Crowd

When snowflakes began falling Monday afternoon, the commotion near Mondawmin Mall slowed. Children pointed to the sky. Shoppers, their shoulders previously hunched against the cold, stood to take in the scene. Inside, shoppers buzzed through stores buying last-minute gifts, extra wrapping paper or the final ingredients for holiday meals and desserts. At The Esquire barber shop, men and boys waited for a chair and a fresh cut while talking of Christmas Eve church trips and parties ahead.

Guns are instruments of death. Their purpose is to kill, to bring an end to life. Yet we have romanticized these killing machines with shoot 'em up westerns, Sopranos entertainment, and clubs to kill animals. But let's face it, make no mistake about it, guns are anti-life. That is the brutal fact of the matter. The gun debate still ignores this simple fact, giving a nod to gun owners in a touchy-feely way because they want to kill animals for fun. Nobody wants to say what a friend of mine recently posted on his Facebook page: "Get another hobby.

This week's episode of WWE Raw seemed ... crowded. I don't just mean in personnel, though there were many -- aside from the regular plethora of WWE superstars (including some still on the roster you don't regularly see), Raw saw returns from "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, the New Age Outlaws and the trio of "Mean" Gene Okerlund, Ricky Steamboat and Jim Ross (who all presented Slammy Awards), Tommy Dreamer (who competed in a match) and The Boogeyman (who seemed like he was there just to provide a random "tell me I didn't just see that" moment before a commercial break)

A fight in downtown Towson early Sunday morning ended when five shots were fired from a handgun into a crowd of people near the Charles Village Pub, one striking a man in the hand, according to Baltimore County police. Francis Minsung Kang, 26, of the first block of Brook Farm Court in Cockeysville was arrested and charged with attempted first-degree murder and other offenses in the shooting — the third in the county seat and the second in its downtown bar district in recent months.

An off-duty Baltimore County police officer was shot in Overlea early this morning as he attempted to disperse a large group of people blocking traffic on a residential street, police said. Police said the incident began as the officer was driving near Dale Avenue and Danville Road around 3:20 a.m. There, the officer encountered a large group of people blocking the street, according to police. "He stopped his vehicle and asked them to move so he could pass," police said.  A man emerged from the crowd with a gun and fired several shots into the officer's car, striking him twice, officers said.

Foreman Wolf wants Johnny's to be an everyday destination for the folks of Roland Park, a place they can show up at, on a whim, for breakfast, lunch or dinner. And they have been. Johnny's is the fifth restaurant from Baltimore restaurateurs Tony Foreman and Cindy Wolf. The hits from Foreman Wolf, as their company is known, just keep on coming - Charleston, Pazo, Cinghiale and Petit Louis, which is Johnny's neighbor in the Roland Park Shopping Center. And Johnny's sure is good looking.

Some were first-timers, others veterans. Under Baltimore's Washington Monument Thursday night, thousands gathered for carols, food truck carryout and a bit of light-hearted - if jam-packed - holiday camaraderie. At the 41st annual lighting of the monument, another winter season in Charm City was launched - kids and teens, young adults and older couples all looking skyward as the strings of lights were turned on, lasers shot patterns across Mount Vernon's trees and a finale of fireworks burst into the air, all to the accompaniment of holiday musical classics.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, traffic was slow on I-97 southbound near Route 178 in Anne Arundel County, due to an accident. Accidents were slowing traffic on Route 665 near Riva Road in Anne Arundel County, Waugh Chapel Road near Route 3 in Anne Arundel County, and Route 140 westbound near Suffolk Avenue in Carroll County. Monument Street is closed between Wolfe Street and Patterson Park Avenue in East Baltimore due to sinkhole repairs. Maryland Transit Administration bus 35 has been diverted.

Diane Townes waited in line for 12 hours to get her door-buster deals — printers, a laptop and a 50-inch television — so imagine her chagrin when it looked like she wouldn't be able to squeeze it all into her car Friday morning. The Owings Mills nurse shivered in the cold at 5:30 a.m. outside the Towson Walmart, watching store workers try unsuccessfully to fit her $298 Emerson TV in the trunk and back seat. She finally folded down her back seats and shoved it through the trunk, capping a shopping spree that had started Thanksgiving afternoon.

Organizers of the annual Thanksgiving dinner for guests from the Westside Emergency Men's Shelter, Mosaic Community Services and Spring Grove Hospital decided to change things a bit this year. And as a result, it looks like they are going to have a bigger crowd for the holiday event. Usually held on Thanksgiving afternoon in the Rice Auditorium on the campus of Spring Grove State Hospital, this year's dinner will be served in the homier Cafe on the Grove, a short distance from the auditorium on the hospital campus, the evening before Thanksgiving.