Earth

The American Visionary Art Museum is taking a characteristically fresh and different look at the state of our increasingly crowded planet on Sunday, with a free, day-long Eco Conference featuring presentations from indigenous artists and a variety of scientists, plus a pair of films on mountaintop coal mining and crop circles. (Didn't I say it would be different?) Keynoter is Sandra Steingraber , noted ecologist, author and cancer survivor who has focused on environmental links to cancer and human health.  Other featured speakers include marine toxicologist Susan Shaw and Hopkins-educated epidemiologist Shira Kramer . The conference, which begins at 10 a.m., has been organized to complement the museum's current exhibition, "All Things Round: Galaxies, Eyeballs and Karma," which celebrates "the circular and voluptuous nature of life," according to the museum's relase.  Among other subjects, the original artwork explores the much-discussed implications of the Mayan calendar ending in 2012.  The museum is at 800 Key Highway, at the base of Federal Hill park.  For more info, check avam.org or call 410-244-1900.

A group of conservative evangelical leaders met in Texas last weekend and endorsed a Roman Catholic for president. Given the history of evangelical antipathy toward the theological underpinnings of the Roman Catholic Church, that in itself signals a remarkable evolution (pardon the word), along with a considerable amount of political pragmatism. The blessing of what was once called the "Religious Right" fell on the once-married Rick Santorum and not the thrice married and more recent convert to Catholicism, Newt Gingrich.

Fast cars zipped around downtown Baltimore streets and, it turns out, the race promoters' financial messes. A robocall that urged voters to relax and stay home led jurors to a vote of their own: guilty of election fraud. We bade farewell to an iconic mayor, and began ushering out the city's last Fortune 500 company. As we re-wind the year 2011, these were some of the events that make us pause the fast-reverse button. It may not have been an earth-shattering year - although an out-of-nowhere quake did rock our part of the world in August - but it was a memorable one. Here, then, is a story about the stories of the year.

Ever since Adam and Eve took a bite of the apple, we have been haunted by Desire, that shape-shifting seducer who promises us beauty, understanding and fulfillment if only we chase after More. On the one hand, that is a blessing. We would still be clumsy, clueless creatures huddling in caves - or naked in the Garden - without it. Desire and appetite drive our ambition, fire our curiosity and lead us to discover in ways that complacency and fullness never can. It is Desire that propels culture forward, urging us to explore, to dare, to persevere so we may uncover all the wisdom, comforts and delights that make life grand.

The basic problem with Charles Campbell's commentary on energy policy is that drilling for oil and gas, which he strongly advocates, creates toxic substances that continue to poison the planet ("U.S. energy policy: Slow national suicide," Nov. 21). Mr. Campbell makes no mention of Germany and other countries which are decades ahead of us in terms of solar energy and conservation. He also makes no mention of the environmental and social costs of cheap oil, or of the vast amounts of energy wasted in gas-guzzling cars and trucks because we lack decent mass transit systems.

Like commentator Richard Haddad, who dismisses global warming because there is no "unanimity" among scientists on the issue ("Get past alarmism on global warming," Oct. 26), we of the Flat Earth Society feel the same about the lack of unanimity among scientists supporting the round-Earth theory. After all, it's only a theory, and anyone not blinded by science can see that the Earth is flat just by looking out their window. One need only conduct a Google search of the terms "flat earth" to find hundreds of believers who refute the round-Earth theory.

Bulldozers and soil conservation may not seem like they go together, but those in the know have seen through a stereotype in naming Dave Davis, owner of C.D. Davis Excavating, in Pylesville, Conservationist of the Year. The honor was bestowed upon Mr. Davis by the Harford County Soil Conservation District, a hybrid government agency responsible for protecting a natural resource more vital than fossil fuel. Without good soil, there are no productive farms. And without agriculture, we learn in grade school, there is not civilization.

This week brought some of the best moments of the Orioles' 2011 season. On Monday, they beat a detested foe, the Red Sox, in a home game -- and in doing so forced Boston, recently the clear leader in the American League wild card race, into a tie with the Tampa Bay Rays for that spot. Designated hitter and future Hall-of-Famer Vladimir Guerrero, with a single in the sixth inning, became the all-time hit leader among players from the Dominican Republic. And Robert Andino, who has been filling in for the ailing Brian Roberts at second base, capped a surprisingly productive season with a thrilling inside-the-park home run. Then, at the stroke of midnight Wednesday, they bested that feat with a come-from-behind victory in the bottom of the ninth, ending the Red Sox' playoff hopes.

Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Bills is from Harvard, and that makes him unique. He's the only quarterback from that school to become an NFL starter. But there's a common, everyman side to this son of a rocket scientist, and not just because he proposed to his wife at a McDonald's. "Actually," he said, "it was a McDonald's connected to a gas station. " Fitzpatrick, you see, is a stickler for accuracy. That shows up on Sundays. In two games — both Bills victories — he has thrown for seven touchdowns with one interception, directing a team that leads the NFL in scoring with 39.5 points per game.

During a break in the action, my son's friend came into the kitchen, glass in hand, seeking some water to drink. He looked at the refrigerator door - but saw no dispenser there. He turned toward a corner where a water cooler might be, but saw no dispenser there. A bit confused, he scanned the room, glass still in hand, looking for something, anything, that resembled a spigot from which drinking water might flow. Finally, defeated, he asked me where, please, he might find some water.