David "Z on TV" Zurawik was my guest on Wednesday's Midday and we discussed Anthony Bourdain's Baltimore bit on No Reservations. Z -- and his blog followers -- had some interesting things to say about the food critic's take on B-town. Here, with the last word (for now) is a note from Midday listener Victor Lapides:

"Bourdain always struck me as rather a louche figure and not to be taken seriously as either a travel or a food correspondent.  Certainly any responsible college freshman knows roughly where the Corn Belt or the Bible Belt or the Rust Belt is.  Maybe this phoned-in effort reflects Bourdain's take on this place as provincial and clannish when he lived here (it is), or that he couldn't find himself comfortable here (he probably didn't.)  But I was surprised that you didn't challenge him on the one subject where he so obviously fell short, which is food.  Even in its diminished state, most people I know don't consider Chesapeake Bay cuisine to have a serious rival for seafood in New England, New Orleans or the West Coast.  There's a reason why (the late) Johnny Apple of the New York Times called Faidley's crab cake 'the finest crab dish in the Western Hemisphere,' and why wealthy New Yorkers in the Gatsby era came down here in their private railroad cars to eat terrapin soup and soft shell crabs in the great Baltimore seafood houses of its day.  (My father had a guy out for lunch from Schweppes of England once, and he took him to the Chesapeake and had him get imperial crab.  He said, 'Morton, I've had seafood in the finest restaurants in the world and I've never had anything to surpass this.')  Even before Iran, this extraordinary bay was the world's premier fishery for sturgeon and caviar.  Guys, if someone doesn't like a place's style and has a megaphone on cable to proclaim it, there's not much to be done about it.  But to overlook this food . . ."

And Jed Dietz, director of the fabulous Maryland Film Festival, added this: "I heard a chunk of your discussion -- one of my favorite segments -- as you were discussing Bourdain's lazy take on B'more. Isn't it ironic that we shut down filmmaking in Maryland just as THE WIRE went off the air, ensuring that its very particular picture of Baltimore would be the last one standing?

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Did you see this story about crab cakes in the Post the other day? Seems like this writer never heard of Baltimore: "New York has pizza. Chicago has hot dogs. But perhaps no city has embraced a regional dish the way Washington has the crab cake."

As Dave Chappelle's Lil Jon says: WHAT!?

Sun reader Greg Kilduff dashed this note off to the writer: "Washington!?!  Washington is the city best known for crab cakes!?! You have got to be kidding me.  Are you goofy?  Are you a carpetbagger from someplace else?  I know it is the DC move to take credit for everything, but puh-lease.  The city known for crab cakes is Baltimore, you know, as in the Maryland part of Maryland crab cakes?  The worst crab cake in Baltimore is better than any of that overpriced, pretentious wanna-be crab cakes from DC.  Up here, we usually laugh at your silly, self-important need to be the center of the universe, but you've gone too far.  Get in your BMW or Audi or Lexus and drive up to Baltimore.  Pick the first non-chain eatery you see and order a crab cake."

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

1:00-2:00 pm Eastern: It's the classic story of summer love, when boy meets grill.  Food Nerd Henry Hong, a contributor to the "Eat Me" column in the Baltimore City Paper, will stop by Studio A to offer tips and suggestions for getting the most out of your grill.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

I checked our archives and The Sun has given only passing notice to the establishment of the nation's first pharmacy school on the campus of an all-women's college. So allow me to offer a little more attention to the subject: This bit of academic history is being made on North Charles Street in Baltimore. Nearly 500 students applied for the 70 openings in the inaugural class of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland's School of Pharmacy, according to Theresa Wiseman, who handles communications for the college. Orientation takes place August 19 through 21, and -- badda-bing -- the first day of classes is August 24. Who knew?

"Pharmacy is a hot, growing field," Wiseman reports in an e-mail. "Starting salaries are $100,000. There’s a shortage of pharmacists nationwide, one that is expected to grow significantly in the years to come. The former dean at the University of Maryland predicted a shortage of 157,000 pharmacists by the year 2020."

Notre Dame's four-year program will "provide a distinctive focus on leadership development and women’s health care across the lifespan."  Anne Y.F. Lin, the former dean of Midwestern University College of Pharmacy in Arizona, is the school's first dean. The school has been three years in the making, with the college's board of trustees voting unanimously to submit a proposal to the Maryland Higher Education Commission in October 2006. The MHEC approved the school in March 2007, and the college has been building faculty ever since.

Here's the home page of the new pharmacy school.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 7:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

I just tuned in to catch Eyewitness News' report on the latest charges against Sheila Dixon and . . .  what a waste of time. They've got some boyish reporter in War Memorial Plaza waving the new indictment. He doesn't tell us what's in the indictment, what the charges are. But he tells us that Dixon, "through it all," has maintained a business-as-usual approach to running the city. Cut to a sound bite of the twice-indicted mayor in a bicycle helmet and it's the usual blah-blah-blah about how she's serving the citizens of Baltimore and the charges "just make me stronger." Cut back to the boyish reporter. Again, nothing about the charges. But this time, he quotes Dixon's attorney, Arnold Weiner, saying the new indictment is "just as flawed" as the first indictment. That's it. Maybe this is why Dixon gives "exclusive" interviews to WJZ. . . . 

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

The controversy over tick-borne Lyme Disease -- whether a chronic form of the disease exists, and whether long-course antiobiotics should be prescribed for those suffering from what they believe are its lingering symptoms -- goes live on the Internet Thursday.

Starting at 8 am., the Infectious Diseases Society of America, which wrote the treatment guidelines for Lyme, will hold a day-long hearing that will be Webcast live through its web site. The hearing is being held in accordance with a settlement of an anti-trust case brought against IDSA by the Connecticut attorney general, who alleged that the treatment guidelines were not drafted fairly and that several members of the drafting panel had conflicts of interests they did not disclose.

Dr. Paul Auwaerter, head of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins and a member of IDSA, says the suit was politically motivated, that sound medical science has found no evidence of chronic Lyme and that long-term antiobiotic use can be harmful to patients.

Auwaerter, a recent guest on my Midday show, said he doesn't expect any new medical findings to come of the hearing, and he doesn't believe the hearings are even necessary. The IDSA, he said, reluctantly settled with the Connecticut AG, agreed to a new panel and the July 30 hearing to avoid a lengthy and costly legal battle.

There are many Americans who believe they have chronic health problems related to the Lyme Disease they got from a tick bit. They believe that so-called "Lyme-literate" doctors should be allowed to prescribe antibiotics to alleviate their suffering. A recent polemical film, Under Our Skin, suggested that Lyme Disease is responsible for all sorts of conditions that mainstream medicine has ignored and that the disease may even be sexually transmitted. Since commenting on that film, I've received dozens of e-mails and posted comments from people who claim to have the chronic Lyme disease that mainstream medicine says does not exist. You can read them in these earlier blog posts.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Veteran Maryland criminal attorney Michael D. Montemarano sent me his thoughts on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. in Cambridge.

"Most cops are, as Sgt. Crowley appears to be, hardworking and reasonable professionals.  Being human, however, they can make mistakes, and can do so without being, or being understood as, racist or power-mad.  The best question, it seems to me, arising out of this teachable moment, is the appropriate relationship of the police to the community.

Simply put, the police are not, and should not be considered any different or more special than, any other public servant.  They work for the citizenry.  If they don't like that concept, they should get out of the business.  In my view, over the past 20 to 30 years, especially as driven by the war on drugs and the hostile us-against-them attitude this has engendered on the part of the police toward parts of the community, the police have lost sight of this subordinate relationship, and the courts and prosecutors have failed to rein them in adequately. 

Once Sgt. Crowley learned that Prof. Gates lived in the house . . . he should have been out the door like a shot, no pun intended, with  "Apparently the report was incorrect, sir.  Sorry to have troubled you," still echoing in the hallway.

He did not.  He described Prof. Gates, whom he had identified and who was then standing in his own home, to the police dispatcher as "a bit uncooperative."  So?  Having made the ID, what was the sergeant's purpose for being there?  Was he invited?  Did he have a warrant?  With the identification of the "home invader" as the homeowner, his job was done and his presence unneeded as a matter of police policy, and unjustified as a matter of law.  He should have left, posthaste.   Prolonging the confrontation with an uncooperative, hostile, angry, loud and unpleasant individual was on him.

