Elevator

ROUTE 2 - A weekly journey through Anne Arundel CountyIt hasn't been easy for handicapped people to use the Noah Hillman parking garage in Annapolis recently.Signs politely apologizing for its broken elevator have been hanging at the entrances to the garage for what seems to be eons, but city officials insist has been only months.Transportation Director James Chase said the elevator broke down near the end of the city's fiscal year in June. The department didn't have $7,000 left in its budget to fix the elevator, Chase said, so it had to wait for the City Council's Finance Committee to transfer money from the general fund.

State legislators often prioritize important legislation the way kindergartners rank vegetables among the food groups. They focus on media-friendly social legislation instead of structural reform requiring time and effort to understand and craft. Why, for example, did they pass gay marriage and a law regulating how long a child must face rearward in a car seat but not figure out the budget until the absolute last minute? And why didn't they spend time this year on how to pay the pensions of the 373,000 people in the state retirement system?

Sometimes, while churning out the numbing prose that regularly fills this space, I'll take a break from the word processor.Often I end up riding the elevators in my office building. Other writers drink many cups of strong coffee or take long walks for inspiration; I like to ride up and down in a small, tomb-like cubicle with a bunch of nervous strangers until the muse whispers in my ear.I'll tell you this: You meet all kinds on the elevator. As I happen to work for a newspaper, the number of nerdy, pallid and badly dressed individuals stepping on and off is incredible.

Police at the University of Maryland, College Park are investigating "two incidents of bias and hate," President Wallace Loh said in a Wednesday e-mail to the campus. Loh said an elevator in an academic building was vandalized with anti-Semitic messages and that a campus facilities supervisor found a noose hanging in a space that was being renovated. A spokesman for the campus police said investigators believe the incidents, one discovered Saturday and the other Monday, are unconnected.

Let me say this about elevators: When those doors slam shut and we're hurtling through the bowels of a building and I'm squashed next to some junior account executive reeking of Drakkar Noir while a string version of "Penny Lane" echoes from the speakers, I am about this close to a full-scale freak-out.Men don't like to admit to a fear of elevators, of course. If you ask a man what scares him, he'll come up with something suitably vague ("I dunno, the future scares me . . .") before snapping his head back to the Knicks-Celtics game on TV.Or else he'll bark: "Me?

A man who was robbed in an elevator at a high-rise building yesterday afternoon turned the tables on the robber and shot at him with his own gun, Baltimore police said.Kevin J. Patterson, 39, of the 1800 block of East Baltimore Street was leaving a public-housing building at 770 W. Saratoga St. about 2:10 p.m., police said. Mr. Patterson entered the elevator on the ninth floor, and a man who was already inside pulled a gun and robbed him of $120, they said.A struggle ensued, and the robber's weapon fell to the floor of the elevator.

Elevator rescues happen maybe five times a year in Westminster.But the Westminster Volunteer Fire Company had a one-day record of two calls yesterday to get people out of elevators that were stuck between floors."

Several people, including a pregnant woman, were stuck for about an hour yesterday on an express elevator in the World Trade Center at the Inner Harbor, a Fire Department spokesman said. No injuries were reported. Battalion Chief Hector L. Torres said the problem was reported about 5:45 p.m. by a passenger who dialed 911 on her cellular telephone. He said the elevator is supposed to go from the 23rd floor to the lobby without stopping. Mechanics and firefighters manually cranked the elevator up to the 23rd floor, where the passengers were evacuated, Torres said.

NEW YORK -- Jose Naranjo was retelling the chilling moment when he saw Rebecca Rosado get into the elevator Saturday night and fall into the darkness."

I did not resent it when the elevator doors refused to open. Such things happen every day in America.Last November, 11 people were trapped more than six hours in an elevator in a downtown Baltimore office building.Eleven people got off the elevator after the rescue, anyway. How many got on, and how many were consumed so that the others could live, we may never know.And all those people who bought my first book -- and dozens did -- will remember that I was once trapped in an elevator with Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene.

