Consciousness

Two construction workers died yesterday after losing consciousness from an apparent lack of oxygen in a sewer manhole - one after jumping in to rescue the other at a construction site on Villa Julie College's Owings Mills campus. The worker who first went underground - to retrieve a dropped tool - was pulled out by firefighters, but died at a hospital, a Fire Department offical said. The would-be rescuer was dead at the scene. The men, who were not identified because police were trying to notify relatives, had been pouring concrete in the 10900 block of Boulevard Circle, said Elise Armacost, a Fire Department spokeswoman.

Police testified Tuesday that a Severn man, whose 5-year-old son lost consciousness last September after drinking methadone that the father acknowledged buying, waited more than an hour after the boy initially became ill to call for help because he "was scared. " The remark came as the trial of Paul K. Brooks Sr., 28, opened in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. Brooks is facing child abuse and related charges. Three other charges in the case were dropped last month. In opening statements, defense attorney Peter S. O'Neill conceded neglect and "poor judgment," but said Brooks was not guilty of child abuse.

Before she lapsed into unconsciousness Saturday, her throat slashed several times by a knife, Julia Singletary named her boyfriend, Raymond Lee, as her attacker, police said.Critically injured, Singletary, 31, never regained consciousness, and at 4:12 p.m. yesterday she died at Sinai Hospital, becoming the city's 108th homicide victim.Early today, police went to Lee's home, in the 2100 block of N. Pulaski St., arrested him and charged him with first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

Will consumers pay $20 for a reusable glass drinking bottle? Walt Himelstein thinks so. The Owings Mills environmental chemist and entrepreneur invented the Pure reusable glass drinking bottle, which features a shock-absorbing plastic sleeve that holds the glass together if it breaks. Himelstein, 59, hopes to tap a surging interest among environmentally conscious consumers who want their own reusable bottles, rather than buying beverages in single-use glass, metal or plastic containers.

Baltimore's police union lashed out yesterday at city prosecutors in the wake of a grand jury indictment of three officers on charges of assaulting a man they suspected was trying to swallow drugs. Gary McLhinney, president of the city's Fraternal Order of Police lodge, said State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy was politically motivated in bringing the case before the grand jury and was sending a "terrible message" to police officers and the public. "They need to concentrate on putting criminals in jail," he said.

Chanting "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna," hundreds of believers of the Hindu sect dragged a crimson 30-foot-high chariot cloaked in sunflowers, carnations and roses. Wrapped in colorful clothing, they marched down Light Street yesterday afternoon and ended in the Inner Harbor, stalling traffic and drawing curious stares. This was the local version of Rathayatra, an Indian religious chariot parade. Figures of the three Hindu deities -- Krishna, Balarama and Subhadra -- are taken from a temple and placed on the elaborately decorated chariot.

Mae West: An Icon in Black and White, by Jill Watts. Oxford University Press. 374 pages. $35. If the mere mention of that rusty triad of words so beloved of academics everywhere -- race, class and gender -- doesn't send you into immediate paroxysms of rage against the p.c. machine, then you won't be bothered in the least by Jill Watts' new biography of Mae West. And if you're sufficiently inured to that other irritating academics' tendency to shuttle all available information into the prescribed categories of a distinctly postmodernist worldview, then you'll have all your cherished notions about "subversiveness" gently reaffirmed by this book.

DON'T MAKE the mistake of assuming that ''Awakenings'' is a comedy. It would be natural to do so. Penny Marshall directed, and Robin Williams and Robert De Niro co-star. Those names would suggest comedy.The new film does have laughs, but primarily, it is an adroit mixture of comedy and pathos, an almost totally satisfying experience, one that is neither upper nor downer. The story has been romanticized, but allowances can be made.''Awakenings'' is based on a book written in 1973 by Oliver Sacks, a doctor who found himself working at a hospital in the Bronx in the late '60s.

Mr. Potter, by Jamaica Kincaid. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 195 pages. $18. I know it's a thuggish thing to ask, but I wonder how many readers there are, in 2002, for Jamaica Kincaid's prose. Let's start with the first sentence of Mr. Potter, her new novel: "And that day, the sun was in its usual place, up above and in the middle of the sky, and it shone in its usual way so harshly bright, making even the shadows pale, making even the shadows seek shelter; that day the sun was in its usual place, up above and in the middle of the sky, but Mr. Potter did not note this, so accustomed was he to this, the sun in its usual place, up above and in the middle of the sky" That's not the whole sentence, but it is more than half, and I wonder how many readers there are, in 2002, for that brand of lyricism, that repetition, in rhythm and word choice, with which Kincaid attempts to re-create consciousness itself, and resurrect her dead father, the titular Mr. Potter, whom she never knew.

