MIDDAY WITH DAN RODRICKS

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Wednesday, January 28 Noon-1:00 pm EST: How bad will it get? That's a big question, much on our minds as the global recession has taken root and tossed millions of Americans out of work, finished off faltering retailers and forced the foreclosures of millions of homes. Our guest this hour saw it coming and said so on national television, and he sees things getting -- gulp -- worse. How long will the recession last? Can federal stimulus billions make a difference? Gerald Celente, left, will offer some predictions for 2009 and beyond, based on his work as director of the Trends Research Institute. . . .  1:00-2:00 pm EST: Throughout the election and up to the inauguration, the television networks were accused of favoring Barack Obama. Now that he's president, how long will his honeymoon with the media last? Sun television critic David Zurawik, joins us to discuss television coverage of the Obama inauguration and transition, and Bernard Goldberg's latest screed against the media left. We'll also discuss what we can expect from this year's Super Bowl ads in light of the recession with Brian Steinberg, television editor for Advertising Age magazine.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

November 4 was Election Day, but my column that day was not about the election. It was a personal piece from life as a baby boomer.  I bring it up again because I received a lot of letters from readers about it, and because our family just lost one of the relatives mentioned in it: Uncle Frank Popolo. Here's a photo from a picnic a couple of years ago: Aunt Genie, her husband, my Uncle Frank, and my mother, the former Rose Popolo, who turns 95 in March.

DAN RODRICKS ON facebook

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The Queen of Soul's bad brim has nearly 60,000 fans on Facebook now, including me.

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I drove from Baltimore to Hanover, Pa. this morning and was surprised to see ice skaters and anglers out on Lake Marburg in Codorus State Park. The lake is apparently sufficiently frozen for those winter activities. Several guys had drilled holes and had dropped baited lines for walleye, pike, bluegill and white perch. Bob Marchio, columnist for The Evening Sun in Hanover, has a helpful piece about ice fishing on Marburg today. "Ice fishing requires some special equipment -- some basic, some highly technical," he writes. "First, you need a hole in the ice." I guess that would be the "highly technical" part.

For skating: When conditions allow, a 10-acre area in Chapel Cove, near the restrooms, is available for ice skating. When conditions are good, lights are provided to extend the skating time until 7:30 p.m. Skating is only permitted when the ice is posted as safe. Use extreme caution when venturing onto the ice. Check with the park office to determine ice conditions in the skating area. Other areas of the lake are not monitored.
DIRECTIONS
From I-83, take Exit 8. Go 18 miles west on PA 216 to the park. From PA 116, go through Hanover. Turn right onto PA 216 east and go three miles to the park.
CONTACT INFO
Codorus State Park
2600 Smith Station Road
Hanover PA, PA 17331-8000
717-637-2816
Manager: Warren Werntz
E-mail: codorussp@state.pa.us

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

    It wasn't until three years and two months after it began that I finally met someone whose son was a casualty of George Bush's war in Iraq. I didn't come by this information on the job. This was not someone I met on assignment at a funeral, or at a military hospital. The man who reported his son's wounding lives in Virginia; he's a Vietnam veteran. He happened to be someone I've known for a few years through shared interest in a certain youth sport. His son, platoon leader of an engineers unit, was wounded in Iraq in the spring of 2006. A homemade bomb blew up under his vehicle; two of his men were killed.

    I marked this as a personal first -- since the war started in March 2003, someone I know, even in a limited way, had been touched by the violence of the Iraq war.

    No surprise that the war took so long to reach me, and even then in a real stretch.
Most Americans have experienced this war vicariously, through several degrees of separation, if at all. Like vast numbers of comfortable, middle-class people, I have no friends or relatives serving in the military. The strapping young men in my extended family work in various white- and blue-collar fields. They enjoy scuba diving, skiing, playing the guitar, going to concerts and NFL games. They take vacations to the islands with their young wives or girlfriends. A nephew considered joining the Navy after high school a few years ago but changed his mind.

    The young women in my family are on career tracks, and none, as far as I can tell, will lead to a military installation.

    In this regard, my life has been no different from that of millions of Americans for whom the war is not only geographically distant but spiritually and emotionally abstract. We've become intellectually detached, letting the war and all of its collateral controversies slide by on the evening news. For most of the last five years, more Americans seemed to care more about the outcome of American Idol than about the outcome of this war.

    "The main reason that the war remains so remote from the lives of middle-class Americans is the absence of a military draft," wrote Jacob Weisberg, editor of Slate, in an online essay three years ago. "This is a subject that no one seems to want to talk about. Supporters of the war definitely do not want to talk about it. President Bush and Vice President Cheney react angrily to any suggestion that a draft might be needed, because they know that the prospect of conscription would make their decision to invade Iraq even more unpopular. Having lived through Vietnam and shirked the draft themselves, they understand that if people anywhere near their own station in life were forced to fight, any remaining support for wars of arguable necessity would dry up and blow away."

    Military commanders say they prefer the all-volunteer military. They get a more motivated, patriotic, professional grade of soldier that way and reduce the social and cultural problems associated with conscription. But no one I know, with the necessity for multiple tours in Iraq among the enlisted and reserve military, trusts that the United States has the manpower necessary to carry out and maintain the kind of missions we undertake. No one I know is rushing off to enlist, either.

    Numbers are just one part of this. There are larger problems for the nation -- the inequity of a system that does not demand equal sacrifice from all Americans for a war, or wars,  that might last years, and the diminished vigilance of a people who are not invested in the decisions or the outcomes. A draft would wake everyone up. A draft would have ended George Bush's war several thousand casualties ago, or it would have prevented the invasion altogether.

    "The real `two Americas,'" wrote Weisberg in Slate, "are not rich versus poor or religious versus secular but military versus civilian. ... Once again, young people without good opportunities in life are handling the fighting and dying for those with better things to do - only this time, there is not even a pretense of shared responsibility for defending the country. Such injustice is hard to face up to in a country where social equality remains the civic religion."

    I have suggested this before, and suggest it again in today's column --- a draft to two-year public service for all Americans once they reach the age of 18, with deferment optional until the age of 21, when service becomes mandatory.

   There should be three paths: the armed forces, AmeriCorps-style domestic service, and a revitalized and expanded Peace Corps. Barack Obama is proposing at least two of those. The federal government would stage a daily national drawing to decide what path each citizen takes. Those assigned to the military would have a choice in branch, and they would receive pay and benefits comparable to what is offered today.

