I Heard

I'm confused about choosing a color to paint my kitchen. I've heard that green is the color of the year. And then I hear about gray being the new neutral. What are the best colors to paint the kitchen? A kitchen should be an inviting gathering space, so warmer or brighter tones are ideal, such as deep ivories, rich coppers, luscious reds, golden yellows and yellow-greens. Be sure to take countertops, appliances and floors into consideration when selecting your color. You'll want something that complements these accents and flows naturally into the surrounding rooms of your home.

While news of the fatal commuter train accident in Washington yesterday spread quickly through the neighborhoods surrounding the site, the concern was intensely personal for one resident. "My daughter and my grandson is on that train. I had gone to Fort Totten to pick them up," said Alice Miller, who wore a Jesus pin on her yellow dress. After the crash, her daughter, Karen Miller Long, 46, of Upper Marlboro, called her from the crumpled train, saying she had been standing when she felt the impact and could see her mother's backyard.

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)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- I worked an the afternoon shift yesterday, so I had a chance to pursue some mundane errands. Instead I wound up on a nightmarish tour of Baghdad. I first went to Mustansiriya University, the site of the tragic explosions last week that claimed the lives of about 70 students and injured scores. I was trying to get some documents for my wife. Upon arriving at the main road leading to the university, I found it blocked by Iraqi security forces. I took an alternate road that snaked through residential areas.

New York -- This is the last thing writer Gretel Ehrlich remembers before her heart stopped beating in August 1991: She was out walking with her two dogs on her ranch in Wyoming when she heard the distant sound of thunder. Knowing that one of her dogs was afraid of thunder she called him to her. "Don't worry, Sam," she said. "You're safe as long as you're with me."The next thing Gretel Ehrlich remembers is something she describes as a "coming-back-to-life dream:"I was underwater, deep in the ocean, in some kind of moribund state.

LOS ANGELES -- In dramatic testimony yesterday, an air traffic controller accepted blame for February's fatal runway collision in Los Angeles and the co-pilot of one plane told how his pilot died in the flaming wreckage.It was the first public appearance by the 38-year-old controller, Robin Lee Wascher, since the accident and the first time she acknowledged publicly that her mistake had led to the crash.Federal investigators say that because of her confusion, Ms. Wascher positioned a SkyWest commuter liner on the same Los Angeles International Airport runway on which she had just cleared a USAir Boeing 737 jetliner to land.

NEW YORK -- In her anguished final moments with her slain son, Karen Watkins sat alone next to his body in a small room at St. Vincent's Hospital and bade him farewell. "I told him how much I loved him," she told a riveted courtroom.Courtroom spectators and two jurors wept with the mother of tourist Brian Watkins, 22, as she testified yesterday."I sat with my son to tell him goodbye," said Watkins, 47, drying her eyes repeatedly. As she spoke, one of the young men on trial, Emiliano Fernandez, bowed his head.

As folks who have been off work tend to do, I spent the first few days back on the job swapping vacation stories. What interested me were stories of vacation disasters, the low points rather than the highlights of leave. As I quizzed colleagues about their troubles in leisure land, I heard a few tales of woe. I heard about a dad who temporarily lost a daughter in the London subway system when they accidentally took different trains. They were reunited a few trains later. I heard about a dad who stuffed his family into a van and headed across America only to be sidelined for several days in Oklahoma City while a mechanic rebuilt the transmission.

City police were searching for a motive and suspects yesterday in a drive-by shooting Tuesday night that left a man dead and five people wounded on an East Baltimore street corner.Purnell Hall, 24, of Capitol Heights was shot several times and died at the scene. The other victims suffered minor wounds and were released yesterday from Johns Hopkins Hospital. They were wounded in the buttocks, ankles and thighs. One was shot in the back.The attack, which occurred shortly before 10: 40 p.m., left a stark reminder of city violence.

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- "Did you hear?""Hear what?""They might put it off for two weeks.""No. Where'd you hear that?""Right here in the lobby a minute ago. A guy told me.""A guy?""Yeah. A guy who heard it from another guy he knows.""Interesting. But I don't think it's right.""No?""Not at all. As a matter of fact, the NFL press guy just told me he'd heard that rumor and that it wasn't true.""No?""Nope. He said to expect a decision within 24 hours, one way or another.""Interesting.""Yeah. I don't know what to think.

