The Bad Daniel appeared again last night, and he missed a double steal and walked guys and hit one of the Tigers. Palmer sounded like a pissed-off parent in a public place. The Hall of Famer controlled himself, saying lots of negative things about Bad Daniel in the most pleasant way possible. It has become one of the most entertaining hours in sports television -- Jim Palmer commenting on Daniel Cabrera's pitching.

The whole time I'm listening to this, I'm imagining what Palmer would really like to say: "Dahn-yell-ay! You obtuse stork! Don't you know they all steal on you? Could you throw a change' once in a while? Have you heard anything I've been saying for the last five years?" And Palmer thought Trembley should have ordered someone to warm up in the bullpen when Cabrera started off yet another inning with a walk. It's what Earl would have done.

I enjoy this Palmer-Cabrera thing. I look forward to it. It's like listening to a retired Johns Hopkins professor commenting from the balcony while one of his students, now a surgeon himself, lectures below -- we hear all the points the protégé missed, about his limited diagnostic imagination, his sophomoric understanding of human physiology, his poor choice of surgical instruments. It's a great learning experience, really. It brings out the best in Palmer. He'd have made a terrific medical examiner, dissecting cadavers and dictating the reasons for their premature deaths. CBS should cast Palmer in the lead of a new drama: CSI Cabrera.

At some point, you wanna turn to the professor emeritus and say, "Why don't you go down there, put on a gown and show him how to do it!"

Of course, Palmer has counseled Cabrera, which might be why he sounds so vexed when Bad Daniel appears. It's great television. I may never go to a game when Cabrera pitches, just so I can stay home and listen to this. Please, MASN, when it's time for Cabrera, it's gotta be time for Cakes. 

Nestor Aparicio's comments on Cakes in b

 We've talked with people all over the states and we all have similar stories to the one you opened with.  Mine was a man who drove up as we were packing up for the day.  He was in a brand new Cadillac, had all this gold on around his neck and wrists, diamond pinky ring etc.  I was selling organic tomatoes 2 for $1.  I had a bag of six tomatoes left and I told the man the price was 2 bucks.  He looked at them and said how bout 1.50. I took the bag back and told him to have a good day.  These same people, that try to get reduced prices, are the same ones that will go out and spend much more for perfume and cologne or a lavish dinner and not think twice about it.

But when you talk about freshness and food safety, local takes the prize.  When was the last time you heard of a vegetable recall from a small local farm or a beef recall from a local butcher?  I'm not that old but I don't recall any.  But if you look at these huge industrial farms the way they do business not only harms the land but kills us.  The feds tell us our food supply is safe. Maybe, but the local food supply is unsurpassed when it comes to freshness and a lack of nasty pathogens.

You have two kinds of farm market consumers out there -- those that get it and those that don't.  The later are the ones that want a deal one way or the other, could care less about the origin, or what was used to make it grow.  The former want not only to buy from you but want to know the history of the product, who grew it, where was it grown, when was it picked what variety of vegetable it is -- is it a Diva cucumber or a Marketmore?  The "ones that get it" want to talk about recipes and how best to use the product they are buying.  They want to know how long it lasts and what kinds of herbs or spices are best with certain dishes.  Today's produce farmer has to do it all from planning, growing, harvesting and most importantly selling.

I feel there is a change brewing now were more people are looking back to foods that had taste, what I call nostalgia foods -- foods that we ate as kids because they were in season.  Foods that we ate that didn't have all of these petroleum and corn derivatives.  When beef, chicken and pork wasn't shot up with hormones and antibiotics because they were kept in such deplorable conditions and fed food that they couldn't digest.  Foods that our grandmothers use to make from scratch from ingredients that were purchased from the Arabber, these are the foods I'm talking about.

You are right, most people do not have a clue as to what it takes to grow vegetables, fruits and berries let alone trying to do it organically.  The people that get it do, they know the struggle and they are grateful for all your efforts and hard work.  And they tell you!!  My wife and I both work outside the farm, which is typical of about 85% to 90% of the small farms in the nation.  We always struggle to break even for the season and sometimes we do better and sometimes we do worse.  Prices are not cheap when it comes to buying organic seed, or organic fertilizer, or organic chicken feed to raise free range eggs.  We set our prices according to what market prices are at the time.  For people that don't get it, they think you threw some seeds in the ground, you got stuff to sell and all you had to do is buy the seed. No thought goes into what bacteria or virus was attacking the plant, no thought as to what insects were trying to eat it or how you kept the weed population down enough so the actual vegetable could get the nutrients out of the ground.  No these same people will buy fruit from the local supermarket, that comes from Chile or other South American countries, that contain trace levels of pesticides that are outlawed in the USA -- and think nothing of it..