    Those who go into AmeriCorps or the Peace Corps would receive limited pay and living expenses, but would get grants for higher education and special financing for the purchase of their first homes.

    Because a young American's public service path would be decided by lottery, anyone can end up doing anything anywhere - Andre from West Baltimore might end up building a library in Guatemala, Meredith from Brooklandville could end up working in a homeless shelter in Baltimore, and Brad from Cockeysville might end up with an armored unit in Afghanistan.

    Across these varied lines of public service, a new generation of Americans will become bonded in the cause of a better community, better state, better nation, better world. And we might close the cultural divide between those who do the giving (and the dying) and the rest of us.

DAN RODRICKS ON FACEBOOK

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Ralph Moore, who runs the annual MLK Job Fair on Chase Street, says this year's was the biggest ever -- in job-seekers and in volunteers.

Last year, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Self-Help and Service had 244 pre-registered job-seekers. This year, with the recession and massive job losses, that number reached 412, and 555 on Monday. 

Moore and the staff at St. Frances Academy Community Center, where the fair was held, had 125 volunteers to help them out. The free, full-day job fair featured a large number of employers from a variety of fields, though some who had committed to be there did not post. 

MLK Day is going to grow as a national day of service so keep the St. Frances jobs fair in mind for next year. If you can help a guy out -- with advice on finding a job, writing a resume, going for a job interview -- they can use your help. And companies willing to hire low-skill workers and ex-offenders trying to stay straight should keep it in mind. Besides Moore, you can contact Melissa LaFayette at (410)-539-5794 ext. 28 or email her at melissa.lafayette@sfacademy.org

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

 . . . . I come not to steal from George Frazier, but to praise him. To render tribute by picking up where he left off, to grope around in the dark for "duende," to find it and to bring it back into the sun. As a concept for a column, duende is irresistible, even if the late great Frazier, and not I, discovered it. Frazier, who wrote for the Boston Globe and Esquire until his death in 1974, first began trying to define duende in 1963. It turned out to be such a good vehicle for his stylish views of the world that Frazier kept on writing of duende, trying to give it a modern context and to help Americans understand it. . . ..

The orthodox Spanish definition of duende is "hobgoblin" or "ghost." But it has much larger meaning. . . .  In the Andalusian dialect, it means "black sounds." Federico Garcia Lorca called duende the "energetic instinct" that no flamenco singer or bullfighter could be without. It means "to have what it takes," and not all of us do, which gets to the fun. Frazier and his readers had a wonderful time dealing with duende, and so will we. . . .  Frazier's idea was that duende was "that certain something that sets persons apart." It might be "soul," but it might also be "star quality." It is a power that transmits a profound feeling from the heart of the artist to his audience "with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of restraint." . . .

Frazier remembered sensing duende when he first saw Joe DiMaggio grace, and therefore illuminate, an outfield. It wasn't merely greatness that he saw, nor majesty, nor merely aura. It was duende, and he had to learn more about it. . . . A definition of duende can only evolve through prose and argument -- and, more importantly, example. . . ..  "Clark Gable," Frazier wrote in his first lecture on duende, "had that certain something but others, like Rock Hudson, do not." In Frazier's view, Ingrid Bergman had duende. So did Billie Holliday. Fred Astaire had it, but not Gene Kelly. . . . Shirley MacLaine never had duende the way Judy Garland did. ( "It was what Ted Williams had even when striking out, but Stan Musial lacked when hitting a home run.")  . . . .  "To say that duende is merely charisma or panache or flair is rather to demean it," Frazier wrote, "for while it is certainly all those things, it is the nth power of them. It is chemistry." . . . .  So I like to continue what George Frazier started, for there is nothing more important, in this day of pop culture and ephemeral celebrity, for discerning audiences.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

if one considers the last 8 years as an american having lived in hell, and
if one considers that in washington its 12 degrees while in bismarck its minus-40' . . . one might then reason that hell has frozen over.
pigs may not have flown, elvis may not really be alive and cats may never learn to read, (though it appears they could)  . . . . and yet a member of our union has tested the formula of the republic to see if it was real.
the second coming may not be upon us, yet with hell freezing a single wish has been fulfilled.
we may have had our 'lord protector of america' hold sway over us for 8 years
-- whose temperament was boyish, whose attitude was cavalier and whose spoken cadence was like that of a water spigot -- and yet when hell froze over, a man of fine intellect went to the white house.
our parents never thought it would happen and told us so. 
our children laugh at us because we let a drop roll from our eyes, but
when hell froze over, jefferson's earnest question will have been answered as it was once by john adams.
with the vote,
we have peacefully,
put a dagger,
in the heart,
of our dark angels

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

My longtime friend and newspaper colleague, Paul Mindus, is in Washington for the inauguration. Formerly of the Quincy (Mass.) Patriot Ledger, the Baltimore Evening Sun, and Reuters, Paul files this report:

It’s hard to imagine another moment in my lifetime when I saw a city more awash with sheer joy than Washington is this week. Perhaps, for me, when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and I watched both sides of a divided city celebrate a palpable changing moment of history, and the shifting templates of what had been 40 years of Cold War, that comes close to what one feels this week in our nation’s capital. 

The anecdotes of happiness, joy and exuberance are infectious and everywhere to be seen in our nation’s capital. On the Red Line train from Silver Spring, two women from Northern California who also worked on the Obama campaign, saw my button and asked me, where are you from. London, I replied. Big smiles and an invitation to come along to the Lincoln Memorial for Stevie Wonder, Bono and that first inkling of entering a magical zone of hope, belief and kindred spirits that seems to have encapsulated Washington. On the subway escalator coming up into fierce wintry cold at Farragut West Metro Stop, a young woman on the gliding steps suddenly yells “Thank you, Obama” to the crowd of strangers around her. People smile back at her, and the woman, now giggling, shouts, “Yes, we can.”

On the street corners around the Mall, what must be the first stage of Obama’s economic stimulus package is in full swing. Cheerful hawkers of all ages pitch to sell anything with Obama’s name or picture on it, and hordes of families, friends and children crowd around them, open their wallets and buy an endless stream of banners, buttons, hats and scarves – mementos of hope and inspiration to take home. Around the Washington Monument hundreds of thousands of children and adults, black and white and yellow and brown, sway to Garth Brooks, sing with Pete Seeger and cheer Barack on the huge jumbotron screen that remarkable and memorable Sunday afternoon. 

