Adjectives

WHAT DOES it mean when you hear that a dear friend has had a heart attack and is in the hospital in critical condition? Just how bad is critical? You might call the hospital the next day and be told his condition is stable. Does that mean he is out of danger now?Perhaps you read about an accident on I-95 in which three local teen-agers are hurt. The paper says one of the passengers was hospitalized in critical condition. The next day you read that the teen's condition is guarded. Does that mean he is getting better or worse?

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a relatively obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar, another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: GIT No, not the rural American imperative of get , but the British slang for "a worthless person. " The etymology is interesting; the word derives from the old word get , "offspring. " When you beget , your get is what you get, your begotten . Git is, for those fond of British slang (and who isn't?

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a relatively obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar, another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: GIT No, not the rural American imperative of get , but the British slang for "a worthless person. " The etymology is interesting; the word derives from the old word get , "offspring. " When you beget , your get is what you get, your begotten . Git is, for those fond of British slang (and who isn't?

black blak (adjective) 1: of the color black; 2: of or relating to the African-American people; 3: dirty, soiled; 4: thoroughly sinister or evil; 5: connected with the supernatural and especially the devil - adapted from Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary Last year, Sen. Joe Biden made a comment some people considered racially insensitive toward Sen. Barack Obama. Mr. Obama's response was a mild one - he called Mr. Biden's remark "historically inaccurate." This earned him a harsh rebuke from one of my readers.

If there is anything more futile than coveting a man's soul, it is pretending to be that man.I wanted to be the poet Charles "Hank" Bukowski.I tried to be Bukowski.Now Hank is dead, and I've stopped trying.This month, leukemia took Hank away at 73. His family came to America from Germany when he was 3, landing first in Baltimore. They settled in Los Angeles. It was here that Hank suffered his father's stern discipline, without escape, until finding solace in a bottle at age 13. Like Los Angeles, booze would both corrupt and create his writing all his life.

Here is a sentence building activity to try after reading "The Biggest Bear." For this activity you will need construction paper, scissors and a pencil.Directions:Cut 25 2-inch squares out of construction paper. On five squares, write nouns (people and things) such as: bear, mother, Johnny, maple sugar, pancakes.On five more squares write verbs (action words) such as: ran, ate, live, see, likes, makes.On five more squares write adjectives (describing words) such as: big, sweet, old, fast, little.

WASHINGTON - I can't imagine what Sen. Edward M. Kennedy must feel. I mean, I know it's traumatic to see your brother shot in the head and killed. But what must it add to your pain to see that tragedy become a video game? It happened last week. The game, available online, is called JFK Reloaded, and it was released to coincide with the 41st anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Download the game at a cost of $9.99 and you find yourself on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas.

HERE IS a review H. L. Mencken did for the American Mercury, in December 1930, that we happened upon and now pass along, condensed:"THE BOSTON COOKING-SCHOOL COOK-BOOK, by Fannie Merritt Farmer. $2.50. 831pp."Miss Farmer, I take it, has long since joined the angel host, but her cooking school in Boston still goes on, and so does her cook-book. . . First published in 1896. . . its circulation to date, including the initial printing to the present revision, runs to 1,436,000 copies. Obviously, a technical work in such heavy demand must have some merits.

LATE 20th CENTURY Americans can be selfish beings -- consumed with life in our own back yards, too busy with day-to-day hassles to expend much angst on others' troubles. But we have a soft spot for specific hard-luck stories, for tragedies with faces. Little Jessica stuck in a well. Five children orphaned when a car strikes their mother in front of Meyerhoff Hall. Every so often our emotions are tripped by someone's troubles. Then our largess can be overwhelming.So it has been with Sun reporter Lorraine Mirabella's story about a desperate Northeast Baltimore family.

IT'S NOT A QUESTION of sticking your nose in somebody else's business. It's a question of somebody else's business sticking in your nose.And the business is perfume. Or more precisely perfume abuse. Which nobody to date has addressed in a serious fashion. Nobody has said, look this is reaching epic proportions. My nose is being assaulted every day by some personage who, unhappy with her own smell, has DOUSED herself in a substance that should have been DABBED.Such as the lady who just sat down in front of you. Who has drenched herself in such a megadose of perfume that if you don't get a hit of real oxygen in about 10 seconds, it is just possible that the 911 folks are going to be cordially invited to come and work you over.

