Back Seat

Federal Reserve policymakers, who declared that inflation was their paramount challenge just two weeks ago, have been forced to make financial-market stability the trigger for changes in interest rates. By lowering the discount rate and issuing a statement conceding threats to the economy, Fed policymakers effectively ripped up the economic-outlook statement from their Aug. 7 meeting. The lowering of the discount rate Friday came after months of assurances that the subprime-mortgage crisis was contained.

For a trip to Cancun in February, Troy Whaley wanted a hotel with easy access to shopping, dining and night life that also had some appealing amenities, so that after a day of exploring he and his wife could come back and chill out by the pool with a drink in hand. The NH Krystal Cancun, with its oceanfront pool and convenient location within walking distance of popular shops and restaurants, seemed perfect. But when Whaley paddled up to the swim-up bar to unwind one afternoon during his stay, he was abruptly turned away without his rum punch.

Young people of today, I hear you whining about having to take a long car trip this summer with your mom and dad, and how horrible and boring that will be, and I have to chuckle in an annoying, patronizing way. Oh, I am not going to call you wimps or wusses or anything like that. But I will say this without fear of contradiction: Your summer car trip will be a breeze compared with what kids of my generation went through. Picture this: the hot, sticky back seat of a 1963 Ford Fairlane station wagon.

A Harford County jury will begin deliberations this morning in the trial of an Aberdeen Proving Ground soldier who tried to evade deployment overseas by stealing a car with the owner's 5-year-old son in the back seat. Prosecutors said Brandon Lee Taylor, 19, an Oregon resident who was a private-in-training with the 143rd Ordnance Battalion, had been drinking at a Baltimore strip club July 3 when he returned to Edgewood and tried to steal a car that was idling at the Shell Mart in the 1700 block of Hanson Road.

First-graders at Jeffers Hill Elementary School in Columbia couldn't take their eyes off Otto, the automated talking car, as it wheeled around the cafeteria talking about safety and cracking jokes. The little car, about 3 feet high with a wide smile on its radiator grille and red and blue lights painted on its roof, wheeled up to pupils to ask questions. The children looked right into its plastic eyes to answer. The remote-controlled car was giving a presentation with county Police Officer Brian Markley, who works with Mid-Atlantic AAA on safety programs.

As Baltimore officials considered razing the 100-year-old Rochambeau apartment building, the city's codes and ordinances succumbed fairly quickly before the Archdiocese of Baltimore's arguments of faith. Church leaders, empowered by a federal law that gives religious organizations special treatment in land-use cases, convinced the city that denying them a demolition permit to build a prayer garden amounted to denying them the right to practice their religion. But not everyone finds that federal law as incontestable as does Baltimore.

Adding an area rug to a room basically used to mean one thing: buying an Oriental. Not anymore. The traditional, Persian-carpet look that long dominated the rug industry is being edged aside by bright, snappy, contemporary designs. From the high end to the low, area rugs are sprouting fields of giant flowers and clouds of bubbles and swirls. They're boasting kinetic grids and stripes, and a palette of candy colors guaranteed to wake up a room. "More than half of our business is contemporary now," says Austin Craley, vice president of sales for Momeni Inc., whose rugs supply thousands of retailers across the country.

As Carol Vasques noted, the point of being in parking lots is to stop, get out of your car, and enter the buildings nearby. Last week, I asked for your parking-lot woes, and your responses drove the message home: Courtesy does not seem to exist in a driver's quest for a good spot. Theoretically, there are at least as many - and probably more - pedestrians than drivers in any given parking lot. Then why are drivers in parking lots so hostile to pedestrians, Ms. Vasques wondered. "Drivers zip up, down and across parking lots or garages, blatantly ignoring any traffic signals such as the one-way, speed-limit, stop or yield signs," she said.

There was more to SMU's 21-10 victory over then-No. 22 TCU last week than it being the first win over a ranked team for the Mustangs in 19 years, and the biggest since Phil Bennett arrived on the SMU campus after the 2001 season. "I'm one of the few that will say it: They've stuck their nose up at us for a long time," said Bennett, a former TCU assistant. "About six years they didn't want to be associated with us. This was a pride factor, not just for the football team, but this whole university."

At the time, the Ravens didn't see much good out of last year's season-opening loss to the Cleveland Browns. The defeat to a team that eventually finished tied for the second-worst record in the NFL set a bad vibe for a season in which the Ravens finished a game out of the final playoff spot. It was one of the biggest upset losses in team history. But a year later, as the Ravens prepare to begin a new season hosting the high-powered Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night, a lesson learned from that game can be applied and highlighted this week.