While I am in The Boot, waiting for the chipped bone in my foot to knit its way back on board, and testing my wife's patience as she drives me back and forth to campus and the paragraph factory,* I am, as you must also be, searching for innocent amusement. Here is some.  The Economist , bless its heart, has produced a little animated selection of style guidelines , illustrated delightfully by KAL . Brush up on rack and wrack .  Stan Carey comments on the polysemy (tendency of words to develop multiple meanings)

Terrell Suggs had the most productive season of his career in 2011. The Ravens outside linebacker made 70 tackles, racked up a career-high 14 sacks and set a single-season franchise record with seven forced fumbles. Suggs was awarded for his effort by being named the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year at season's end. So to what does Suggs chalk up his success in 2011? The NFL lockout. “Last year, to be totally honest with you, I had the time of my life during the lockout and wasn't in a hurry to get back to work.

Following Michigan's lead, Boston University announced Tuesday that the men's club team will move to Division I for the 2014 season. Coupled with the school's plan to build a new athletic field for the nationally-ranked field hockey team courtesy of a $3-million gift from Boston-based New Balance, the men's club team will compete in the America East conference, which already includes UMBC. “This is another giant step forward for our program, with strategic investments in programs that are vital to the continued development of our department and the enhanced national visibility of the BU Athletics' brand,” Mike Lynch, the school's assistant vice president and athletic director said.

February 4, 2012 It's late in the first half of a tournament game, more than 3,000 basketball fans have filled the auditorium, and as the Patterson High Clippers of Baltimore toss the ball inbounds and head up the court, a spectator leans over to speak to his young son. "Watch No. 3," he says. "I want you to remember what you see. " That player, a 5-foot-6 spark plug named Aquille Carr, seizes the "rock," crosses midcourt and unmoors a defender with a bounce.

Baltimore's archdiocese, the oldest in the nation, can once again claim one of the highest-ranking members of the Roman Catholic Church as its leader. Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, leader of the archdiocese since 2007, was named a cardinal Friday by Pope Benedict XVI. At an official ceremony next month, he will become the fourth bishop in the 223-year history of the archdiocese to be so honored. He does so as he prepares to leave Baltimore for a new position in Rome. "This is great cause for rejoicing for me and my friends," O'Brien said in a phone interview Friday while overlooking the dome of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.

The best moment of Tuesday night's 'Watch the Throne' tour stop at 1st Mariner Arena - and there were plenty of candidates -  came 17 songs in, when Jay-Z and Kanye West ditched the flashy, multi-piece set and sat down, side by side, like old friends on a stoop. As an Auto-Tuned Nina Simone sample of "Feeling Good" poured through the speakers, Jay-Z wiped his brow after removing his snakeskin Yankee snapback. Kanye announced that this song, "New Day," was his favorite from "Watch the Throne" and its opening verse was his "favorite ever.

AS A CHILD of the city I soon learned the personalities and peculiarities of Baltimore's people movers. I speak of the public escalators and elevators we took so often it seemed as if they were as much a part of the family as Jack Benny's Maxwell - or any of the cantankerous cars then in service that thrifty Baltimoreans declined to put to rest. I think of the time I stepped off a train at Penn Station here (where there is a small vintage elevator that serves the light rail platform) but didn't have to look outside to see if my father had arrived to pick up my brother and me. Deep inside the station, we could hear the clutch on his 1964 Checker Marathon issuing a mechanical clunk sound.

Eleven people were trapped more than six hours in an elevator in a downtown office building before being rescued this morning by city firefighters.The firefighters broke into the Sterling Bank and Trust Building at 111 Water St. shortly after 1 a.m., opened the elevator doors and helped the occupants onto the fourth floor.According to Central District police, James White, 53, owner of a tailoring service on the fourth floor of the building, had invited 10 visiting friends from Philadelphia to tour his business.

Whispers Can the Angels catch the Rangers? They went 19-4 in the first 23 games outfielder Mike Trout started, including a 10-1 record in starts since he rejoined the roster in August. Trout was just named Baseball America's Minor League Player of the Year. … The Rangers went 12-11 in a stretch playing 23 games against teams with winning records. They believe that's when they would have collapsed if they were going to but aren't taking a playoff spot for granted, not with a season-ending series in Anaheim.