Certainly Prof. Gates did not need to get unpleasant, make comments about Sgt. Crowley's mother, whatever the officer claims.  But this was not a relationship among equals, once the ID had been made.  An uninvited guest was in a person's home, and under Maryland law failure to vacate the premises can support a charge of trespass.  That IS a crime.  This was Sgt. Crowley's legal obligation, I submit, and was not in any way paralleled by an obligation on the part of Prof. Gates to be civil.  Prof. Gates' misbehavior is on him, but  it does not amount to a crime, given the rest of the facts.

Any other viewpoint elevates the interests, and tender sensitivities, of the police over those of the citizen and homeowner who pays his salary.   Officer Friendly is the one with the gun and the training, and he is paid NOT to overreact.  So why did he?  And when he did, he acted "stupidly."   I start to understand why the President was on the Law Review at Harvard.  Smart guy.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 5:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

It was 8-buck night at Camden Yards -- and Nolan Reimold T-shirt Night -- so long lines of stimulated fans formed for upper-reserve tickets starting at about 6 o'clock. You can't beat that deal, even if the teams about to play are losers. The Orioles v. Kansas City. Temperature in the 80s, not too humid, with a little breeze. But cripes, mama: The home team starts a pitcher who is 1-8 with an ERA north of 6, and he allows a two-run homer in the first inning. The Orioles' only All-Star answers with a two-run shot of his own, but over the course of the following innings they strand 11 runners and lose the game in extra innings. It's enough to drive you to lithium. An $8 ticket is no bargain when you go home depressed.

I was optimistic for the second half. I felt something cooking with the Orioles as they went into the All-Star break. The team has talent, young players you can get excited about. This is the great frustration -- nice parts, a mediocre whole. Not enough pitching. Not enough clutch hitting. They're playing in the toughest division in baseball and some nights -- like last night -- it feels as though they're never going to make a run again, that it's not in the master plan. The Orioles are still a valuable franchise, no matter what happens, and in part because of taxpayer-funded Camden Yards. So a cynic can conclude that ownership and management is content with the tease -- making fans believe they've got something cooking, that a new wave of winning is about to break . . . but then it's another long, losing slide through the second half of summer. . . . This has gotten old. Out of the blue -- or maybe because in the moment he sensed around him fans with low and falling expectations -- the usher in my section noted: "First Ravens preseason game is August 13."

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

In my column today -- pretty hard to locate on this web site, so here's the link -- I officially step over to the side of those who want to decriminalize heroin and cocaine and move to controlled distribution. The collateral damage from the illicit drug trade is too great, and the war on drugs too staggering a failure for us to go on like this. I remain concerned that people not presently using heroin and cocaine -- particularly cocaine -- will become addicted if the laws were ever changed, but the cost of what we have now, and what we've been doing for 40 years, far exceeds the price we'd be paid societally with repeal.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Rodricks: It is people just like you who I would wish Chronic Lyme Disease on!!! I have had this all of my life and both of my adult children have had it all of their lives from me and they gave it to my grandchildren. This is real, there is a HUGE cover up out there, and people like you allow it to go on and on and on, just as our suffering does.
Marebms
 
Dear Marebms: I'm sorry for whatever it is that's been ailing you "all your life," and that you think was passed on to your grandchildren. I hope you're getting good medical advice.

Dear Dan: Hubby heard your show [on 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Baltimore] last week.  We bought the book at Borders on Saturday morning- no cheapo Internet for us.  Went directly to Oregon Ridge (although we were headed there for a hike and some bird and bee watching anyway). On Sunday, we walked the Inner Harbor Promenade - had no idea it was so nice!  We're using the book to plan our weekends for the forseeable future, including one in AA Co to coincide with a client function. Thanks
Trish Mayhugh

Dear Trish: Glad it worked out. Just take it easy out there. I'm not taking blame for blisters.

-o-

Hey Rodricks!
its  11:23 pm    on july 12 .  i called 911  on these sons of------s selling drugs in my neighborhood of kresson im personally sick of this s--- get these b------s out of this neighborhood  they are all connected.  if this was canton these -----s would be locked up for loitering     john  / kresson community

Hey John! Don't invoke the class warfare off the top, OK? What happened when you called the cops? Did they come or not?

-o-

Dear Mr. Rodricks: Do you possess even an elementary understanding of anything to do with military science? I'm going to guess, no. You seem not to care to even peek in the direction of a logical argument about what is best for the military. You'd rather just employ silly talking points in The Sun without allowing anyone to offer counterpoints. It's sad, the level of unabashed bias and one-sided opinions this paper passes off as "news".
The only thing laughable here...is the complete lack of weight and depth of your arguments, which you make obvious by censoring any difference of opinion from appearing in your newspaper. Your only hope would be to shut out these differences of opinion, which you do quite well. Wouldn't want a reasoned argument to interfere with your moral one-upping.
Regards,
Daniel J. Bianco
Officer Candidate, USMC

Dear Daniel: What are you talking about? If Don't Ask/Don't Tell, then let's hear something substantive instead of just general criticism of the pro-repeal side. Let's go. Present some thoughts of your own.

-o-

Dear Dan: I cannot believe that US Marines, when shipping over to Afghanistan have to pay extra because of their body armor.  It just isn't right.  Can you please research this?
Thank you,
Susan Coomer
 
Dear Susan: This has been going on for quite some time, much discussed during early years of Iraq War.

-o-

My son was recently bailed out of Washington County Detention Center and fears retaliation from the Washington County police.  They want him to become an informant as a condition for his continued release on bail.  If he does not comply, they will revoke his bail. Is this legal? Can you provide information on how he can be helped?
Concerned Mom

Dear Concerned Mom: If a judge found that he met bail conditions--i.e., not a risk of flight, and nothing has changed in that respect, he should not be subject to re-confinement because he won't cooperate. Do you have an attorney? He should handle this.

-o-

Dear Dan: Speaking of the American penal system, my son, Michael Corbin, related a positive story to me this morning. Mike is a teacher at the Maryland State Penitentiary in Baltimore. He told me that 12 inmates that he taught earned their GED. Never had there been this number of inmates who successfully completed this exam. Mike said there was much emotional crying with elation by those men who early on in their lives lost faith in the system and in themselves. Mike said that he scouted around and found an old cap and gown. He then took graduation photos of each inmate so they could proudly present to their loved ones.
Just another little victory for public educators!!
Robert N. Corbin, Jr.

Dear Mr. Corbin: Thanks for passing along some good news.

-o-

Dear Dan: Suggestion: try substituting "affectional preference" for "sexual preference" and lots of things in lesbian life in particular will make much more sense.
Scovahey

Dear Scovahey: Thanks for the suggestion. I don't think I'll argue this one.

-o-

Dear Dan: The question is about Twitter. I just don't get it. I joined a month or so ago and I can't find anyone or anything. What is the allure? I'm on Facebook and I find it very "user" friendly. Any hints?
Tom T.

Dear Tom: Subscribe to news services and use Twitter as a headline service -- that's the best use in my experience. Who has time for much more than that anyway?

-o-

Dear Dan:
It really disgusts me to hear a call to return to investigative journalism now that there is somewhat progressive leadership in Congress and in the White House. For eight years of the Bush administration plus the years prior when Republicans controlled Congress, journalists asked no questions.  Frankly, the media is guilty of letting the previous administration get us into an unnecessary war and into a downward economic spiral.
D.R. Dixon Jr.

Dear D.R.: Not going to argue with you, either.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

It has been 20 years since a sister-city exchange between Baltimore and Kawasaki resulted in a little youth baseball. A Baltimore team traveled to the Japanese metropolis for some games in 1989. This weekend, a team of 15-and-under players from Kawasaki arrives in Baltimore for a couple of games with a city team oragnized by the Department of Parks and Recreation's Bob Wall. Boys from Locust Point, Roland Park, Northwood and some players from Poly will take on the Kawasaki kids Sunday evening, 5 pm, at the field at Giman School. They'll play a second game on Tuesday at 11 am at the baseball field at Johns Hopkins' Homewood campus. Public is invited to come and watch.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Comments arrive every day from readers who have thoughts to share about gas mileage, modern motor vehicles and the government's cash for clunkers program, all addressed in a recent column. These comments are from an anesthesiologist at University of Maryland Hospital.