I become jumpy about late Januaury when we start to plan what our garden will look like and what will be planted.  Great debate takes place when talking about the corn and tomato placement.  I'm down right giddy when I'm able to hook the tiller up to the tractor for the first time and till the winter cover under for green manure.  It's hard work but it's worth it, it's viceral, it's ancestral. We are not that far removed from when we were a total agrarian society.  There is nothing like a tomato grown in Maryland, picked from the vine and eaten.  Or sweet corn coming off the stalk and cooked imediately.  I love planting seeds and watching them grow and I still get a thrill when I see the first sign of fruit.  I thank my chickens when I take their eggs.  We take our role as  stewards of the land very seriously.  As do all of the other people I know in the Frederick farming community.
 
We were fortunate enough to be able to purchase a farm and land that was once owned by Charles Carroll, he was the last living and only Catholic signer of the Decleration of Independance.  There have been 11 owners since the house was built in 1837 and although the land and house are in our name we don't look upon it as ownership as much as stewardship, we are here just trying to keep it running and functioning as a farm for next owner.

I also wanted to point out that Maryland has a program where they match young farmers with experienced farms so they can learn and eventualy take over the farm.  It is part of the MD Dept. of Agricultre.

The first hour is a live interview with another interesting man -- Bill Thomas, a true outside-the-box thinker on the subject of elder care. The UMBC professor wants to tear down nursing homes and replace them with small, home-like environments where people can live full and socially active lives. His "Green Homes" are coming to Maryland, and Thomas has a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to support Green House projects across the country.

Thirty years ago, in northern Baltimore County, I met a young man who bought a relatively small farm to raise hogs. He'd graduated from Hereford High, belonged to FFA, had plenty of family support and he was a hard worker. But he couldn't make the pigs fly. The first fluctuation in costs -- it was 1979, Jimmy Cardigan was president, the ayatollahs came to power in Iran, and we had an energy crisis -- and the young man was out of business.

So this is a tough deal. But not impossible. Consortiums can be formed. The state and county governments can offer a retiring farmer a great deal if he agrees to place the land in ag preservation. (Such a program is already in place but needs to be better funded and more aggressively supported and promoted by the state.) Give a co-operative of young farmers and their families time to get up and running. Let them work the land with an option to buy.

Ferris was right: if we're going to make any effort to put more Maryland-grown food on the tables of Marylanders, we need to sustain the family farm as a farm, and build from there. That needs to be the first option.

Where it can't be done, imagine if every developer in Maryland were forced to design new housing to leave room for ag land. Instead of 40 houses spread over 70 acres, build 40 houses in a cluster on 40 acres, leave the rest for open space and lease a good chunk to a farmer for market crops. The people who live in the development get a share of the harvest.

The state and counties could undertake a land inventory for the purpose of identifying lands where crops can be grown under lease agreements with farmers or even community organizations.

Have you ever seen the amount of acreage of roof there is in Hunt Valley, the old mall? Can't somebody grow something up there? If not a crop, at least something green, something that sucks up carbon dioxide and produces oxygen. The folks up at the Masonic home would certainly have a bonnie blink (Scottish for "beautiful view") again.

1. Why was he shot when, as a prisoner, he ran away from a work detail?

2. Cooper had been serving a one-year sentence for desertion -- he'd walked off his post in North Carolina a year earlier -- and he had been shot while allegedly trying to escape from Fort Meade. Why was he given full military honors?

We had help from a former JAG officer in answering the second question. Cooper's case had not been fully ajudicated; his one-year sentence had not been approved by higher Army authorities at the time of his death. Nor had he been dishonorably discharged. Therefore, as a private, he was entitled to the usual honors bestowed on an active-duty soldier.

The answer to the first question -- why Cooper was shot from behind, apparently in the neck -- is much tougher. And now that he's revisited this sad episode in the life of his family, and spoken to former military officers who contacted him after last Thursday's column, David Manning has even more questions.

"I went to Fort Meade on Sunday," he told me. "I found my brother's grave in the post cemetery. It was not easy, as the location you were given was only partially correct. Emotionally, it was difficult as well. I have requested his service record as well as the results of the investigation of the shooting. From talking to [former military officers], my inclination at this point is that at the very least the shooting was a wrongful death. As [one of the officers] said, in all his years, he had never heard of anyone being shot for desertion or trying to run away. U.S. Army policy has always been not to shoot any prisoner to kill, and without launching into a long diatribe, his running was absolutely not a capital offense. . . "

More to come

-30-

Midday 88.1 WYPR-FM

Noon-1:00
Derek Chollet, formerly of the Clinton State Department and author of America Between the Wars, on how the foreign policy decisions between the fall of the Berlin Wall on 11/9 and the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11 shape the events, arguments and politics of the world we live in today.
1:00-2:00
Richard Thompson Ford, Stanford law professor, on playing the race card, and how bluffing about discrimination makes race relations worse.

