Life And Death

Cathy Leaycraft's photos of collages (which themselves are made from photos) deal with such large subjects as life and death and the nature of woman. But they do so with a slanted perspective and the kind of ambiguity that leaves open possibilities of interpretation and keeps the work interesting -- when it doesn't become so open that meaning drains away."

Though I hate how big and intrusive our government has become, I don't believe Edward Snowden was aware of the bigger picture when he leaked secret information about the National Security Agency's spying ("Source of NSA leaks named," June 10). He forgot that by leaking the information about the NSA's snooping on Americans, he also informed our enemies of its extent as well. One can't tell the American people about something without telling the rest of the world. Because of that, Mr. Snowden's narrow-mindedness should be considered selfish and traitorous.

Houston Oilers coach Jack Pardee and his offensive coordinator, Kevin Gilbride, know firsthand what it's like to deal with life-and-death issues.Both have overcome battles with cancer.Pardee was 27 and a player with the Los Angeles Rams when he discovered that a black mole on his back was malignant."At one time, I was told I might have two weeks to live. My first thought was, 'How am I going to live those two weeks?' All of us need to remember to treasure life because it's so fragile and none of us know how much we have left," he said.

Stricken with grief and working on an hour of sleep, Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith played a major part in a comeback victory against the New England Patriots on Sunday night just hours after learning that his brother died in a motorcycle accident in Virginia. Smith was intent on honoring his 19-year-old brother, Tevin Jones, pointing to the sky after a 25-yard touchdown in the second quarter, and finishing with a team-high six receptions for 127 yards. Kneeling in the end zone, Smith said a prayer during the fourth quarter.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Like everything else in this state, Christmas decorations are big. Just down the highway in Houston, a 64-display, drive-through light show is said to be the world's largest. Even in a small town like Lufkin to the northeast, an entire city block explodes in megawatt, wall-to-wall white lights.Here, the modest downtown gets into the spirit as well. A group of men spent a recent morning climbing up and down ladders to decorate the city's most distinctive building with gaily painted signs wishing all the happiest of holidays.

Jonathan Shapiro thought his first death-penalty case would be his last. The defense lawyer agreed to take the case of a convicted cop-killer shortly before the man was to be executed. Shapiro got the death sentence overturned and worked the case for the next eight years, for free, only to have his client executed anyway. "It basically drove me out of the practice of law," says Shapiro, who now represents convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad. "Just living through an execution is something you never forget.

The announcement over the Oakland Mills High School intercom pierced through the whispering voices and shuffling papers of Monday morning's first period: Two former students had died and one was critically injured on a spring break trip to Florida.Many had heard the news of the knife and baseball bat attack during the weekend. Friends had been calling each other. Parents had asked if they knew the men, Kevans Hall II, 23, Matthew Wichita, 21, and Seth Qubeck, 21.But the announcement brought the attack inside the walls of the school in this tight-knit community.

WASHINGTON -- One expects tragedy to reveal itself in the face: to deepen its lines, twist the features. One expects it to appear somewhere, and there it is: It stares from the tired, joyless eyes of George McGovern.Except for those sad eyes he has not changed much. He is 73; he has aged well. He is tanned, his hair is light still and a little wispy. He smiles, friendly, only with his upper teeth. But that is enough to fish up the memory of Senator George McGovern's surprising, exuberant and quixotic quest for the presidency a quarter of a century ago when he carried the Democratic Party's standard against Richard Nixon.

"A Matter of Life and Death" (1946) will make excellent post-Valentine's Day viewing at the Enoch Pratt Free Library 's central location Saturday. It's about love as the force that takes the full measure of a man or a woman, even during wartime. The movie starts when an RAF poet-pilot (David Niven), stuck in a plane blasted to ribbons, bails out without a parachute — and lives. The "conductor" meant to transport him to heaven loses him in dense English fog. A sensitive American (Kim Hunter)

The term "euthanasia" comes from the Greek words meaning "good death." But the concept of an easy death -- specifically, the means of inducing one -- has had a stormy relationship with the law.The case of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and his suicide machine is a good example. For several years, Dr. Kevorkian had been looking for customers for his device. Last June he found one in Janet Adkins, a 54-year-old Oregon woman who had been diagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease.Janet Adkins' death in the back of Kevorkian's van in Oakland County, Mich.