On Monday, Union Station is gleaming white in the sun, huge bunting hangs down the massive marble walls, and the hawkers and consumers feverishly do more business with each other, smiling, beckoning, taking pictures of young men wearing long coats covered with hundreds of badges. At the Senate and House office buildings, long lines of constituents stand patiently to get into their congressmen’s offices to tickets to the swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.  

At the Democratic National Committee headquarters on South Capitol Street, volunteers who worked for Democrats Abroad come together in the afternoon to write postcards and letters to servicemen in hospitals in Germany, Walter Reed and other far-away wards. Most of us are strangers, but we’ve come together here from Australia, France, Portugal, Mexico, England, South Africa, Switzerland, Japan, many of us having acted on the spur of the moment to share our pride in America. 

Part of the experience as well have been how smooth and effortlessly the city has welcomed the masses. One has to say thank you to the organizers, the police, the National Guard, the Washington public workers who have whipped the capital into shape. On every Metro platform, you instantly see a police officer, at the exit of every downtown Metro stop, someone is holding a sign to direct you to the events. No, it’s not a time to drive in Washington. The streets are all blocked off, and at least twice in two days, I’ve seen the traffic part to sirens and flashing lights as Barack Obama has slipped by in a motorcade with his massive black Cadillac limousine in a stream of police motorcycle escorts. 

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

If you did not vote for Barack Obama but are going to his inauguration tomorrow -- or at least watching on TV -- I would like to hear from you. I want the thoughts of informed, engaged citizens who supported John McCain in the November election as Obama takes the oath. Do you still think the nation elected the wrong guy and, even if so, are you going to give him a chance? I can be reached today at 410-332-6166 or 1-800-829-8000 ext. 6166, or by e-mail at dan.rodricks@baltsun.com

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Dana Moore of Charles Village was"selected to be a volunteer" at the big event in Baltimore yesterday -- Barack Obama's downtown visit on the way to his inauguration in Washington Tuesday. Moore, who was  assigned to be an "inside usher" agreed to file reports about her experience. Here's her last:

While we were waiting to go through security, Police Commissioner Bealefeld stopped by to check on how things were going.  He came over to the volunteers, thanked us for what we were doing to make the day a success.  He posed for photos with a number of the volunteers.  After meeting with us he went over to the crowd that had been assembling since 8 am.  They were cold and enthusiastic but anxious to get in to the venue.  Commissioner Bealefeld greeted them and thanked them for their patience.  Very nice, Fred!
 
After going through security we walked over to the War Memorial Plaza as a team.  Once there we were met by the lady who had led the Thursday night training, Stacy Porto.  Stacy was all about business, clearly knew what needed to be done and she got it done!  Stacy took our large group of 50 or so volunteers and picked off 5 here, 8, there,10 here and placed us in various strategic points throughout the Plaza. 
 
I ended up being stationed at the barrier directly in front of the podium from which Obama would deliver his Baltimore address.  I took my post at about 12:30 p.m. At 1:00 p.m. the crowds came running in.  And they were running fast to get to the front! The first person in was wearing a red, white and blue knit "flag hat."  When she realized that she had copped the primo non-VIP viewing spot, so front and center that she could see every strand of the PEOTUS's hair, she almost jumped out of her snow boots!  Once the space filled we had little to do other than to watch the crowd for suspicious looking people (the snipers ringing the Plaza were intriguing a little scary, I must say, but not within the reportable category).  So, we just waited, for three hours, for th main event. 
 
During that time I was able to speak to a few of the folks around me.  A student from JHU shared that he and some classmates had set up a campaign office for Barack Obama in one of the dorms.  Not to go all Charles Village on you but, he lives in Charles Village and was part of the Election Night celebration that spilled out in to the neighborhood.
 
When the arrival of Barack and Michelle Obama and Joe and Jill Biden was announced, there was a surge in the crowd.  People were trying to push forward to get closer.  My fellow red hatted PIC volunteers pushed back as we had been instructed to do.  It worked, folks settled into their spots and listened to Barack's speech.  Almost everyone listened, that is.  A few folks were on cell phones telling friends that they were listening to Obama (they were not), telling friends how to find them in the crowd (not possible) or, sharing the experience with a family member who could not be there. 
 
After Obama's address, he and Michelle and the Bidens came off of the stage and greeted the people on the front row.  THAT caused a huge surge of folks trying to get to the front.  I really wanted to be one of the front-row spectators but, with my red PIC Volunteer hat on and needing to hold back the crowd, abandoning the post would have been just so wrong!  But, I confess that the thought entered my mind!
 
Once the Obamas and Bidens left, the War Memorial Plaza emptied fairly quickly.  I know of no problems that occurred and all of the planning and preparation and logistics worked out.  The confusion of Thursday night gave way to a very well executed plan.  As I walked back to my car I was thankful for having volunteered, for having survived the cold and for being able to see the President-Elect up close.  Having had that experience though, I am now able to make the very clear decision to not venture into D.C. on Tuesday for the Inauguration.  Instead, I will be right here in Charles Village in front of my fireplace watching the day's events on television.  Not sure what I will wear but you can bet it won't include four layers of clothing and foot warmers!
-o-

Just received an email from the person in charge of today's Whistle Stop event in Baltimore.  In addition to detailing the responsibilities of each group she shares that  the Presidential Inaugural Committee will be issuing a red hat to every volunteer!  My "Obama Rally Hat" search has ended!

Here's what will go with the red hat, being mindful that it's now 11 degrees and the rule for the day, sartorially, is layers, layers, layers.
*Thermals, top and bottom
*A gray, long sleeved t-shirt that says "44.  Only in America could this story happen".
*A purple (Go Ravens!) cable knit long sleeved sweater
*A multi-colored heavy wool zip-front sweater. Main colors are blue, green and purple.
*Jeans, dark blue, from The Gap
*Navy Blue wool coat with deep pockets that close with buttons. We can't bring personal items, not even backpacks (Hah!). So, car keys, driver's license, lip gloss, tissues, etc will get stashed in my coat pockets.
*Snow shoes from LL Bean. Heavy, insulated, waterproof, can accommodate thick socks and a heat pack, so ugly that they are cute!
*Two pairs of thick, woolly socks. Also from LL Bean
*My royal blue scarf and gloves. I'll have a second pair of gloves tucked in to one of my coat pockets.

I am hoping that all of these layers will keep me warm. If not, I'll be working the "Inside (but still outside) Hot Chocolate Line" like crazy!

POSTED FRIDAY:

Most of the volunteers arrived early or on time.  I took this as an indication that Baltimoreans want this event to be a big success for the city AND want to be part of the excitement surrounding the PEOTUS. 