The Oakland Raiders were more than capable of coming unglued without any help, but the deafening record crowd of 70,744 at M&T Bank Stadium got credit for an assist after the Ravens' 28-6 victory. "All 53 of their guys must have been blown away," tight end Todd Heap said, "because I was blown away." Though the Raiders did not cite the crowd noise as a major factor in their second offensive collapse of the young season, it probably was not a coincidence that they mishandled four snaps and turned the ball over six times.

There is every reason for Ravenstown to be encouraged after one game. The only reason not to be encouraged is, well, it's one game. The Ravens' throttling of the Buccaneers on Sunday in Tampa, Fla., was replete with vivid messages deliverable to the rest of the NFL. Steve McNair looks more than capable of leading a winning team. Ray Lewis has officially re-engaged. Chris McAlister is awake this year. Considering what fans in Baltimore have endured over the past two seasons - losing football, offensive ineptitude, occasionally indecipherable adjectives (not to mention their eighth and ninth straight losing seasons in that other sport)

In the lobby of the Anchorage Towers in Canton, someone's swept the coins at the bottom of a burbling fountain into the shape of an anchor. Clearly that's not where Ed Hale's been throwing his money. Fourteen flights up in the penthouse, Hale, chief executive officer of 1st Mariner Bank, developer and owner of the Baltimore Blast professional soccer team, has used more than a little of his spare change to create a swank bachelor pad with breathtaking views of the city he has literally worked his way to the top of. But Hale wants to cash out and trade up. To move just feet down Boston Street into the top of a 17-story office tower he's building there, Hale is selling the condo he spent a decade molding to fit his definition of man-about-town luxury.

WASHINGTON - I can't imagine what Sen. Edward M. Kennedy must feel. I mean, I know it's traumatic to see your brother shot in the head and killed. But what must it add to your pain to see that tragedy become a video game? It happened last week. The game, available online, is called JFK Reloaded, and it was released to coincide with the 41st anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Download the game at a cost of $9.99 and you find yourself on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas.

ONE OF the verities of my life, a pillar of worldly wisdom, has crumbled. Namely, if you want your tomatoes to ripen, you go on vacation. Not so this year, the summer of green tomatoes. Prior seasons have taught me that I could double dig, could enhance the soil, could spritz plants with a seaweed solution, and the garden might tease me by yielding a little fruit. But the only surefire way to start the full-scale, basket-bulging production was to leave town. This meant that, like many frustrated gardeners, sometime in midsummer I would announce to all plants concerned that "I am going on vacation tomorrow."

CHESTERTOWN -- The freshmen of Washington College arrived at the O'Neill Literary House equipped with the tools of their trade -- pungent poetry and prickly prose, meticulous metaphors and assertive adjectives -- ready for their first venture into the public eye. The occasion was the college's annual Freshman Reading -- an event that would pass with little notice on most campuses but is a fairly big deal at this school of 1,200 on the Eastern Shore....

CHESTERTOWN -- The freshmen of Washington College arrived at the O'Neill Literary House equipped with the tools of their trade -- pungent poetry and prickly prose, meticulous metaphors and assertive adjectives -- ready for their first venture into the public eye. The occasion was the college's annual Freshman Reading -- an event that would pass with little notice on most campuses but is a fairly big deal at this school of 1,200 on the Eastern Shore....

ONE OF the verities of my life, a pillar of worldly wisdom, has crumbled. Namely, if you want your tomatoes to ripen, you go on vacation. Not so this year, the summer of green tomatoes. Prior seasons have taught me that I could double dig, could enhance the soil, could spritz plants with a seaweed solution, and the garden might tease me by yielding a little fruit. But the only surefire way to start the full-scale, basket-bulging production was to leave town. This meant that, like many frustrated gardeners, sometime in midsummer I would announce to all plants concerned that "I am going on vacation tomorrow."

My all-male, eighth-grade history students have watched the drama in Florida unfold much as they would a high-stakes World Wrestling Federation match on television. While it's hard to filter what is truly their impression and what is spoon-fed them by well-meaning parents, there are some basic principles at play down in the Sunshine State that strike a chord with a 14-year-old's world view. Competitions are exciting. At points along the way, each side claims either to be winning or to have won, aided by not-unbiased onlookers.

Here is a sentence building activity to try after reading "The Biggest Bear." For this activity you will need construction paper, scissors and a pencil.Directions:Cut 25 2-inch squares out of construction paper. On five squares, write nouns (people and things) such as: bear, mother, Johnny, maple sugar, pancakes.On five more squares write verbs (action words) such as: ran, ate, live, see, likes, makes.On five more squares write adjectives (describing words) such as: big, sweet, old, fast, little.