Wheeling and dealing
More than 60 bicyclists -- some wearing devil's horns on their helmets, others peace signs -- blocked traffic on Calvert Street during rush hour Friday as they slowly pedaled north in a cluster of nonviolent protesters. They ignored traffic lights, lane markers, the honking of horns and even the cursing of drivers.
"We're not interfering with the traffic. We are the traffic," said Darren S. Gray, a Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering student who organized the bicycle rally, which the group calls "critical mass."
"The point is to show that we'd have fewer traffic jams and less pollution if more people rode their bicycles to commute."
The next monthly bicycle protest will start at Redwood and Charles streets at 5:30 p.m. on the last Friday in October, which happens to be Halloween. Everyone will wear costumes. Talk about a traffic nightmare.
-- Tom Pelton
It's time for glasses
People have been doing double-takes ever since a wax figure of the late Bea Gaddy popped up in City Hall a few weeks ago to promote an annual food drive named for the former city councilwoman.
One person faked out last week was Baltimore Ravens defensive back Gary Baxter. He was in City Hall as part of an effort to help Fells Point clean up after Isabel.
Baxter took a look at the petite, gray-haired woman standing in the rotunda. Then he looked again.
"She was standing still. I thought she was posing for a picture," Baxter said, laughing. "I was waiting for some flashes or something. It got me real good. She looks real."
-- Laura Vozzella
Covering all the bases
Mitchell Klein, chief Maryland organizer for the community group ACORN, is in India for about a week to see what he can learn from community, political and labor organizers there.
Among the groups his Indian counterparts are busy organizing: untouchables and prostitutes.
-- Laura Vozzella
You have to guess
Asked shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday whether any Baltimore City schools would remain closed the next day, school system spokeswoman Edie House responded that there were four -- but that she could not name them.
She explained that she did not want to provide details of the closures because "things could change tomorrow morning." Yet she said it would be inaccurate to say that all Baltimore City schools would be open, pending further review Wednesday morning.