Although the session was a bit disorganized, everyone hung in there with the glitches because they want to know what they are required to do to make the day go well.
The folks leading the training session -- the Obama/Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) folks as well as the local captains -- kept repeating that the logistics for the event could change in an instant.  Even as we were being told what the logistics would be, it was made abundantly clear that it could all change the day of the event, even moments before the event was to begin. 

The warning to be flexible didn't mean a whole lot to me until late last night when I received word that the "Whistlestop Tour" had decided to stop in Harford County before rolling in to Baltimore.  I hope that the Harford County folks don't keep the "Obama Express" from getting to Baltimore on time!  THAT would be really bad for the already frozen feet, and warm hearts, of many Baltimoreans.

I mentioned in my first report that the demographics of the volunteers seemed to me to not be reflective of the city.  That perception did not hold.  Once we got up and starting racing to volunteer posts like a herd of cattle I realized that the happy group gathered at the War Memorial Plaza was very much reflective of Baltimore.  We are diverse in age, gender and ethnicity. 

I recognized some of Baltimore's most active community organizers in the crowd as well as a number of business folks, educators, lawyers and students.  A very nice group.  There was also a healthy diversity of tolerance levels for confusion!  Given the mantra to be prepared for change, I am betting that one or two of my more inflexible co-volunteers will just stay home tomorrow.  Screaming Man, if you are out there, consider that as a good option!

As it will be very cold tomorrow, hot chocolate and hot coffee will be sold at the event.  As it will be very crowded and the Port-a-Potties will be limited, plan your cocoa breaks accordingly.  And, you didn't hear it here first but...bring your own "tt" (toilet tissue).

I don't know how I managed to not share this tidbit:  there will be wonderful opportunities to "Shop Barack 'Til You (or your money) Drop"!  The Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) will be setting up booths early Saturday morning and selling official Inaugural commemorative stuff.  Hats, fleece sweaters, art, collectibles, etc. will be available.  There will also be items appropriate for the young and the young at heart or with young at home.  Obama coloring books and workbooks will be available as will cute Little things for your cute little baby.  I plan to be first in line so that I can get something for my granddaughter, Sylena.  She is two years old and President of "Baltimore Babies for Barack."  She deserves something special!  One item I think everyone will want is a wooden toy train (just the caboose maybe?) that commemorates the Whistlestop tour.  They are quite precious and at $22 I expect they will sell out.

Another thing we learned last night is that there will be a small VIP section set up for, well...VIPs.  I have a guess as to who some of them might be  - Congressman Cummings, Governor O'Malley, Senator Mikulski, Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party Michael Cryor, members of the Baltimore City Council perhaps?  I can tell you who I would like to see there - Oprah, Denzel, Halle, me.....  And, I have a clear idea as to who will NOT be in that section - me!

Now, it aches me to do this but, I have to go back to the backpack issue from last night.  I forgot to mention that if you are thinking about carrying a purse that is as large as a backpack, it is not going to come in with you!  This is an event where the size of what you carry absolutely matters to security screeners.  Wondering why?  Well, we got educated on this and it is kind of like a chemical equation - the more stuff people bring in, the less space there is, the less space there is, the fewer whipped-ip people there will be. 

The PIC's goal is to get as many PEOPLE to the inside perimeter of the event.  That means that as much STUFF as possible has to remain outside of the perimeter.  Less stuff means more people and more people means more enthusiasm and more enthusiasm means more love and more love means more support for our new President and Vice-president and their administration.  And this, folks, is the whole point of this whole thing and so, as much as I hate to admit it, it all starts with the backpacks, or absence of them!

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

That was about as rich as experiences get in downtown Baltimore, a gathering of a lot of frozen men, women and children in a great good place -- and you'd never know we were just a block from the strip joints and adult-book stores of The Block. The call for "Obama!" during The O'Governor's too-long, purply speech was a little embarrassing -- for him -- but nowhere near as embarrassing as remarks by the mayor would have been. I was there, working up material for Monday's radio show, and found people quite willing to share their feelings about Obama. I bought a home-made, desktop-generated, full-color Obama family calendar for $8. The photos in it are a little, shall we say, "stretched" to fit the space (Barama looks in one like a Ravens offensive lineman), but it's still nice.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 5:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

All visitors to the War Memorial will enter at the Baltimore Street and Guilford Avenue entry point. 
Visitors are strongly encouraged to use public transportation like Light Rail, Metro, or MTA buses.  MTA has created a web page for Saturday’s event that includes rerouted bus routes, station closures, information on park and ride lots, and helpful travel tips.  For additional information, contact MTA at (410) 539-5000. If you plan on driving into the city, leave early and allow for extra travel time.

The City has released a list of street closures for Saturday.  On Saturday, January 10th between 4 am and 7 pm, the following streets will all be closed:

I-83 Northbound from President/Lombard Streets to North Avenue will be closed.
I-83 Southbound will be closed at North Avenue.
All streets bounded by St. Paul Street, Lombard Street, The Fallsway/Front Street, and Bath Street.
Streets surrounding the Main Post Office at 900 E. Fayette Street will be closed, but public access to the post office will be maintained from the east via Fayette and Colvin Streets.
Additionally, Orleans Street from Gay to St. Paul Streets will be closed from 2 pm to 9 pm on Saturday, January 17th.

The City has set up parking restrictions in the area.  Parking will be restricted in most areas around the event.  Variable message signs, cones, and barriers will be posted around the perimeters of the event, so be sure to pay attention to the restrictions in effect.  Cars in violation of parking restrictions will be towed to the Edison Parking Lot at The Fallsway and High Street.

Several parking garages close to the event location will be closed.  Parking will be available at the stadium and generally west of St. Paul/Light Street.
Bicycle parking will be provided at the garage at the intersection of Light and Redwood Streets.
The ADA drop-off point will be at Calvert and Redwood Streets.
 Parking will be restricted on the following streets on Saturday, January 17th  from 9 am to 7 pm:

St. Paul Street from Mt. Royal Avenue to Saratoga Street.
Calvert Street from Biddle Street to Mt. Royal Avenue.
Guilford Avenue from Biddle Street to Mt. Royal Avenue.
Preston, Biddle, Chase, Eager, Madison, Monument, Centre, Franklin, Mulberry, Pleasant, and Saratoga Streets between Calvert and Charles Streets.
 As mentioned in yesterday’s congestion alert, we suggest taking an alternate route into Downtown.  Here are some routes: 

To circumvent the I-83 closure, take St. Paul Street south or Maryland Avenue to Cathedral Street.
To get Downtown from I-95, take Russell Street (Exit 52) to Martin Luther King Boulevard.
The Inner Harbor can be accessed from I-95 through Key Highway (Exit 55) to Light Street or Hanover Street (Exit 54).
To get into the city from the east, take Orleans Street or Monument Street to Madison Street, although it should be noted that mid-town areas near the train station could experience street closures due to the president-elects motorcade and other related security precautions. 
Please check http://www.GetAroundDowntown.com continued updates.
 

