Baltimore Diary

See You On The Other Side

Ross Geller: We were on a break!

—Numerous episodes of Friends

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I actually hated that plaintive whine; I think it's one of the reasons I stopped watching that show.

Anyway. Taking a much-deserved long weekend. So while I do have a few things to bitch about, I'll be away until Monday, by which time I may have a better attitude about things. Right now it's kind of undifferentiated frustration. I may check in over the weekend, if I take the time to swipe someone's laptop for an hour or so.

But don't count on it.

Won't You Take Me to Flunkytown

[Vizzini has just cut the rope the Dread Pirate Roberts is climbing up]
Vizzini: He didn't fall? Inconceivable!
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

—The Princess Bride (1987)

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A couple of posts ago I commented on a few observations I had about the final vote totals in the primary on the 11th. One of the things I wrote was:

The problem for me is that I don't think he'll [Ed Reisinger] get that message. I know his flunkies won't.

This morning I got an email from a resident of Morrell Park with whom I correspond a couple of times a month. I'm going to call him Jim, although his real name is Herschel Krustofsky of 1609 Harman Avenue. His views don't always coincide with mine but our contacts, whether through email or face-to-face, have always been cordial and there are a few times where we've had to agree to disagree. This gentleman is an occasional reader of this blog, although his comments have always come to me via email rather than in the Comments area.

Apparently Jim was chatting with someone in the neighborhood who'd seen that post and asked him, "How does it feel, being referred to as a 'Flunky'?" Jim hadn't seen it yet and didn't know what that meant. So this guy told Jim that I'd used the term to refer to people who help Ed Reisinger. With his mind thus loaded, Jim checked out the post and decided that his friend was right.

So I'm going to make myself clear as publicly as I apparently made myself misunderstood. Not everyone who supports, works with or votes for Ed Reisinger is a "flunky." Flunkies are stooges. Flunkies are yes-men. Ed's flunkies are the ones who make me feel like I need to take a shower moments after speaking to them. Jim is most certainly NOT a flunky, nor is his wife. Jim is absolutely NOT the sort of person who will take the "We won, you can go suck it" trash-talking attitude I spoke of, and this is probably the distinction for me.

Jim sent me the email and he copied it to several other people. At least one of them I would put in the "flunky" category. Another couple, I don't know who they are. One of them has an email address that would likely be offensive in Great Britain. (I don't know who that one connects to, either, but if you're curious, Jim, ask me about it.) I'm not sure why he did that, but OK. I aired my view in public (i.e., here), so he gets the same deal.

In addition, I've taken a lot of heat from people about remaining active in Morrell Park even though I no longer live there. GF and I looked in the area for months before we moved to the other end of town; we genuinely disliked leaving Morrell Park but none of the many places we looked at, unfortunately, met our needs. Well, one place did but it had a fatal structural flaw. I do still own property in Morrell Park, so I've literally remained invested in the neighborhood and I do care about it. GF spent a quarter of her life there, so she's definitely missing the area. I tell you what: if I were so disgusted with the neighborhood that I didn't care anymore, I could sell the place in a heartbeat and make an obscene amount of money compared to what I paid for it.

In the end, I hope that I can work with Mr. Reisinger, and more importantly that he is willing to work with me. A "loyal opposition" is a necessary thing in the United States. Teddy Roosevelt once said:

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President or that we are to stand by the President right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile but it is morally treasonable to the American public.

This is an attitude that must—MUST—make its way all the way down to the lowest governmental level. I've said a million times that the best kind leader is the kind who surrounds himself with smart people who are willing to disagree with him. Our leaders don't need flunkies. They need to hear the debate. They need to be willing to listen to the debate, and they need to be able to participate in the debate. That there are two associations in the neigborhood is now part of the debate. When Reisinger aligns himself with one of them and ignores the other, as he's done for many months now, he's looking for the flunkies to offer him some form of validation. And in that, there is a wrongness.

Common Sense, Please

Janey: Miss Hoover, can we exchange our valentines?
Miss Hoover: Not just yet, Janey. First, we're going to construct paper mailboxes to store the Valentines.
Lisa: Isn't that just pointless busy work?
Miss Hoover: Bulls-eye. Get cracking.

--The Simpsons, "I Love Lisa" (2/11/93)

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One of the things that I was hoping would happen when Baltimore City Schools rearranged the schools into new "areas" was that the staff development that took place would be a little more targeted.