Now that the primaries are over and the political riff-raff has been sent packing -- oh, not you, William Donald Schaefer, you're a legend, even if it was time for you to go -- I have a small request to make of the remaining candidates for office as we head into the general elections in November. And that request is: Don't call me at home, OK? Don't call if you're running for governor. Don't call if you're running for Congress. Don't call even if you're running for dog catcher. (I don't know, does anyone even run for dog catcher anymore?

Iwas an eyewitness to 9/11. I was living in Brooklyn and I commuted to work by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. On my way to work, I heard a passerby say that the World Trade Center was on fire. I scrambled up to the bridge and saw flames coming out of one of the towers and thick, black smoke. I could also see what looked like a gaping hole. It was around 9:30 a.m. My mind couldn't grasp the fact that steel and glass were on fire. I started walking toward the flames. Meanwhile, hundreds of people were streaming at me in the opposite direction.

Some of the most telling poetry being written in our country today has to do with the smallest and briefest of pleasures. Here Marie Howe of New York captures a magical moment: sitting in the shelter of a leafy tree with the rain falling all around. - Ted Kooser "The Copper Beach" Immense, entirely itself, it wore that yard like a dress, with limbs low enough for me to enter it and climb the crooked ladder to where I could lean against the trunk and practice being alone. One day, I heard the sound before I saw it, rain fell darkening the sidewalk.

WASHINGTON -- As the partner of an Iraq War veteran, I pay attention to the news. I watched the president's State of the Union address Tuesday night hoping to hear some good news. Instead, most of what I heard made me frustrated and angry. I trusted President Bush to make sound decisions, moral decisions that would not needlessly put my loved one in harm's way. I trusted him, as commander in chief, to have respect for the military as an institution, for the soldiers who serve and for their families who make sacrifices in the name of ideals and values more important than their personal wants and needs.

There is nothing in the greatest symphony halls to rival the acoustics of umbrellas on a crowded beach. Clustered like mushrooms after a heavy rain, beach umbrellas form a cone of sound that allows you to hear -- whether you want to or not -- the vacation conversations of families all around you. Next to people-watching, there is nothing quite like people-listening. On the beach, as in life, there are certain roles to be filled, and it seems everyone plays their part. There is the hyper professional with a sweaty cell phone stuck to her ear as she paces in the hot sand, clearing messages and leaving more.

I WENT shopping for interesting gifts in one of my favorite, funky odd-lot stores. But where there used to be overstocks of Hawaiian shirts were pallets of Christmas decorations. It bummed me out. I went to the first party of the holiday season and one of my dearest old friends got so polluted so early we could not have a conversation beyond a brief, garbled discussion of Ted Nugent's essay in The Wall Street Journal extolling America's greatness. ("Rush hour and traffic jams are beautiful things," Nugent wrote, perhaps on a laptop from the rear of a limo.

Some of the most telling poetry being written in our country today has to do with the smallest and briefest of pleasures. Here Marie Howe of New York captures a magical moment: sitting in the shelter of a leafy tree with the rain falling all around. - Ted Kooser "The Copper Beach" Immense, entirely itself, it wore that yard like a dress, with limbs low enough for me to enter it and climb the crooked ladder to where I could lean against the trunk and practice being alone. One day, I heard the sound before I saw it, rain fell darkening the sidewalk.

WASHINGTON -- As the partner of an Iraq War veteran, I pay attention to the news. I watched the president's State of the Union address Tuesday night hoping to hear some good news. Instead, most of what I heard made me frustrated and angry. I trusted President Bush to make sound decisions, moral decisions that would not needlessly put my loved one in harm's way. I trusted him, as commander in chief, to have respect for the military as an institution, for the soldiers who serve and for their families who make sacrifices in the name of ideals and values more important than their personal wants and needs.

Editor's note: The following responses to the Question of the Month were sent in by students in grades five through seven at St. Veronica's After-School Academy in Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood. I think that the government should take all weapons without a license. [Violence] affected me because my father got shot in his knees and could have died. Also, it affected me in a sad way because my uncle got shot up and he died. I was really sad because my 7-year-old cousin found him dead.

Coordinators of the formerly three-day-long Baltimore-Washington Jazzfest included a fourth day this year just so they could add a blues man to the lineup. "Big Jesse [Yawn] moves people. The man bellows, and the people just love him," said Doris Ligon, the festival's founder and director of the African Art Museum of Maryland, which presents the event. "We wanted him to be part of the jazz expression, but he was already booked by the time we contacted him." Instead of asking Yawn to rearrange his schedule, they rearranged theirs and gave him and his four-man band of six years, the Music Men, a slot performing tonight at Silver Shadows nightclub in Columbia.