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Editors of The Sun would like to know: What does the inauguration of Barack Obama mean to you?
Just leave a comment on this blog, below. Editors will select a number of comments to be published in The Sun on Sunday, Jan. 25, in the Maryland Closeup section. Please include an email address in case we need to contact you; it will not be published with your comment.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Well, you don't see this every day -- a suggestion from a public relations person (a flak) to attend a digital television transition demonstration, if you happen to be in Edgewood tomorrow to see the President-elect's train. Now this is a sharp flakky -- crowds are coming to see Barack Obama for a few minutes, and while they're in Edgewood, they might just want to stop by the local electronics retailer, Radio Shack, and get up to speed on the approaching end of analog (antenna) TV.

I mean, those things are connected, aren't they? Change. Transition. BHO. HBO . . .  It's all the same, right?

"I just read your blog about President-elect Obama stopping through Edgewood on Saturday," writes Erin Griffin, on behalf of Radio Shack. "I’m not sure if you or someone else from the Sun will be at this event, but I also wanted to notify you about a DTV Transition event Radio Shack is putting on in coordination with the American Library Association in Edgewood on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. With the recent discussion about pushing the transition off, it may be interesting for someone from the Sun to see what people are still doing to prepare and how Radio Shack is available to train people on converter box use. Feel free to pass the below advisory on to anyone else you feel might be interested in covering this event. It is a great photo op."

Yeah, right. I'm sure we'll have a reporter or Pho-tog free to cover this important event tomorrow!

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

This just in, from the Maryland Democratic Party: Baltimore is not the only location in Maryland to welcome and witness history this weekend. On Saturday, add Edgewood to a very short list. President-Elect Obama and Vice-President Elect Biden will make the Edgewood Train Station one of very few whistle-stops on their historic train trip from Philadelphia to Washington DC. You can be a part of the crowd of supporters they will greet from the back of the train.

Event Details: The President-Elect and Vice-President Elect will greet Marylanders (From the back of the train) at the Edgewood Train Station in Edgewood, MD - Saturday, January 17, 2009  
Gates to the Edgewood Train Station will open at noon (parking is very limited)
The train station entrance is at 2127 Old Edgewood Rd., just off US Rt. 40  
Take the SHUTTLE BUS running from Edgewood High School (2415 Willoughby Beach Rd.) to the station. The train is scheduled to arrive at approximately 2:30 pm.
Please arrive early to allow time to pass through security

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Dana Moore of Charles Village has been "selected to be a volunteer" at the big event in Baltimore tomorrow -- Barack Obama's downtown visit on the way to his inauguration in Washington Tuesday. Moore, who has been assigned to be an "inside usher" (though she may never get "inside" anywhere) has agreed to file reports about her experience. Here's her first observations -- filed from last night's frigid training session for volunteers at War Memorial Plaza:

I am sitting in the front row of aluminum chairs - same ones they use when there's a Police Officer Memorial. I just looked over my shoulder and EASILY there are more than 200 volunteers here. I feel a little less special than I did an hour ago when I got my pretty reminder to show up. You know, I am NOT a captain and, in the time I started typing this the number of volunteers in the room has increased. So now I am one of about 300. Geez!!

And, not to violate that "post-racial" thing/thinking/ethos - I will share, quietly, that at the moment I AM one of a about 50 African-American volunteers. If I stick with this I will want to understand why the demographics are what they are. It's just an interesting thing right now.

One crazy thing that's happening is that the place is filling up and the folks leading the training (for the Captains, not my group) have really soft voices so the Captain trainees are yelling "We can't hear you!". I swear to God if George W responds "well the whole world is gonna hear you" I am going to pass out.

Thank goodness I still have my L L. Bean boots with the furry lining that should keep my feet warm. Problem, though, is that I do not have a hat to match my gloves and scarf (wool, royal blue, Target, $12 for both just before Christmas). Actually, I don't have an "Obama, Our Next President Rally"  appropriate hat at all!  Ravens at Pittsburgh hat? Yes, several. Obama Whistlestop hat? No. But, there is time to fix this and I WILL be calling my girlfriends for help.

So, to get back to the training session - the lady sitting on my left whispered to me that she was a veteran at this stuff. She had, at age 17, participated in 1963 in the March On Washington. She and her sister were put in the charge of a neighbor, a minister. She told me that she was able to get very close to Martin Luther King, Jr and was totally moved by his words. She also volunteered for the Clinton 1 campaign, the Clinton 2 campaign and the Clinton 3 campaign. That last one would be Hillary's campaign, of course. My chairmate also participated in the Million Man March and, some other things I didn't catch. Now, here's the thing that struck me - she shared that in all the years since hearing MLK she had not experienced the kind of emotional and spiritual response that she did as a 17-year-old when hearing MLK. That is, until she heard Barack Obama speak. She said she's not sure she can volunteer all day but, will do whatever she can just to be at the Saturday event.

The man sitting behind me during the training was a bit of an older gentleman. I can't say for certain that he is hard of hearing but what I can tell you can tell you is he kept yelling "Speak in to the mike" and "Repeat the question please"!  Most annoying.

The lady to my right was an absolute sweetheart. She had moved up to the front row next to me so that she could get away from folks in the middle of the room who were complaining bitterly about the training starting late. I imagine she was no more happy with Screaming Man than I was. In any event, she was just so happy to have been selected as a volunteer. She plans to take her son to DC on Tuesday. They do not have tickets but she wants to be there just to feel the emotion and history of the day.

The training itself was heavy with "Guidelines" (no back packs, no guns, no umbrellas, crutches but only if you need them, no animals of any kind except service dogs) and lots of questions about the guidelines. Now, I have never been the smartest person in any room I have occupied but, there is just something really wrong when you need clarification of what's meant by "No back packs." NO does not mean a small back pack or a back pack with just a little bit of stuff in it. Still, we thoroughly discussed the guideline. I thought I'd fall out of my aluminum chair when a new volunteer asked. "Well, what do we do with OUR backpacks?" Precious. Just precious!