MECHANICS

I. Engine -  stage II re-manufactured
A. Head  74-E12, 46 mm intake, 38 mm exhaust – ported/polished. head
milled .010.
 1. Shrick 292 cam, double springs BMW series 5, Teflon seals,
  valve guides – new, titanium valve keys, blue printed rockers,
 rocker shafts, head bolts, high compression head gasket, distributor
 Tii mechanical advanced:  all new
2. Intake – cannon manifolds polished/ported, 2-40 DCOE webers
 rebuilt and jetted to match cam/pistons, detailed.
3. Exhaust – Bavarian Motors header, reinforced ring welds, ported,
 coated and polished.

B.     Block 74-2002 decked and detailed.
 1. New – water pump, oil pump valve, pistons Euro tii 9:5-1,
  Bearings, rods and mains (oversized), timing chain, tensioner,
  guide rail, gear sprocket on crank and cam, total sea gapless rings,
  rod bushings, seals and gaskets.  Bored ½ mm over.  crank turned
  and polished.  crank, pistons, rods – balanced.

II. Drive train -  new clutch, pressure plate, bearing, flywheel faced/balanced to
 engine with clutch assembly attached.
 A. Transmission – rebuilt by Carroll Kohler
  1. All bearings, thrust washers, synchros (Borg-Warner) 1st/2nd gear
   shift hub, lay shaft gear train – re-aligned to output shaft gear
   train.  shift springs, speedo gear, seals and gaskets, tolerance blue
   printed to .0001, painted case.  mounting and shift bracket
   hardware restored.

 B. Drive shaft -  replaced new with guibos

 C. Rear 390 stock – ok

 D. Half shafts – original ok, back up set included

III. Brake system -  stock except Tii Booster added (rebuilt) to accommodate webers.
 A. Master cylinder – new 2002

 B. Front calipers rebuilt – detailed

 C. Rotors and drums turned, pads and shoes replaced

 D. New wheel cylinders

 E. New lines from master cylinder to front wheels

 F. Front stainless steel brake lines installed

 G. Parking brake adjusted – ok cables previously replaced.

IV. Clutch Pedal Box – completely restored with new bushings, shims, hardware, and rubber, inside and out.

V. Front End Suspension (Cradle) stock
 A. Removed and disassembled, detailed
 B. New ball joints, link arms, center link.  bushings – ok
 C. Adjusted/detailed steering box
 D. New Boge shocks
 E. Aligned
 F. Stabilizer bar hardware replaced new.  brackets, rubber and mounts

VI. Rear Suspension – stock 390 rear original
 
COACH WORKS
I. Body and Trim parts –
 A. New Parts
  1. Entire upper chrome trim package with hardware
  2. Gaskets – doors, windows, trunk, sunroof, tail lenses,
   handles, and mirrors
  3. All lenses, headlights, license plate lights – including fixtures
  4. Lower trim package and rocker trim including hardware
  5. Mirror, door handles, emblems, locks, model numbers and decals
  6. Bumpers – polished and restored
  7. Sun roof – completely restored, polished and cables
  8. Glass – front windshield and both rear wings
  9. Door thresholds with gaskets
10. Latch and strike assembly on doors, trunk, and engine hood restored
11. Wheels – 1976 Italian BWA’s powder coated
12. Back up set of wheels – BMW 320 powder coated
13. Spare tire and wheel original equipment replaced

 B. Sheet metal
  1. Completely disassembled stripped to metal, doors inside and out,
   deck lid under and over, engine hood under and over, engine
   compartment trunk, under the trunk, all four (4) wheel wells
   trans tunnel and gas tank.  Front and rear floor pans original
  2. Shock towers replaced
  3. Rockers original
  4. All seems coated with industrial two (2) part epoxy (flex) and
   water proof with epoxy primers e.g. – trunk, wells, engine
   compartment, shock towers, and rockers
  5. Body parts replaced – driver’s wheel arch cut and welded
  6. Body work applied over wheel arch, shock towers, corners of
   rockers, driver’s door, top left side of engine hood and headlight
   well.  All other metal is original without filters.
  7. Only collision evidence appeared at the left front fender side by
   hood and fender well; based on previous body filler discovered
   when stripping the metal, all other areas Certified by Master ASE
   Body and Fender Technician as original and accident free
  8. Gravel guard/shutz applied to all areas where original factory
   coatings were.

