Era

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

Since 1901, Annapolis residents and downtown workers have been dropping off letters and buying stamps at the brick Georgian Revival-style post office on Church Circle. But not for much longer. A vote by the state's Board of Public Works on Wednesday seals the eventual fate of the post office. The state is buying the office for $3.2 million, with eventual plans to use the building for government offices. "The state saw an opportunity to retain the historic value of the building, particularly because it's in the footprint of other state-owned facilities.

On January 14, 2007, ERA ANNIE TUNKINS. On Friday, Mrs. Tunkins will lie in state at New Shiloh Baptist Church, 2100 N. Monroe Street, where the family will receive friends from 10 to 11 A.M., with services to follow. Inquiries to (410) 233-2400.

Police and firefighters cordoned off a section of Fort Meade on Wednesday morning after utility workers discovered a piece of unexploded ordnance from the World War II era, base officials said. The workers were doing scheduled maintenance work in a residential section of the Army installation in Anne Arundel County around 10:30 a.m. when they found the mortar training round, officials said. The Fort Meade Department of Emergency Services cordoned off a 300-meter area near 2 n d Army Drive and Potomac Place, officials said.

WASHINGTON -- "Poets," noted G.K. Chesterton, "have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese." His point was that this was not mysterious: Cheese is not the sort of subject that summons poetic thoughts.Presidents have hitherto been mysteriously silent about child-safety seats. However, last Saturday President Clinton's radio address concerned an improved fastening mechanism for such seats in automobiles. This was the third time this president has used a Saturday address to talk about child-safety seats.

BOSTON -- And you thought the Equal Rights Amendment was dead. We all did. The amendment flat-lined in 1982, just three states short of the 38 needed for ratification. I even wrote an obit. Back then, feminists shifted their sights to politics, saying if we can't change the state legislators' minds, we'll change their faces. A baby girl born in 1982 will cast her first vote in 2000 without being equal under the law. But what's this I hear out of Missouri? Can it be the faint sound of a pulse?

WASHINGTON -- The Equal Rights Amendment lingers on, its pulse faint but its supporters determined. Their slender hopes arise from recent disrespect for the amending process.First introduced in Congress in 1923, the ERA says: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."In 1971, the year before Title IX prohibited sexual discrimination in education, the Supreme Court for the first time cited the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment to invalidate a law on the grounds that it involved discrimination on the basis of sex.Despite this evidence that the ERA might be a legal redundancy (ERA supporters said it was needed to "put women into the Constitution")

Who were those guys?Allen Plaster and Bobby Chouinard didn't exactly make names for themselves in the Orioles' farm system, and now they're gone to the Oakland Athletics for Harold Baines.The A's apparently decided to go for future rather thaimmediate help when they accepted right-handers Chouinard and Plaster for the veteran left-handed slugger.Both had losing records but impressive numbers while pitchinin Single-A last year. Both were repeat performers at that classification, with 85-mph fastballs.

A historic era -- often stormy, occasionally tumultuous, frequently productive -- ended at midnight Monday and next to no one rose to the occasion.The best that could be said for the lifeless ceremony marking the final leave-taking between Gov. William Donald Schaefer and the General Assembly was that nobody faked it, at least not much.After eight years, barring a special session, the legislature and the governor have seen the last of each other. Mr. Schaefer cannot succeed himself.The ceremonial highlights of the informal joint session after adjournment included short speeches by the governor, House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.All three made game but lame efforts to capture the moment.

Prodded by signs of hope from Iowa to California, the campaign for a national Equal Rights Amendment is stirring from a decade of slumber, and the right combination of Election Day victories could set off a new 10-year push for ratification.The hopeful signs include a likely win for a state ERA referendum in once-resistant Iowa, a surge in female candidacies at all levels ofgovernment, and the prospect that a Democrat sympathetic to the ERA will win the presidency.But the most intriguing indicator may be signs of ideological retreat among the ERA's staunchest opponents on the Christian Right.

When Jeremy Guthrie came to Baltimore as a member of the Kansas City Royals last August it wasn't his turn to pitch. So he watched four games, signed autographs and soaked in the atmosphere from the visiting side. On Thursday night, the right-hander is scheduled to take the mound at Camden Yards and face the Orioles for the first time in his career after spending five seasons in orange and black. “It's great -- fond memories, great coming back to the fans,” said Guthrie, who was 47-65 with a 4.12 ERA in 161 games with the Orioles from 2007 to 2011.

