Blow

Thank you for your great reporting to help keep the citizens of Maryland aware of the plan to move the USNS Comfort to Norfolk, Va. ("Navy moving comfort to Va. " Feb. 15). This almost does not make sense given the advantage of keeping the hospital ship in Baltimore and the $40 million it will cost the state in lost economic activity. Sadly, this is just another failure of many in the Maryland General Assembly and our congressional delegation to understand root causes and nip a potential loss in the bud several years ago. If one kept a score sheet of Maryland's private sector jobs and business losses and those that did not select Maryland to set up business over the past decade, the job losses would outnumber the gains.

Orioles reliever Pedro Strop has heard the boos from the Camden Yards crowd this year as he's struggled to find the form that made him one of the best setup men in baseball for most of last season. But as Strop walked off the mound Wednesday afternoon after a two-run seventh-inning lead quickly turned into a four-run deficit, the boos from the announced 25,964 reached their loudest this season - and likely the loudest toward an Oriole since maligned former closer Kevin Gregg's tenure.

On March 29, 2004, VIOLA, beloved mother of Rosa Cain, Mildred Neblett and Rev. Samuel Blow. She is also survived by five grandchildren, one sister, one brother and a host of other relatives. Mrs. Blow will lie in state at the New Shiloh Baptist Church, 105 East Ave., Turner Station, on Friday, 2 P.M. Friends may view 2 to 8 P.M. On Saturday, the family will receive friends friends 10:30 to 11 A.M., followed by Funeral Services at the church. Interment in Holly Hill Memorial Gardens. Arrangements by James A. Morton and Sons Funeral Homes, Inc.

Orioles closer Jim Johnson entered the ninth inning of Sunday afternoon's game against the Toronto Blue Jays coming off two clean outings, including saving a one-run win the day before. But Johnson walked off the field -- with Blue Jays players running around the field in jubilation -- with an all too familiar feeling of frustration. Johnson couldn't preserve a three-run, ninth-inning lead, blowing his fourth save in his past five opportunities in the Orioles' 6-5 walkoff loss at the Rogers Centre.

The Chicago Tribune said in an editorial Monday:IT'S TOO soon to know how the government's historic antitrust suit against Microsoft Corp. will play out, but those who treasure memorable -- and deliciously wrong -- predictions already have won."This antitrust thing will blow over," Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates allegedly told executives from Intel Co. in July 1995, according to notes introduced at trial by the government.L Maybe he meant "blow over" like Hurricane Mitch in Honduras.

Viola Blow, a retired City Hospital technician and church choir member, died Monday at Rossville Nursing Home after a brief illness. The Turner Station resident was 81. Known by her nickname, Babe, Viola Clinton was born in Smithfield, Va. She moved to Baltimore, where she was raised by Coleman and Nafroth Henry and attended public schools in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. After graduating from Frederick Douglass High School in 1941, she met Milton Blow, who worked at Bethlehem Steel for about 45 years.

America's last combat bugler knew it was time to put down his horn when they started booing him at Memorial Stadium.The year was 1985 and the old soldier, celebrated at the 33rd Street ballpark as "Pat the Bugler," was down to his last four teeth.A man who pantomimed taps before John F. Kennedy's horse-drawn casket, roused Oriole fans through six World Series and knew the privilege of playing a cavalry bugle found amid the carnage of Custer's Last Stand at Little Big Horn, he had to concede that it hurt too much to blow.

NEW YORK - Police officers escorted a pilot off an Air France plane that was scheduled to fly to Paris on Friday after he made comments to baggage screeners that the plane was going to blow up, that he was going to blow up, and that the story would end up on the front page of The New York Times, the authorities said. The incident occurred about 5 p.m. Friday at John F. Kennedy International Airport. A piece of checked luggage belonging to the pilot, whose name was not released, set off an alarm when sent through a large explosive detection machine in the airport, said Amy von Walter, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, the agency in charge of screening at the nation's major airports.

LONDON -- One was a well-known student activist at London Metropolitan University whom a friend described as a moderate. Another worked in security at Heathrow airport. Another had a job in a pizza parlor. The youngest of the alleged plotters was only 17. They lived seemingly ordinary lives on ordinary streets in the immigrant neighborhoods of London, Birmingham and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. Friends and neighbors could have no idea they were planning murder on a mass scale. But little more than a month after Britain marked the first anniversary of the July 7 suicide attacks that killed 52 London commuters, the nation was slowly coming to grips with reports that another, even more ambitious network had taken root in their midst.

Maersk Inc. has once again cut back its shipping service at the port of Baltimore, greatly diminishing the presence here of one of the world's largest and most prestigious steamship lines.The move this week ending service from Baltimore to the Middle East and India via the Suez Canal stems from Maersk's continuing assessment of how to use the 175-ship fleet resulting from its alliance with Sea-Land Service Inc.The latest decision by Maersk had been anticipated since the Danish shipping company in April abruptly suspended its weekly South American service here.

