Goodbye

I was a member of the graduating class of 1972 at Cardinal Gibbons. What an incredible time to be a teenager in the late '60s and early '70s for many reasons. I was so proud when I received my acceptance letter to attend an all-boys Catholic high school with such a great reputation. In looking back, they were the most formative years of my life. I will never forget the values we learned there. I will also never forget playing junior varsity and varsity baseball on the same field as Babe Ruth.

The Eastwood school's librarian, Cheryl Madden, had just finished saying her farewells to the fifth-grade class seated attentively in their dress-up clothes in the front-row seats. She ended with a line from a quote, saying that "one can go backward toward safety or forward toward growth. " She encouraged the children to embrace the growth that will naturally come as they move on to middle school in the fall. Then she walked down the stage steps and out a side door. As she quickly disappeared down the empty hall, her chest heaved with sobs and her voice squeaked with each breath.

T housands of people skipped work and some even kept their kids home from school. In a chilling January rain, they lined downtown streets and sank into the mud of Memorial Plaza - all for a glimpse of the Vince Lombardi Trophy, a silver obelisk with the power to warm Baltimore's collective soul. All of those kids and many of their parents were too young to remember the city's last Super Bowl win, 30 years earlier. With the Colts long gone, the city needed another hit of victory, craved it - a jolt of civic pride, an affirmation, a legacy.

BOSTON -- When Kieran O'Leary took the trip to last year's Boston Marathon, the County Dublin resident met up with several other Irish visitors before the race. "Some of the guys I knew from before from other races -- I'd met a few of them previously," O'Leary said by phone last week. "We met up on race day and traveled out to the start together and then hung around together, waiting for the start. " There were plans to meet up afterward as well. No post-race reunion happened however, because O'Leary found himself in a medical tent, receiving an I.V. drip -- a recovery from one of the hotter Boston Marathons in history.

Today is my last day at The Baltimore Sun. It's been an amazing 12 years at this newspaper. I started here as an editorial assistant on the business desk. I covered business news for years -- from the fall of Bethlehem Steel to the rise of Millennial Media. I also spent several years covering Baltimore's police department and crime. Along the way, I grew incredibly interested in technology, from the gadgets and Internet services that were changing my profession to the people and companies that were on the cutting edge here in Maryland.

Phillips last day at Harborplace is Sept. 18 The iconic Maryland seafood restaurant will end it 31-year tenure in the Light Street Pavilion after the Sunday dinner service on Sept 18. Phillips will reopen in the nearby Power Plant Live balding in the space vacated by the ESPN Zone, sometime this fall. No firm date has been announced for the reopening, and no details about arrangements for the restaurant's employees were available.

It's been a good run as the real estate wonk -- five years of blogging and even longer writing stories about the never-dull housing market -- but the time has come to pass the baton. Colleague Steve Kilar, who's been covering commercial real estate, is taking over residential as well. Which should make life easier for the poor souls who, in years past, were never sure which reporter to contact about mixed-use developments. It will also mean a broader array of real estate news and tidbits on both this blog and the @RealEstateWonk account on Twitter, which Steve is also taking over.

After almost a decade on Baltimore TV, Amber Theoharis signed off for the last time Thursday from a local sporting event. She starts Sept. 21 as a co-host on "NFL Total Access" on the NFL Network. She leaves next week for California. Theoharis took a break from covering the Baltimore Orioles in their showdown with the New York Yankees at Camden Yards Thursday night to talk about her feelings and say goodbye to viewers who have come to know her over the years at WBFF (2004-2006) and MASN (since 2006)

A federal law was set to take effect today that would have quashed those recorded phone messages from telemarketers. But at the last minute, a court gave the sales pitches a reprieve, at least for now.Article on 2A

One of the longest goodbyes in TV history finally ends tonight with Johnny Carson's signing off forever as host of "The Tonight Show."Under the heading of "All politics are local," though, Baltimore area viewers might be seeing the taped broadcast of Carson's last show a bit later than the rest of the country.The show is scheduled to air at 11:35 p.m. tonight on Channel 2, but WMAR management said it won't start the Carson tape until the Baltimore Orioles' game against the California Angels ends and 35 minutes of local news with Stan Stovall and Sally Thorner have aired.

The cuisine and restaurants of Baltimore are getting another turn in the national spotlight. The March 25 episode of "Bizarre Foods America with Andrew Zimmern" features Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay. The last time Baltimore was the subject of a Travel Channel food show was in July 2009, when Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" took viewers into a gritty side of the city. Not all Baltimoreans were pleased with how the city came across. Zimmern's affable style is different from Bourdain's, but don't expect a chamber of commerce-style slide show.