C. Paint – by PPG; primer surfacer, epoxy primer/sealer and finish coat acrylic lacquer.  NO CLEAR COAT APPLIED.
 1. Primer surfacer and putty kote was used in the blocking process
  wet sanded to 600 grit prior to sealing
 2. Metal was treated with chemical etching, prior to primer coat
 3. All finished primer and paint prep done by hand
 4. Prior to painting,  primer was cured for two weeks in a controlled   
   environment
  5. A final 600 grit wet sand followed by a epoxy sealer was applied
  6. 1 dry/tack coat of lacquer was applied and scuffed
  7. 2 coats full wet applied, flash dry, and scuffed
  8. Same as step number 7
  9. Same as step number 7
  10. 1 wet thin coat applied
  11. 1 wet retarder coat, misted twice to allow flow
  12. Paint cured for one year and paint process was duplicated on entire
   bottom part of car, everything except roof and side pillars
  13. Pain cured for two months prior to polishing

 D. Paint polish and care
  1. Final finish was obtained by wet sand 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, extra
   fine compound, polish, then zymol wax applied

INTERIOR
I. Upholstery
 A. Headliner – patterned after original liner installed cloth
 B. Seats – recovered in tweed / vinyl, new horsehair
 C. Visors – new leather
 D. Carpet – new, piece set
 E. Panels – restored rear, restored front (European)
 F. Dashboard – original 
 G. Seat Belts – original
 H. Wood Trim – custom mahogany (including shift knob)
 I. Steering Wheel – Nardi Mahogany
 J. Stereo – CD by Sony ™, powered by Audio Art ™, and JL Audio ™
  speakers; combined power 500 watts, 50 amps
 K. Gauge Pot – after market custom, VDO gauges
 L. Kick Panels – custom made
 M. Heater Box – completely restored, new heater core
 N. Air Condition – all new except condenser and evaporator
 O. Floor – stripped to the pans, painted, coated with liquid rubber, then ¼  in.
  self adhesive roofing material, sound deadening jute applied behind rear
  panels and rockers, upper and lower back seat, and on the floor

SPECIAL FEATURES / OPTIONS
 
* Last year 2002 was made, factory black
* Stored with extreme care
* Operated on “The Ten Best Days of the Year” philosophy
* Restoration completed September 1999;
a brand “new” – “old” ultimate driving machine
* Stage II : Remanufactured engine
* Custom Paint
* Custom Stereo
* Custom woodwork with European panels
* Custom Nardi steering wheel
* Custom upholstery and headliner
* Added gauges – clock, amp. meter, oil pressure
* Detailed engine, trunk, front end
* Custom bumpers
* Italian BWA wheels, Spare set 320 wheels
* Added sound proofing
* Added water proofing
* Factory Air – new hoses, compressor, receiver / dryer, pressure valve, writing and relays (R-12)
* Factory Sunroof detailed

Dan: I have never written to any columnist before, but, your recent column on
addicts got me thinking, which is something I have been trying not to do for
the past year.  My 21-year-old daughter died last July 9 of a drug
overdose. Her story is vastly different from those who you write about, yet
it has the same sad ending. My daughter was raised in a two-parent, loving
and stable home in the suburbs. We ate dinner together every night.  She was
beautiful, popular and healthy. She played sports, tried cheerleading, went
to college and ended up addicted first to painkillers and moved to heroin
addiction in the span of two years. She asked for help and we provided it, four 30-day rehabs. When she relapsed for the fourth time, she went to Arizona
for 12 months to another program geared to young adults. She died five months
after completing the program.  She was highly educated in the addiction and
relapse world, but she ultimately went back to drugs.  This is where the
pain part comes in. From the outside it looked like she had the whole world
in front of her. She didn't live in a slum and witness shootings and crime,
so what was her pain? I will never know, but, I do know that if my child
could become an addict anybody's child could, too. Too often we read the
papers and think this will never happen to me, I don't live that kind of
life. My family is here to say it can happen to you and it just might.
Thanks for listening.

Amy: The power of addiction is just so strong -- too strong for many. Drugs have a tremendous amount of power over the brain. I'm very sorry for your loss. That is a mystery -- about pain. Some forms are obvious. The man I wrote about a week ago was sitting on his mother's lap when his father shot her. That seems obvious, a traumatic event causing pain for life. But then there's the quiet, inner pain of depression and desperation. Two of my closest friends in life have had the same experience as yours. They have been baffled forever. I am sorry for your loss. Yours is a kind of pain I cannot imagine. Thanks for having the strength to write.

Dan: Your words did bring me some comfort, especially when you describe the power drugs have over an addict.  When my daughter first went to Father Martins, they asked us if we believed that addiction was a disease.  At the time I said, 'No.'  After watching my daughter
struggle and learning much about drug addiction I changed my mind and I do
absolutely believe this is a disease and it upsets me that the best 'cure'
can be offered in church basements -- although I did see that those kids who
had some faith seemed to do better than those who did not. It is truly  a
miracle when someone can overcome their addiction.  I hope my story can help others who are struggling.
Thanks, Amy