Light

MOSCOW -- In the blackness enveloping me, I can tell only that there's something squishy on my plate. Could it be a hard-boiled egg? Maybe it's cheese. No, it doesn't smell sharp enough to be cheese. I taste it meekly, which doesn't help. Another bite; I still don't know what it is, though I do know this: I don't much care for it. This reminds me of a third-grade Halloween party where I donned a blindfold and thrust my hand into a bowl of peeled grapes I was told were eyeballs. Basically, I feel like I am eating eyeballs.

Like many gardeners, I spend a lot of my summer weekends staring at my tomato plants wondering what is going on. Lately they have been teasing me. They produced a couple of beauties, ripe luscious Cherokee Purples. Last week, I devoured them. But then, like a spurned lover, the tomato plants stopped delivering joy. They seem to hold back, waiting for me to make some move. Green fruit torments gardeners, but especially ones who have already tasted bliss. So as I cast about tomato literature looking for solutions to my reluctant plants, I came upon the red mulch tactic.

Sometimes the columnist's weekly offering drops into the public consciousness as if it were a bottomless well. No splash, no sound, nothing. Properly so, some will say. Just what it deserves. Sometimes, though, particularly in the age of the Internet, when pontificators append e-mail addresses, responses do come. The messages waiting on Monday morning can be illuminating and friendly - or a bracing introduction to the etiquette of the cyberworld. It's a case of being careful about what you wish for. Rule No. 1 for the e-mail writer: Act quickly while umbrage is peaking, lest some more thoughtful tone creep into your message.

SOME ITEMS from the mailbag:* The latest word in tools is light -- as in on-the-job illumination that's built into the tool. Craftsman has introduced a line of lighted tools: the Driver Light, a magnetic-tipped screwdriver with a push-button light in the handle; the Illuminator Socket Light, which lights up when in contact with a 3/8-inch ratchet; a screwdriver light attachment, which slides onto the shank of a round or hex screwdriver; the Oscillite flashlight,...

"The world of the theater is as closed a tribe and as removed from other civilian worlds as a Gypsy encampment, and those who enter it are spoiled for anything else and are tainted with its insidious lure for the rest of their lives," wrote playwright Moss Hart in his memoir, "Act One."Hart gave theatergoers a rollicking, warm-hearted glimpse of that alluring world in his 1948 comedy, "Light Up the Sky," which is receiving a glowing production at Olney Theatre Center under the sure-handed direction of John Going.

The first hint of spring begins with the light: more light, warmer light. Then the mood: that sensation of waking up and slowly stretching into alert anticipation.The light of March sweeps over sepia fields, illuminates backyard play, burnishes the metal faces of office buildings. And as it travels, none watch more closely than artists -- the painters, photographers and cinematographers whose work depends upon it.Compared to the solid predictability of summer light, the light of spring is itchy, on the move, they say. Some call it "the new light," not so much because it's fresh as because it makes them see things in a novel way.Artist Barry Nemett has explored spring light from his bedroom window in Stevenson.

OVER the years, we have come to expect dazzling light shows of Santas and reindeer along 34th Street in Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood. But this year, holiday lights are everywhere, twinkling in communities poor and wealthy.In 1903, a string of 28 newfangled electrical lights cost a laborer's weekly salary. Today a string of 30 can be had for just $1.That's the economic explanation. But it does not take anything away from this year's glorious displays.Take a look around the metropolitan area -- and marvel.

WASHINGTON John Brodman works on world energy policy for the U.S. government. Clear enough, but then there is his title.Brodman is an associate deputy assistant secretary. And that makes his formal title "associate deputy assistant secretary for international energy policy, trade and investment for the Department of Energy.""Try to put that down on a business card," Brodman said. "Or on one of those registration forms that ask for name and title in a small space."Brodman takes his lengthy title in good humor, but a recent study says the government is giving more people more titles -- at a time when it's supposed to be doing some serious streamlining.

From her perch 170 feet above the ground, inside the steel catwalk of a light tower at the Ravens' stadium, Ginny Churchman has a panoramic view of the Inner Harbor, Oriole Park and, in the distant haze, the Francis Scott Key Bridge.But her eyes are fixed on the muddy boots of a co-worker down on the field, some 400 feet away.An assistant project manager for Enterprise Electric, Churchman is responsible for getting each of the 612 lights on the stadium towers aimed at the proper place. It's an exacting process, done to the exacting standards of network television.

David Drake thought about what he wanted his marriage to be long before he proposed to Kristin Gould.In February 1993 - three years before he met Kristin - David saw an image he thought was a good metaphor. Driving in Colorado, he passed a well-lighted house. At the bottom of the driveway were two lights that showed the way through the darkness to the RTC top. It struck him as "two lights leading the way to the true light - God," he recalls.David promised himself he would propose to his future wife - whomever she might be - on that very spot.

