Fallen

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Joined by thousands of firefighters from across the country, this grieving region bade farewell to "our dear heroes" yesterday and struggled to find meaning in the deaths of nine men who died battling a furniture store blaze this week. "Firefighters charge into dangerous places when the natural human instinct is to flee rapidly," marveled Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., whose city lost the most firefighters in a single incident in the nation since the terrorist attacks of Sept.

With Sister Wendy Beckett back to living quietly in her trailer and Robert Hughes having moved on to the subject of himself, it has fallen to Simon Schama to lead the art-appreciation class this summer. Simon Schama's Power of Art has an extension-course snap to it, the kind of thing from which you would expect to learn something interesting without being especially taxed or worrying about grades. On TV Simon Schama's Power of Art airs at 10 tonight on MPT (Channels 22/67).

THE PROBLEM -- Bus riders at an Arundel Mills mall stop in Hanover had to get down on their knees to check the Maryland Transit Administration bus schedule, if they didn't trip over the metal sign first. THE BACKSTORY -- The only schedule box for the stop, near the Medieval Times restaurant, slipped down its post some time ago. Some riders, including Devin Delonta Davis of Baltimore, had never noticed the fallen schedule box, which was so dirty from its proximity to the ground that the information was unreadable.

Rex Allen Sr.,77, a singer and actor in Western movies, died Friday in Tucson, Ariz., several hours after his caretaker accidentally ran him over with a car, police said.Police believe his caretaker did not realize Mr. Allen was behind the car when she began to back it up. Detectives were attempting to determine whether Mr. Allen had fallen before he was struck.Mr. Allen starred in several western movies, including "The Arizona Cowboy" in 1949, and in the television series "Frontier Doctor."

WITH THE dying of the last, honest bit of daylight, and all the electric power in the house gone from the force of Hurricane Floyd, my wife and I gazed at the huge trees in the back yard Thursday evening and followed them into the sky.Those trees have been there forever. They've survived rain and gusts and history of all kinds, and fiercer troubles than Floyd, whose very name sounds more country bumpkinish than menace.But the leaves in those trees were shivering in blustery wind now, the way a spaniel shivers when drying off. And the branches seemed to grope about in the gathering darkness.

Hurricane Floyd, which lumbered up the East Coast and hit Maryland hard a week ago, left a whirlwind signature on Baltimore's tree line.About 750 trees fell in the city's streets, mostly in northeast and northwest neighborhoods, which have the most densely wooded areas, city officials said.At the Cylburn Arboretum, a gaping hole was opened in the park's canopy by the loss of a 150-year-old red oak and a 75-year-old beech which were split by gale- force winds. The pair, which stood next to each other, were both between 70 and 80 feet high.

FireSykesville: Firefighters responded at 2:51 a.m. Thursday to fallen electrical wires at Bennett and Oklahoma roads. Units were out 20 minutes.

Are you sick of this rainy May weather yet?For the third consecutive weekend, it rained in Baltimore and surrounding areas, and the National Weather Service predicts more today, tomorrow and Tuesday. While yesterday saw only light showers and drizzle with periods of sunshine, some people say: "Enough already!""If I liked this much rain, I would be living in England," groaned Vern Laurie, an administrator with the Environmental Protection Agency who lives just outside of Annapolis. "It kind of puts a damper on your weekend -- pardon the pun."

FireWinfield: Firefighters responded at 11: 34 p.m. Monday for fallen electrical wires on Route 26 and Skidmore Road. Units were out 16 minutes.Pub Date: 10/07/98

It's been assayed that Denzel Washington is the Cary Grant of this generation, but a more apt comparison may be James Stewart. Grant, after all, was the sum of some wonderfully charming parts, whereas Stewart's impact, the way he combined nobility and likability, was deeper and more ineffable. Since his forcible performance as Malcolm X in 1992, Washington has become the American actor most able to personify goodness without sappiness or superiority.Still, even Washington's welcome presence is not enough to save "Fallen," yet another spiritual allegory from Hollywood dealing with God, Satan and the presence of angels.