The Black/Jewish Forum of Baltimore, also known as the BLEWS, received special praise in a major study released late last year by the Marjorie Kovler Institute for Black-Jewish Relations. The study said the BLEWS exemplified how black and Jewish Americans can overcome old antagonisms to promote understanding between the two groups.Several months ago, however, the 14-year-old organization hardly seemed the epitome of racial harmony. In February, the BLEWS board dismissed the black woman who had served as its executive director for only 3 1/2 months.

The sewing lounge Sassy SEWer in Parkville has eight sewing machines for customers, but when Tamara Woods goes, she takes her own. It's not just about the machines, she said. "It's about the dedicated time with other sewers. We all like to do this. We chat. It's fun," she said. At home, she sews for other people. At Sassy, she works on raising her skill level and she sews things for herself, combining craftsmanship with fashion sense. "I love the technical part. But it's the creative part that takes over.

Well, it wasn't exactly something out of "Les Miserables," was it? When police in riot gear finally moved on Occupy Baltimore early Tuesday, there were no barricades, no gunfire and not even an arrest. No one singing, "One day more. " The men and women of Occupy Bmore folded tents and left the area peacefully, and the city was spared a riot. Ever since Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued her cryptic "time of our choosing" warning that the occupation of McKeldin Square would one day end, we've been waiting for the other shoe to drop and wondering if it would be a boot.

The nice young man at Bowman's Butchers in Aberdeen brought out a wire basket, wide and deep, piled high with vacuum-sealed plastic packages. The other customers were agog. I knew what was coming, and it still looked like mountain of meat to me. It all adds up to a single lamb, though, minus head and organs. That lamb, like its fellows that have found their way into our freezer, led a happy and pampered life, coddled by a member of the 4-H Club, lovingly bathed, groomed and shown at the Harford County Fair, and ultimately sold to the highest bidder.

I have a teenager. If you have your own teen, or have been where I am now, you understand. If you have a young child, just wait. It's another magical parenting experience that I would not, honestly, trade for anything. Well, perhaps I would trade it for a good night's sleep or eternal youth, or a wrinkle-free face, or my sanity. Having a teenager has made me completely insane. I'm more bonkers than I was already. The most recent verbal sparring took place in my car while I was driving Alex to a doctor appointment.

Whether your ideal day at the beach is relaxing by the water or racing a jet ski across the bay, most vacationers have one thing in common – they want to stretch that dollar. Here's a list of can't-beat things to do at the beach, while on a budget. Book smart. Reserve your hotel room through the Ocean City is Free website and receive vouchers for free meals, attractions and fun things to do. More than 80 hotels use this booking engine to help sell rooms and in exchange the site is able to offer great rates and free vacation extras.

Imagine making fewer — or zero — stops at the gas station. Instead, you simply drive home and plug your car into your house to charge up overnight. On top of that, your car emits no air pollution. Within the next decade, such fueling ease could be commonplace. New technology is just breaking into our markets and communities: plug-in electric vehicles. Currently, drivers have two plug-in choices: plug-in hybrids with small gasoline engines to assist the battery, and fully electric vehicles.

A WHITE FRIEND surprised me during a conversation at lunch a few years back when he casually commented that he had never thought of any African-American woman as attractive. I didn't respond because the remark struck me as ridiculous, if not dishonest.The women we call black come in enough shades, shapes and situations to provide at least one who is pleasing to the eye of any man who still has red blood pumping through his veins. Unless he is a racist. Was my ''friend'' trying to tell me something?

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies, and here on Earth C come emulating flies.-- Robert Frost THIS evening I am wondering about the consciousness of fireflies. My wife and 5-year-old son have gone off to bed, and I sit alone on the back porch to do the thinking. I can hear the bedsprings responding to their fitful sleep. In separate rooms, they turn this way and that, captured in a heat wave that envelopes the metropolis like an enormous plastic bag.I mop my brow and search for a flashlight to read the ancient thermometer tacked to the frame of the back door: 85 degrees at midnight.

A 13-year-old student at Corkran Middle School in Glen Burnie was injured Tuesday when he fell face-down, unconscious, onto a tile floor after another student put him into a choke hold, Anne Arundel County police said Wednesday. Police said they were told by an assistant principal that the 13-year-old boy was washing his face when another student came up behind him, put him a choke hold and let go once the 13-year-old became unconscious. In a letter to parents, Corkran principal Jolyn Davis said the incident occurred around 12:30 p.m. in the bathroom of the boy's locker room.

What if you had a choice between any institutional cafeteria you know and a cafeteria with "commitments" to organically raised produce, food-waste reduction, socially responsible sourcing and a low-carbon diet? If you pick the latter, welcome to Cafe Bon Appetit , at 621 W. Lombard St. in the center of a multitude of appetites connected in some way to the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus and tucked between the Health Sciences/Human Services library and the School of Nursing.