Consumer Reports can write an article on the dangers to our life support system of burning too much petrol, and still NEVER downgrade an auto rating for poor
mileage. I have written to them many times about this, with no response.

Instead of a one-time gas-guzzler tax, it should be annual.

When I drive at 65 or even 70 mph on I-95, vehicles zoom past, and
they are all much bigger than my 2003 VW Jetta diesel (40 mpg), and
they are all minimizing their already poor mileage by their high
speeds.  Even though we face imminent catastrophe, we cannot even
discuss driving at 55 mph to save fuel. What will we do when China
stops lending money for us to buy fuel, and none of the oil countries
will take the currency of the most indebted weakling of a country that
ever existed? Will they ship oil to avoid being hit with nuclear
weapons, the only thing we have left that makes us "powerful?"

The Cars for Clunkers program is suicidal from either an energy or
economic view, and a direct contradiction to the administration's
claiming that energy independence is a national goal. It also
contradicts frequently stated goals of producing jobs in the U.S.
since any brand of vehicle from any where is eligible.

Could Bush have pulled this stuff off?

-- Art Milholland

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

When we hit major anniversaries the tendency is to focus on the anniversary -- and where we were in life and what we were doing and thinking at the time -- and we sometimes forget the context, or how the passage of time seems to compress so many other events, or even erase them. I always think of the moon landing as the smile at the end of the 1960s . . . 

When we think of the 1960s, we think of a decade of tragedy, and America in cultural and spiritual meltdown, with a war in Vietnam, its death toll rising every week in those years, and more and more Americans turning against the military and political establishment because of it . . . When we think of the 1960s we think of promises crushed and important lives extinguished by assassins and their guns -- John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy . . . We think of riots that devastated neighborhoods in our cities, including Baltimore.

Even in the Apollo project, to put a man on the moon, there was a horror: Three astronauts, including one of the original Mercury astronauts, Gus Grissom, were killed in a fire in the Apollo Command Module during a preflight test at Cape Canaveral on Jan. 27, 1967. Grissom, along with Roger Chaffee and Ed White, were training for the first crewed Apollo flight. . . .  After 1968, one of the most tragic years for our country, came 1969, and that summer night when, it seemed, the whole world was watching . . .  the Sunday night Armonstrong then Aldrin stepped foot on the moon . . . the smile at the end of an unhappy decade . . . .

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Compare the attitude reflected in this this letter (in response to Wednesday's column) with the one published in the print edition today:

Mileage could improve immediately if many of the (no longer an option / standard) comforts many Americans have come to expect were taken out of the cars. For example, I would love to know how much the Toyota Yaris (or any subcompact / compact car) could improve in MPG  if all unnecessary options were simply removed and I'm not recommending compromising safety.

Cars certainly would not need to have: 1) power steering, 2) power brakes, 3) power windows, 4) power door locks,  5) air conditioning, 6) automatic transmission, 7) cruise control.  Does anyone know the total combined weight of all these "extras"?  There have been many articles written about unnecessary extra weight in a car (and how the weight degrades MPG) and these options certainly have some weight to them. I would like to see Myth Busters prove or disprove my theory.   

In the old days, if you wanted these fancy extras you had to pay for them, now they come standard on the car - and of course the price (and poor MPG) reflects all of these mandatory/standard options!  I had a base model 1988 Honda Civic and it did not have any of the aforementioned options and I got 33 - 40 MPG gallon.   When purchasing a compact or subcompact (commuter) car, we should have a choice as to whether we want to haul around this extra weight or not!

--Patty

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Two interesting e-mails in response to today's column.

The only thing you left out about why mileage didn’t go up is that Congress was too timid to push it along until it became a crisis again. Over the last 25 years we could have raised the bar a little every year or two and had very little affect on what cars we buy, not to mention push technology ahead. I am against the slash and burn approach that California and now the Feds are using, which is likely to fall short and cost billions in wasted money. Too bad America never reacts until it becomes a crisis. See you soon.

-- John Davis, MPT's MotorWeek

Thank you for your column "Mileage Mediiocrity." It's all too true. There are some points you may be interested in.

1. One reason the  EPA mileage figures are not as good as years ago is that years ago the EPA was basing their figures on tests conducted in garages equipped with rollers built in to the floor.( Like the emissions tests.) The cars would sit on these rollers while the wheels were spinning, and the mileage was noted. Not very real world driving. They now have wised up and conduct tests out in the city and on the highway, which show at least 20% poorer mileage than the tests on the rollers. Much more accurate.

2. Back in the 70's, bills were introduced to Congress calling for across-the board improvements in mileage for all cars. This was watered down by the car  and oil companies' friends in Congress to require only the "average" score across all models of a given company to gradually improve the mileage. This meant that they could sell 8 mpg  trucks and SUV's as long as they had other models for sale at 30 mpg. Guess which models sold at a bigger volume. The same loophole will continue with all new legislation.

3. The new  cash for clunkers bill will actually allow you to trade in your old gas guzzler for a new one that gets  only one mpg better!.

4. Even though it should be obvious that we cannot conduct foreign policy
   while in thrall to hostile producers overseas (this is why we will not stop Iran from building the Bomb--we need their oil), nothing short of an economic depression seems to halt the rapid rise in oil imports.

5. World War One was fought over raw materials being extracted from the new colonies being developed. World War Two was fought over a. The German's drive for the Russian oil fields in the Caucasus and b. The Japanese drive for the oils fields in the Indies.

A lot of grief over oil.

-- Stan Gelber

Left to their own devices, automakers (like other rationally managed businesses) will not engage in "steady research and progressive development" unless and until it is in their economic interest to do so, and the Federal government will not modify consumers' behavior simply by demanding that automakers build cars that consumers currently do not want to buy. 

If the Federal government truly wants to modify consumers' behavior, Congress should guarantee that, effective July 1, 2010, the price of gasoline will not be less than $4 per gallon by enacting a Federal gasoline tax that rises or falls in inverse proportion to the price of gasoline.  Such legislation might even make the "Cash for Clunkers" legislation successful because consumers would be more likely to purchase vehicles that exceed the 22 mpg standard and "Clunkers" would be less likely to be recycled in the used car market.

If and only if consumers clamor for more fuel efficient cars and trucks, will automakers devote the time, money and resources to design and build more fuel efficient cars and trucks.

-- Bob Price

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Add Towson Catholic to the list of school closings in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and this one six weeks before the new school year. Good luck to the alumni association in its quest for an injunction to keep the school open for at least another year. If that injunction succeeds, the alumni ought to come up with a new business plan to market the school, and they could probably take some advice from Andres Alonso, the Baltimore schools CEO who sits on the archdiocese's blue ribbon panel on schools. (It's ironic that Alonso has that seat; every time a parochial school around here closes, combined with news of improving results and rising enrollment in the city schools, his system is among those that stand to benefit.)

To survive, schools such as Towson Catholic need to broaden the definition of religious education and approach their potential student markets in a whole new way, and yes, that market probably has to include non-Catholics who can pay full freight.

This all assumes the leadership actually wants the school to survive. When "declining enrollment" is cited as the reason, and a closure announced so abruptly, reasonable people ask, "Why?" You don't just close the doors. 

Unfortunately, there has been a lot of that over the last couple of decades.

The Archdiocese is also closing the school at St. Mary's of the Assumption in Govans -- a school that has served a lot of low-income city families for years. They are closing another Catholic school on the south side of the city, continuing the retreat from inner-city parochial education because of money issues. (St. Alphonsus-Basilica School went a few years ago, too, because the Archdiocese didn't have the money for a renovation that involved asbestos removal. That school had served more than 200 students, almost all African-American from the the city and counties.) 

But, of course -- and I've brought this up before -- the Archdiocese came up with at least $34 million for the Basilica restoration -- I heard the final price tag was much higher -- and more for an old hotel, which it knocked down to build an adjoining (unimpressive) prayer garden on Charles Street. The Catholic Church is not a democracy, but reasonable people have a right to question such priorities.

