Junk

The op-ed piece written by two architects about the Inner Harbor was a disappointment ("Best 'theme' for Inner Harbor: the water," June 8). There's an old saying: "Don't mess with success. " And I think what Jim Rouse had in mind is in place today. With retail business doing poorly in most General Growth properties, this isn't the time to add junk just to fill up vacant areas of the waterfront. I get the feeling of soot and dirt in some of the proposed ideas. Baltimore isn't interested in publicizing foreign ports.

By now all of the Twinkies, Ho Hos and other Hostess baked goods have been stripped from grocery store shelves — and countless tributes paid via Tweets, blogs and Facebook posts. After more than 80 years in business, Hostess declared it was going under last week, dropping off the last of its Wonder Bread and Zingers deliveries, possibly ending jobs for more than 18,000 people, and marking yet another sad demise of a venerable American business institution. Now, in a perhaps ill-fated 11th-hour round of negotiations with its workers, Hostess is struggling to escape the Great Recession sandpit, or get bought out. Yet this octogenarian snack king is really just the victim of another movement sweeping the country over the past couple decades: "low-fat" and "health food" trends, and the current government-sponsored anti-obesity campaign.

Arthur G. "Whitey" Mansberger, one of Baltimore's great collectors and dealers of what he called "old stuff" for more than 30 years, was mentioned last week in Jacques Kelly's column. I became acquainted with Mansberger in the early 1970s, through Earl Arnett, who was then a Sun feature writer. Earl said that Mansberger was a character, and he wasn't kidding. He proposed a lunch at the now-gone and much-lamented Schellhase's Restaurant on Howard Street, to talk about the bundles and bundles of old City Hall papers, mainly canceled checks, that Mansberger had purchased for $50 from a foreman overseeing restoration of the building.

Throughout the day, shirtless, tattooed men push shopping carts filled with metal scrap to a junkyard in Curtis Bay. Inside the gate, a pair of German shepherds and 16 surveillance cameras keep watch as the men unload their treasure and leave with cash. Though small and tucked away, the scrap yard on Andard Avenue has prompted an outsized share of outrage. Neighbors complain that the business is encouraging thieves to steal metal from their homes at a time when the market for recycled metal is booming.

Our neighborhood just held a community yard sale, an extravaganza at which folks demonstrate their community spirit by trying to dupe others into buying all the useless stuff they've been trying to get rid of for years. The yard sale was held on the grounds of the local elementary school, and by 8 a.m. the place looked like the midway at the state fair. Having participated in a number of these - although not this one - it occurred to me that there are a number of eternal truths that apply to any yard sale: The weather is always iffy - 90 percent of the time there's a threat of rain.

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

Philadelphia has just joined an exclusive club in having its municipal bonds downgraded to junk-bond status. The city suffers from many problems, some of which plague all big cities: Hemorrhage of jobs and citizens to the suburbs, increasing numbers of people below the poverty line and cuts in federal aid. Add huge new expenditures for public-health problems such as drugs and AIDS.Spokesmen at investment rating services say Philadelphia's economy is generally strong. And they say good things about the city's overall management.

It might as well be part of Americana; a father and son toiling in the yard to restore an old jalopy to running order. Norman Rockwell, no doubt, would have seen it as material for his catalog of captured moments that tug at our heartstrings.But idealized moments do not a day in reality make. One person's valuable antique is another person's eyesore. That car sitting tireless on cinder blocks with weeds growing through the floorboard may be grandma's old Ford to you, just awaiting -- when you can get to it -- a little tender, loving care.

While in the Kowloon district of Hong Kong on business, I walked to the harbor to enjoy the evening sea breeze. To my surprise, I spied a beautiful glowing red sailing "junk" -- not so different from those that have plied these waters for 1,000 years -- gliding past. The abstract image of this 150-year-old boat, the Duk Ling (clever duck in Cantonese), set against the shimmering backdrop of skyscrapers, is a fitting portrait of this amazing city. Jonathan Weiner, Monkton The Sun welcomes submissions for "My Best Shot."

Leonard Streckfus can look at a bowling pin and see the body of a horse, or at the points of a small shovel's scoop and see the ears of a cat. "Leaping Cat," in his current show at Galerie Francoise, is made of that shovel, a wooden baluster, some bike parts and a pump handle as a great long tail.Streckfus' junk -- or to be politically correct about it, "found object" -- sculpture can be taken simply for its fun value or treated more seriously as making an environmental statement as well.

