Gentleman

If you're a big fan, you already knew what was coming in the season finale. But it didn't make it any easier -- or less heartbreaking -- to watch. The majority of the Season 3 "Downton" finale, or the "Christmas special" as its called in the U.K., took place in Scotland, where the whole family (minus Branson) visits the Highlands home of the Dowager's niece, Susan, and her husband, Shrimpy. Most of the trip included bagpipes, hunting, more bagpipes and Scottish reel dancing. But more on that later (and more on O'Brien meeting her Scottish lady's maid doppelganger)

Instead of visiting country manor homes that are occasionally open to the public, here is an opportunity to own an estate in northern Baltimore County. Nestled on 50 acres of bucolic pastures and agricultural land, Alistatim Farm , in the heart of My Lady's Manor — a national historic district near Monkton — presents dramatic views for every season. Long summer days can be spent by the pool, while autumn mornings call out for a bit of competing in the dressage ring. "A seven-stall barn comes complete with hay storage, fly-spraying system and tack room," noted Ashley Richardson, a Long & Foster agent who listed the property.

On a trip to Dallas from BWI last week, to my surprise, I was sitting next to Ray Lewis of the Ravens. He was on his way to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii, and I'm sure it was a bittersweet trip for him. Mr. Lewis accommodated anyone and everyone who asked for an autograph with respect and dignity. He was most kind and considerate, even while being interrupted during a telephone call for an autograph while we were sitting at the gate. I did take the liberty of congratulating him on a great season, and he shook my hand with appreciation.

On March 12, my wife and I entered Catonsville, via Frederick Road, traveling east to a doctor appointment at 4 p.m. Suddenly, our car was enveloped in a cloud of steam coming from the engine, forcing us to stop on the side of the road. An urgent call to AAA assured us that assistance would arrive in 30-45 minutes. Some 15-20 minutes later, as I was examining the engine, a gentleman, approaching from behind, tapped me on my shoulder to ask the nature of our problem. I assumed he was the AAA service contractor.

The first time I saw Jack, my daughter's pup of choice, 11 years ago, I was certain she had lost her mind. There I was picking up her dog with her at Howard County Animal Control, unaware until that moment that Jack was very, very large. Called Polar Bear by his previous owner, this Great Pyrenees was going to live in my daughter's Ikea-like townhouse with the postage stamp back yard? She had to be kidding. Yes, I had known since she was a small child that she wanted a big dog with down ears.

HE WAS A gentleman. He was also a man who carried a gun and robbed people, but he was nice about it. In a society lacking in manners or sophistication, even a courteous bandit warrants special attention. That certainly seems to be the case with Lon Perry of Houston.Perry, 49, was a computer programmer who spent 22 years in the oil business and suddenly got down on his luck. He lost his job at Texas Eastern Corp. on Jan. 1, 1989. By spring, his severance pay had almost run out, his bills were in arrears, and his choices of where to turn were about gone.

U.S. Sen. Al Gore sought to portray Democrats as defenders of the middle class against Republican indifference during his address at the annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Glen Burnie.Recalling an outpouring of sympathy from Maryland residents in 1989 when his son was hit by a car leaving an Orioles game, Gore contrasted the two parties' positions on efforts to legislate parental leave rights to attend to newborn or sick children."The Republicans almost to a person said, 'No,' " said Gore, who placed a distant third in the Maryland presidential primary election in 1988.

Celeste Holm thought the guy sitting a few feet from her at the Brown Derby was just putting on airs. But in reality, he was getting ready to make her an immortal of the silver screen."

Fifth-grader Mark King, decked out in a white suit, called out to the group of 20 boys lined up, two-by-two in the hallway of Van Bokkelen Elementary School. "Are we ready?" he shouted, his hands cupped to his mouth. The boys leaned back in their equally suave suits and pumped their arms up. "We ready!" they called back. Unconvinced, Mark shouted the question louder. The boys hollered back three times until Mark was satisfied that he had adequately prepared the Gentleman's Club to perform for that morning's announcements.

Although Circuit Judge James Macgill may not have fulfilled his high school and college dream of becoming a poet, his life itself was poetry, friends said yesterday at his memorial service in Columbia.The chief judge of Maryland's 5th Circuit Court from 1954 to 1980, Judge Macgill died of cancer at age 80 June 27 at his Mount Airy home.Yesterday at the Oakland Mills Interfaith center, about 300 lawyers, judges, artists and family members celebrated his life with humorous anecdotes and fond reminiscences.

