Bunk Beds

In July 2010, Adarien Jackson's 6-year-old son, Kaden, began complaining of itchy bumps on his ankles. They soon turned into a rash and spread to his back, behind his ear, and on his eyelid. The child's pediatrician and dermatologists tried allergy drugs, diet changes, oils and oatmeal baths. But it wasn't until months later that Jackson discovered the cause of the problem. Kaden's twin brother, Kyler, began waking in the middle of the night, crying out, "Bugs are crawling on me!"

In July 2010, Adarien Jackson's 6-year-old son, Kaden, began complaining of itchy bumps on his ankles. They soon turned into a rash and spread to his back, behind his ear, and on his eyelid. The child's pediatrician and dermatologists tried allergy drugs, diet changes, oils and oatmeal baths. But it wasn't until months later that Jackson discovered the cause of the problem. Kaden's twin brother, Kyler, began waking in the middle of the night, crying out, "Bugs are crawling on me!"

Bunk beds can be a source of injury among young childrenA STANDARD piece of furniture in many families, bunk beds, can be more than a little dangerous. During a one-year study at the emergency department of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 68 children were treated for injuries that resulted from falls from the double-decker beds, according to a report in the American Journal of Diseases of Children. Age may have something to do with risk. About 70 percent of the injured children were younger than 6, said Dr. Steven Selbst and colleagues.

Take away the boardwalk fries, the crowded streets, the saltwater taffy, the "I'm With Stupid" T-shirts, and what do you have? Pocomoke River State Park. Granted, there are some other trade-offs involved in swapping Ocean City for the greater Pocomoke City metropolitan area. But if you didn't get around to planning the specifics of a late-summer camping vacation (that is, lodging) until now and would still like to fish and hike, with a day trip or two to mingle with the boardwalk hordes, then the state park 25 miles south of Ocean City could be the answer.

Herbert Berry Jr. has vivid memories of C Dorm. You don't forget a place where you were assaulted. Or a place where you were stabbed. Or a place where your knees were so badly mangled while wrestling with prisoners that you finally had to take your disability and give it up.C Dorm?"

Comptroller William Donald Schaefer decried conditions at a Baltimore County homeless shelter yesterday and urged his state colleagues to find a permanent housing solution. At the invitation of several churches who help support the overnight West Side Shelter in Catonsville, Schaefer toured the trio of trailers on the grounds of Spring Grove Hospital on Tuesday afternoon. During the Board of Public Works meeting yesterday, the comptroller complained that shelter residents were crowded together, sleeping in their clothes on floor mats.

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. -- Tage Frid lives in a museum of his own making.The modern, cedar-sided house where the great woodworker and his wife, Emma, live sits well back from the street, secluded from neighbors by tall stands of trees. Inside, there are five pieces of furniture Mr. Frid didn't make: two sofas, an antique desk, an antique crib and a round, lathe-turned stool made by a student. Everything else came from his shop -- even the kitchen cabinets and the bathroom medicine cabinets.

It sat in the bookcase in the living room, between Thomas B. Costain and the Bible -- part thesaurus, part encyclopedia -- plus problem-solver, inspiration, titillation, transportation, textbook and companion. It was the stuff that dreams are made of.The Sears catalog. When I was a child growing up in KansasCity, Mo., and Louisville, Ky., it was as familiar as my cousins' faces. It was, in fact, a member of the family; beloved, trusted, consulted regularly. I can still remember the way the pages smelled (faintly medicinal)

THE SWEAT covering Corrections Officer L. D. Foy's forehead is just one of the reasons that Baltimore County can't wait any longer to expand its undersized and disjointed jail complex. Officer Foy works in the old Baltimore County Jail on Bosley Avenue. There's no air conditioning. So when temperatures rise, as they did this week, the heat is stifling for the inmates. "Hurricane" fans whip storms of hot air through the cells. People who have no sympathy for prisoners might not think that's cruel and unusual.

One night five years ago, Mark Lach stood on the deck of the Keldysh, a Russian research vessel, in the chilly North Atlantic. The wreckage of the Titanic, then 88 years old and the object of his professional study, lay in absolute darkness more than two miles down. Finally, an eerie glow suffused the waters below, an incandescence that grew in brightness as it rose to the surface. A "submersible" research vessel, the Mir 1, popped into view, and with it the crew of three, bearing another day's discoveries from the ocean floor.