Considering that the title character is no longer among the living in "Following Sarah," she spends a good deal of time on stage at Fells Point Corner Theatre. Playwright Rich Espey has set himself a tricky challenge with this Baltimore Playwrights Festival entry about a deceased high school girl who lingers in the thoughts of her classmates and perhaps lingers in a supernatural way, too. Espey, who is a veteran presence in this annual showcase for local playwrights, has a firm command of character and dialogue.

I did not think I'd ever see a better medical documentary series than the Emmy-Award-winning “Hopkins 24/7” that aired in 2000 or its sequel, “Hopkins,” which won a Peabody Award in 2008. The backstage access, immediacy and range of gripping real-life drama that ABCNews Executive Producer Terence Wrong and his team captured at Baltimore's world-renowned medical institution were landmark. But with “NY Med,” which premieres at 10 p.m. Tuesday, Wrong surpasses his earlier work in terms of prime-time storytelling without sacrificing any of the cultural seriousness or grand reach of the Hopkins series.

"A Matter of Life and Death" (1946) will make excellent post-Valentine's Day viewing at the Enoch Pratt Free Library 's central location Saturday. It's about love as the force that takes the full measure of a man or a woman, even during wartime. The movie starts when an RAF poet-pilot (David Niven), stuck in a plane blasted to ribbons, bails out without a parachute — and lives. The "conductor" meant to transport him to heaven loses him in dense English fog. A sensitive American (Kim Hunter)

My only reaction in response to today's article about the protest at Café Hon ( "Demonstrators protest 'Hon' trademark," Dec. 20) is wondering where are these protestors and their outrage over real issues of life and death, such as standing up to child abuse, which ends over 2,500 lives a year? Where is their outrage over that? I respect their constitutional right to assemble, but get angry over something of real importance. You protestors are welcome to join us anytime you are ready to make your voices heard about keeping children safe.

Stories of life and death told against a background of hospital gowns, fluorescent lights and the worried words of loved ones hoping for the best are nothing new to many Baltimore viewers. Hundreds of thousands tuned in when ABC News took viewers inside Johns Hopkins Hospital on its 2000 documentary series, "Hopkins 24/7," as well as a sequel in 2007. But Baltimore's Mercy Medical Center is the focus this week in a new docu-series, "NICU," premiering at 10 p.m. Thursday July 15 on the Discovery Health cable channel.

To quote Elwood and Jake, "We're gettin' the band back together." But we don't play the blues. We play bocce. I'm looking for bowlers for Team Rodricks-Popolo, which is named for my mother, Rose Rodricks, the former Rose Popolo. We're entering the bocce tournament at the St. Gabriel Festival in Little Italy, August 21 and 22, and we're not playing for fun this time; we're playing for prize and pride — sort like the World Cup, only different. Tryouts will be held on Monday, July 12, at 7 p.m. on the courts in the 900 block of Stiles Street.

Chilling doesn't begin to describe Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, which uses archival footage and new interviews to chronicle events leading up to the horrible day in November 1978 when 909 people committed suicide in a Guyanese jungle at the behest of a charismatic madman named Jim Jones. But the film never gets behind the chill; it paints Jones' Peoples Temple as a utopian idea gone terribly wrong, but it never gets a handle on how things went so bad so quickly. What made people follow Jones so blindly?

Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig By Jonathan Eig Simon & Schuster / 432 pages / $15 Lou Gehrig, author of the noblest moment in baseball history ("Today I consider myself ... "), is the subject of this comprehensive biography, the most nuanced look at this sports legend. "[T]he tragedy of Lou Gehrig was not only a productive life cut short," Peter Schmuck wrote here last year, "but a dynamic life not fully enjoyed."