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You take your good news where you get it and here's mine: the Preakness sent Kegasus packing. You remember Kegasus. Sleaze-ball centaur with the biker haircut and beer gut? Budweiser-swilling centerpiece of the Infield Fest ad campaign the past two years? Gone. Got the proverbial pink-slip. You won't see him Saturday for the 138th Preakness Stakes. "He went back to the islands and I haven't seen him since," Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas joked the other day. Good thing.

I should have helped him. He was an older man with slightly slumped shoulders and an uneven cadence that slowed his pace.   "May I help you?" the young receptionist greeted him with an overly bright smile. I wondered if she needed to speak so loudly. We were the only two in the waiting area. I looked down at the clipboard in my lap that pinched a half dozen pieces of paper — medical forms to fill out, check off and sign my life away. He replied to her in a soft tone, his phrases short, but precise.

Do you feel uninspired at work? Do you have more frequent blah moments? Do you count the minutes until lunch break or until you can leave the office? With job cuts resulting in increasing workload and stress, it is any surprise you're feeling unmotivated? But don't expect to get re-energized from your boss or the company because, let's face it, it seems everyone is struggling. You have the power to take control and change your attitude. Here is some advice from Kathy Bovard, coordinator of the human resources development graduate program at McDaniel College in Westminster, on how to find your work mojo again.

Funny how things work in the NFL. Even though they're 9-3 going into Sunday's game against the Washington Redskins, the Ravens spent much of the week fielding questions about their state of mind. It got so bad, you half expected to see Dr. Phil working the locker room or Joe Flacco huddling with Jack Canfield, the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" life-improvement guru. It seemed as if everyone with a microphone or notepad wanted to know how the Ravens were dealing with that ugly 23-20 home loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Numbers lie.It's a corny sporting truism that neatly sums up the Orioles' joyless, forgettable season that ends today -- and highlights the general direction their rebuilding should take.The club finished first in the American League in defense, near the top in pitching and near the bottom in hitting. From that, we should conclude that offense, or the lack of it, was chiefly responsible for 3 million fans at Camden Yards having so little to cheer about, right?Wrong.Not that the lack of offense wasn't a problem.

I am offended by columnist Leonard Pitts' applause for Rep. Maxine Waters' telling the tea party to "go straight to hell," as well as by letter writer Thad Paulhamus' remark that "the tea party, and by extension, the entire Republican Party with which it is almost unanimously affiliated, has made no secret of its aim to cripple and foreshorten the administration of our current president" - blah, blah, blah. Both comments are specious and irresponsible. I, and 99 percent of my Republican friends, are "affiliated" with the tea party on one issue and one issue only: Out of control congressional spending.

A RECENT STUDY in the journal Science concludes that dogs may be able to master vocabularies of up to 200 words. The border collie in the study exhibited advanced reasoning skills, using the process of elimination to figure out the meaning of new words. These findings have the experts pretty excited. I think the reaction of the average dog owner would be either, "See, I told you Fluffy understands every word I say," or, "That study doesn't begin to capture the brilliance of my little Fluffy."

Eric Shain thought shorthand sounded like a good class for his senior year.The 17-year-old high school student wants to study medicine at the University of Florida."

In a recent column I noted that certain songs are always getting played on the radio, despite the fact that these songs are bad. One example I cited was Neil Diamond's ballad "I Am, I Said," in which Neil complains repeatedly that nobody hears him, "not even the chair." I pointed out that this does not make sense, unless Neil has unusually intelligent furniture.Well, it turns out there are some major Neil Diamond fans out there in Readerland who sent me a large pile of hostile mail. In the interest of fairness, I will summarize their arguments here:"Dear Pukenose:"Just who the hell do you think you are to blah blah a great artist like Neil blah blah more than 20 gold records blah blah how many gold records do you have?

Editor:  This is a response to the Open Forum article "Being Uncompromising …," which was a response to an editorial "Just like sausage. "   Pat [Patrick McGrady], I read both the Dec. 28 editorial and your response to the editorial and I have to say when I read your response all I heard in my head was "blah, blah, blah. " It really had no relationship to what was in the editorial, and was more a rant on how the Republican representatives in Annapolis can't get any of their pork barrel legislation passed because of the mean old Democrats.  But I suspect there was an ulterior motive to your article, and here is what I suspect it was. An encrypted cipher within the text which relayed the following message to your Republican cronies… "Hey guys, I tried to get those bills passed that would cut your taxes and put more loopholes in the tax code so you all can make more money on the backs of the middle class, so you all can get that larger yacht and the fourth home in Costa Rica. But those dog-gone Democrats messed it up.  Well I'll try again next year!

