection of encountering The Elements of Style at 18. But like many of the other delights one may recollect from youth — first loves, kir royales, amateur guitar playing — it does not hold up well on repeated encounter.

Second-best is good enough [You Don't Say]

2009-04-25T09:11:34-07:00

A little digression into presidential politics.

Robert V. Remini’s biography of Henry Clay includes this little nugget from the presidential election of 1844:

[W]hat many of Clay’s critics held against him, it seemed, was his outstanding ability. They did not want a statesman in the White House. They preferred men of lesser talents. Clay “may be a more brilliant orator” than Polk, conceded the Richmond Enquirer on October 28, “but we do not want splendid eloquence to conduct the executive department." He may be a “more dashing politician” than his opponent, “but we do not want any high flying and daring politician, who soars beyond the constitution” in pursuit of some “extravagant object. ... We want no aspiring ‘moon-reaching’ president.

The Republic will sometimes, luckily, place a Lincoln or a Franklin Roosevelt or some other exceptional person in the White House, but a look at that dim group between Jackson and Lincoln, or most of the chief magistrates between Lincoln and the first Roosevelt, among others, points to a strong recurring preference for unthreatening, genial mediocrity.

Evil surrounds us [You Don't Say]

2009-04-24T12:33:06-07:00

The latest threat to the English language, public discourse and the intellectual development of children is — wait for it — Twitter. Language Log rounds up some of the most egregious examples of threat-or-menace writing, but that post is two days old and almost certainly out of date.

Nancy Friedman has gotten some attention with a delightful send-up of Maureen Dowd on Twitter, “Ms. Dowd Interviews the Inventor of the Telephone.” In doing so, she reminds us of the multiplicity of these threats to Civilization as We Know It.

There was also radio (“Red Rubber Ball” as a specimen of the richness of metaphor in pop music). There was broadcast television insidiously weakening the minds of the American public (Gilligan’s Island). Now we have cable television accelerating the rot (reality shows, Donald Trump). And Facebook. (Of the “five most” quiz selections, the one that appeals the most is the Five People I Want to Punch in the Face, but, unfortunately, I do not know the identity of the inventor of Facebook’s “five most” quizzes.)

Twitter, like the telephone, radio, television and Internet, affords multiple opportunities for wasting valuable time with inane stuff, and, like the telephone, radio, television and the Internet, it is useful within limits. It’s up to people to arrive at sensible limits. People who waste their time and yours on Twitter would, lacking Twitter, waste their time and yours in some other manner.

I thought that the silly season fell in the summer, but perhaps global climate change has sent it out of whack. In addition to the nonsense about Twitter, we have the governor of Texas apparently advocating secession — an issue we thought was settled one April morning 144 years ago at a little town in Virginia. We have Rod Blagojevich talking about starring in a reality TV show, which would out-Trump Trump. We have George Will carrying on about the evil cultural influence of denim — and providing fodder for Stephen Colbert and half the bloggers in the known world.

Take a break, people. Close this page. Get out of the basement. Turn off the TV. Make yourself a cup of tea. Pick up a book. The Wordy Shipmates, Sarah Vowell’s breezy account of our half-loony Puritan forebears, can give you a little perspective. You need it.

Watch out [You Don't Say]

2009-04-24T07:49:51-07:00

A point that I was laboring to make in the post “Crisis of authority” is expressed more compactly in Sarah Vowell’s latest book, The Wordy Shipmates:

... Protestantism’s shedding away of authority ... inspires self-reliance—along with a dangerous disregard for expertise. So the impulse that leads to democracy can also be the downside of democracy—namely, a suspicion of people who know what they are talking about.

Not that I am saying that Protestantism, self-reliance and democracy are Bad Things — I endorse all of them, and the Internet too. But we should keep our wits about us and be conscious of the limitations and dangers inherent in them.

Surely you jest: The parks department [You Don't Say]

2009-04-24T05:21:33-07:00

Stirring up the animals [You Don't Say]

2009-04-23T16:13:27-07:00

The title of this post is H.L. Mencken’s description of his favorite occupation, provoking the dim and bigoted of his day. I will confess to a taste for it myself — and how could I deny it after tweaking those earnest Wikipediasts and the horde at The Web Site That Must Not Be Named? — which leads me today to direct your attention to a venerable group of cranks.

The Abbeville Manual of Style blog reports in "Supreme Court Shakespeare Screw-Up!" on the decision by a group of venerable jurists, inveigled into one of those inane mock trials of historical issues, that William Shakespeare was not the author of the plays of William Shakespeare.

Anti-Stratfordism has been a magnet for cranks since the 19th century, and their numbers appear to be annually replenished. It appears to draw people who are screwy about credentials, since Shakespeare lacked the two, noble blood and university education, that appear to matter to them.