Eighteen billion dollars. That is how much money American taxpayers have paid since 1995 to subsidize the production of four junk food ingredients: high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, corn starch, and soy oil. Instead of using our tax money to produce healthy fruits and vegetables, the dollars major agribusinesses receive from the federal government too often ends up as empty calories. This is government waste at its finest. It's even more ridiculous given that rates of childhood obesity have tripled in the past three decades.

At a time when nearly a third of Maryland children between ages 10 and 17 are either overweight or obese, you'd think there'd be a law against selling junk food and sugary drinks on school grounds. Wrong. While many in-school cafeterias in Maryland, including those in Baltimore City, are making a good-faith effort to put more nutritious foods on their menus - more fresh fruits and vegetables, fewer fatty burgers and fries - as long as kids can scarf down the less-healthful alternatives available in vending machines on the premises, the fight against childhood obesity will remain an uphill battle.

The federal government doled out taxpayer subsidies last year that went to support $1.28 billion in junk food, an analysis by MaryPIRG found. In a report released Wednesday the consumer advocacy group said that since 1995 $18.2 billion has gone to support junk food. The amount is enough to buy 2.9 billion Twinkies a year, the group said. In comparison, about $637 million subsidies has gone towards apples since 2005, enough to buy 77 million apples per year. About 75 percent of the subsidies go to just 3.8 percent of farmers, the group said.

First Lady Michelle Obama is on a mission to get our kids to eat healthy, but every now and then she is known to indulge on a cheeseburger or other food that is not so good for the body. A few years ago she made a lunch run with staff to a Five Guys inWashington, D.C. Well, a physicians group said this is a no-no and wants Michelle Obama and the rest of the first family not to be photographed eating unhealthy foods. The Physicans Committee for Responsible Medicine said that President Obama has posed in a number of staged photos eating unhealthy foods, including hot dogs at a basketball game with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

On the heels of a successful inaugural event last spring that drew nearly 200 cars, Sappari Solutions and Harford Community College are hosting a second Clear Your Clutter Day Saturday, April 28, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Clear Your Clutter Day offers Harford county residents a convenient opportunity to get rid of household clutter in an environmentally-responsible way and also provides attendees information on organizing, donating and other area...

News Roundup •••• Developers "borrowing" concepts from other mobile games (i.e. straight-up copying) is becoming all too common a practice. On an unrelated note, you should all hit the App Store and check out my new game, "Plants vs. Angry Zombie Birds. " [ New York Times ] •••• Gamers are petitioning "Mass Effect 3" developers BioWare to create a new, better ending for the smash hit game. People, the game just came out on Tuesday, and we lost an hour this weekend because of daylight savings.

Mary Randolph Carter, author of "American Junk," offers this advice on caring for your junk treasures:* To brighten old linens: Boil them with Snowy Bleach on top of the stove. Bring water and bleach to a boil, then reduce to simmer. Submerge linens with a long-handled, wooden spoon. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Rinse in lukewarm water and towel dry. Fold into white plastic garbage bags and refrigerate for at least an hour. Iron right out of the refrigerator.* If you must clean the grime off an old painting: "Dry clean" with a slightly damp cloth dipped in Ivory Snow and warm water.

Washington -- They're called "garbage fees" and "junk charges" inside the mortgage industry, and they're the focus of a fast-moving wave of class-action suits on behalf of homebuyers and refinancers.They've also triggered demands that the federal government toughen up "truth-in-lending" rules to protect borrowers nationwide from being hit with unexpected, undisclosed fees at settlement.As a consumer, you ought to know about them, so here's a quick overview.Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve Board was asked to draw up regulations that would effectively ban the imposition of last-minute junk charges in home mortgage transactions.

Northbound Interstate 95 is closed at Route 100 in Howard County because of a tractor-trailer overturning about 3 p.m. Thursday, police said. The crash will likely keep the highway closed through the evening rush hour, Maryland State Police said in a statement shortly before 5 p.m. Traffic is backed up to around Exit 35A onto Route 216. Drivers should avoid the area south of Elkridge, police said, because all four lanes are closed to...