Shame

“Grammarnoir 5: The Shame of the Prose” is a four-part serial, running on Mondays from February 11 until the thrilling conclusion on March 4, National Grammar Day.  Grammarnoir is a work of fiction.  Any resemblance of characters to any persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Part 1:  See a Fellow About a Scam   Part 2: The Capo I knew where to find David Minthorn. When the bottom fell out of the paragraph game, the AP Stylebook gave up its ritzy offices on West 33rd Street, and Minthorn wound up working out of the back room of a bar called Strunky White's.

Elijah and Hannah are breaking up. She is kicking him out for his transgression with Marnie and it has gotten really ugly really quickly. "Here's your round brush, here's your Astroglide. Don't even know how that ended up in my room," announces Hannah, looking for all the world like Divine in "Hairspray" in her Granny muumuu. Elijah announces he will not be paying this month's rent, but Hannah is coming out the winner as George (Elijah's ex-Sugar Daddy) has told her she can keep all of Elijah's belongings that he paid for which is ... everything.

The Browns were born in 1946, the year after the end of World War II. Veterans were returning home, and what did the Browns do but play for a championship 10 years in a row - four in the All-American Conference and six in the NFL. This was unprecedented and gave birth to a fervent fan base. Along came Art Modell and he fired one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. Then there was the little episode of Mr. Modell suing a group of local bar owners because they bought rotor antennas and could get blacked-out home games from Toledo.

Conventional wisdom indicates that a host of mental health issues will be up for discussion during the General Assembly's 2013 legislative session. This is welcome news for the one in five Marylanders living with mental illness who are struggling to access the services they need. The current attention to mental health speaks to the longstanding inadequacy of the community mental health safety net in this country. More than 60 years have passed since we opened the wards of inhumane psychiatric hospitals for public inspection nationwide, as depicted with heart-wrenching clarity in the 1949 Baltimore Sun expose "Maryland's Shame.

Cartoonist Garry Trudeau's latest attempt at humor was the most despicable, vile and disingenuous display of untruth ever published in The Sun ("Doonesbury," Jan. 17). I guess Mr. Trudeau conveniently forgot how the Democrats here in Maryland pulled off the most outrageous gerrymandering act ever. And to intimate that the only way Republicans can win in the future is by suppressing votes goes way beyond the pale. Shame on The Sun and shame on Mr. Trudeau for his disgusting, unfunny cartoon.

Shame on you, Baltimore Sun, for the article on "Shadow over Ray Lewis' life" (Jan. 11). At a time when many of us are celebrating a the conclusion of a glorious sports career with Ray's announced retirement, you choose to publish this article detailing events of 13 years ago. This unfortunate episode involving Mr. Lewis' personal life has been examined and re-examined ad-nauseum throughout his career. Why would you choose to bring it up again at this time? Yes, this was a tragic event.

The first installment of Grammarnoir 5: The Shame of the Prose will be posted on Monday, February 11. The remaining installments will be posted on successive Mondays, with the final installment appearing on March 4, National Grammar Day. Grammarnoir 1 , Grammarnoir 2: Pulp Diction , and Grammarnoir 3: The Wages of Syntax are available as podcasts. These are the links for Grammarnoir 4: Final Edition : "A Belle in the Night," "The Mission," "The Belly of the Beast," and "The Chief.

Is it any wonder America is distrusted and held in contempt around the world? I was unaware my tax dollars were paying for fake polio vaccination programs in Pakistan (and no doubt elsewhere). What a dreadful way to "win the hearts and minds" of a population ("A tainted polio program," Jan. 7). A further affront to conservative societies is the manner in which our culture promotes out-of-wedlock pregnancies and adulterous entanglements like Kim Kardashian and her boyfriend Kanye West ("Kim and Kanye, the latest to put marriage last," Jan. 7)

The State Department revealed this month that the United States has detained more than 200 children at its military prison in Afghanistan. I represent one of them, a boy who left his parents' home in Karachi, Pakistan in July 2008, when he was 14, on a trip to his grandparents' house in western Pakistan. He was allegedly captured in Afghanistan a few weeks later and has been "detained" at Bagram Air Force Base ever since. What frustrates me about the State Department report is not the number of children detained, but that the U.S. won't let me or other lawyers make a case that these children should be released.