All that effort -- all that fundraising -- might have saved schools, might have gone toward endowments. Thirty-four million could keep a lot of schools open until other sources of funding (or new administrations to run them) can be found.

Maybe those who organized to raise the Basilica money -- they must have had a great business plan -- could step in to help Towson Catholic and other struggling schools get through this tough time. Get the injunction. Then get a plan. Good luck.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

 . . . arrived at 4:01 am Eastern time, and it was from a fellow named Tony, reacting to today's column. It reflects skepticism, cynicism, negativism and the smug unwillingness to change that will work against progress on the energy front. But that's OK. Progress isn't for everyone. The cost of oil, the growing world population, the new emissions and fuel efficiency standards are going to force this to happen anyway. A new generation -- the kids who grew up inside SUVs and minivans -- are going to demand a new way of traveling through the world. The other day I heard a college sophomore, 19 years old, declare she planned to live in a way that allowed her to avoid owning a car altogether for as long as possible. The future is going to be an interesting place. Anyway, here's Tony's blast from the past, unedited because it has a wonderfully dismissive nature in its raw form. I love this guy. (No, really):

"The car you bought 30 years ago didnt get 30 mpg it might have been EPA rated 30 mpg but it probably got 20-24-The54Mpg VW you cite was a tinny slow 5speed diesel rabbit that no body bought-didnt have power windows or air bags or any of the convenience or safety features we insist on today.  The stupid 3cylinder Smart car which is a death trap only gets about 30mpg and the Hybrids dont do much better in the real world and in less than 10 years need a $5000 battery pack- what a bargain.People in the US travel long distances -haul things and want and need space and power - this is not Europe.If you want MPG buy a scooter or small motorcycle --even small bikes get only about 50mpg -70 mpg on dinky scooter-try powering a car with a 650cc or smaller  engine- you could beat it on a bicycle.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 7:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent the following letter below to Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury's Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation, regarding discussions between Feinberg and AIG about upcoming bonuses for company executives:

According to recent media reports, American International Group, Inc., (AIG) approached your office seeking approval of $2.5 million in performance-related bonuses for several dozen of the company’s high-ranking executives. These media reports also highlight the even larger compensation issues that remain unresolved at AIG, including more than $200 million in so-called retention payments scheduled to be paid in March 2010 and directed predominantly to the employees of the Financial Products (FP) unit of AIG—the same division whose transactions posed such a systemic risk to our entire economy that the U.S. government provided AIG more than $180 billion in financial assistance.

Although I recognize that all of these various bonuses were promised before your appointment to the position of Special Master of Compensation, I urge you to reiterate the views of President Obama and the American people—who are now majority shareholders of AIG—that these bonuses are excessive and therefore simply unacceptable. 

Edward Liddy, Chairman and CEO of AIG, wrote in a letter to the Treasury at the time the first FP retention payments came due in March 2009 that Treasury had “asked AIG to rethink our 2008 corporate bonus proposals.”  AIG’s Form 10K/A Amendment No. 1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for fiscal year 2008 – filed on April 30, 2009 – offers revealing insight into exactly how seriously AIG has taken Treasury’s request that it “rethink” its bonus proposals. 

Specifically, the April 10K/A Amendment filing presents three compensation principles that AIG states “guided our actions as 2008 developed.”  These three principles are:

Principle 1: Embrace evolving standards of compensation governance.

Principle 2: Bring AIG’s historic guiding principles into 2009.

Principle 3: Act, if necessary, to provide appropriate incentives to preserve value.

Having set forth these principles, AIG offers some interesting observations.  For example, the firm notes that “AIG continues to face extraordinary challenges that demand focus and difficult decisions in regard to the compensation of AIG’s seniormost employees.”  But, using its guiding principles, “AIG intends to face these challenges and strike the best possible balance between motivating its experienced, capable and technically proficient employees to achieve results that matter to American taxpayers and conserving scare liquidity resources.”  To that end, as the firm has “faced the challenge of developing a new annual compensation framework, we have continued to be mindful of our historic compensation principles.  We believe that we should continue to apply them, although we necessarily will implement these principles different than we did before.”

Verbiage like this is frankly insulting to the American people.  AIG’s ONLY guiding principle—in compensation policy and in all corporate matters—should be to repay the American taxpayer.  There is no metric of any kind by which AIG can be judged to be a successful firm or to have “improved” its performance; in fact, its future as a going concern is judged by many to be very much in doubt.  The firm has not earned any performance-related bonus consideration, and its “historic guiding principles” have guided it straight to the largest single quarterly loss and the largest taxpayer-funded corporate bailout in history.  Under no circumstances is it tolerable to think that these “historic guiding principles” should be allowed to be brought into 2009.

Against this background, I urge you to undertake a comprehensive review of all aspects of AIG’s compensation policies and to express the strongest possible disapproval of any policy that does not have as its sole focus ensuring that AIG repays to the American taxpayers every single dollar loaned to it.  It is beyond comprehension that AIG should be establishing a “corporate pool for variable performance-based pay” when the firm has demonstrated nothing to warrant any bonuses, or that it should contemplate awarding “retention payments” to individuals at the very unit that drove the firm into the ground.

As you assess AIG’s proposed bonus awards, I urge you to use your position to focus AIG’s corporate policies on what should be its first and only priority: making the taxpayer whole—as Mr. Liddy himself indicated was his intention at a Congressional Hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on March 18, 2009.  Mr. Liddy also told me personally in a meeting on January 15, 2009 that he hoped to return taxpayer money early.  While I have not seen the company present a check to the U.S. Treasury, I continue to see the firm working to cut bonus checks to its corporate executives.

As unemployment continues to rise, it is simply unconscionable that AIG should pay out millions of dollars in bonuses to AIG executives while the taxpayers who are footing the bill struggle to stay in their homes and feed their families. Everyone else in the country has been making sacrifices during these difficult economic times; there is no reason why the executives at AIG should be exempt.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

TODAY ON THE RADIO: 88.1 FM   WYPR   WYPO  WYPF   

We took another look at the controversy over the diagnosis of Lyme disease as a chronic condition. Dr. Paul Auwaerter, clinical director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University, was our guest. We discussed this topic last week (available on podcast) with the maker of a film about Lyme, and my criticism of Under Our Skin in this blog provoked numerous responses from people who believe they suffer from chronic Lyme. You can read their comments to get an idea of the tone the "chronic Lyme lobby" uses in making their arguments. In seperate e-mails, a few have wished Lyme disease on me and my family, and one called me a "Lyme Disease Terrorist" who takes cash from Big Pharma.

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Comments or questions:  midday@wypr.org

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Before Wednesday's radio show, I watched on DVD Under Our Skin, the film about Lyme disease by Andy Abrahams Wilson, the brother of a woman who has the disease. Wilson was a guest on Midday today by telephone from California. (You can listen to a podcast of the show by visiting the WYPR web site.)

Wilson's film will be screened at The Senator Theater in Baltimore, starting Friday. You can get information about screenings on the film's web site.

Wilson has made a compelling and disturbing film, and it is beautifully shot, with a strong musical score -- and no narration, and the lack of narration is not a plus. Without the voice of a story-teller, Wilson moves the camera from Lyme sufferer to Lyme sufferer, from doctor to doctor (including one researching Lyme in the basement of his house) to the occasional  (dismissively quoted in brief) expert at Yale or UConn -- no one from Johns Hopkins -- back to the sufferers, and then there are collages of people -- never identified -- who claim they suffer from "chronic Lyme disease" and that their doctors either refused to treat them for it or told them they needed to see a psychiatrist.

This is not a documentary. A documentary suggests journalism. There's not much in the way of journalism here, nothing you might call objective, detached, skeptical inquisition. The New York Times refered to Under Our Skin as a polemic, and that's exactly it. Wilson's targets are the doctors and research scientists who say there is no evidence that Lyme disease is chronic and who believe that long-course antibiotic treatments have not been proven effective in arresting the disease and making its victims healthy again. The film sets out to discredit the Infectious Diseases Society of America, which has declared that chronic Lyme disease does not exist. Wilson's claim that the doctors who wrote the IDSA's treatment guidelines for Lyme have conflicts of interest is just that -- a claim, and the charge is not effectively supported. Under Our Skin is full of suspicions, assertions and anecdotes; it's low on science and objectivity. That doesn't work -- in fact, borders on irresponsible -- when you're telling a medical story.

