Gratitude

Travelers seemed to be moving fairly smoothly toward their destinations yesterday with few major hiccups on what was expected to be the second-busiest travel day of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. BWI Marshall Airport spokesman Jonathan Dean said things had "gone splendidly" for the 72,000 passengers anticipated to move through the gates and terminals yesterday. "There has not been any significant delays," he said. Some flights to Atlanta and Chicago were backed up because of weather, and others headed to airports around New York City were delayed because of heavy traffic, according to the Federal Aviation Administration Web site.

BASKETBALL FANS in this state owe a debt of gratitude to the University of Maryland men's team. While the pros canceled the first half of their season (and some aren't sure the Washington team has yet showed up), the Terrapins excited area basketball followers with some of the best college play anywhere. The team made it to the vaunted "Sweet 16" of the post-season, one of only a handful of schools to do so consistently the last several seasons.The Terps learned the hard way, however, that winning breeds greater expectations.

WHEN it's all over, when independent counsel Kenneth Starr has shuttered the windows and turned off the last lights of his vast prosecutorial empire, I will bow in gratitude -- we all should give thanks. I won't be relieved simply because this expensive and extraordinary experience is finally done with, whether or not he gets his man. Personally speaking, Ken Starr hit me with a two-by-four and helped make up my mind on two issues I've been in turmoil about for some time.Thanks to the independent counsel, I am now against the grand jury system and the Independent Counsel Act whose enactment I supported two decades ago. The former would require a constitutional amendment to do away with, being a carry-over from 12th century England and now woven into our sense of justice as deeply as trial by jury.

IT IS A tribute to the staff and volunteers of the Baltimore Urban League that tonight's 41st annual Equal Opportunity Dinner is a sellout.Through most of the year, they quietly go about the business of ensuring that a wide range of employment, housing and other services, including nationally acclaimed programs that use computer technology to benefit the inner city, are available to Baltimore-area residents. One night a year, though, their efforts are saluted by the corporate and political leaders of this community.

Today, of course, is a day to express gratitude for the things that are most important in life, to give thanks, if you will, hence the name of the day. And it's a good thing that it's Thanksgiving Day, for Gratitude Expression Day probably wouldn't work all that well on a greeting card.But if you're a person who loves to watch football on television, every day in general, and today in particular, is a day to give thanks to Ravens owner Art Modell.With 32 years as chairman of the NFL's television committee, Modell has been as instrumental as anyone at shaping the very policy that makes it possible for good folks like you to enjoy today's heaping helping of gridiron fun, including Fox's Chicago-Detroit offering (Channel 45, 11: 30 a.m. pre-game show)

Eat, drink, be merry, die before the bill comesPity Sewell R. Marsh whose crystal clear logic and obvious concern over the unbalanced budget, as expressed in his letter of Feb. 7, brings him much anguish. Would it not be better to indulge in a little liberal myopia?Eat, drink and be merry, for nobody lives past tomorrow.Surely there is a free lunch if you are not around when the bill comes.Even the fiscally conservative must realize that the waiterdoesn't present the bill until the end of the meal.

FOR MANY AMERICANS, Thanksgiving ladles on guilt with the gravy and giblets. Is it right that we should celebrate our material abundance in a world where 850 million people are underfed? That we should honor home when so many are homeless, and family when so many are estranged?Well, of course it is right to give thanks. There is no Garden of Eden: In our world, people are a mixed lot and lives have texture, rough and smooth. The Thanksgiving hymn recognizes as much: "Wheat and tares together sown, unto joy or sorrow grown."

Havre de Grace. -- Wednesday night, while official Washington was nervously observing the ascension of the Newt, I walked to the barn in the deepening cold.It was the first real winter night we've had, and the still, oxygen-rich air was exhilarating. Overhead sparkled a true winter sky, planetarium-clear.The Big Dipper, which I associate with summer, was nowhere to be seen; it appears overhead at this season just before sunrise, when we tend to be sleepy and less inclined to look up. In its place was Orion.

Lobbyists poured a quarter million on Casper Taylor's gubernatorial fire in the fervent desire to retain his gratitude as he remains speaker of the House.The USNS Comfort will sale for the Caribbean, which is cold comfort if you don't want to intervene in Haiti.Fox TV went after the alphabet networks' affiliates like so many chickens in an ill-defended coop.