That Shakespeare was widely acknowledged as the author in his own time, that the cranks have to resort to ingenious manipulations of known chronology (Christopher Marlowe and the Earl of Oxford having inconveniently died before all the Shakespeare plays were produced), or that they can only establish alternative authorship through bizarre and unproved (and unprovable) conspiracy theories does not give them pause.

And why should it? The Internet is a real big tent, and it can accommodate many freak shows. And that publishers continue to bring out the occasional anti-Stratfordian book indicates that the easily gulled remain, as ever, a lucrative market.

This way to the egress.

A burr under the saddle [You Don't Say]

2009-04-23T15:25:01-07:00

This comment by Mr. Ross at the “All the noise” post has been a source of minor agitation for the past two days:

...a refusal to arrive at agreed-upon facts. Like the existence of weapons of mass destruction? A refusal to agree on that kind of fiction would certainly seem to be something to be thankful for. In any case, I am less than convinced about the "discourse" you say people used to seek in newspapers, as almost all news consumers seem to select the sources which most closely reflect their prejudices. Internet is not really different in that way, but it is at least less susceptible to the kind of deliberate distorsion we have come to expect from the Murdochs, Berlusconis and Hearsts of this world. A little grafitti-level discourse is a small price to pay, at worst a nuisance, like spam in your email (and sometimes even spam can be entertaining).

The initial rhetorical question is an allusion to The New York Times, which the comment subsequently equates with the Murdoch and Berlusconi publications. The first thing that irritates me is this leveling, this shrugging that all newspapers are equally biased and unreliable as well as obsolete.

Surely there are distinctions. When the Jayson Blair scandal blew up, the editor of The Times lost his job. The newspaper published its findings in an investigation that I cite each semester in my copy-editing class; the printout runs to 17 pages. When the Jack Kelley scandal hit USA Today, the paper published a front-page account that ran to two full pages inside the section. It would have been a good thing had editors raised more questions about those gentlemen, and if the questions that were raised had been heeded, but it was responsible for the two papers to confront the lapses squarely.

And there are distinctions to be made. There are good reasons that so many people read The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, even if they happen to disagree with the editorial positions of the papers. One of those reasons is that the two papers are rigorous in their editing, in their determination to verify the information they publish and to present it in clear and comprehensible English. That the results can fall short of the goal is a given in human experience, but it does not mean that the effort is pointless.

That effort, the struggle by editors, including copy editors, to make it right and make it clear is the second ground of my irritation. There are hundreds and thousands of copy editors still at newspapers and magazines and even some Web sites who are struggling every day to accomplish that feat of making the publication right and making it clear. I have worked alongside such people for nearly 30 years; I know how hard they work, and I know how much they accomplish. That our masters in these three decades have made boneheaded business decisions — for which we have had front-row seats — and that a changing business climate is decimating our ranks does not in any way detract from the effort and the accomplishment.

If you think otherwise, have a look at what you get without editors. I look at some of the offal available on the Web and marvel at the suggestion that the Internet is less given to distortion than the daily press. The writing is not necessarily any better, either.

Against the grain [You Don't Say]

2009-04-22T13:39:39-07:00

I wouldn’t call it a challenge, precisely, but Kevin Cross has filed a thoughtful suggestion: “Much of your blog is about writing gone wrong. I thought it might be interesting to highlight those occasions when writers get it right.”

Those of us in the dwindling ranks of copy editors are not engaged to sit at the desk for eight hours admiring the work. Our specialty is pathology; we are looking for things that have gone wrong. So the suggestion that this blog should feature writing worth praise and admiration poses a difficulty. Panegyric doesn’t come easily to us.

Oh, there have been some occasional mentions, such as Robertson Davies on language in The Rebel Angels: “Funny how languages break down and turn into something else. Latin was rubbed away until it degenerated into dreadful lingos like French and Italian and Spanish, and lo! people found out that quite new things could be said in those degenerate languages — things nobody had ever thought of in Latin. English is breaking down now in the same way — becoming a world language that every Tom Dick and Harry must learn, and speak in a way that would give Doctor Johnson the jim-jams.”

I once cited my favorite passage from Nabokov’s Pnin and on another occasion admired Bill Glauber’s elegant opening to an article on the funeral of one of the Kray brothers.

I’ve been quoting Mencken since high school, and in light of the past week’s brouhaha over The Web Site That shall Not Be Named, this seemed apposite: “Here [in the United States] the general average of intelligence, of knowledge, of competence, of integrity, of self-respect, of honor is so low that any man who knows his trade, does not fear ghosts, has read fifty good books, and practices the common decencies stands out as brilliantly as a wart on a bald head, and is thrown willy-nilly into a meager and exclusive aristocracy.”