Orioles closer Jim Johnson can be depended on to always be at his locker to answer questions anytime he becomes a focal point of a game following a blown save. Those times have been rare, until recently, as Johnson has blown three consecutive ninth-inning leads that all ended in losses.Following the Orioles' 6-4 loss to the New York Yankees in the 10th inning on Monday at Camden Yards, Johnson put the team's season-high six-game losing streak in perspective. “Well, three of them are my fault,” Johnson said.

Jim Johnson's impressive regular season saves streak came to an end at 35 on Tuesday night when he allowed four singles and two runs in the ninth in the Orioles' 3-2 loss to the San Diego Padres . Johnson hadn't blown a regular season save since he gave up six runs in one third of an inning to the Oakland A's on July 27, 2012. He did blow one in the postseason - Game 3 of the ALDS in New York on Oct. 10 - but that didn't count toward the streak. Point is Johnson has been unbelievably good for the last year-plus, and so when he blows one it is newsworthy.

Buck Showalter's first glimpse of closer Jim Johnson inside the Orioles clubhouse moments after his remarkable consecutive-save streak came to an sudden end Tuesday night was the sight of Johnson working up a sweat on the exercise bike in the training room. “He's grinding out on a bicycle,” the Orioles manager said, “Getting ready for [Wednesday].” Johnson's franchise-record streak of 35 consecutive converted regular-season save opportunities was snapped Tuesday night as the San Diego Padres rallied for two runs in the ninth off Johnson for a 3-2 win over the Orioles in front of an announced 19,096 at Camden Yards.

A "go home" Raw (the last episode before a pay-per-view event) is always watched with extra attention, mostly because critics have the same question -- did this particular show do anything to increase my interest in buying the pay-per-view on Sunday? Lately, many of these critics have answered no. Many people feel that Raw last night was no different -- that it was flat, lacked spark and didn't do very much to push the figurative "buy rate" needle. These, of course, are criticisms that always arise for this particular (mostly monthly)

In President Barack Obama's running argument with the Republicans in Congress over who's responsible for the legislative stalemate on Capitol Hill, he suffers self-inflicted wounds by continuing to run up the same white flag that undermined his own efforts in his first term. He did it again in his embarrassing cave-in to Congress' makeshift response to the air traffic controllers' furloughs that briefly stalled travel, acquiescing in shifting $253 million in Federal Aviation Administration funds to keep them on the job. In so doing, he invited allegations of crumbling to legislators more concerned about getting to and from their districts than solving the fiscal sequester nightmare paralyzing the government.

Baltimore schools CEO Andrés Alonso's resignation at the end of this academic year is a major blow to a city whose trajectory he helped change. There can be little doubt that the energetic and rapid reforms he implemented in the city's long-struggling school system have set the stage for broader renewal and growth in Baltimore. But city leaders also need to look on his departure as a tremendous opportunity, a chance to bring in a new superintendent who will build on Mr. Alonso's successes.

FREDERICK -- Allison Bly, known throughout the minor league baseball and Monster Truck circuits as the Dynamite Lady, signs autographs during a Frederick Keys baseball game. A 9-year-old girl, Samantha Cook from Washington, approaches timidly."Is she going to die?" the little girl says in the breathless, hushed tone of one speaking in a mortuary.The Dynamite Lady says cheerfully: "No honey, I'm not going to die. But you're going to stay and watch the show, aren't you?"Who isn't staying? This 29-year-old bubbly, fresh-faced woman is soon going to climb into a plastic foam box at home plate and blow herself to smithereens.

The Cornell men's lacrosse team's bid for a seventh consecutive Ivy League championship suffered a blow with the loss of three defensive starters. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/lacrosseblog)

Joe Lustgarten scored the final two goals, including the game-winner with 55seconds left and an insurance goal 21seconds later, to cap a 6-0 run as the third-seeded UMBC men's lacrosse team upset second-seeded Hartford, 15-13, in an America East Conference semifinal at Stony Brook's LaValle Stadium. The Retrievers (7-7) advance to their first championship game since 2009 and will meet No. 10 Albany on Saturday at 10 a.m.. Lustgarten led the Retrievers with four goals and two assists, while Scott Jones and freshman Pat Young added three goals each.

Congratulations on another example of your extreme liberal bias when you commented on the opening of the Bush library ("Misoverestimating George W. Bush," April 28). Your hatred knows no bounds when you denigrate an individual who at the same time was being praised by two of your heroes, the former Philanderer in Chief and the current Spendthrift in Chief. What activities do you engage in when not employed by The Sun, a rapidly descending newspaper? Do you cheer at military funerals like that radical Baptist Church group or do you engage in more discreet activities like kicking the canes from under old ladies?