Heart

I hope everyone has taken a few moments to collect themselves after that spectacular finale. Midway through, I was a bit worried as the episode was beginning to seem more like a series finale than a season finale. However, the last 15 minutes provided everything a good finale should: suspense, murder, a love triangle (quadrangle!), a drug overdose, break-ups (bonus points for calling off an engagement), a conniving friend, heart break, a parent finding their child unconscious, unplanned pregnancy, a declaration of “never speak to me again” followed by a quick hang up, an engagement, a serious accident (plane instead of car, way to go big!

Former Major League Soccer midfielder Santino Quaranta has spoken before about a story that is both disturbing and uplifting — signing with MLS when he was 16, battling abuse of cocaine and painkillers, becoming sober, returning to the game and playing for his country. But Quaranta said Tuesday's speech to about 650 Baltimore-area high school athletes was special. It was the largest crowd to hear his deeply personal message. It was delivered near where he was raised (he attended Archbishop Curley)

Mike Smith appeared dazed in the moments after his horse, Bodemeister, was again beaten by Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another - this time by a neck in Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course . The veteran jockey wore the frozen smile of a man hardly able to fathom what had just transpired. "I swear I don't know how he ran me down, man," Smith said after trainer Bob Baffert approached in the fading sunlight. "You did a good job," the 59-year-old trainer told the 46-year-old jockey, a fellow Hall of Famer and former Preakness winner who recently passed 5,000 career victories.

The Sun states that the "primary reason the terms of the 1983 compromise [on Social Security] no longer work is demographic - the population is aging and people are living longer" ("Social Security can be fixed," April 26). Actually, even way back in 1983, people understood about demographics. The agreement reached then took full account of aging baby boomers. What it did not anticipate is that a higher and higher proportion of national income would flow to the highest income categories.

The faces of past and present surround Hugh Harrell in the studio/gallery/living room of his home. He's somehow wedged among life-size paintings of James Baldwin and Miles Davis, and a sculpture consisting only of a head and feet.As usual, he's creating. He's the artist-in-residence and proprietor of Harrell-Art, a rowhouse-turned-art gallery that overlooks Druid Hill Park on the corner of Auchentoroly Terrace and Gwynns Falls Parkway in West Baltimore.More than 300 portraits, drawings and sculptures grace the first floor of his home, and Mr. Harrell has no designs to part with most of his creations.

We bought our house almost 30 years ago, but even then the real estate agent was selling us on the big kitchen — relatively speaking. The dining room and the living room were no bigger than sandboxes, but she made the point that families never spend much time in those formal rooms anyway. So the builder had devoted most of the first-floor space to the kitchen, with room for a table and chairs, a highchair and a toddler's playthings. All these years later, the kitchen — the heart of the home, I think — has officially morphed into an entertainment area, where friends and family gather while the cook cooks.

For the last year and a half, this column has focused on a wide variety of home and garden stories—how to pick the best flooring for your needs, and what colors are going to be trendy next year, a behind-the-front-door glimpse into some of Baltimore's most intriguing residences. Unlike many of my colleagues, I have gotten to tell happy stories. I hope I have been entertaining and helpful along the way. So in this, my last column (at least for now), don't expect some tawdry expose of how people "really live" behind closed doors.

Elizabeth Warren is a native of Oklahoma, but she might as well be from Baltimore based on the reception the city gave her Thursday night. She spoke at a town hall meeting held by Rep. Elijah E. Cummings to talk about the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau she’s setting up. Given the big applause and standing ovation, you might assume that there wasn’t a banker or anyone from the industry in the crowd. But not true. Kathleen Murphy, president of the Maryland Bankers Association, sat in the first row. Cummings gave a shout out to Murphy for coming to the event.

I t's Valentine's Day 2010, and Janet of Janet's World is nowhere to be found. Apparently, she has taken the day off to engage in a love fest of activities. These include, but are not limited to: cooking with chocolate, watching romantic comedies and writing the kind of sappy poetry she penned while growing up in a constant state of crushes on guys who could not possibly know she existed - from David Cassidy of "The Partridge Family" to Ron Howard of "Happy Days." In her stead, a special guest columnist appears today, Aunt Tenaj, who will answer your urgent, family-friendly love questions.

Washington. -- For a quick course in why health-care spending continually eludes stringent efforts at cost control, consider a family of wondrous mechanical devices headed for the medical marketplace to take over from failing hearts -- which now number 700,000 a year in the United States.There's a long way to go in perfecting these devices, but they are already considerably more sophisticated and effective than the cumbersome Jarvik-7 artificial hearts that created a sensation in the 1980s.