For instance, last year my area was comprised of about 22 elementary schools (through Grade 5) and 7 Elementary/Middle Schools (through Grade 8). This year there are two areas that are exclusively Elementary/Middle and two that are exclusively Elementary. Mine is one of the Elementary-only areas. We have 25 schools scattered across the city. Several of them, of course, are only a few minutes away from where I USED to live. Oh, well.

So at this point, one would think that when we get some professional development, we'd get something targeted specifically at the Elementary schools, right?

Wrong.

I've been asked to present some materials for tomorrow. The presentation deals with special education students who are approaching age 14 and the need for them to receive transition services related to the time when they leave school. Let me tell you, if you're 14 years old and still in the fifth grade, you're in some seriously bad shape. So basically I'm going to assist with a two-and-a-half hour presentation on a topic that NOBODY I'm presenting to will need to know about.

Once again, your tax dollars at work. I think I've said this often enough that it may have to become a posting category.

The Best Votes Money Can Buy

Margaret: [both Hawkeye and Margaret are in the Swamp, drunk] This place stinks.
Hawkeye: Right.
Margaret: The food stinks, the liquor stinks, and the smell stinks!
Hawkeye: You said it.
Margaret: And the war stinks!
Hawkeye: It certainly does!
Margaret: What are you agreeing for? You're one of the things around here that stinks!

--M*A*S*H, "In Love and War" (11/1/77)

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I had an interesting email forwarded to me today. Here's an excerpt:

I do not have a problem with Ed [Reisinger] paying people to work the polls, but I think Ed's actions went beyond walk around money.  When I am told by an individual that he voted for Ed because he was afraid if he didn't and Ed lost the precinct by one vote then he could only blame himself for missing out on the $100 precinct win bonus that Ed pays.  That sounds more like a payoff than walk around money.  Not to mention, Ed already paid this person $300 walk around money for the day.

This writer was talking about Lakeland, and named someone specifically elsewhere in the email, but there's word that these shenanigans took place in Westport and possibly Cherry Hill as well; perhaps others. We were also told that people who voted for Ed Reisinger in Morrell Park were given tickets that could be exchanged for a free meal at a local establishment. That one I heard directly from one of the ticket recipients.

I'm going to go the Blatant Comment Whoring (© by Yellojkt) route, and ask what you, dear reader, think about this turn of events. I'd also be curious to know what the folks at the Board of Elections think.

Working McLunch

McDonalds Employee: Welcome to McDonalds. What can I get you?
The Devil: A Big Mac and a large Coke.
McDonalds Employee: Fries?
The Devil: No.
McDonalds Employee: It comes to $3.47.
The Devil: [to Elliot] Do you have $3.47? I left my purse in the Underworld.

--Bedazzled (2000)

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I'm writing this in the McDonald's on York Road, somewhere not far north of Cold Spring Lane. I figured I'd stop and actually eat inside instead of enroute in my car. Read my magazine, surf the web (they got the wi-fi here--$2.95 for two hours and never mind the sign that says "30-minute limit at tables".), that sort of thing, before continuing on to my next stop.

Naturally, my cell phone rings and, like an idiot I answer it. It's my boss, looking for the folder of a student that I'd taken over the weekend to pull apart and audit for errors. He needs the folder in his hands now, dammit, now!

So I won't be going to my next stop, I guess. 

Playing/Doctor

Father of the Bride: Hey, buddy, I'm not paying you to share your thoughts on life. I'm paying you to sing.
Robbie: Well, I have a microphone, and you don't, SO YOU WILL LISTEN TO EVERY DAMN WORD I HAVE TO SAY!

—The Wedding Singer (1998)

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Last night GF and I got to see The Wedding Singer, which is playing at the Hippodrome Theater through September 23. I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive about this, since I'm usually wary of films being made into plays. It seems kind of lazy. Plus, I didn't really enjoy this particular movie. But the tickets were freebies so we went.

For what it's worth, I was pleasantly surprised. It's no 42nd Street but it was a fun show nonetheless and I think the songs helped to carry some of it along. Yes, we got beat over the head with the mid-80s references ("Nobody's going to pay $3 for a cup of coffee"), but what the hell. We had a pleasant evening out. And after all the election stuff, it was a nice break.

Until.

We got home at a little after 11:00 and went almost straight to bed. Both of us fell asleep pretty quickly.

At 2:00 AM GF smacks me awake. She's been having problems with a hernia, and it's really bothering her. Didn't we just do this a few weeks ago? In fact, we did, but I chose not to write about it. I wake up Wee One and tell her to get dressed. She remembers the last time and decides to take a blanket and pillow with her.