On a trip to Dallas from BWI last week, to my surprise, I was sitting next to Ray Lewis of the Ravens. He was on his way to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii, and I'm sure it was a bittersweet trip for him. Mr. Lewis accommodated anyone and everyone who asked for an autograph with respect and dignity. He was most kind and considerate, even while being interrupted during a telephone call for an autograph while we were sitting at the gate. I did take the liberty of congratulating him on a great season, and he shook my hand with appreciation.

The first time I saw Jack, my daughter's pup of choice, 11 years ago, I was certain she had lost her mind. There I was picking up her dog with her at Howard County Animal Control, unaware until that moment that Jack was very, very large. Called Polar Bear by his previous owner, this Great Pyrenees was going to live in my daughter's Ikea-like townhouse with the postage stamp back yard? She had to be kidding. Yes, I had known since she was a small child that she wanted a big dog with down ears.

Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. testified Wednesday on behalf of state Sen. Ulysses S. Currie, calling him "a gentleman" and "very friendly. " Ehrlich, a Republican, and Currie, a Democrat, were elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1986, a circumstance that Ehrlich said led to a lasting relationship. Ehrlich said he has "always found [Currie] to be a gentleman" and "somebody willing to work with us on most occasions. " The former governor was the first Republican on a lengthy list of Annapolis politicians to testify as character witnesses for Currie, who is facing bribery charges.

Editor:  Street parking in Havre de Grace recently came up as an issue at my house. Not because people park in front of our home daily; we actually do not mind that at all. We live right across the street from a business in town, and we are used to sharing our street space. We do also have private parking behind our home, which makes it easier for us as well.  My 18-year-old son went to a friend's house who lives in town and parked on the street in front of someone else's home.

An email from Peter Finck arrived Thursday morning with a subject line that read: Very Sad News. Because Peter was a man who liked to share a good laugh and a corny joke, I was certain his email would begin: The Pillsbury Doughboy died today of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71 … Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. But the opening lines read this way: My father, Peter Finck (Pop Pop)

A 24-year-old woman was found guilty Tuesday of stabbing to death a stripper outside Norma Jean's Gentleman's Club in Baltimore in November 2008. Shontay Lane, 24, of the 3100 block of Westmont Court was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and carrying a deadly weapon with the intent to cause serious injury in the stabbing death Takira Leray Johnson-Bey, 27, outside The Block strip club. The incident began inside Norma Jean's on Custom House Avenue, spilling out between the club and the neighboring Glass Slipper, according to city state's attorney's office.

Arthur Davis III is in his element. As host of a Sunday afternoon open house at a huge, vacant stucco house in a prestigious section of blue-blood Guilford, the chummy real-estate broker known affectionately as "Otts" greets visitors like the old friends many of them are."This isn't work -- this is fun," he says, a virtual giggle in his voice.It's not by accident that this prince of a people-person in the tortoise-shell glasses and navy blazer has found his way into sales. Nor is it any wonder that the well-spoken man -- educated at the same gilt-edged Gilman School where many of his clients send their sons -- should have been picked as president of the Maryland Association of Realtors, as he was last fall.

When Leslie Fiedler applied to graduate school in 1938, one teacher wrote this "recommendation":"Mr. Fiedler is a very bright student, but he will never be a scholar and a gentleman.""He was absolutely right," Mr. Fiedler says, laughing with glee, as he recalls the story. "I was never a scholar and certainly never will be a gentleman!"But Leslie Fiedler certainly became a famous and provocative literary and cultural critic. Though he's best known for his early work on American literature, Mr. Fiedler -- who holds the Samuel L. Clemens Chair in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo -- was honored yesterday (on his 75th birthday)

A 24-year-old woman who had been stripping at Norma Jean's Gentleman's Club in Baltimore was found guilty Tuesday of stabbing another stripper to death in November 2008. Shontay Lane, 24, of the 3100 block of Westmont Court was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and carrying a deadly weapon with the intent to cause serious injury in the stabbing death Takira Leray Johnson-Bey, 27, outside The Block strip club. The incident began inside Norma Jean's on Custom House Avenue, spilling out between the club and the neighboring Glass Slipper, according to city state's attorney's office.

Even the judge had a hard time understanding how a man so polite in court could be so vicious on the street. In May 2008, Donnell Lamont Covington stabbed Robert Johnson twice with a knife on James Street, near the B&O Railroad Museum. The second slice severed the victim's carotid artery, and Covington, known as "Lil' Black," left him to bleed to death on the street. A motive remains unclear, but a jury convicted Covington of first-degree murder after hearing three days of testimony in Baltimore Circuit Court.