This is the kind of media "coverage" of Lyme disease that the New England Journal of Medicine criticized in a 2008 article:  "The media frequently disregard complex scientific data in favor of testimonials about patients suffering from purported chronic Lyme disease and may even question the competence of clinicians who are reluctant to diagnose chronic Lyme disease. All these factors have contributed to a great deal of public confusion with little appreciation of the serious harm caused to many patients who have received a misdiagnosis and have been inappropriately treated."

Had Wilson presented the controversy over whether Lyme is chronic and whether long-term use of antibiotics is effective -- had he explored that and presented both sides -- then I would call his film a public service. In that it draws attention to Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne disease in the nation and spreading each year as ticks bite into humans, Under Our Skin deserves props. But it takes a long detour to defend what current credible science dismisses and in the process pretty much goes off a cliff.

If you see the film, make sure you read the following excerpts of letters I received early today in preparation for the radio show. The first is from Dr. Paul G. Auwaerter, clinical director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the second is from Diana Olson, vice president of communications for the IDSA.

Dr. Auwaerter, of Hopkins:

"I see the effects of misdiagnosed Lyme disease frequently (as patients actually have conditions such as fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, and many others) who are not well served by taking antibiotics for months and years for fears of persistent infection that are not substantiated by any good evidence. Well-controlled scientific studies have not shown any durable benefit from long-term antibiotics compared to placebo, and importantly these studies show rates of improvement in the placebo arm of 30 percent or higher.  therefore, ask for proof from these people that they are doing better than 30 percent with their treatments. They may say so from a testimonial basis, but they have no evidence published in quality medical journals."

Ms. Olson, quoting from a recent letter on Lyme disease from IDSA:

"The concept of Lyme disease as a chronic condition requiring long-term antibiotic therapy is not shared by the vast majority of the medical community and relies on questionable scientific evidence. Furthermore, long-term antibiotic therapy poses substantial risks to the community and the patient and can even be fatal.
Lyme disease is a real and growing public health threat. Patients with Lyme disease are frequently misdiagnosed. However, IDSA’s concern is with the concept of chronic Lyme disease.

Self-described “Lyme-literate” clinicians believe that the Lyme disease bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, can survive conventional antibiotic therapy (usually 10 to 28 days of oral antibiotics) and become a chronic infection. Therefore, they claim, patients must take antibiotics for months or even years in order to fully eradicate the infection.
The vast majority of scientific evidence does not support this view. Not a single well designed, reproducible study to date has found B. burgdorferi in human patients following conventional antibiotic therapy. This casts doubt on the basic premise of long-term antibiotic therapy. (The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has a review of several studies on its web site: http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/lymeDisease/research/antibiotic.htm.)

Some patients do improve while taking long-term antibiotics. But in studies sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, patients receiving placebo improved at about the same rate as those receiving antibiotics. Also, some antibiotics have anti-inflammatory or neuroprotective “feel-good” side effects. These properties are likely responsible for the improvements some patients experienced in some studies.
In addition to providing no proven benefit, the risks of exposing patients to long courses of antibiotics are substantial. Patients often experience adverse reactions to the drugs. In fact, some of the symptoms that the “Lyme-literate” community attributes to chronic Lyme disease, such as fatigue and mood swings, may be adverse reactions to the antibiotics. In addition, infections in the catheter used to deliver intravenous antibiotics are common and have led to life-threatening bloodstream infections. There are many anecdotal accounts of serious adverse reactions. In addition, according to one report published in the peer-reviewed literature, a 30-year-old woman died from an infected catheter after undergoing inappropriate intravenous antibiotic therapy for more than two years.
The risks of inappropriate antibiotic therapy go beyond the individual patient. Antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are on the rise in part because of the inappropriate use of antibiotics. Long-term antibiotic therapy for Lyme disease only makes the problem worse, without any evidence of benefit. 
Many patients credit long-term antibiotic therapy for their miraculous recoveries from debilitating fatigue, pain, headaches, concentration problems, and other symptoms. There is no doubt these patients were suffering. But the question is whether Lyme disease was responsible for their suffering. Several studies from Lyme disease clinics at major universities have found that most patients who came to these clinics with a previous diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease did not have Lyme disease at all, but actually had something else, such as rheumatoid arthritis or other autoimmune disorders, fibromyalgia, or depression—conditions that need treatment with something other than antibiotics.
Diagnosing patients with subjective, nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue, pain, and difficulty concentrating can be a difficult and frustrating experience for both the patient and the clinician. Most frustrating are the cases that don’t have a clear cause after a thorough examination and an exhaustive battery of tests. IDSA does not have all the answers for why some patients are suffering. Even in the 21st century, medicine is sometimes an inexact and imperfect science.

When patients are left seeking answers, a window of opportunity opens for unscrupulous clinicians. These clinicians can earn substantial amounts of money administering long-term antibiotic therapy. Many “Lyme-literate” clinicians back up their diagnosis with tests that are unproven or have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for that purpose—a practice that has drawn a warning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (See http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5405a6.htm.)

For vulnerable patients, the diagnosis feels like deliverance from their suffering. For far too many patients, the diagnosis is false. 
If sound evidence emerges that Lyme disease is a chronic condition that can be successfully treated with long-term antibiotics, IDSA would gladly accept it, if it would help physicians treat their patients. The burden of proof rests with those who make this claim. Until more reliable evidence emerges, IDSA regards the theory of chronic Lyme disease infection as speculative at best, and we consider long-term antibiotic therapy to be more harmful than beneficial. Lyme and other tick-borne diseases are a serious and growing public health threat, and we support efforts to improve prevention and education and foster appropriate research. However, news coverage that support the theory of chronic Lyme disease and long-term antibiotic therapy is not in the best interest of patients or public health.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (63)
        

Well, the second hour of Midday on Thursday was all about snowballs, the Baltimore-area summertime treat. Our guest, Henry Hong, the Food Nerd, wrote a piece about snowballs in the City Paper, and he came into WYPR's Studio A to compare notes with our listeners. We were flooded with calls and e-mails on the subject. I didn't have time to read all of them on the air, so here's a sampling:

I am a die-hard snowball fan–especially when it's hot. (I've been known to skip dinner and just have the snowball).  My favorite is a "humdinger" - a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the bottom, chocolate snowball, topped off with extra marshmallow. The only place I have found near me that even sells sort of traditional snowballs is the Chinese take-out on Route 13. I haven't had the guts to try them - instead I have a mini-snowball maker I bought from Target and I make my own...not quite the same but still pretty good!
-- Liz in Salisbury

It's great to know the history of our own snowballs in Baltimore.  When I was a child, my mother used an ice crusher to try to make her own and put marshmallow creme on top of it.  Then she would go to the restaurant supply stores and buy the snowball syrups.  My favorite was always egg custard with marshmallow in that Styrofoam cup!
-- John in Baltimore

Sorry.  From Hagerstown (Washington County) -- No Snowball stands or lemon sticks. Or Smith Island Cake for that matter.
-- Joseph

I used have a small corner store in Fells Point/Canton.  One of the bestsellers for me was marshmallow on the bottom, egg custard flavor, marshmallow on top and sometimes a shot of chocolate. In Indonesia, one of their favorite deserts is a bowl of ice, with sugared, chopped tomatoes.
-- Linda

I had the best snow cones ever in Tampico, Mexico in the summer of 1969.  Guys would ride around on bicycles with aluminum coolers tied to the handlebars.  They carried a wood plane to shave the ice and would put crushed fruit with syrup on top.  They cost pennies and were terrific!
-- Mike in Shepherdstown, W.Va.

