Shortly after noon today, a motley crew of Baltimoreans began showing up at McKeldin Fountain Park, at the corner of Pratt and Light Streets, with signs, placards, paint, and poles to begin the Occupy Baltimore protest, an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street protests that have been roiling lower Manhattan over the last couple weeks. They came with a wide variety of concerns but the most common was about the concentration of wealth and corporate influence over American politics. The common theme, shared with the protestors' New York compatriots, is "We are the 99%" referring to all Americans who are not among the top 1% of income-earners, which account for more than a third of American wealth.

Among those gathering was a social work student painting a Buddhist mantra "Om mani pedme hum." "They believe that if you even glance at it, you'll be ensured enlightenment and...

The Internet has been abuzz with stories this week suggesting British actor Idris Elba could be tapped to play James Bond once blond-haired, blue-eyed Brit Daniel Craig is through with the role. Baltimoreans know Elba from his three seasons on The Wire in which he played Barksdale drug-ring CFO Stringer Bell.   

During the show, he certainly displayed the necessary virility and cunning to play a convincing 007, but will he get the opportunity?

Apparently, the rumor is just that: a rumor, and it originated years ago, but resurfaced this week because he was asked about it during an...

Yeah, you read that headline correctly.

I'd like to thank the Boston Red Sox for their possibly epic end-of-season collapse. Because without them, tonight's final game of the season at Camden Yards would just be a meaningless, depressing dud—another opportunity for Os fans to contemplate a lost season. Instead, I expect the atmosphere at Camden Yards to be electric, just as it was on Monday night when I went to the game with my buddy—and die-hard BoSox fan—Chris. (That's us, above, right after the game.)  We won that night, and I was positively elated. It was like the Os had just clinched the playoffs. So thanks Boston Red Sox for your recent nose dive. And thanks to us Oriole fans for caring enough to drown out the chants of "Let's go, Red Sox" (it wasn't easy) and the Oriole players for caring enough to give us two thrilling games (okay, last night's wasn't quite as much fun). Meaningful baseball at the Yard. . . sigh. . .what a concept.

Oh, and check out Sun...

This week, Baltimore received the dubious distinction of being named the smoggiest large metropolitan area in the East in 2010 and the third smoggiest in the nation after Los Angeles. Obviously, data is incomplete for 2011, but so far, we're running fourth behind Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Fresno, CA. 

Awesome.

The designation came courtesy of a new report by Environment Maryland. The full report can be found here.  

The results were found by tabulating the "number of days that smog pollution levels exceeded the 2008 national ozone standard for the calendar year 2010 and for 2011." In other words, the days when there was a color-coded air-quality alert in effect. Baltimore experienced 33 smog days in 2010, six of which were "red alert" days. So far in 2011, Baltimore has experienced 28 smog days, seven of which were "red alerts."

Unfortunately...