Relationship

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)

Right from the start, I knew we would have problems in our relationship. We were too much alike, he and I. Type A. Achievers. The kind who love lists and checking things off. The kind who love control. And yet, as the new year rolled in with all its resolutions and promises of change, I made a commitment to him. I downloaded the app to my phone and linked myself for the foreseeable future to MyFitnessPal. He made promises, and I did, too. But could we keep them? After all, we both wanted the same thing: We were determined to get rid of the eight pounds that had crept onto my frame in the last year.

Early in his tenure as Ravens offensive coordinator, Cam Cameron was universally praised for his relationship with young quarterback Joe Flacco, who won 20 games in the regular season in 2008 and 2009 and three more, all on the road, in the playoffs during his first two years in the NFL. Flacco was considered by some to be a project coming out of Delaware. The physical tools were there, but he came from a smaller school that ran a shotgun spread offense, something that has become more prevalent here and around the NFL since Flacco was drafted 18th overall in 2008.

For decades, the Orioles commanded a sweeping empire of fans - a territory larger than some European countries, stretching from southern Pennsylvania to North Carolina and including Washington, where the team operated a popular retail store. The club's games are still broadcast across most of the same region, but the Orioles now share much of it with the Washington Nationals, who are ensconced in a population-rich portion of what was once the Orioles' domain. The Nationals' arrival in 2005 created a complicated relationship in which the teams are at once neighbors, opponents on the field and, lately, bickering business partners when it comes to the regional television network they co-own but the Orioles control.

Arda Ocal (@arda_ocal) of theScore Television Network and The Baltimore Sun spoke with WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart (@BretHart) for a video Q&A. Topics discussed include Hart's relationship with CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and Punk as the Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels of this generation, and much more.

If Baltimore's state's attorney and police department manage to forge a relationship that finds them working together, rather than in opposition, the citizens will benefit. ("Approach to police crimes is changing," March 8) We have in Baltimore what I refer to as a criminal justice non-system. Baltimore is not alone; the same holds true on a national scale. The word "system" connotes an amalgamation of otherwise separate entities conjoined with a single purpose and acting in unison and agreement to meet a shared goal.

Provided sufficient signatures are collected, the highly controversial question over whether or not the state should recognize same-sex marriages will be considered on the ballot this November. In deciding this, I believe voters should consider the uniqueness of a male-female relationship. This relationship, especially when two are united as a married couple, brings together qualities that no other relationship does. While there are obvious biological differences, there are also personal, emotional and intellectual qualities brought together as well.

Regarding your recent article about people not using their hearing aids, I have a love/hate relationship with mine "People with hearing loss not using aids, study shows," Feb. 14). I can set the volume on mine at three different levels to hear better but, alas, any background noise is also amplified. That doesn't do much good in a noisy situation. Sometimes I can hear people six to 10 feet away better than someone sitting across the table from me. In frustration, I will turn my hearing aid off or just take it out and do the best I can. Until they make a hearing aid that can discriminate among sounds like my brain could before I had hearing loss - and one that doesn't cost an arm and a leg - I will just have to make the best of a bad situation.

Tonight's episode of "Jersey Shore" started as many do: With promise.  The country's favorite meatballs and meat heads did the stuff that makes the show fun: They used the English language in new and inventive ways, treated their potential hook-ups with the casual disdain we've come to expect and generally entertained us as the class clowns of the country.  Mike showed off his karate moves. The boys dubbed themselves "Mr. VP. " Snooki informed women they should get C-sections when giving birth so they don't "f--- up their vaginas.

For all the years that they did battle in the clubhouse or the sports pages or on the dais of some charity roast, Jim Palmer knew how Earl Weaver really felt about him. That's why he had to hold back tears Saturday when he related his favorite memory of the Earl of Baltimore - a memory made more poignant because it also involved his late teammate Mike Flanagan. It was way back, on one of those balmy spring training days in Miami, when the Orioles were always one of the best teams in baseball and Palmer was their pitching ace. Flanagan, still figuring things out in his early 20s, was sitting on the bench next to Weaver.

Jimi Helen McCormick, a first lady of the McCormick spice, seasonings and flavorings firm, died Friday of cancer at Stella Maris Hospice. She was 74 and had homes in Reisterstown and Stuart, Fla. Born Jimi Helen Faulk in Jackson, Miss., she lived in Southern California as a child. After her father's death, she was partially raised by aunts and uncles in Methodist parsonages in Mississippi and Louisiana, where she attended schools. Her mother, Minnie Rae Faulk, was a Washington dressmaker.