When we finally closed out the Guidelines discussion we moved to distribution of the volunteer assignments. Are you wondering what the different volunteer assignments are?  Me too!  Here's why and I must say it is a very clever trick that I WILL be using in the future.  When it came time to make the assignments, we were introduced to a captain and then the leader lady asked for 30 people to go with that captain. Well!  Questions were shouted -- "What's the job?  What's the job?" No answer was given. Fifty people ran over to Captain #1. I did not. Then, the Leader Lady introduced us to Captain #2 and asked for six volunteers. Again, no job description given, shouts of "What's the job, what's the job?" rise up. No answer. Twenty people run over to Captain #2.

At this point I'm laughing out loud cuz we all look like cattle running. Screaming Man is yelling, "Use the mike so we know what the job is." Nice Lady is saying she'll do whatever they ask and I'm thinking, "Where's the volunteer with the inside job?"

I have to say that, despite all of my legal training and husband-taught community organizing, I can't figure out what the trick is to getting a "good" inside job!  But, I can see that we are running out of captains and I am about to lose out completely if I don't get out of my aluminum seat and just run to a captain, any captain. So, I do that and I take Nice Lady and another friend with me.

And don't you know, the group we were standing in line to sign up for was the "Inside Ushers Group"!!  Hooray, sort of.

Once we signed the sheet for the IUG, we had a small meeting with our Captain. She is high energy, very positive and has no better idea about what we will actually be doing than the rest of us. Well, SHE knew that "inside" meant "outside" and that that is where we will all be! 

After signing my Captain's sign-in sheet and wondering what job I'd missed, I said good night to my new friends (Screaming Man was long gone), bundled up and headed out to my car (I confess - I parked a bit illegally, just a tad before the 6 pm permissible hour). Gay Street was quiet (it's already blocked off to traffic). The sun had set. The temperature was near freezing. My stomach was growling. But, the staging from which Obama would speak was already set up. I watched as one young man slowly walked on to the staging, went to the center, raised up his arms, turned his face to the sky and yelled, "I'm standing where HE will stand!!". It, for me, was a choke-up moment and brought home the powerful change that is coming with this transition. Our country is getting a new president full of promise and hope. President-Elect Obama's enthusiasm and energy has made so many believe that they CAN hold on just a little bit longer. His inclusive approach to leadership lets us know that he is the President for all of us.

That young man's private but public celebration of OUR president made me feel so much better about the decision to volunteer. I left the War Memorial Plaza feeling so much better than I did when I arrived. I am glad I volunteered and I am glad I stayed with the training despite the early confusion. Helping Baltimore graciously and safely celebrate the country's new leadership won't be such a stretch after all. But I WILL be wearing jeans on Saturday. You betcha!  Wink!  Wink!

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 7:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

A friend writes to recommend good reading: "We ran across a novel by an Italy-loving Englishman named Anthony Capella: 'The Wedding Officer,' about a Vrit in Naples in 1944 assigned to keep the Tommies from marrying the wrong girls, and the young widow who becomes his cook. Liked it so much that we looked up Capella's first novel, 'The Food of Love,' about a Roman waiter who poses as a chef to charm an American art student and the chef who acts as his Cyrano. Loved both, recommend them."

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

It was bound to happen, and certainly I'm not the first to experience this. The President-elect's name rolled off the lips yesterday as, "Barama." And I think it might stick. Baltimore will experience Baramamania on Saturday . . .   President Barama . . . . I dunno. I kinda like.

Meanwhile, Sen. Benjamin Cardin -- SenBen -- says his office has had 60,000 requests for Inauguration tickets. He gave nearly 400 out and kept one for himself.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the day before Barack Obama's inauguration. Maybe you want to honor both men by helping a guy out in Baltimore. If you own a small business, or if you work for a large company, or if you're retired and you have time to offer your wisdom, they can use you at the annual job fair at the St. Frances Academy Community Center on Preston Street. This is the seventh year for the event. Contact Ralph Moore at 443-255-5600, or Melissa LaFayette at 410-539-5794 ext. 28, melissa.lafayette@sfacademy.org

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Self-Help and Service is a free, full day job fair that features a large number of employers from a variety of fields.  Featured will be employers willing to hire job seekers with little work experience, formal education and who have criminal histories.  The event gives job seekers a chance to prepare for work and connect with employers.  It takes place on Monday, Jan. 19.  . . . Unlike other job fairs, this day offers a full day of preparation and self help. The day will begin with several job-readiness classes to brush up job seekers’ skills and prepare them to enter the workplace.  Classes include resume writing, interview skills, and motivation preparation, as in attitudes and behaviors for success.  After a hot lunch, job seekers will have an opportunity to speak directly to employers and turn in applications for work. . . . This is the seventh year that the community center has planned the job fair and it has a history of getting jobs for unemployed people in Baltimore.  The event will also connect people to organizations that provide G.E.D. classes, job training, addiction treatment, and other tools to prepare them to join the workforce.  . . . The St. Frances Academy Community Center is located at 501 E. Chase St.  Doors open at 7:00 am and a free continental breakfast is provided.  Job-readiness classes begin at 8:30.  At noon, a free lunch will be provided to attendees.  The job fair goes from 1:00 pm until 4:30 pm.  The event is open to everyone, and free childcare will be provided.
 

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Gil Sandler, the great Baltimore story teller whose amusing reminiscences appeared in the bygone Evening Sun and who can still be heard on WYPR-FM each Friday morning, speaks with great pride about the City College debate team -- not as something from the past but very much in the present. He was a member himself once upon a time, and still actively supports the team. Now comes word that the Abell Foundation, where Sandler works as communications officer, has awarded $100,000 to The Gilbert Sandler Fund for Speech and Debate at City College. Here's more from a press release: "The Fund, housed at the Baltimore Community Foundation, will ensure that students have the opportunity to participate in the rigorous and rewarding discipline of speech, debate, and mock trial for generations to come. Sandler, City ’41, has for many years raised funds from friends and acquaintances to provide annual support for the City College Speech and Debate Team. 'We hope to build the Fund’s endowment to $500,000 in order to provide $25,000 annually to supplement ongoing annual giving and support high school debate,' explained BCF President Tom Wilcox. 'We are delighted to announce that with the Abell Foundation’s generous gift, we have raised $285,000 toward that endowment goal.' The team has a long and proud tradition, dating back to 1878 with the establishment of the Bancroft/Carrolton-Wright Literary Societies. City College competes in speech and debate at the highest of levels, including the National Catholic Forensic League, Baltimore Urban Debate League and in tournaments against teams from across the country on the campuses of leading colleges and universities. Information about the Fund and how to contribute is available online at www.bcf.org/sandler.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 4:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Justice Policy Institute in Washington, one of the few organizations that keeps an independent eye on law enforcement and corrections policy in the United States, wonders why, with violent crime dropping, state budgets for new prison space keep expanding. (Off the top of my head, I'd say it was the war on drugs to blame; I might be wrong, but I doubt it.)