Although I'm not from here, when I was a kid we visited Baltimore grandparents and loved to get snowballs.  I am sure that in my childhood there was no such thing as Styrofoam cups.
-- June

We go to Waldo's Snowballs in the Harford Mall parking lot. I always get "Rainbow." Kids always get chocolate with peanut butter sauce (we call that flavor "the loaded diaper"). As far as I know, peanut butter is new. Bad thing about peanut butter is that it actually adds some nutritional value to otherwise totally empty calories.
-- Fritz

Hi Dan and Henry,
I have to jump in and tell you that the real chunkier snowballs are true Baltimore, not shaved ice!  FYI...the Chestnut Ridge Volunteer Fire company runs a unique snowball stand all summer in that it is staffed completely by volunteers with 100% of the profits going to the station and protecting the community. The stand is a meeting place for the neighborhood and we have customers that come especially for our old fashioned snowballs year after year, which we sell with marshmallow and ice cream if you want...the best! The prices are incredibly reasonable with a small at only $1.25 (I think). Many folks are interested in the firehouse when they come up for a snowball, so we are always happy to have a firefighter/member give you a tour of our equipment and firehouse if you'd like. The kids love it. So snowballs are helping our community!
-- Hillary

Forty years ago when I was a kid, you could only get a snowball from a truck ringing a bell. You got a paper cup, flat wooden spoon, and crushed ice–not shaved. Shaved ice was, and is, a snow cone. Shaved ice was usually at a festival.
-- John

We also got into lemon sticks, like the ones sold at the Flowermart each year. I wondered where you get those porous peppermint sticks used to make them. (I made them once a few years ago for visiting relatives, who loved them, but I could not quite remember where I got the sticks.)

Jeppi Nut carries the Piedmont Candy Company Peppermint sticks in large tubs. They are a little more porous than the original lemon peppermint sticks, but will do in a pinch.
-- Tom in Timonium-

Looking at the website for Piedmont Candy in NC that your earlier caller mentioned, they are selling the same sticks that Jeppi carries in Timonium, MD. We've had some success with them, though they don't seem to be quite the same as what I used to get at the Hopkins Fair and other summer festivals.
-- Ben

Sometimes you can find the King Leo brand peppermint sticks at Williams-Sonoma in Cross Keys.
 -- Meg

Eddie's usually has little baggies of the right peppermint sticks by the cash registers.
-- Jill in Roland Park--

I'm pretty sure they have lemon sticks in Lexington Market, in the back, just inside from the peanut guy. As far as international ice treat, Malaysia as an amazing treat called chendol, and another one called ice chachang.  And the best of all is found in the Philippines in a truly amazing dish called halo-halo.
-- Ellen

When I was a student at Roland Park Country School from 1960 to 1973, lemon sticks were a very popular item at our annual Christmas Fair.  And i think McDonogh had them at their Christmas Bazaar too.
-- Debbie

I have been able to get peppermint sticks at the Amish Market in Annapolis Harbor Center on Solomons Island Rd. They are suitably porous, but only about 3" long  apiece.  Just be advised that the Amish Market is only open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Regarding marshmallow–not on my snowball!
-- Barb

I'm almost positive that you can get the halved lemon with a peppermint stick at SNOASIS (or OASIS maybe?) lemonade stands.  there is one in the Harborplace shopping center at the Inner Harbor. When i was a little kid i ran a snowball stand outside of my house in Little Italy for several summers, until some anonymous jerk called the cops on me for not having a permit. Anyhow, as far as crushed ice vs. shaved ice goes... when we're talking Baltimore sno-balls, you are enjoying CRUSHED ice. Shaved ice is what you would get at the Boardwalk in Ocean City.  The Boardwalk stands use an actual block of ice and a planer to shave it.  the snowball stand that i operated used a tall metal machine, that you would top-load cubed ice into.  the ice would drop into a tunnel which had rotating grinders and blades which would crush the ice and shoot it into a cup. . . . My rule of thumb is this:  if it's crunchy, it's crushed ice.  If it melts in your mouth, it's shaved ice.  Oh, and best snowball flavor ever: egg custard with vanilla ice cream on the bottom and marshmallow on the top.
-- Justin in Little Italy

Graul's Market sets up a display at the start of each summer with lemons and King Leo peppermint sticks. Good, but they dissolve a little too readily. Still looking for the perfect stick. Will try Piedmont.
-- Christy in Annapolis

I was lucky to have inherited a commercial Sno-master machine. I make snowballs lots during the summer for kids and adults alike.  One of our favorites is ice, vanilla ice cream and then more ice topped with chocolate syrup.  Drop by any time for one.
-- Stephie

After visiting in Costa Rica a number of years ago, we brought home one of the beautifully decorated carts that were pushed through the streets by young men hawking the snow cones.  Mine is a bright blue background with multicolored flower designs special to Costa Rica.  There were slots for the bottles of flavoring and the main part of the cart held the ice.  It came with a small table, not unlike our TV tables, where the cones were placed ready for purchase.  It is a beautiful piece of artwork in my home.
-- Patricia in Annapolis

Ice cream on the bottom, vanilla flavor, marshmallow on top!
-- John

My experience in snowball-eating goes back to early '50's in East Baltimore.  People would make the snowballs in their homes 5 cents made with a hand-held shaver ran across a block of ice. The shavings were not as fine as the ice in a snow cone. The snowball was served in a paper boat shaped container. The handheld shaver was shaped like a computer mouse.
-- Inexplicably anonymous

Dear Dan and Henry:
My blog writes about all things sweet in Baltimore, from cakes and pies to cookies, ice cream, and...SNOWBALLS! And by coincidence today I have a posting about Baltimore snowballs. I've also started a photo-sharing group on Flickr where people can post their photos relating to the Baltimore snowball; if any of your listeners would like to join, just go to Flickr.com and enter the search term "Baltimore snowball" under "groups," and they'll be directed to the spot. To see today's posting about the Baltimore snowball on my blog, go to: www.bmoresweet.blogspot.com. I welcome everyone's comments and shared experiences about this great summertime Baltimore tradition!
www.bmoresweet.blogspot.com
B More Sweet, all things sweet in Baltimore

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

A reader/listener from East Hampton, Long Island, who says he (or she) had Lyme disease in the mid-1980s, sent along these thoughts:

Four somewhat interrelated factors may have coalesced to make Lyme increase in the past two decades:

1. The expansion of second homes into formerly isolated rural areas.
2. A large spike in the deer population as food from gardening has increased, while hunting has diminished.
3. A concomitant increase in field mice populations, which, like deer, are an essential vector for the deer tick.
4. The compassionate removal of feral "house cats" from the wild. These cats are capable of catching and eating 100 field mice per day, which ordinarily would keep the mouse and tick populations down.

Each one of these human-centered actions was considered benign in itself; but taken together they may have caused an epidemic.

I don't know whether scientists have studied this possibility, but the outbreak of hysteria culminating in the Salem witch trials may well have been modulated by the Lyme spirochete, with its many attendant mysterious physical and mental symptoms, as settlers began clearing land in New England  in the 1600s.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Hamilton, the rescued seal released to the Atlantic at the Delaware Shore about 15 minutes ago by his keepers and healers at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, has a tracking device. You can see where Hamilton goes from here: Click here for the tracking map. Hamilton is an adult male harbor seal originally stranded on the beaches of Bermuda in February, a long way from where such animals are usually found. Here's Frank Roylance's story on him from the other day. Good luck, Hammy.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

As I suspected, the spontaneous game -- pickup baseball, makeup something -- that kids used to invent in the days before PlayStation et. al, is a rare occurrence in American life. Sports for kids are either very organized or not organized at all. It's the in-between that's missing -- kids making it up as they go along, hunting up friends to make use of an empty baseball field in summer. I wrote about the 'joy of unorganized sports' in May, and asked readers to let me know what they do and when and where they do it -- anything at all spun out of the imagination or the spur of the moment.

Very little feedback on this. A trickle. Most people don't seem to know what I'm talking about.

I've just about given up the idea of posting neighborhood games in this space, or sending alerts about them on Twitter for readers who want to get up a game of Wiffle Ball. It just doesn't happen much anymore.

Then Bradley Kolodner, a college sophomore from North Baltimore, sent me a note about what he calls Monster Ball. The Baltimore Messenger's Louisa Peartree wrote about it a year ago, when Bradley was a senior in high school, and here's a link to her story.

Below are photos Bradley sent along. Here's the Monsterball Facebook Group.

"Originally, the field was made up of paper plates as bases and we only had a few regular players," Bradley says. "The field and game have evolved over the years.  We pick teams once everyone arrives and play for a couple hours or until the neighbors tell us to be quiet.  Quite often, my friends who play bring their younger siblings. I just thought I'd share with you my effort to keep up that 'simple joy of unorganized sports.'

