Glenn Ross educates residents one smelly site at a time.
It’s a steamy summer afternoon in East Baltimore, and a decommissioned yellow school bus is already filling up with paying customers to see the sights. Before he gets behind the wheel, Glenn Ross, a former city contractor and current 13th Distric Councilmanic community liaison, makes sure the windows are down, so in passing some “attractions,” passengers will get their full effect: the smell of...
STEPHEN BARTLETTTransplant Surgeon
In December 2004, when transplant surgeon Stephen Bartlett was acting chair of the University of Maryland Department of Surgery, he was faced with the ultimate test of his abilities—performing a kidney transplant on then-Dean of the Medical School, Donald Wilson, who, at the time, also happened to be Barlett's boss. No pressure.
"I was the acting chair,...
As an ethics investigation slowly plays out, the city's Mayor plays on her strengths
It's mid-afternoon on a sweltering Wednesday in July and, in the gymnasium of what was until recently Pimlico Middle School, 22 police trainees are smartly lined up and ready for their regular workout. Except that it's not all that regular—a fact that's betrayed by the cluster of fire and police brass in full dress blues, a photographer and TV news crew and, finally, the arrival of Mayor Sheila...
Mary L. Martin, Owner, Mary L. Martin Postcard
"We've been in the business for about 45 years. My mother, whom I am named after, started the business in the 1960's. My father was a stamp collector, so my mother would go to a lot of stamp shows with him, where they always had postcards. It was during that time she became interested in the cards. She first started as a collector. Then, she eventually started selling them and that's just kind of...
The political expert on staying blue, text messages from Obama, and the wisdom of Tootle the Train
Maybe you've heard about this little election thing coming up? Because we're obsessed, too, we decided to catch up with Dr. Matthew Crenson, political scientist, professor emeritus at Hopkins, and author of several political books including his latest, Presidential Power: Unchecked & Unbalanced.
What book or film most changed your life? Tootle the Train. The book's repeated injunction to...
For Frank Gunion, founder of clothing chain South Moon Under, it all started on the Boardwalk.
The stretch of beach at 94th Street in Ocean City could be described as South Moon Under's original headquarters. In the 1960's, this is where Frank Gunion would regularly paddle out on his longboard to catch waves, battling a beach break prone to dangerous currents. Every so often, he'd surf elsewhere—the Indian River Inlet or Assateague—but 94th Street was the place you'd go first if you were...
Prolific artist Shawn Theron is selling his exuberant paintings as fast as he can make them. Who knew they were rooted in despair?
Shawn Theron is out to make the world a better place, one painting at a time. So far, the world is proving remarkably responsive. To call him an overnight sensation would not be an overstatement.
"I've been unbelievably lucky," he says.
Consider the evidence: A guy with no formal art education or training beyond high school—who's been earning a modest living bartending and waiting tables—takes up...
A Star is Born
Good things do come in little packages. Five years ago, Mike and Stephannie Weikert moved from Atlanta to Baltimore so Mike could attend grad school at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Their daughter Maya was born the following year—on the first day of classes. So, when it came time for Mike to work on his thesis project, it's not surprising he had baby on the brain.
Weikert says he wanted...
In the autumn of his years, John Barth confronts his mortality, reinvents himself yet again, and infiltrates the Axis of Evil.
John Barth still gets a charge out of being mentioned in a pull quote. Even after decades of circulating in the upper echelons of literary fiction, that sort of acknowledgment hasn't lost its visceral appeal. In fact, if you perused The New York Times Book Review a few weeks back, you may have noticed an ad on the inside cover comparing Hannah Tinti's The Good Thief to Barth's "picaresque classic...
While others discarded DNA clues in rape cases before a database existed, this pathologist saw the future.
Thirty years ago, police had few investigative tools for tracking down the perpetrators of sexual assaults, particularly stranger rapes when a victim may never see her assailant's face. So when a victim was seen at a hospital, the sexual assault exam was really only able to determine that there had been recent sexual activity and, if the examiner was lucky enough to find the right trace evidence...
