I love whatever makes a city unique. In Baltimore, that includes painted screen, marble stoops, and Formstone When I arrived in Baltimore, I said, “what is this stuff?” Well. It’s Formstone. Turns out there’s Formstone (or cheap imitations) in Queens and Brooklyn, too. But there’s a lot of Formstone in Baltimore. Baltimore brick is a very pretty red but isn’t…
I don’t like guns, but I’m not a gun control nut. I think there are a good many reasons that people can and should have guns. If I were a store owner in a dangerous neighborhood, I’d want a gun. If I were a resident in a dangerous neighborhood, I’d want a gun. If I were a hunter, I’d want…
George Washington, in his 1796 farwell address, warned about unnecessary foreign entanglements: The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.…
I don’t see what the problem is. And I’m a liberal who supports gun control. I’m all for a assault riffle and handgun free America. But it’s not going to happen. Maybe as a cop I’m not afraid of guns (in the right hands). Maybe as a teacher I want one. But really, I don’t. But I do have students…
Buried in a small story in the Sun: “Nineteen people have been killed in the Eastern District this year, half as many as at this point last year.”
Sometimes I kind of feel sorry for these guys. From the Boston Globe. The New England Mafia just is not what it used to be. In what would be an unusual move for a man of his rank, the family’s reputed underboss, Carmen “The Cheese Man” DiNunzio, is accused of personally delivering a $10,000 bribe to a near stranger, a…
That’s a Wirereference, if you don’t know. There’s a short Q & A about me in Vanity Fair titled “The Ivy Leaguer Who Took on Prop Joe.” The art cracks me up: While ace writer Jordan “slugger” Heller’s text makes me sound so rough and blue-collar, the art just captures my naturally effeminate and pompous persona perfectly. Hmmm, yes, indeed,…
Rabid kitten discovered in North Baltimore A stray kitten that wandered into a North Baltimore backyard this month had rabies, the first city cat or dog found to have the disease in more than 20 years, officials said yesterday. Two people who tried to help the kitten are receiving medical treatment. Others who are concerned that they or their pets…
I had no idea that any department could be so stupid to have a system of “automatic punishment.” “In a series of changes this year, direct supervisors are being encouraged to forgo suspensions of officers who they believe will change their behavior – or just made a one-time mistake – and instead opt for written warnings.” “Police officials believe the…
Good. “Despite a nationwide clamor against illegal immigration, only 55 of more than 18,000 police and law enforcement agencies across the country have signed agreements to coordinate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” The whole story is here.