Thanks, BK. Monster on . . . !

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Here's the July lineup for cabaret performers (and the blurbs for each) at Germano's in Little Italy. All shows begin at 7:30 pm. Cover is $10, if you don't go for dinner first.  Seating is limited and reservations are recommended.  www.germanostrattoria.com

John Oliver Sings "Songs of the American Musical Theater"
 July 9
Accompanying himself on piano, John Oliver sings the songs of George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and others, introducing the songs with historical anecdotes and humor.
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L'Tanya Mari' Sings "A Teardrop of the Sun"
 July 10
"There are many fine female jazz singers on the scene today but, with the
release of A Teardrop Of Sun, L'Tanya Mari' immediately emerges as one of
the top contenders. It is not just that she has an inspired repertoire (from
Chick Corea's "Crystal Silence" and "This Is New" to "That Old Black
Magic"), impeccable intonation and a pretty voice. Most impressive are her
choice of notes, her use of space and silence, and her intelligent way of
improvising melodically. She pays tribute to each composer's intent while
uplifting each tune through her phrasing, subtle emotions, and solid sense
of swing." -Scott Yanow, Jazz Critic
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Jazz Vocalist Amanda Bloom Debuts
 July 17 Twenty-year-old jazz sensation, Amanda Bloom, in her debut appearance at the Cabaret at Germano's.

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Leneida Crawford in ”Come Ready and See Me”
 July 23
In "Come Ready and See Me," Leneida Crawford, mezzo soprano, and Susan Ricci, piano, explore the universal themes of love, hope, belonging and forgiveness in their selection of clever, quirky and beautiful American Art songs. Traditional torch numbers, along with the more contemporary stylings of composers such as Richard Hundley, Jake Heggie, Ricky Ian Gordon and William Bolcom, as well as the popular Broadway sounds of Sondheim and Schwartz are presented within this multi-faceted cabaret experience.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Meredith Seidel and "Soul Fusion"
 July 24 at 7:30 pm
Meredith Seidel and Soul Fusion perform music from all eras and genres. As they effortlessly fuse their authentic talent and organic style, they will captivate and send you with the originality of their soulful sounds.
Performers:
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Heather Lockhard-Wheeler and Friends in "Champagne Hour"
 July 30 and 31 at 7:30 pm
Please join us on July 30 and 31 for "Champagne Hour". It will be an homage to Lawrence Welk and the Lennon sisters with a lot of Baltimore Hon tossed in for good measure. Performers are Shaina Vatz, Vikki Jones, Catrin Davis, Heather Lockard-Wheeler and James Harp on the piano and accordion. Bubble machine will be present. Have fun like they used to with big hair, four part harmony, great food, accordions and bubbles.
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Posted by Dan Rodricks at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

More on today's column about the "right-to-repair" effort by auto parts manufacturers and independent mechanics:

What the National Automobile Dealers Association says in opposition.

Why the Automotive Service Association thinks federal or state laws are unnecessary.

Why Canadian dealers oppose the effort in their country.

A 2007 New York Times story on mechanics and high-tech repair information.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Recently, I made another reference to the number of Death Row inmates across the country who have been spared execution because of exonerations of one form or another. The Death Penalty Information Center keeps this count -- it is presently 133 -- and it has been verified elsewhere in the mainstream press. When I first started using the numbers from DPIC, I conducted Sun archive and Internet searches to independently check the exonerations, and found a large sampling of them to be accurate.

But, at the same time, I think "exonerations" should only be used when a person is convicted but later found to be innocent of the murder that resulted in a sentence of death. That is the popular meaning of "exoneration," and yet the DPIC uses it to cover those whose convictions have been overturned because of legal flaws.

A reader of my column wrote to challenge my acceptance of the word "exoneration" as shorthand for all those who have been removed for various reasons from Death Row. The reader cited a report of a victims' rights organization, the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which challenged the DPIC numbers and definition of "exonerated."

Here is the reply to questions about the accuracy of the exonerations list from Richard Dieter, DPIC director.

The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to research and education on the death penalty in the U.S.  We do not have a position on the morality or rightness of the death penalty per se, though a number of our reports focus on the problems in capital punishment and hence have been critical of the way it is applied.

With respect to your question about our list of exonerated individuals, we use very strict and objective criteria for inclusion of cases on this list.  Basically, the list is determined by the decisions of courts and prosecutor offices, not by our subjective judgment.  As we state in a number of places on our Web site and in our reports, the criteria for inclusion on the list is:

Defendants must have been convicted, sentenced to death and subsequently either-

a) their conviction was overturned AND

i) they were acquitted at re-trial or
ii) all charges were dropped

b) they were given an absolute pardon by the governor based on new evidence of innocence.

The list includes cases where the release occurred in 1973 or later, which was the time that states resumed sentencing people to death after the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down the death penalty.  The list originated from a request from Congress asking us to identify the risks that innocent people might be executed.  The original list that we prepared was published as a Staff Report of the House Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights.  The list has been favorably referred to by Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts, as well as by many public officials around the country.

We believe the term "exonerated" is entirely appropriate to refer to the individuals on this list, which now numbers 133 individuals.  Exonerate means to clear, as of an accusation, and seems to come from the Latin "ex" and "onus" meaning to unburden.  That is precisely what has occurred in these cases.  The defendants were convicted, given a burden of guilt, and then that burden was lifted when they were acquitted at a re-trial or the prosecution dropped all charges after the conviction was reversed.  These are not individuals who received a lesser sentence or who remained guilty of a lesser charge related to the same set of circumstances.  All guilt was lifted by the same system that had imposed it in the first place.  Our justice system is the only objective source for making such a determination.

This notion of innocence, that an individual is innocent unless proven guilty, is a bedrock principle of our constitution and our societal protection against abusive state power.  One does not lose the status of innocence merely because a prosecutor or other individuals retain a suspicion of guilt.  Of course, it is true that this list makes no god-like determination of knowing exactly what happened in the original crime. Such perfect knowledge of past events is impossible, either to absolutely prove that a person did or did not do an act.  We do not try to make a subjective judgment of what we think happened in the crime.  We are merely reporting that in a great many cases the justice system convicted an individual and sentenced them to death, but when the process that arrived at that conclusion was reviewed, the conviction and sentence were thrown out.  The individual, who often came close to execution, could not even be convicted of a traffic violation.  Surely, that should be a cause of concern in applying the death penalty.

Maybe "exoneration" isn't the most accurate word here. But Dieter has a point -- if a conviction was wrongly achieved, our system says that conviction is thrown out and the the justice system returns to square one for the accused. However you shake this, at least 133 people were put on Death Row and slated for execution who should not have been there. These were near-fatal mistakes, in the eyes of our system, way too much imperfection in the area of criminal justice, above all, that requires perfection.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

At long last, Roma Sausage, Baltimore's best Italian sausage, has made it to the meat cases at Giant. This was confirmed by Dean Paciocco, the owner of the sausage-maker. "I am pleased to inform you that Roma Sausage is now in all 181 local Giant stores and I feel that your columns have been very helpful with that development." OK, well, I can't take too much credit for this. Maybe consumers figured out that the so-called Italian sausage Giant has been selling (Johnsville? Are you kidding me?) was not so great. Maybe Giant execs are taking the buy-local thing seriously and, if so, good for them.

The growth for Roma means the sausage-maker had to move out of the little Highlandtown corner rowhouse it occupied for decades. The company moved to a new space in the old Crosse and Blackwell building at 6801 Eastern Avenue.

Paciocco sent me an e-mail boasting about Roma's Chesapeake sausage. "We are combining Phillips Seafood seasoning along with my own blend of spices and making a signature sausage exclusively for Giant and calling it Chesapeake sausage with both company logos on the product."

I sampled this recently and . . . well, let's just say I won't make that mistake again. (It's just not my thing.) I'll settle for what Roma does best -- Italian sweet or mild, browned in a little olive oil, then left in a simmering tomato sauce for about two days and served with linguini. Buona fortuna!