Comptroller William Donald Schaefer decried conditions at a Baltimore County homeless shelter yesterday and urged his state colleagues to find a permanent housing solution. At the invitation of several churches who help support the overnight West Side Shelter in Catonsville, Schaefer toured the trio of trailers on the grounds of Spring Grove Hospital on Tuesday afternoon. During the Board of Public Works meeting yesterday, the comptroller complained that shelter residents were crowded together, sleeping in their clothes on floor mats.

One night five years ago, Mark Lach stood on the deck of the Keldysh, a Russian research vessel, in the chilly North Atlantic. The wreckage of the Titanic, then 88 years old and the object of his professional study, lay in absolute darkness more than two miles down. Finally, an eerie glow suffused the waters below, an incandescence that grew in brightness as it rose to the surface. A "submersible" research vessel, the Mir 1, popped into view, and with it the crew of three, bearing another day's discoveries from the ocean floor.

FOR MANY OF US, one of life's great pleasures is a weekend trip to the dump. OK, right now, a lot of you guys out there are reading this and nodding and thinking: "You got that right, brother." Because going to the dump is still largely a guy thing. Oh, sure, you see women unloading stuff at the dump all the time. But women aren't in their element when they're at the dump. Women don't look comfortable at the dump. Even if they're wearing the official dump uniform - work boots, jeans, T-shirt, old flannel shirt - everything in their body language screams that they want to get out of there as quickly as possible.

ABOARD THE USS PELELIU - The Marine platoon commander knows war from classrooms and field maneuvers, history books and Hollywood movies. What his men know of Afghanistan, they've mostly learned from their officers. Yet together, the young platoon commander and his even younger charges in Bravo Company, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, are beginning to confront what may lie ahead. "Through all of our training we try to make it as realistic as possible," says 1st Lt. Don Faul, the brawny, blond-haired, 25-year-old platoon commander who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1998.

THE SWEAT covering Corrections Officer L. D. Foy's forehead is just one of the reasons that Baltimore County can't wait any longer to expand its undersized and disjointed jail complex. Officer Foy works in the old Baltimore County Jail on Bosley Avenue. There's no air conditioning. So when temperatures rise, as they did this week, the heat is stifling for the inmates. "Hurricane" fans whip storms of hot air through the cells. People who have no sympathy for prisoners might not think that's cruel and unusual.

It sat in the bookcase in the living room, between Thomas B. Costain and the Bible -- part thesaurus, part encyclopedia -- plus problem-solver, inspiration, titillation, transportation, textbook and companion. It was the stuff that dreams are made of.The Sears catalog. When I was a child growing up in KansasCity, Mo., and Louisville, Ky., it was as familiar as my cousins' faces. It was, in fact, a member of the family; beloved, trusted, consulted regularly. I can still remember the way the pages smelled (faintly medicinal)

DEVOTED, long-time readers of this column often ask: "Ken, why have you consistently failed to articulate your position on the wearing of fur?"First of all, the name is Kevin. And as far as my position on fur is concerned, well, I . . . I don't really have a position, although if push came to shove I suppose I could come up with some sort of half-baked . . .OK. For the record, I have no problem with people wearing fur -- as long as the fur in question meets certain, uh, specific criteria, which will now be spelled out.(Understand, that I myself do not own a fur coat, owing to a finely honed moral code as well as an annual income which compares favorably to that of a fourth-grader operating a sidewalk lemonade stand.

FOR MANY OF US, one of life's great pleasures is a weekend trip to the dump. OK, right now, a lot of you guys out there are reading this and nodding and thinking: "You got that right, brother." Because going to the dump is still largely a guy thing. Oh, sure, you see women unloading stuff at the dump all the time. But women aren't in their element when they're at the dump. Women don't look comfortable at the dump. Even if they're wearing the official dump uniform - work boots, jeans, T-shirt, old flannel shirt - everything in their body language screams that they want to get out of there as quickly as possible.

Herbert Berry Jr. has vivid memories of C Dorm. You don't forget a place where you were assaulted. Or a place where you were stabbed. Or a place where your knees were so badly mangled while wrestling with prisoners that you finally had to take your disability and give it up.C Dorm?"

DEVOTED, long-time readers of this column often ask: "Ken, why have you consistently failed to articulate your position on the wearing of fur?"First of all, the name is Kevin. And as far as my position on fur is concerned, well, I . . . I don't really have a position, although if push came to shove I suppose I could come up with some sort of half-baked . . .OK. For the record, I have no problem with people wearing fur -- as long as the fur in question meets certain, uh, specific criteria, which will now be spelled out.(Understand, that I myself do not own a fur coat, owing to a finely honed moral code as well as an annual income which compares favorably to that of a fourth-grader operating a sidewalk lemonade stand.