The Baltimore Symphony is about to become one of the very few, if not the first, major classical orchestras in the United States to officially appoint a playwright in residence. This weekend, Didi Balle will preside over the third of her "symphonic plays" to be performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The form, which Balle invented, combines a live orchestra, a conductor who delivers a scripted narrative and professional actors. In a news release, conductor Marin Alsop said that the appointment formalizes a relationship between Balle and the symphony that began in 2008.

The four-story brownstone near Washington's Lafayette Park is one of the most exclusive hotels in the world. There's a fireplace in the master bathroom, and the thread counts on the sheets is high enough to rival the Four Seasons. And only four people can get reservations to stay there right now - possibly because the coverlet bears the presidential seal, and there are accommodations for the Secret Service in the basement. The townhouse on West Jackson Place is the residence where Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and both George Bushes stay when they are in Washington on official business.

The 33-year-old son of a Howard County man on trial for allegedly killing his wife and burying her beneath a backyard shed two decades ago testified through tears on Thursday about waking up on the morning of her disappearance and wandering around the home looking for her. Robert Jarrett III was 10 years old at the time, and it was a morning ritual for his mother, Christine, to wake him and his younger brother. On Jan. 4, 1991, he got up on his own and saw no sign of her. He checked her bed and the garage, and then called his aunt.

I found Dan Rodricks ' column on Dr. Ben Carson jaded and biased ("Ben Carson's biblically based conservatism," March 31). Mr. Rodricks accused Dr. Carson of making homophobic remarks, but it was just his opinion that the remarks were homophobic in nature. Mr. Rodricks should write a column every week denouncing those who oppose gay marriage for their anti-gay bigotry. I believe that homosexuals should have the same rights as any other citizen. However, if they need to legalize their actions they should do so and call it something other than marriage.

A fifth man has filed a lawsuit against Kevin Clash, the former voice of Elmo on "Sesame Street," making sex abuse allegations similar to those of four other plaintiffs. Kevin Kiadii, now 25, of New York, alleges that he was 16 when he and Clash engaged in sexual contact after meeting on a gay phone chat line. According to the lawsuit, Clash initiated contact with Kiadii on the chat line in 2004, invited him to his New York apartment and sent a luxury car service to pick Kiadii up in Brooklyn.

They worked together, laughed together, commiserated with each other over failed love affairs, non-existent raises, impossible work loads and the lizard for whom they work.He was her buddy, her confidant, her colleague, her friend -- someone she could meet for a drink after work; someone safe and reliable.But a month ago, after too many TGIF toasts at the local hangout, they went somewhere to dance (and drink). Then they went somewhere for dinner. Then they went back to his place -- and to his bed.This is hardly a new story, but the young woman who wrote from Toledo, Ohio, this week wouldn't believe it if we told her so. She thinks no one else has ever been "so dumb or impulsive."

Q: I am a divorced man, 34, who wants to remarry. I have had a relationship for two years, but our time together is limited by our careers, my night school and 40 miles between us. When we do spend more time together, we usually fight.She doesn't want to make a commitment until I finish school, in two years. I am afraid that after the two years we may still be unable to commit. I am also afraid that we are too comfortable with a weekend relationship. Any suggestions?A: Your concern is justified: This arrangement may be a placebo for a relationship that is basically unsound.

Sheldon Stephens, the first man to claim that “Sesame Street” puppeteer Kevin Clash had an underage relationship with him, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the former voice of Elmo. Stephens is the fourth man to sue the Turners Station native, but in November he was the first to make his allegations public. Clash, 52, has denied all of the allegations. He has said he and Stephens had a relationship after Stephens became an adult. Stephens soon retracted his claim, calling the relationship adult and consensual.

An Anne Arundel County high school teacher and basketball coach, facing charges related to an alleged relationship with a student, turned herself in to police on Tuesday. Police said Broadneck High School English teacher Erin Thorne, 28, and a senior student exchanged nude pictures of themselves through text messages beginning in the boy's senior year in September 2010. Police said they determined the two exchanged the text messages before the student was 18, and later they had a sexual relationship that began after he turned 18. The student, now 19, graduated in spring 2011, authorities said.