Few endeavors in life are as rewarding and frustrating as having a fig tree in your yard. On the plus side, it produces loads of ripe fruit. On the minus side, it produces loads of ripe fruit. The fruit attracts birds. They peck the fruit, knocking juicy bits off the tree and onto cars parked below. A fallen fig leaves a tenacious stain, one that even a high-pressure hose has trouble dislodging. Combine these fig stains with the droppings deposited by feasting birds, and for a few weeks in the summer cars residing under the trees look as though they have been trashed by paint-ball-wielding vandals.

Several hundred officers, their families and friends attended the Baltimore County Police Department's annual memorial service Friday in Towson. They laid wreaths at a stone monument at the Towson Courthouse Plaza and shared memories of fallen officers. Many said they come every year and this time they wore large buttons that read "Fallen but not Forgotten." "Mainly, this is a service for those we loved and will never forget," said Lynne Parry, whose husband, Mark F. Parry, died in the line of duty seven years ago. "It is comforting to know that 100 years from now, this county will still call out his name and remember."

People get sick, even in recessions. Medicare and insurance companies pay for treatment in recessions. Which helps explain why medical stocks have fallen much less than the market as a whole. The health care segment of the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index is down about 30 percent in 2008. Steep though that is, it's less than any other sector except consumer staples, represented by companies such as Procter & Gamble. Consumer-staple shares are down by about 20 percent, while the S&P 500 as a whole has fallen 40 percent.

There are certain issues that are so sensitive that nobody talks about them until one bold person steps forward and breaks the ice. This one I would have preferred to dodge except that a couple of readers weighed in after being caught up in the backups caused by the motorcades for the services of the state troopers killed in the last month's crash of a Medevac helicopter near Andrews Air Force Base. Timothy Kjer of Hunt Valley writes: I do not understand why every fallen police officer needs to have a funeral that disrupts this entire region's traffic flow for 5 hours of the work week.

The most under-covered story the last two weeks is the plunge in the price of energy other than crude oil. It offers a little hope for lower future heating bills than we once might have expected. Prices for electricity and natural gas have fallen even more than those of crude, which has won all the headlines and gone from $145 to $125 a barrel. Mid-Atlantic electricity for January delivery has fallen by 24 percent since early July. Natural gas is down about 20 percent. To be sure, even declines of that magnitude won't free cash for a shopping spree or vacation.

The dress blues that Marine Lance Cpl. Norman W. Anderson III wore to his wedding still hang in a bedroom at his parents' Parkton home. Like most of his other belongings, they've gone untouched since the day the 21-year-old was killed in Iraq almost three years ago. "I cleaned out two drawers and I couldn't do it anymore," said his mother, Robyn Anderson. "It's almost like then admitting it's real. This way I can still pretend he's just still away." Anderson is one of 77 Marylanders, including 45 from the Baltimore area, who have fallen in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since the Sept.

If you're Orioles president Andy MacPhail, what are you supposed to take from the past three weeks? The team has fallen off a cliff, dragging any illusions of organizational progress over the edge along with it. The only question now is how long it will take to put all the broken pieces back together again. MacPhail is, by nature, an upbeat guy, but he's not fooling himself about the significance of the recent collapse. He knows that those who don't learn from failure are doomed to repeat it. "I think it's important not to ignore it," MacPhail said yesterday.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Joined by thousands of firefighters from across the country, this grieving region bade farewell to "our dear heroes" yesterday and struggled to find meaning in the deaths of nine men who died battling a furniture store blaze this week. "Firefighters charge into dangerous places when the natural human instinct is to flee rapidly," marveled Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., whose city lost the most firefighters in a single incident in the nation since the terrorist attacks of Sept.

With Sister Wendy Beckett back to living quietly in her trailer and Robert Hughes having moved on to the subject of himself, it has fallen to Simon Schama to lead the art-appreciation class this summer. Simon Schama's Power of Art has an extension-course snap to it, the kind of thing from which you would expect to learn something interesting without being especially taxed or worrying about grades. On TV Simon Schama's Power of Art airs at 10 tonight on MPT (Channels 22/67).

Lawsuits against polluters have fallen by more than half under the Bush administration, and penalties and investigations of environmental crimes are also down, according to a new report by an environmental advocacy group. The Washington-based Environmental Integrity Project said that "the Justice Department has become reluctant to sue violators," filing fewer than 16 lawsuits a year against polluters who refused to settle since Bush took office. This compares with an average of 52 a year in the last three years of the Clinton administration.