Confusion

If some city residents have felt a little lost recently, wondering who represents them on the City Council, they were not alone. The Baltimore City Law Department has been befogged as well. Late in March, that office issued an opinion saying that the recently redrawn map defining City Council districts would go into effect April 1. This meant, in effect, that some 72,000 city residents who were represented by one council member on Thursday, March 31, were suddenly represented by another on Friday, April 1 — April Fool's Day. Change of representation happens in political life, but most of the time it is caused by an election.

I've had a day to wrap my head around the Maryland Jockey Club's new Preakness advertising campaign, "Be Legendary," and its spokes-centaur, Kegasus. I'm not offended by the beer-bellied, half-horse, half-man creature. I'm just confused. Maryland Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas told The Baltimore Sun that the ads target a younger demographic . "It talks their language," he said. "We have never hidden the fact that we want people to come to the infield and party. " Meanwhile, Preakness organizers and the ad agency, Elevation, say they don't condone excess drinking despite the allusions to "a mighty stallion crossed with a human partying hard til the break of dawn" in one of the Infieldfest radio spots that hit YouTube this week ( here's the other )

The Sun editorial "Getting exercised over exercise" (March 28) makes some good points and then loses them in careless arguments that equate the need for healthy movement and activity with the war on obesity. There is no controversy about our need for more activity and the personal responsibility, along with civic choices, that are part of that. There is little question that doing away with recess and physical education are bad ideas with long term costs that far outweigh any initial savings.

It seems just about everyone has to have his wisdom teeth extracted. For most, it's an easy procedure and an easy recovery. But many people don't understand why we have those third molars to begin with — or if there are alternatives to removal. We asked Dr. Robert E. Williams, a clinical associate professor at the University of Maryland Dental School who also practices in Baltimore and Bel Air. QUESTION: What is the purpose of wisdom teeth and why do so many people have to have them removed?

Alvin Berman was leafing through a Maryland tax booklet the other day when a notice caught his eye. It said ground rents must be registered by Sept. 30, 2011. The Randallstown man, who was told when he tried to register his one ground lease last fall that he was a week late, called the state Department of Assessments and Taxation to ask whether the state had extended the registration period. It hadn't. The 400,000 state tax booklets for 2010 and the online version list the wrong date, acknowledge officials in both the assessment and comptroller's offices.

A kind and good-natured neighbor died last week. He always wanted to die in the peace and comforts of home, as his wife did 15 years ago. After a bad fall, an ambulance whisked him away. He wound up in a strange and sterile room, his body invaded by wires and tubes to the very end. Will last year's health care overhaul — or any other proposal — be able to address this moral travesty? Public responses to this all-too-familiar experience are often sparked by those gifted in stoking the rhetorical flames of outrage and feigned compassion.

The problem: A woman received a water bill for a Northeast Baltimore home she hasn't occupied since February. The back story: Andy Grau's 83-year-old mother hasn't lived at her Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello home since a fire struck the house next door in February. "She came and stayed with me at that point," said Grau, a Kingsville resident. Over the next few days, he said, they called various utilities to alert them that she was no longer living there. She paid a bill that arrived for the first quarter, but Grau was confused as to why she continued to receive bills.

The problem Drivers turning right at a Northeast Baltimore intersection are confused by a bike lane. The back story Lee Brown drives through the intersection of Frankford Road and Moravia Park Drive in the Frankford neighborhood several times a day. That gives him plenty of opportunity to see that other drivers have different approaches when they need to turn right onto Moravia Park from Frankford. City crews installed a bike path on that road about three months ago, and since then, Brown says, he's seen a few near-misses.

Enduring a barrage of highly detailed scientific testimony, jurors in the Kenneth N. Harris murder trial appeared to have difficulty staying awake Monday during a long cross-examination of a DNA analyst. Lawyers defending three men charged in the former Baltimore councilman's killing two years ago directed a stream of questions at the state's witness, Kelly Miller, a DNA analyst with the Police Department's crime lab, who had testified that evidence at the crime scene came into contact with the defendants.

Along with overloaded U-Hauls, a sure sign that the college season is upon us is the annual release of the U.S. News & World Report college rankings. Our initial reaction to this year's U.S. News college report: Say what? The U.S. Naval Academy, where students have to run laps, do push-ups and shinny up a pole, is a mecca for liberal arts? We can't quite picture the stereotypical liberal arts students — clad in sandals, a T-shirt and cut-offs — grooving at a place that is noted for its courses on engineering and weapons.