If the battle between city residents and city drug dealers is a battle of wills, it appears the drug dealers are winning, or at least have city agencies so confused that they can't keep a single street illuminated in a neighborhood that abuts downtown and Mount Vernon. The people who live in Seton Hill got a portable floodlight near Orchard Street and Pennsylvania Avenue to counter a drug market. The dealers who prefer to ply their trade in the dark broke the light by cutting the wires and bending the frame.

On May 15, 2008, ETHEL J. LIGHT (nee Martinez); beloved wife of the late Jack L. Light, Sr., devoted mother of Jack L. Light, Jr., dear grandmother of Scott, Angie and Diane, dear great-grandmother of Nicholas and Sierra, loving sister of Helen, Ted, Andrew and Pete and the late Johnny, Harry and George. A catholic burial service will be held at the family owned Duda Ruck Funeral Home of Dundalk Inc., 7922 Wise Avenue on Monday at 11 A.M. Interment Parkwood Cemetery. Friends may call Sunday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M.

Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy On Being an American Citizen By Susan Griffin Trumpeter / 304 pages / $25 While she was an undergraduate at the University of California at Berkeley, Susan Griffin was placed on the FBI"s Security Index. Griffin was active in Slate, a precursor of the Free Speech Movement on campus, wrote movie reviews for The People's World, picketed Woolworth's in sympathy with sit-ins in the South and attended a few meetings of a class on Marxism. Her file got thicker when she marched down Market Street in a bathing suit to protest the embargo on Cuba and was crowned "Miss Right to Travel.

Twice a year there is a moment - in fact, a few days - when the sun seems to "stand still" in the heavens. From the Latin sol stasis we derive our name for these events: solstices. In our calendar, they mark the beginning of winter and summer. This year, at 1:08 a.m. on Saturday, the sun will stop its retreat from those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere. It will begin its return to us, and the hours of light will lengthen each day until the summer solstice in June. Before we celebrate the waxing of the light, however, we would do well to honor the dark.

I began this column more than two years ago by citing statistics on the size of the federal work force in Baltimore's southern suburbs. It was a way to justify the column's weekly presence as well as readers' attention to it. But during the past two years, I've learned that the numbers tell us very little about the role federal employees play in the region's economy. For one, much of the federal work force is hidden, working as contractors inside leased space at nondescript office parks.

THE PROBLEM -- A left-turn light on a traffic signal in Baltimore County didn't work for more than a year, according to a reader. THE BACKSTORY -- How long does it take Baltimore County to change a light bulb? More than a year, according to Karen Zale. About two hours, according to the county Department of Public Works. The Baltimore County resident wrote Watchdog on Nov. 7, complaining about an "unworking left arrow signal" from Old Court Road at Towne Center Place, which leads into a shopping center in Pikesville.

Menorah lighting scheduled Dec. 9 Area synagogues, Jewish schools and organizations, and local officials will participate in a Hanukkah menorah-lighting ceremony at 4 p.m. Dec. 9 in Centennial Park, Ellicott City. A representative from each participating synagogue will light a candle of the 6-foot menorah. Music and singing is planned, and jelly doughnuts, a traditional Hanukkah food, will be served. The event is sponsored by the Jewish community of Howard County. Information: Helaine Brenner, 301-580-3400.

Mary Uyeda is a woman drawn to the light and in love with a view. Two years ago, she took advantage of both. That's when, after eight years in Seattle, she returned to the Anne Arundel County community of Shady Side where she had a bay-front home. But it was in poor condition. Aside from wear and tear, the house, which had been rented out, suffered significant damage from Tropical Storm Isabel in 2003. Uyeda knew she couldn't touch a Chesapeake Bay waterfront property of nearly a half-acre for anything close to the $110,000 she'd paid in 1988.

MOSCOW -- In the blackness enveloping me, I can tell only that there's something squishy on my plate. Could it be a hard-boiled egg? Maybe it's cheese. No, it doesn't smell sharp enough to be cheese. I taste it meekly, which doesn't help. Another bite; I still don't know what it is, though I do know this: I don't much care for it. This reminds me of a third-grade Halloween party where I donned a blindfold and thrust my hand into a bowl of peeled grapes I was told were eyeballs. Basically, I feel like I am eating eyeballs.

Food *** (3 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere *** (3 stars) After 11 years in a basement a few blocks south, Minato has moved up into the light. That's how it seems, anyway, if you're seated at one of the tables in the big storefront window of what once was the Belvedere Florist. On a summer evening, light still streams in through most of dinner. There's a glittery retro chandelier. Light is also provided by the huge rainbow wave fixture, almost a sculpture, overhead. The fluorescent lemon-lime chairs are so bright they practically light up the place by themselves.