Cure

Unemployment is close to 10 percent. Those jobless folks who do find jobs frequently make far less than in their previous positions. American industry is operating at only three-fourths of capacity. Many factories — Severstal's steel mill at Sparrows Point is a dismal example — are turning out even less. Price competition is tougher than ever, thanks to the global economy and weak demand. Companies must redouble cost cutting to get slump-mired consumers to buy. Cheap imports keep pouring in from China, and inflation at home is less than 2 percent.

"Ha!" reads a colorful poster near the Creative Alliance, the letters inscribed inside an oversized exclamation point. A few blocks farther, there is that enigmatic message again: "Ha!." And around the corner: "Ha!" But, though the exuberant punctuation mark indicates that the viewer is inside the Highlandtown Arts & Entertainment District, there's unfortunately little to laugh about these days. In 2003, the city waved the policy equivalent of a magic wand and declared that a new arts district had been created in an area encompassing Highlandtown, Patterson Park, and parts of Canton and Greektown.

Clementine (5402 Harford Road., 410-444-1497, bmoreclementine.com) opened in April 2008 without a liquor license and only 43 seats. From the very first, space, or the lack of it, was a concern. The way co-owner Cristin Dadant remembers it, "you think you've thought of everything, and then when you finally get the place open, you think "where am I going to put the straws, let alone people?" People just took right away to Clementine's version of comfort dining, equal parts Pacific Northwest and New England, with an emphasis on homemade ingredients, friendly to kids and hipsters alike.

Vietnamese pho is rapidly replacing chicken soup as the universal cure-all. Or maybe it's just me. In this Worst Winter Ever, where the colds all last three weeks and the threat of snow never ends, a large bowl of steaming broth filled with rice noodles and interesting cuts of beef - a soup that you individualize with garnishes served on the side like bean sprouts, fresh cilantro and basil leaves, hot peppers and wedges of lime, not to mention condiments such...

It's not often that children say they can't wait to go back to school. But after an extended end-of-year vacation courtesy of a monster snowstorm on Dec. 19, some kids - not to mention their parents - have just about had enough of being cooped up at home. "It's been bad," said Abbe Milstein, who, despite the bitter cold, drove Sunday from her home in Rockville to visit the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore with her three children, Michaela, 9, and 5-year-old twins Adin and Gabrielle, and their father, Andrew Hoenig.

Maryland's leg of the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, held Oct. 18 in Hunt Valley, reached its $3 million goal, the local affiliate announced this week. The final tally shows the event drew 29,000 participants, 2,000 survivors and 1,000 volunteers. More than 75 percent of the money raised stays in Maryland to finance local research programs and assist breast cancer patients. The remaining money goes to Susan G. Komen for the Cure headquarters in Dallas, where it assists in national research projects, many of which take place at Maryland's top medical institutions.

Thirty thousand pairs of sneakers. Thirty thousand pink ribbons. Thirty thousand people trying to beat something. n If nothing else, Sunday's Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure was really 30,000 stories. Tales of people whose lives have been somehow touched by breast cancer. Thousands of reasons for showing up to walk or run on a rainy, cold, dreary morning. n Stories of bravery and pain and love. Of courage and collapse, triumph and loss. n Amanda Brennan's story is about her mom. Debra Sawyer's is about fighting.