Ho-hum, another game, another PR Hindenburg for the NFL. And this'll shock you. It had to do with the replacement refs again. Of course, it's not like this one was nationally-televised or any -- oh, wait. Last night's Packers-Seahawks game WAS nationally-televised. Which makes that officiating debacle at the end of the Seahawks' debatable 14-12 win over Green Bay even more embarrassing. And the NFL is worried that Ravens coach John Harbaugh bumped an official in Baltimore's flag-marred 31-30 win over New England the other night?

The TV cameras made it look even worse. With the red-hot  Orioles on their way to a thrilling 4-3 win over the Chicago White Sox on Monday night, MASN cameras revealed vast stretches of empty green seats at Camden Yardsall night, making it look like it was a slow-pitch softball game between a bunch of fat guys rather than two major league teams fighting to make the playoffs. The crowd was announced at 10,995 and there seemed to be far fewer fans than that when O's left-fielder Nate McLouth cranked a game-winning two-run homer in the eighth inning to pull the Orioles to within 3 ½ games of the Yankees in the American League East.

Baltimore Sun columnist Mike Preston answers a selection of reader questions about the Ravens' 23-20 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game, how the team should move forward in the offseason, and much more. Ron H.: Super Bowl berth hanging in the balance, why didn't the refs at least review the pass to Lee Evans that was ruled incomplete? I thought all you had to do for a touchdown was possess the ball and get two feet down. He not only caught the ball, but took two steps before it was stripped.

Editor:  This is a response to the Open Forum article "Being Uncompromising …," which was a response to an editorial "Just like sausage. "   Pat [Patrick McGrady], I read both the Dec. 28 editorial and your response to the editorial and I have to say when I read your response all I heard in my head was "blah, blah, blah. " It really had no relationship to what was in the editorial, and was more a rant on how the Republican representatives in Annapolis can't get any of their pork barrel legislation passed because of the mean old Democrats.  But I suspect there was an ulterior motive to your article, and here is what I suspect it was. An encrypted cipher within the text which relayed the following message to your Republican cronies… "Hey guys, I tried to get those bills passed that would cut your taxes and put more loopholes in the tax code so you all can make more money on the backs of the middle class, so you all can get that larger yacht and the fourth home in Costa Rica. But those dog-gone Democrats messed it up.  Well I'll try again next year!

I am offended by columnist Leonard Pitts' applause for Rep. Maxine Waters' telling the tea party to "go straight to hell," as well as by letter writer Thad Paulhamus' remark that "the tea party, and by extension, the entire Republican Party with which it is almost unanimously affiliated, has made no secret of its aim to cripple and foreshorten the administration of our current president" - blah, blah, blah. Both comments are specious and irresponsible. I, and 99 percent of my Republican friends, are "affiliated" with the tea party on one issue and one issue only: Out of control congressional spending.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources offers events for adventurers, and those who are bored over winter vacation. Here are a few to consider: Mountain Reflections: Every day until Jan. 1, 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.; $7 per car, $15 per van, $50 per tour bus. Rocky Gap State Park, 12500 Pleasant Valley Road, Flintstone (Allegany County). Mountain Reflections is a seasonal light show with more than 60 animated and stationary colorful lit displays. Proceeds benefit the American Red Cross.

Today we compare various tourist attractions in Nashville with those in Baltimore. Please. It's not even close. NASHVILLE Grand Ole Opry Over-hyped country music mecca responsible for steady rise in hearing damage throughout region. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Ho-hum repository of guitars, rhinestone outfits, cowboys boots, etc., plus usual photos of Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, blah, blah, blah. Nashville Zoo Bleak 200 acres populated with freezing, desperate-looking animals.

Hillary would take money from lobbyists. Obama would invade Pakistan. John Edwards gets $400 haircuts. Fred Thompson is either an actor playing a politician or a politician playing an actor. Rudy's children don't speak to him. Mitt's a Mormon but only once married. John McCain is the incredible shrinking candidate. And then there's Joe, Bill, Mike, Ron, Chris, Dennis, Tom, Tommy and that guy from Alaska. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Welcome to the interminable presidential campaign of 2008, such a constant presence that it is all but ignored, a political Muzak of background noise.

Do you feel uninspired at work? Do you have more frequent blah moments? Do you count the minutes until lunch break or until you can leave the office? With job cuts resulting in increasing workload and stress, it is any surprise you're feeling unmotivated? But don't expect to get re-energized from your boss or the company because, let's face it, it seems everyone is struggling. You have the power to take control and change your attitude. Here is some advice from Kathy Bovard, coordinator of the human resources development graduate program at McDaniel College in Westminster, on how to find your work mojo again.