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Followup on today's column on the gay alumni of the U.S. Naval Academy:

Similar organizations for alumni of both the Air Force Academy and West Point have formed since USNAOut started up in 2003. The Air Force has Blue Alliance, and the U.S. Military Academy now has KnightsOut. The co-founder of KnightsOut, an Iraq veteran from New York named Dan Choi, was recently recommended for discharge after outing himself.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Three-For-All Salmon for the Fourth

For Independence Day 2008, I accidentally created what I think is a new poached salmon recipe and want to share this with you. My guests raved about it -- and, really, I had no idea the results would be so good.

You need a long, rectangular stainless steel pan, like the chafing trays professional caterers use. (You don't need the whole set-up -- just one of the trays.) I have picked these trays up over the years from restaurant-supply stores. They come in varying depths. The one I used was about three inches deep. The tray needs to be long enough to handle a large salmon filet. You can probably double-up aluminum foil pans, like those used for roasting turkeys, but they may not be long enough for this recipe.

Purchase three skinless salmon filets -- nice, big ones, about 16 to 18 inches long. You're going to invest about $45 to $55 in salmon for this dish, but it will serve plenty of guests, and this will still be more affordable than any other seafood dish you might serve at a party.

Slice a bunch of celery on a sharp diagonal line, as thin as possible, and lay this as the bed in the steaming tray.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place one of the filets on this bed of celery.

Sprinkle with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Slice four fresh carrots on a sharp diagonal, also thin. Lay them evenly atop the filet.

Sprinkle with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Place the second filet on top of the carrots.

Slice one large cucumber into thin, diagonal pieces. Lay them evenly atop the filet. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Place the third filet atop the cucumbers.

You have now stacked three filets. They are going to steam together and adhere to each other.

Into the pan pour about two cups of dry white wine and two cups of water. Do not cover the salmon completely with the liquid. Sprinkle in some bay leaves, some dill spice and some mustard seed. Throw in a sprig of rosemary.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and slide the pan into the oven, reducing the temperature to 375 F.

I think my three-story salmon steamed in 30 minutes. Use a thumb test to see if the top filet has firmed up. Overcooking is always a concern. But I think, since this dish is based on oven-steaming, you have less chance of that goof-up. Your kitchen will smell much better than it does when you try to pan-fry or broil salmon indoors.

I thought I would remove each filet and serve them separately. But I discovered that the salmon filets became one during the cooking. I left it alone to cool, then covered it with plastic wrap and placed the pan in the refrigerator overnight.

But first . . . before putting the poached salmon in the 'fridge . . . .

Drain all but a few drops of the grand-smelling liquid out of the pan and into a pot. Strain out the spice, bay leaves and seed. Reduce the broth for about an hour over low heat. Let that cool and use it the next day as a base for a sauce vert. The sauce vert can be made in a blender with the cold reduction, a skinned and chopped cucumber, some watercress, dill and parsley, and mixed with some mayonnaise to the consistency of a creamy salad dressing.

This topping was served cold along with the chilled salmon, which appeared to one guest to be the "largest, fattest salmon filet I've ever seen." It was actually, of course, a three-in-one, with some surprising mild crunch (carrots and cukes) between the slices. Use a very sharp (and wet) knife to cut slender (one- to one-and-a-half-inch wide) pieces for your guests. Each stack should hold together nicely (sans tooth picks) and taste delicious with the sauce verte.

Bon appetite.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

So, here's the deal, kids. If you want to organize a pickup baseball game in your neighborhood, or at a rec field nearby, or if you are looking for players for a Sunday softball game or even a Wiffle Ball game, tell me about it -- give me the when, where and what time -- and try to give at least 24 hours' notice. I'll list it here and send it out on a new Twitter account called PickupBaseball. The story Greg Dunn tells in a recent column got me to this modest effort at promoting informal, just-show-up baseball the way we used to play it back in the day, and the way it was played before everything had to be so formal and organized, and before kids went indoors to enjoy the A/C and the video games, before we all got busy doing other things. . . . I guarantee there are kids in your neighborhood (maybe even your own children!) just itching for a game, especially this summer, after school lets out and the rec leagues are finished, and the spring rains stop and the fields dry out. . . .  Then again, maybe not. Maybe pickup baseball is dead. Or maybe you can pull this off without me and Twitter . . . If so, go.

PickupBaseball on Twitter

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

After Wednesday's column on Gary Gebler's Trax on Wax record store in Catonsville, I received a bunch of inquiries from readers looking to sell albums, buy them or have their private collections appraised. This one arrived from Columbus, Ga.: "I have over 1,600 vinyl albums, mostly rhythm and blues.  I am interested in selling them in a bulk order.  They have been cared for very well." I'm sure there have been bigger collections, but I can't imagine owning 1,600 of anything at any one time except maybe pennies in an old Utz tin.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Here's what they tell us to expect from this year's Fourth of July parade in Catonsville:

• An "authentic look-alike" of the Lone Ranger and Silver. Hi-oh! "His Ranger suit, black mask, silver bullets, cowboy hat and black/silver holster complete with real silver six-shooters have all been custom-made. The saddle is a true Western silver saddle from the cowboy era. Estimated time on parade route: 3:15 p.m.  Montrose Avenue at Frederick Road.
• Holy hog lips, a hot dog-eating contest! We haven't seen one of these since Polock Johnny days on The Block. This local revival of American grotesque takes place at Duesenberg’s Café and Grill. A dozen contestants will vie for “Catonsville’s Biggest Weiner” trophy. Contest will be held at 10 Mellor Avenue at 1:30 p.m.
• Local girl makes good: Peggy Bailey, a waitress at Jennings Café, has been named Baltimore's Best Waitress by Zagat. "Peggy, dressed in a elegant July 4th gown, will be taking her annual ride down Frederick Road.  It is a Catonsville tradition for her regular customers to call out their orders as she glides by."
• Word to the wise: If you haven't put a folding chair on Frederick Road yet, better get one out there today if you want to see the parade from a seated position.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

TODAY ON THE RADIO: 88.1 FM   WYPR   WYPO  WYPF  

12:00-1:00 pm Eastern:  Whatever happened to free time? Whatever happened to privacy? A look at how technology and free markets have transformed American life with Dalton Conley, noted sociologist and author of Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, Blackberry Moms, and Economic Anxiety.  

1:00-2:00 pm Eastern: Alex Kershaw tells a harrowing story this hour --  how a handful of crew members, including one from Baltimore, survived the sinking of the U.S. Navy sub Tang in 1944. After sinking Japanese cargo ships while on patrol in the Pacific, the Tang's last torpedo boomeranged and sent the sub to the ocean floor. What happened next is chronicled in Kershaw's excellent narative, Escape From the Deep. 

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Comments or questions:  midday@wypr.org

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 5:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The teenager daughter is always telling me: Don't be so pessimistic about the Orioles, don't give up when they fall behind. This is her mantra. She's a kid, of course, enthralled with all the young, cool, talented guys on the Orioles roster. What does she know?

We know, as long-suffering Orioles fans, that our teams over the years have had many nice parts but not enough of them -- mediocre sums -- and nothing to show in the last decade but a long streak of losing seasons.

These days, there's a lot to admire about the O's -- they have the young guns, they have the legs, they have the D. They don't have all the pitching they need, but there's promise here and there.

So anyway, last night: Where were you when the Orioles made their biggest comeback in franchise history?

I got so bummed out by the fourth inning -- so sick of all this Red Sox Nation stuff (obnoxious people who latched on during this winning era, despite having no connection to Boston or New England), and losing to the Sox -- that we went shopping. The daughter needs batting gloves, and she's looking for a new (or used) left-handed softball glove. (If you have one you're thinking of putting on craig's list, call me first: 410-332-6166).

"Don't give up, dad," the daughter says. "You're too negative." At the time the Orioles were losing 6-1. By the time we got back from the sporting goods store and the supermarket, there was a rain delay. I was tempted to just go to bed. The game resumed and the Red Sox had extended their lead to 10-1. Which is when the comeback started, though I still didn't believe the Os would finish with a win. It ended up amazing -- the most amazing thing we've ever seen in sports around here in a long time -- and we stayed up to watch. How could we not? The young guns scored runs with timely hits, and the Orioles sent a closer to the mound in the 9th to do the job, and the game ended a few minutes before midnight. I think we'll remember this night for as long as we live.

Posted by Dan Rodricks at 6:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)