Timothy E. Parker, manager of T. Rowe Price's New Era Fund for the past three years, will leave the the Baltimore-based money manager by the end of September, the company said. Parker will be replaced as manager by Shawn T. Driscoll, an energy analyst with the fund. "I had a wonderful 12 years here and learned a lot of things," said Parker, 38. "It's a good organization. Sometimes you need to part ways to pursue different challenges. " Parker said he doesn't have any firm plans at this point.

Most Ravens fans will tell you that inside linebacker Ray Lewis was the greatest draft pick in franchise history. But the fine stat heads over at ESPN have calculated that Lewis was the NFL's most valuable pick since 1994. In this week's ESPN the Magazine, they put together a chart of the best draft picks from each franchise based on Surplus Approximate Value (AV), which essentially measures the difference between what each player produced during his career compared to what he was expected to produce based on where he was drafted.

A Washington County man digging a hole to plant a tree in his backyard unearthed a 3-inch Civil War-era round Thursday, the Office of the State Fire Marshal said. The round, which had never been fired, was identified as a 3-inch Federal Navy Schenkl, with its fusing mechanism still intact. Fire Marshal officials said J.D. Taylor, of the 17000 block of Powell Road in Sharpsburg, found the round and turned it over to authorities. The round was safely disposed of, the fire marshal's office said.

SARASOTA, Fla. - For most of the past two decades, the American League East has been considered the toughest division in baseball, primarily because it contained the sport's two financial behemoths, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Each year since the wild-card spot was created in 1995, one of those two has made the playoffs. Eight times in those 17 years they've done it together. Ever so slightly, though, things have been shifting in the AL East. In 2008, the low-budget Tampa Bay Rays emerged from a franchise-spanning slumber to win the division while the Yankees failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the strike-shortened 1994 season.

The Orioles are coming off a 93-win season in which they improved their record from 2011 by 24 games, finished second in the mighty American League East and appeared in the playoffs for the first time since 1997. But heading into 2013, the Orioles, who have kept their roster mostly intact, can count Vegas oddsmakers, national baseball analysts and sabermetricians among their many doubters. Historians are likely betting against them, too. Of the 14 previous teams to improve by 22 wins or more in the wild-card era, all regressed the following season, according to Sports Illustrated, and only one of those teams made the playoffs.

It doesn't look like a good year for Babe Ruth. Baseball commissioner Fay Vincent has erased his name from the record book by purging the asterisk next to the name of Roger Maris.And any day (week, month, year?) now, The Babe's hometown, for the second time, is expected to snub a campaign to name a stadium after its legendary baseball hero. A lot of people forget, but there was a strong effort to name Memorial Stadium after Ruth, but with the memory of the Korean conflict and World War II so vivid there was even less chance then than now.By all accounts, The Bambino was baseball's greatest player -- and most likely its most flamboyant personality.

If you weren't sure before last week, then you ought to be sure now: NFL history can now be divided into two eras -- B.G. and A.G. Before Goodell and After Goodell. Before Goodell, a player could be charged with having enough guns in his house to supply an island rebellion, and he would still be allowed to play. In the Super Bowl, no less. After Goodell, that same player could be charged with driving a little too fast after consuming alcohol within legal limits and get kicked off his team almost before he finishes posting bail.

Editor's note: Freelance writer Diedre A. Ware grew up in Havre de Grace and graduated from Havre de Grace High School. Her recollections of what it was like growing up black in an era when children's dolls were white was published recently in Dolls magazine based in Iola, Wis., http://www.dollsmagazine.com . It is republished here with permission, along with photographs that ran with the Dolls magazine version. As a child, my dolls were by best friends. When I confided in them, I knew they would never tell.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- The Orioles have signed right-hander Freddy Garcia to a minor league contract in an effort to see whether the 14-year major league veteran can add to the organization's pitching depth. The 36-year-old Garcia, who spent the past two seasons with the Yankees, will report to Triple-A Norfolk and receive five to six starts there before the organization choses whether to purchase his contract. Garcia was released by the Padres on Sunday. “We're going to take a look at him for a few starts in Triple-A,” Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said.