The JPI noted this week that violent crime in the United States fell by 3.5 percent and property crimes by 2.5 percent in the first half of 2008. "The analysis, which is based on the FBI Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, finds that this drop in crime came at a time when state corrections spending continued to grow, although at a lower rate than the previous year, and when the prison and jail rates also continued to grow, also at lower rates than in previous years," the JPI's newest report said.
 
As the growth rate of prisons and jails has slowed, the violent crime rate declined as well, down 1.4 percent from 2006 to 2007. "The drop in violent crime is good news for public safety," said JPI Executive Director Tracy Velázquez . "The question policymakers must answer is why prison and jail growth continues despite drops in violent crime.  This suggests that more people are being locked up for nonviolent offenses or more people are being returned to jail or prison because of revocations of probation or parole.  In both these cases, officials need to look at whether there are ways to improve or expand programs that help people succeed under community supervision, while preserving public safety. . . . This data also confirms that increasing incarceration is not necessarily the best way to preserve public safety. For the greatest return on investment, policymakers should focus on increasing spending at the front end, such as in education and job training, as well as more and better treatment and services at the 'back end' to help people who are diverted from prison or jail or who are re-entering the community." 

For a more in-depth analysis of crime trends and information on effective public safety practices visit the JPI website at www.justicepolicy.org. 

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 4:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

More comments just posted . . . . .

An earlier blog post, "Sheila Dixon's Sixth Sense," sparked a lot of comments as well, from those who condemn the mayor and those who say she's been unfairly accused. The post also morphed into Tuesday's print column. Meanwhile, another perspective on this follows . . . Feel free to post more comments here.

Questions about Sheila Dixon's grasp of ethics -- what's appropriate conduct for public officials and what's not -- go back a ways, and beyond the lapses mentioned in this space and others in the wake of her indictment. For a time after she became City Council president nine years ago, Dixon kept a job she'd had with the state despite an ethics commission opinion that her positions with the two governments presented a potential conflict of interest.
Ironically, it was Dixon who'd asked for that opinion. She just didn't like what she was told. She wanted to keep on double-dipping.
At the time, Dixon collected $109,000 a year from the two public jobs. She was paid $80,000 as the full-time council president and at an annual rate of $56,000 a year in her part-time job as a trade representative with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development. (She cut her state work and pay in half after taking the top council post in December 1999.) Dixon claimed her state duties, which included working with 20 or 30 companies as clients, did not interfere with her city duties.

But the commission found that 20 percent of the companies Dixon worked with were from Baltimore. "The city and its citizens have substantial and significant interactions with the state economic development office," the panel said, concluding that Dixon's "dual employment would be inconsistent with prohibitions [in] the public ethics law." The city and the state have myriad connections, economic and otherwise, the commission noted. "It would thus be anticipated that [Dixon] would have a role in a variety of fiscal and spending matters in which the city would be collaborating with the state."
Dixon decided to keep the second job anyway -- for about two and a half years.
Why did she ask for the ethics advice if she wasn't going to take it?
"What was the point?" asked Kathleen S. Skullney, then-executive director of Common Cause of Maryland. "In both instances, the public has separate but unequal rights to unbiased representation. We have interests in both jobs being done right."
Dixon, on the other hand, thought the commission went too far in its ruling.
"I think [the commission] really couldn't understand or couldn't believe the fact that I've been able to keep my two lives separate, based on what I do in the international arena," Dixon said. "Their ruling is based on perception, nothing factual."
Perception. Appearances. How things might look to the public. Sheila Dixon seems to have trouble with all that, and for a while now.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

That might not mean much to you, but it does to me. Rip is one of the craziest funny men, silliest slapstickers and prolific punsters of all time. ("What's white and crawls up your leg? Uncle Ben's perverted rice!") Google him for YouTube clips. If you haven't caught him, click here for Taylor's web site.

He says he answers all his mail, so send the Ripper a birthday greeting at: riptaylor@riptaylor.com