The budget battles are over. The lingering pain caused by faculty cuts and coeducation will be left for her successor.After 40 years, Rhoda Dorsey is leaving Goucher College.On a cloudless spring morning, Goucher's president took care of her last major duty yesterday, presiding over the 103rd graduation ceremony at the Towson college.After a procession of bagpipers, diplomas were given to 142 graduates, and honorary degrees were bestowed upon Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, civic activist Sally James Michel, and New York philanthropist Eugene M. Lang.

We all want Baltimore to be a safer place. But in a world of limited resources, what is the best way? One constituent who wrote to City Hall last week was pretty sure he knew. He had read an article in this newspaper and expressed great alarm that city leaders would spend money on anything else when the Police Department was, evidently, not properly staffed. So: Are we to simply spend whatever money we can find on more police, at the expense of other programs and services? A review of the history is in order.

Research suggests that the regular cultivation of gratitude and appreciation has multiple psychological and physical benefits. Thankful people typically boast better overall health, fewer physical symptoms, higher income, more energy, larger social networks and stronger marriages. They also exercise more. They fall asleep more easily at night. They sleep longer and more soundly, and they wake up more refreshed. The practice of gratitude may increase the levels of immunoglobulin A in your throat and nose, increasing your ability to resist viral infections.

After prospective members spent more than a year of knocking on doors, filling out questionnaires and collecting countless signatures, the county school board is finally complete. New member Allen Dyer and returning members Ellen Flynn Giles and Janet Siddiqui, each took the administration of the oath of office during the board's meeting Monday. "I can think of no higher honor than to serve my country," said Dyer, an attorney from Ellicott City who had run unsuccessfully for the board in 2006.

As Wilde Lake football coach Doug DuVall guided his players through practice for the final time in his career yesterday, the 61-year-old with the jovial attitude and cherubic face went about his business as if it were any other day. Preparing his team for tonight's Class 3A state championship against Westlake at M&T Bank Stadium, DuVall was the picture of focus. Deep down, however, he was very aware of the occasion and the fact that the end of what has been a magical 36-year ride is near.

SEATTLE-- --The heart of Ravens fan Michael Watts lives in Jeff Hansen, a longtime fan of the Seattle Seahawks. Hansen, 32, was at Qwest Field yesterday wearing a Steve McNair jersey and Ravens cap to honor the memory of Watts, whose heart Hansen received at a Seattle-area hospital a few hours after Watts died. Watts, 25, was an Air Force staff sergeant from Eldersburg who died while riding in a military vehicle in September 2006. He was returning home to Great Falls, Mont., to await the birth of his second daughter.

Travelers seemed to be moving fairly smoothly toward their destinations yesterday with few major hiccups on what was expected to be the second-busiest travel day of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. BWI Marshall Airport spokesman Jonathan Dean said things had "gone splendidly" for the 72,000 passengers anticipated to move through the gates and terminals yesterday. "There has not been any significant delays," he said. Some flights to Atlanta and Chicago were backed up because of weather, and others headed to airports around New York City were delayed because of heavy traffic, according to the Federal Aviation Administration Web site.

Inside Edition's Deborah Norville is scheduled to discuss and sign copies of her new book at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Southeast Anchor Library, 3601 Eastern Ave. Norville is the author of Thank You Power: Making the Science of Gratitude Work for You, which contends that "giving thanks can make you happier and healthier," according to library official. Information: www.prattli brary.org.

Dena Love Raitzyk, a commercial artist in Randallstown, died of lung cancer Saturday at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. She was 46. Dena Love was born and raised in the Baltimore area and graduated from Randallstown High School in 1979. She then attended the Maryland Institute College of Art, studying graphic arts. While at MICA she met Neil Raitzyk, and the couple married June 27, 1982. Mrs. Raitzyk left school to work in Baltimore for Williams & Wilkins, a Philadelphia-based publisher of specialized media for the health professions.

Kabul Beauty School An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil By Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson Random House / 288 pages / $24.95 With all the tragedies going on in the world - Iraq, Darfur, Afghanistan - who has time or the energy to think about hair? Shouldn't we all be helping out in some substantial way, volunteering as emergency workers and learning how to respond to natural - or terrorist-caused - catastrophes? So thinks Deborah Rodriguez, a hairdresser from Holland, Mich., who first becomes involved in emergency care when she goes to New York City in the days after the Sept.

I am writing to express deep gratitude for the generosity of an unknown family here in the Harford county area. We are a military family stationed here at Aberdeen Proving Ground. We have been here for about a year and a half. My husband is a soldier and a veteran of Bosnia, Kosovo, and more recently Iraq. He has served his nation with pride and dedication. He enjoys what he does, and does so without an expectation of recognition. We are a family of six. We have four boys ranging in age from 10 years to 15 months.