We get to GBMC and it's déja vu all over again. The receptionist actually remembered her from the last time. This time around, however, the beds are full and we have to wait to be seen. It's not until nearly 4:00 that she gets taken into a treatment room and given an anti-emetic (apparently this is a nauseating hernia) and some painkillers. At about 6:15 we're sent on our way. The hernia has basically corrected itself. But it'll be back. GF has the doctor's appointment in place but who knows when they'll schedule the surgery.

We get home shortly before 7:00. I consider keeping Wee One home but she's been sleeping at the hospital, so she's actually kind of fresh. So I make her lunch and a few minutes later send her on her way to school. I, on the other hand, crash on the sofa and stay there almost until noon.

Excitement galore! Feel free to bore me for awhile. I swear I won't complain.

Down, Up, Down

Buck Barrow: Hey, you wanna hear a story 'bout this boy? He owned a dairy farm, see. And his ol' Ma, she was kinda sick, you know. And the doctor, he had called him come over, and said, uh, "Uhh listen, your Ma, she's lyin' there, she's just so sick and she's weakly, and uh, uh I want ya to try to persuade her to take a little brandy," you see. Just to pick her spirits up, ya know. And "Ma's a teetotaler," he says. "She wouldn't touch a drop."

  "Well, I'll tell ya whatcha do, uh," - the doc - "I'll tell ya whatcha do, you bring in a fresh quart of milk every day and you put some brandy in it, see. And see. You try that." So he did. And he doctored it all up with the brandy, fresh milk, and he gave it to his Mom. And she drank a little bit of it, you know.

   So next day, he brought it in again and she drank a little more, you know. And so they went on that way for the third day and just a little more, and the fourth day, she was, you know, took a little bit more - and then finally, one week later, he gave her the milk and she just drank it down. Boy, she swallowed the whole, whole, whole thing, you know. And she called him over and she said, "Son, whatever you do, don't sell that cow!"\

—Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

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The Baltimore Sun recently published a poll noting that 29% of respondents feel that Baltimore City is headed in the right direction.

The voter turnout was 28% and the voters kept Sheila Dixon as mayor and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake as City Council President. Coincidence? Maybe.

Nearly all of the incumbents who ran to retain their seat won with pretty convincing percentages. All of them had a clear majority of the voters. Mary Pat Clarke actually had over 96% of the vote in her district. Good for her; I hear nothing bad about her.

Oh, there's one exception to all of this. Ed Reisinger won with only 42% of the vote in the 10th district. The rest of it was divided among Terry Hickey (30%), Donnie Fair (14%) and Hunter Pruette (13%). (They don't add up because I rounded off.) Call it what you want, but don't call it a mandate. 58% of the voters wanted someone other than Ed.

The problem for me is that I don't think he'll get that message. I know his flunkies won't. This is going to be cause for celebration because, hey, he won. But it's also a kind of vindication in their heads. A kind of "We won, you lost, go suck it" attitude.

My concern is that he'll ignore the fact that most of the voters are actually unhappy with him: in the precinct surrounding Thomas Johnson Elementary School he actually lost, which he's never done before. (This despite the entire block being surrounded by Reisinger electioneers.) In Morrell Park—in his own back yard—he won by only about 30 votes.

This sort of thing should worry him, but it won't. And the 10th District will suffer for it, unless the people who live, and work, and own property there, take to heart the fact that your City Council representative works for you. It's not the other way around, as some of them would have you believe. Accountability begins at home, and I hope to god that pressure is maintained on him.

Why Are You Sitting There?

C.J. Cregg: Twenty-five years ago half of all 18 to 24 year olds voted. Today it's 25%. 18 to 24 year olds represent 33% of the population but only account for 7% of the voters. Think government isn't about you? How many of you have student loans to pay? How many have credit card debt? How many want clean air and clean water and civil liberties? How many want jobs? How many want kids? How many want their kids to go to good schools and walk on safe streets? Decisions are made by those who show up. You gotta rock the vote!

—The West Wing, "College Kids" (10/2/02)

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Spit out your doughnut!

No, no...that's too harsh. Doughnuts don't deserve that kind of treatment. Finish the doughnut.

All done? Good. Now get out there and vote.

Look at C.J.'s line (above) again: decisions are made by those who show up. If you don't participate in the process, if you don't vote, then when things don't go the way you like, you'll find that your license to bitch about it has expired.

If you're in the 10th, I may see you at the polls. I'll be spending some time at most of them.

Terry Hickey's Scoring Points

Danny Concannon: You keep glancing over here like you're afraid I'm going to steal something.
Mrs. Landingham: No. I'm just not used to having members of the print media in here.
Danny Concannon: I'll try not to get ink on the furniture.
Mrs. Landingham: Aw, Danny. And I was just about to offer you a cookie.
Danny Concannon: And now?
Mrs. Landingham: No.