Bud's 'Brotherhood' Diane Pucin Los Angeles Times Sweet horses, Fleetwood Mac, winner. Even for someone who hates beer, who gets a little queasy when there's even a hint of hops, the best Super Bowl ad was the Budweiser creation entitled "Brotherhood. " The company has used the iconic Clydesdale horse before but not with such a sweet-looking foal. The baby Clydesdale used in the ad was only born on Jan. 16. There was an entire story told. A man breeds and raises the babies and then has to wave goodbye when it's time for the tot to leave home.

I watched Ray Lewis play his last game in Baltimore ("Ray's day," Jan. 7). He never started out as a great man, but he is finishing as one. So somewhere along the way he changed, chose a different destiny, decided on a different life. He was always a master of his trade and now is a master of his beliefs. So it was with a tear in my eye that that I watched him dance his way out of the tunnel, and it was with one on my cheek and my heart in my mouth that I watched him disappear into the dressing room.

After 24 years in the U.S. Senate, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the first and only Jewish politician nominated to a national major party ticket, in 2000, had some advice to his colleagues in a farewell speech Wednesday on the Senate floor. To break the impasse that has paralyzed the body in recent years, Mr. Lieberman preached: "It requires reaching across the aisle and finding partners from the opposite party. That is what is desperately needed in Washington now. " In the last years of his long Senate tenure, it certainly could be said that Joe Lieberman practiced what he preached.

Today is my last day at The Baltimore Sun. It's been an amazing 12 years at this newspaper. I started here as an editorial assistant on the business desk. I covered business news for years -- from the fall of Bethlehem Steel to the rise of Millennial Media. I also spent several years covering Baltimore's police department and crime. Along the way, I grew incredibly interested in technology, from the gadgets and Internet services that were changing my profession to the people and companies that were on the cutting edge here in Maryland.

Baltimore's Nelly's Echo made his second - and unfortunately last - appearance on NBC's “The Voice” Monday night, as contestants entered into the battle rounds and some, sadly, went home. TEAM CHRISTINA   Nelly's Echo - Nelson Emokpae, for us local fans - was pitted against Chicago's De'Borah, and NBC has garnered my wrath for unfairly pairing MY TWO FAVORITES AND FORCING ONE OF THEM TO LEAVE. Coach Christina Aguilera had the two taking on The Police's “Message in a Bottle,” and frankly, during rehearsals, De'Borah was a mess, while Nelson seemingly had the win already in hand.

OAKMONT, Pa. -- He couldn't make it all the way up the 18th fairway at Oakmont Country Club without his eyes welling at the resounding ovation he received. He couldn't make it through a bunch of post-round interviews without breaking down.Arnold Palmer bowed out tearfully yesterday from the United States Open. Exactly 41 years after playing here in his first Open, the legendary king of golf closed what had been a memorable show. The memories came crashing down on Palmer, 64.His only Open victory, at Cherry Hills in 1960, a tournament many considered the seminal event in the popularity of the PGA Tour.

We started calling it "Jessie's Farewell Tour," and I think it lasted longer than Cher's. During all of August, as everybody packed up to return to college, Jessie and her friends gathered daily to say goodbye. To each other, to someone else, to the same person. She interrupted the family vacation to return home for a farewell dinner and then left vacation early so she could say goodbye -- to the same friend. Romeo and Juliet didn't say goodbye on the balcony as many times as these kids have said goodbye.

I didn't notice the new credits until tonight, with all the stars getting the "Bat Signal" that "DWTS" needs them again and rushing to the studio. They make me chuckle, just a little bit. Interviews from the crowd, including Sarah Palin, Maria Menounous, Kristi Yamaguchi and Nick Lachey. Our first three out are Bristol & Mark, Kelly & Val and Pamela & Tristan. Bristol came back to see if she could improve her confidence. Tom assures her that she seemed more confident last night than she did in her entire prior run. And then we get rehearsal footage of how OTT Mark is. Kelly missed the competitiveness of being on the show.

It's been a good run as the real estate wonk -- five years of blogging and even longer writing stories about the never-dull housing market -- but the time has come to pass the baton. Colleague Steve Kilar, who's been covering commercial real estate, is taking over residential as well. Which should make life easier for the poor souls who, in years past, were never sure which reporter to contact about mixed-use developments. It will also mean a broader array of real estate news and tidbits on both this blog and the @RealEstateWonk account on Twitter, which Steve is also taking over.