Future

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.

Reality didn't set in for Orioles pitching prospect Kevin Gausman that he was heading to the major leagues until the moment he boarded his connection flight to Baltimore on Wednesday morning. "Then, I just kinda was thinking, you know, 'Wow, I'm really here. It's crazy,'" Gausman said. "I wish I had hugged this guy or said thanks and stuff like that, but it didn't really hit me until [then]. " After just 14 starts in the minor leagues, the 22-year-old Gausman arrived at Camden Yards on Wednesday afternoon, getting plenty of handshakes, high-fives and hugs from his new teammates in the Orioles clubhouse.

This year's Extreme Rules pay-per-view event left us with some unanswered questions but also some new beginnings. In the main event (a rare moment in WWE history where all wrestlers in a final match on PPV weren't on a full-time WWE schedule), Brock Lesnar defeated Triple H in a cage match. Lesnar went up 2-1 on "The Game" and is likely poised for another future match in WWE (not against Triple H), perhaps at Summerslam or Wrestlemania 30. Questions coming out of this match are: will Triple H wrestle again?

When the United States Golf Association packed up its corporate tents after the 2002 Senior Open concluded, Caves Valley returned to its roots as a private club that was selective in the tournaments it hosted. Mandated to promote the amateur ranks, the Owings Mills club welcomed a handful of events in the intervening years - none involving professionals. That will change in the summer of 2014, when the Ladies Professional Golf Association's inaugural International Crown comes to Baltimore County for a four-day, match-play event featuring four-player teams from eight different countries.

Ryan Minor took a few steps out of the Orioles' dugout last night, turned to look inside, then jogged slowly to third base. Perhaps he was checking to make sure no one was following him.Eleven days had passed since Minor's promotion from Double-A, and already he was treading on sacred ground. He hoped only to keep from falling.Without warning, Minor took the position that had belonged exclusively to Cal Ripken for the past two seasons, ending a consecutive-games streak that stretched to eternity.

Robert B. Reich brings new meaning to the phrase "hope springs eternal" when he writes that the "regressive right wing of American politics" might ignite a new era of liberalism ("The regressive right-wing reawakens a progressive America," Oct. 20). Lets just hope the "regressive right wing" does not usher in a new era of "progressive regression. " John Milton Wesley, Columbia

The Anne Arundel County Department of Aging and Disabilities is sponsoring a series of free workshops, "The Future is Now! Are You Ready?" focusing on legal, financial and future expectations. The workshops run 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Arnold Senior Activity Center, 44 Church Road, Arnold. •Wednesday: "Long Term Care Insurance," featuring Senior Health Insurance Assistance Program director Amy Rubino and a representative from the Maryland Insurance Administration. •Jan.

If the state of Texas executes Duane Buck, it'll be because he is black. Well, mainly it will be because in 1995, he shot his ex-girlfriend, Debra Gardner, and her friend, Kenneth Butler, to death at Gardner's Houston home, and also wounded his own stepsister, Phyllis Taylor. But it will also be because he's black. In Texas, they have this rule: a jury contemplating the death penalty must evaluate the likelihood a defendant poses a future danger to the community. Jurors in Mr. Buck's trial were told he poses said danger because he is a black man. Mind you, this came from a defense witness, whose ultimate finding was that Mr. Buck himself represented little danger.

Winning last year's Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament was a breakthrough for Loyola. This spring, the program was just an overtime loss to Denver on April 13 away from completing an undefeated season in the league and earning the top seed in this week's conference tournament. The No. 5 Greyhounds (11-3) will face No. 8 Ohio State (10-3) in one semifinal Thursday night at Hobart in Geneva, N.Y. No. 3 Denver (11-3) and No. 19 Fairfield (8-6) will tangle in the other semifinal.

To understand what Fred Lazarus accomplished during his 35 years as president of the Maryland Institute College of Art , one need only look at the gleaming concrete-and-glass structure housing the school's Brown Center for new media. The rakishly angled building rising above the school's Mount Royal Avenue campus symbolizes the future of both art and higher education in America as surely as the stately neoclassical building across the street from it reflects its past. Mr. Lazarus, who announced this week that he will step down as president in 2014, had the genius to see that future and the skill to build it in Baltimore.

I was given a potted hydrangea flower as an Easter gift. Can I plant that outdoors? Mophead (Grandiflora) hydrangeas are hardy outdoors, but yours was bred for greenhouse culture and forced into bloom for the holidays, so its chances are less certain. Sometimes they make the transition fine. Because it is essentially a houseplant at this point, adjust it to outdoor temperatures slowly over several days or wait until your indoor temperatures and the outdoor temperatures are similar before taking it outdoors.

Reviewing national media coverage of the Black Guerrilla Family's virtual takeover of the Baltimore City Detention Center, it's impossible not to feel the pressure mounting on Gov. Martin O'Malley who is expected to return this week from a trip to the Middle East. And how he handles the scandal could go a long way in determining how well he does or doesn't do with those national aspirations we've been hearing so much about the last year. I can see the image of Black Family Guerrilla gang leader Tavon White, who is alleged to have held virtual control of the detention center, haunting O'Malley in attack ads throughout any future campaigns.

As chairman of The Baltimore Museum of Art 's board of trustees, I want to thank you for the balanced reporting and editorial on the recent steps taken by the BMA to secure the financial stability of this great institution ("The BMA's shrinking staff," April 12). The BMA's board is committed to ensuring the museum's future for our members, patrons and the community through the adoption of a sustainable business model for the 21st-century. We want the citizens of Baltimore and the state of Maryland to continue to enjoy and benefit from this wonderful cultural and educational resource for generations to come.

Seeking to solidify its membership following Maryland's decision to depart for the Big Ten, the Atlantic Coast Conference said Monday that 15 current or future members have signed documents granting the conference their media rights for the foreseeable future. The agreements, effective immediately and extending until at least 2027, according to reports, were viewed by ACC members as a powerful means of promoting stability. Like many conferences, the ACC has been rocked by the imminent departure of a member - Maryland is leaving next year - and rumors that more defections could occur.

Columbia is the wonderful, successful city it is due in large part to the "founding" residents. Many moved here from other areas looking for the promise of what Rouse and company offered, if you wanted to be part of it. We did, and have never regretted that decision. Thus it is always surprising when people think somehow this happened on its own. It was involvement, trust, a love of open space, diversity, and a hedge against the bigness of buildings, complexes, and development at the expense of community, neighborhoods, and a way of life.