Last fall, as Perry Hall's junior varsity field hockey team played at Catonsville High, Gator freshman Breanna Sudano suddenly collapsed in cardiac arrest with 30 seconds left in a 2-1 victory. Sudano, who had scored both goals, lay motionless on the turf as as CPR was administered by parents and coaches. Friday night, fans attending the girls lacrosse double-header between the host Gators and Joppatowne wore smiles of relief, and players chanted "We want Bre,"as Sudano was proclaimed an honorary captain for the team.

Celebrate the spirit as "Dancing Hearts" presents "Classical Rocks," Sunday, April 22 at 7 p.m. at Resurrection Church, 3315 Greencastle Road, in Burtonsville. Enjoy works such as Aaron Copland's evocative Duo, Scott Joplin's irresistible Rags and the soulful tango music of Astor Piazzolla. The program features flutist Karen Johnson, pianist Carlos-Cesar Rodriguez and percussionist John Kilkenny. Concert is part of the Living Arts Concert Series. A reception follows the concert.

If you suffer from pain in the legs, sores on the feet or burning sensations in the toes you may have a condition called  Peripheral Vascular Disease. The condition affects about 10 million people in the United States. Johns Hopkins doctors will offer free screenings for the disease 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at Towson Town Center Mall. The screenings will take place in the Grand Court on level 1.   Untreated PVD can cause debilitating pain, swelling, poor wound healing, heart attack or even stroke.  Dr. Mark Lessne , Johns Hopkins Vascular and Interventional Radiologist, will be on hand to answers questions about the disease.

Perry Hall's varsity and JV girls lacrosse teams will wear red this Friday as they raise funds for the American Heart Association and honor Breanna Sudano, a Gators field hockey player who collapsed during a JV game in September. Sudano's life was saved through CPR at the field, then an operation at Maryland Children's Hospital by Dr. Sunjay Kaushal after she was diagnosed with anomalous coronary artery disease -- a condition she was born with but didn't know she had. From a news release sent out Wednesday: On Friday, starting at 5 p.m., the JV and varsity lacrosse teams at Perry Hall will honor Breanna with a "Red Out" game where they will all wear red in her honor. The girls play a fundraiser game every year.

Where is the man who can stand erect amongst his kind, and boast that he has passed unscathed through the ordeal which has been prepared for our enterprising and commercial countrymen? Such men are few and far between; and could we scrutinize them in their privacy, how soon we should perceive the absurdity of the thought, that they have been unaffected by it. We should see them at one time elated with hope and confidence, and the blood coursing high and tumultuously along the channels of the system, under the natural influence of that state of the mind -- anon.

There's no nice way to put it for Mount St. Mary's, which must defeat Sacred Heart this Saturday at home and Wagner next Saturday on the road to finish in fourth place in the Northeast Conference and qualify for the league tournament. It's a humbling scenario for the Mountaineers, who won the inaugural tournament championship last year, but it's the situation created by Saturday's 17-14 loss to Robert Morris, which dropped Mount St. Mary's to 0-3 in the Northeast Conference. Coach Tom Gravante said Tuesday morning that the players are aware of the must-win scenario facing them.

What's black and white and red all over? At the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel last weekend, that would've been the "2009 Heart Ball," the 25th annual fundraising gala for the American Heart Association Mid-Atlantic Affiliate. Its 600 guests were encouraged to add some red to their black-tie attire - a suggestion most took to heart. Event chair Ken Banks greeted folks decked out in a tux and jaunty red patterned bow tie. Interior designer Carolyn Ross looked positively divine in a ruby goddess gown, while her husband, Samuel Ross, the chief executive officer of Bon Secours of Maryland, sported a splash of red over his heart with a pocket square tucked in his tux. "I've got red studs going down the front ... red cuff links.

A mosaic of multi-colored flowers spilling out of a silvery vase fills a wall at the entry to the new Green House Residences at Stadium Place in the city. Tiles of varying hues and textures form a perky yellow sunflower, a brilliant red rose, delicate pink blossoms and splashes of green and lilac. When Gina Rozier last saw the piece, it was a jumble of glass, granite and stones. Rozier, who will be working in the four-story senior-care center, was one of about 100 volunteers who put the mosaic together over the past several months.