When I was in graduate school, Lytton Strachey on the scholar’s lot struck a chord: “In the early years of the eighteenth century the life of learning was agitated, violent, and full of extremes. ... One sat, bent nearly double, surrounded by four circles of folios, living to edit Hesychius and confound Dr. Hody, and dying at the last with a stomach half full of sand.”

Mr. Cross was kind enough to suggest a couple of examples by Louis Menand from The New Yorker:

An example from one of my favorites, Louis Menand:

"Jean-Paul Sartre preferred the company of women."

This guy knows how to write an intro.

Another Menand favorite, albeit a mite clunky:

"The first punctuation mistake in "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" (Gotham; $17.50), by Lynne Truss, a British writer, appears in the dedication, where a nonrestrictive clause is not preceded by a comma. It is a wild ride downhill from there."

Perhaps you would like to suggest some favorite passages.

Sometimes people are just wrong [You Don't Say]

2009-04-21T14:04:54-07:00

I commend to your attention Arnold Zwicky’s post on Language Log, “Prejudices, egocentrism, impositions and intransigence.” It is as neat and compact a summary of the different categories of peevishness and misguided certainty about language as I have seen.

Many of the complaints that come in from readers of The Sun point out embarrassing lapses in our print and electronic editions, but many also fall into the categories that Professor Zwicky describes. And it is typically the people who are wrong who are most stubborn and intemperate, most resistant to explanation.

Particularly tedious are the people who imagine that English is in decline and that “correct” English needs some kind of official “protection” from the barbarians who are destroying it. This belief, which has cropped up regularly for at least the past five centuries, displays a profound misunderstanding of the nature of the language and its operation.

The only way we are going to get to an intelligent discussion of grammar and usage — particularly in the area of concern for this blog, the ways that standard American English can be written most effectively — is to become willing to examine our own preconceptions and prejudices, with an eye to adjusting them to the realities of the language.

If, in the process, we could avoid tirades and denunciations, that, too, would be progress.

Professor Zwicky has closed the comments on his post, but you can feel free to respond here.

All the noise [You Don't Say]

2009-04-21T06:54:38-07:00

One of the many things the Internet has accomplished is to make generally available the kind of commentary previously restricted to the walls of men’s rooms.

It’s all there: the relaxation of inhibitions afforded by anonymity; the indulgence in prejudice, hostility, anger and contempt; the hyper-masculinity*; and even an occasional lone flash of imagination and wit.

My estimable colleague, David Sullivan of The Philadelphia Inquirer, recently contrasted that kind of discourse with the kind people used to seek in newspapers: “Newspapers — which exist in a world of ‘Let us tell you something we have determined to be right and you do not know and realistically you could never find out on your own’ — simply can't compete with ‘Let me show you what a dude I am.’ "**

This coarsening of public discussion appears to go hand in hand with a refusal to arrive at agreed-upon facts. It is not just that there are differences of opinion being aired; one expects vigorous disagreement over aesthetic judgments and political views. What is disturbing is that if you differ from my perception of reality, I will simply heap personal abuse on you.

The phenomenon itself is not novel — one recalls the vicious pamphleteering between Protestants and Roman Catholics during the 16th and 17th centuries or the scurrilous accusations that have marked American politics from the earliest days of the Republic.

But the sheer volume of it — volume in both senses, quantity and decibel level — is disturbing. It crowds out much of what attempts to be reasonable.

*Observation suggests that men who are assured in their masculinity see no particular need to comment on the masculinity of others.

**These comments should in no way be construed as a reflection on a certain popular Web site whose members — many of whom, I am assured, hold the Ph.D. — engage in freewheeling discussion, genial banter and amusing personal remarks.

Avast, Matey, heave to [You Don't Say]

2009-04-18T17:57:27-07:00

Given the rate at which print and electronic publications and publishing houses have been discarding their copy editors, it seemed only a matter of time until the last of us, stuffed and mounted, or perhaps mummified, would be put on display at the Smithsonian, along with Martha, the last passenger pigeon.

But walking around Fells Point’s Privateer Day with my daughter this afternoon, I caught a glimpse of a possible future for us.

In the 18th century (good times), nations that came up short on naval resources resorted to privateers, essentially pirates who were licensed to plunder and, at least officially, limited in their targets. For our beached copy editors, the role of privateer could open up fresh possibilities for employment.

Some official organization — a logical one being the American Copy Editors Society, perhaps at its forthcoming national conference in Minneapolis — would issue letters of marque authorizing copy-editing privateers to board offending publications, seize texts and deal with them appropriately.

Some technical details — the precise wording of the letter of marque, the design of the flag under which copy-editing privateers would operate — remain to be worked out. But a fleet could be operational in comparatively short order.

For those of you who imagine that your writing is pristine and that readers will long for unmediated contact with you: Heave to and prepare to be boarded.