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Recently, when The Sun broke news that Baltimore’s top officials had quietly voted to approve pay raises for each other in the midst of global recession and a municipal budget crunch, what was Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon’s initial reaction to the storm of criticism?
She said she was going to keep her $3,700 raise.
Asked whether she would give, as some had suggested, her pay increase to charity, Dixon said: “To be honest with you, no, 2 1/2 percent, based on what I do seven days a week, 24 hours, trying to raise a family, a daughter in college."
In other words: “No way. I’m entitled to this.”
Entitlement seems to be the mayor’s sixth sense, and it appears to be stronger than any other sense she might have.
Though she ultimately backed off her I-deserve-mine stance and announced an intention to give at least some of her pay raise to charity, the initial reaction is the one people will remember. And the same sense of entitlement comes through in the behavior she exhibited a few years ago, as city council president. Some of this behavior has been described in Sun reports and some of it is contained in the embarrassing criminal indictment against Dixon handed up on Friday.
Get her sister a job in the council president's office? Why not?
Vote to approve a contract that benefited a company that employed the same sister? What’s the problem?
Hire her campaign chairman to do computer work for the council president’s office? What’s wrong with that? We’ll just pay him in installments of less than $5,000 each; that way, the Board of Estimates won’t have to approve the deal.
Engage in a romance with a man whose company is a subcontractor that gets tax breaks from the city? That’s personal, and nobody’s business.
Accept gifts from the guy and fly off with him for romantic adventures and shopping sprees, even though this may give the appearance of conflict and favoritism? Hey, I work hard. I’m entitled.
Take a few gift cards intended for the poor? It’s not how it looks – only $25 worth is unaccounted for, according to my lawyer.
“I am being unfairly accused. Time will prove that I have done nothing wrong,” Dixon said after the indictment.
Such is the defiant and unapologetic attitude that comes across in all of Dixon’s statements and actions over the time The Sun, and then the state prosecutor, examined her conduct in office.
She hired her sister to work in her office when she was council president, in apparent violation of the city’s ethics code. When she had to fire her sister, Dixon told the press: "You all are really discouraging people from wanting to make sacrifices" for public service.
Her sister moved to a new job with a computer management company. Dixon, as a member of the city Board of Estimates, used an investigative hearing to press a major city contractor, Comcast, on why it was not awarding more work to the company, Utech, that employed her sister – again, a violation of the ethics code. Asked after the hearing whether her sister worked for Utech, Dixon said yes, then demanded to know who alerted the Sun reporter, Doug Donovan, to the information and refused to identify the company. "You figure it out," she said, adding, "I'm not trying to hide anything." Dixon claimed to have disclosed her sister's employment. But her financial disclosure form on file with the Board of Ethics did not list her sister's Utech job.
In 2006, The Sun smoked out Dixon's dealings with Dale Clark, her former campaign chairman, and the smoke has been in the air since.
Between 2001 and 2006, Dixon steered no-bid government work worth at least $600,000 to Clark - and most of it without a written contract. A Dixon staffer crafted a way to keep the payments to under $5,000 each, which means they didn't need approval of the Board of Estimates.
Dixon's reaction at the time? She accused the newspaper of printing "lies" about her and her staff.
Now she's under indictment. The Ravens are on a run to the Super Bowl. President-elect Barack Obama is due at City Hall Plaza on Saturday. And here’s Sheila Dixon, charged with lying and thievery, relatively small-scale stuff from her days as council president, but in keeping with a pattern or behavior and a sense of entitlement.
Since Friday, several people have moaned that the charges against Dixon appear to be petty and the result of prosecutorial vendetta.
That’s because filching gift cards intended for the poor and not reporting goodies from a contractor-boyfriend seem small compared to trying to sell Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.
But Dixon’s actions over time show a pattern – the gift card filching alone is alleged to have occurred at least three different times over three years -- that a criminal jury might consider more than just sloppiness or stupidity or naiveté. Though the charges, at first blush, may seem petty to many, they represent something that simply isn’t acceptable for a public official.
Sheila Dixon has been in public office for two decades. She should have known better, and I’m sure she did. It’s that sense of entitlement – that she deserves a little bonus now and then, no matter what the rules say or what the public might think – that took over, or may have driven her to run for public office in the first place.

DAN RODRICKS ON FACEBOOK

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (39)
        

MIDDAY WITH DAN RODRICKS
Listen live on WYPR 88.1 FM or online at wypr.org.  You can drop us an e-mail with comments at midday@wypr.org.

Monday, January 12: Tavis Smiley
Noon-1:00 pm EST
The new exhibit America I AM: the African American Imprint, which celebrates 500 years of African American contributions to the country, will open later this week at the National Constitution Center. We'll talk with public radio host Tavis Smiley, about the exhibit and other news of the day.

1:00-2:00 pm EST: The Dixon Indictment
We'll discuss the latest news of Mayor Sheila Dixon's twelve-count indictment with Ryan O'Donnell, Executive Director of Common Cause Maryland; Sun reporter Annie Linskey; and Stephen Henderson, Deputy Editorial Page Editor and Columnist for the Detroit Free Press.

Tuesday, January 13: Wayne Gilchrest
Noon-1:00 pm EST
As he comes to the end of his 18-year career in Congress, Republican Wayne Gilchrest is entering a new phase in his life.  An independent spirit, a family man, and an environmentalist at heart, he'll join us to discuss his past political career, and his plans for the future.

1:00-2:00 pm EST: Walk On
In such a car-reliant society, we often forget both the value and pleasure of a nice stroll. We'll reflect on the history, science, and philosophy of constitutionals with Geoff Nicholson, author of The Lost Art of Walking.

Wednesday, January 14
Noon-1:00 pm EST
TBA

1:00-2:00 pm EST: Our broken goverment
In less than a week, President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office and become our 44th President. Obama will inherit a collapsing economy, two wars, and other problems of the Bush Administration. We'll talk with Bill Buzenberg, Executive Director of the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity.  He'll share with us his plans for repairing a broken government.

Thursday, January 15: Recovered memory and PTSD
Noon-1:00 pm EST
Controversy erupted in the 1980s and '90s over the issue of recovered memory. This occurred when therapists claimed to have drawn out of patients memories which led to accusations of sexual abuse by their parents and others. In a new book, Try To Remember: Psychiatry's Clash Over Meaning, Memory, and Mind, Dr. Paul McHugh looks at the recovered memory controversy and says he sees a similar problem arising in the diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). McHugh is the University Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University. He formerly was director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and psychiatrist-in-chief at John Hopkins Hospital.

1:00-2:00
Inaugural history and quiz

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

You can hear my interview with Aaron Glantz, the author of The War Comes Home mentioned in today's column, by visiting the WYPR web site and listening to a podcast from Wednesday, Jan. 7. Click here. (If the program is not immediately available, it should be later today.) For veterans and their families: The Glantz book is quite good and provides a public servvice by listing numerous 800-help lines and organizations that have been supporting Iraq and A-stan vets.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 5:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Thanks to Katie McLaughlin, a grad student in women's studies at Towson University, and Gabe Dinsmore, a junior at Goucher College, for coming to the Sun citry room today to help me catch up on inmate mail and phone calls from ex-offenders looking for employment. They're occupying two desks and answering the mail and phone-in requests for our ex-offender info packet.

The phone rings at my desk every day, mostly calls from ex-offenders looking for help finding a job, and it's hard for me to keep up in responses. That's I am having a "catch up" day at The Sun today.

At least for a time -- the better part of three years -- Darryl Logan felt appreciated, productive and normal again. He was the subject of a recent column, and his story shows what can be done -- one man, one woman at a time -- if those of us who can step up to help actually do so, on a direct, personal level. Be a mentor, listen, share your wisdom and common sense. . . . Darryl stopped using and cleaned up, he got a job, he became a reliable worker and he stepped out of the ranks of Baltimore's problem children. A generous old friend from high school helped him, but that's what it takes -- one man, one woman at a time. . . . 

DAN RODRICKS ON FACEBOOK

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Who knew January 8th was such a momentous day in cultural history?  Not only is today the anniversary of my first column, but it's also a special day for one of my heroes: Soupy Sales, born January 8, 1926.

Check him out on YouTube

Beloved host of the children's show Lunch with Soupy Sales, comedian, pie-throwing artisan and friend to puppets everywhere, Milton Supman turns 83 today.

Happy birthday to this comic genius!

WARNING: Soupy Sales is now a dirty old man on Twitter.  These truly are the End Times. http://twitter.com/soupysales

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)