—The West Wing, "The White House Pro-Am" (3/22/2000)

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These YouTube clips aren't from Wednesday night; they're from about a week earlier. Unfortunately (for me), nobody was taping the candidate forum that I moderated. But they were recording the one that took place at the Pratt Library in Brooklyn. Many of the arguments, however, aren't much different and I think they give a pretty good overview of his attitudes and why Terry Hickey would make for a good City Council member.

One of these videos has inserts from Reisinger that weren't recorded in Brooklyn. I'm not sure where those parts came from; clearly it's another forum of some kind.

And, I should have mentioned on Thursday, Ed Reisinger wasn't at the forum in Morrell Park. Let me say that again: Ed Reisinger skipped the candidate forum in his own neighborhood. He's either misread the level of support he has in that area, or he's that fatuous. Or both.

(I'll wait a moment while his supporters who are reading this go look that word up.)

This first clip is Hickey's opening remarks. I should mention that the camera angle seems to change from time to time because there were two cameras there. Why they're so shaky I don't know; as far as I remember they were both on tripods.

(If you can't see the above clip, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivougeBnxuo )

This one is a compilation of comments from Hickey, Donnie Fair and Reisinger. The guy at the beginning of the video was kind of funny in that his question went on longer than most of the candidates' answers. Fortunately for you we only get a few seconds of him here. Incidentally, if you're curious, I'm in the opening shot with my back to the camera. I appear to be next to the girl in the white T-shirt, but in fact she's a row ahead of me:

(If you can't see the above video, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FJgvXZXNGw )

This one is Hickey's closing comments at the forum. The last few seconds come from his opening remarks.

(If you can't see the above video, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoCUNajGDfE )

And here's some late-breaking news: In addition to the endorsement that came from the City Paper a few days ago, I've heard that the Baltimore Sun has announced its endorsement of Terry Hickey for the 10th District Council seat as well. (UPDATE: Here's the link.)

More to come, folks. Election Day will be pretty exciting in the 10th.

Funny You Should Ask, Geisha

Simon Baines: They can't evict you on Christmas! Then you'd be ho-ho-homeless!

—Go (1999)

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Today was my day in Rent Court.

I'd been there once before, when I was a renter and my roommate and I paid the rent a couple of days (as in, TWO days) late. Regional Management (Boo!) jumps on that sort of thing like a starving dog jumps on raw meat. So we had to go and demonstrate that we'd already paid. So I knew it was a lot of "Be There On Time So You Can Sit Around Waiting," therefore that wasn't much of a surprise. Plus, this time I'm on the side of the angels so there's no anxiety here.

As I mentioned earlier, on the day that I filed for the eviction I got a call from the tenants' daughter, who was living with them. She wanted to meet with me. So GF and I went down to Morrell Park to find out what was going on.

It turned out that her parents had cleaned out their stuff and bailed out of the house, leaving her there. They didn't even tell her that they were doing this; they did it on the sly while she was at work. They did, however, leave a check for the July rent, half of which, she told me, came from her.

So the parents, my tenants, are in a state of Whereabouts Unknown, and the daughter, who isn't on the lease but is in the house, is left in the lurch. She and her boyfriend do want to stay, however, and even enlisted an adult friend (someone—ahem—closer to my age) to vouch for them. I wasn't sure how this was all going to work out because we're all in the woods from a legal standpoint. But I figure I'll take the July check, keep the security deposit and call it August, and get the judge to vacate the original lease so I can start over with them. I contact my attorney friend and he says that judges tend to like any solution that doesn't involve calling in the Sheriff, but we'd still have to get the court's OK to do this.

In the interim, the check bounces because they'd put a stop payment on it. Even the daughter is pissed because she's out her half of that money. In fact, she's out twice because she'd paid them for July and August.

Flash-forward to today.

I'm in the rent court and, watching the other cases going up, realize that the judge doesn't really want to hear the whole thing. So when I get called up, I tell the judge that the tenants appear to have abandoned the property. He asks me, "Have you reclaimed the property?" I tell him no, that I was waiting for the court to give me permission. He says, "Go ahead, then." And we're done.

So I don't know. Maybe I'm stupid to allow the daughter to stay, but at the same time I've been the broke kid who needs a little compassion from a relative stranger. But she also knows that she's on thin ice because of what happened earlier, so I think she's going to be more careful about doing stuff in a timely fashion. Worse comes to worst, I'm back in court again and the house-renting experiment is over.