Takers

In preparation for a July family reunion, Dr. Ah Yin Eng, a physician in Pembroke, Ontario, booked five rooms last August for six nights at a lodge in Yellowstone National Park, using Reservations-Services.com, which takes reservations for lodging within many national parks. Eng said he was prepared for the nearly $4,000 bill for the rooms. But what came next was pure clicker shock. In the confirmation e-mail message from Reservations-Services, the site listed an additional nonrefundable service fee of 12 percent, or $486, that had been charged to Eng's credit card.

Annapolis--With his popularity running so high that poll takers called it "godlike," Gov. William Donald Schaefer took big political risks throughout his first term.And he paid for them on Election Day.He spent big and built big in service to his conviction tha movement and momentum are everything. He pushed and ranted and cajoled the legislature to get with his program. He demanded more spending authority -- and, later, complained that some voters began to see him as a spender.It could have been worse.

After spending almost nine months in a hospice, my mother died in late August. And so ended my weekly commute between Baltimore and Newtown, a rustic Pennsylvania town between Philadelphia and New York City. Since then, weekends have returned to their normal routines. They are once again defined by children's sporting events, yardwork, church and sleeping late. Yet the world only appears the same. With her departure, my mother left the world diminished, reduced and cooler by several degrees.

COMING IN off a red-eye at Baltimore- Washington In- ternational Airport? Dealing with jet lag? Lugging kids and their caboodles to or from a flight?Don't go near the terminal. Park in the remotest remote lot BWI has to offer. In fact, leave the wheels in Towson and cab it over to BWI to save your nerves.This is the best advice Intrepid has when it comes to dealing with our airport these days. In trying to make the place more convenient for fliers to come and go, the folks at the Maryland Department of Transportation have actually turned it into Mazeland.

Last week I pondered several lessons from the making of Francis Coppola's $50 million gamble, "Apocalypse Now." A more recent epic, "The Bonfire of the Vanities," offers additional, hard-to-swallow food for thought.Tom Wolfe's immensely popular book pilloried the greed-strewn '80s. Last year's film version was meant to do the same, and Hollywood's cognoscenti drooled in anticipation. Warner Bros. won the book's film rights and chose Brian De Palma, a director almost of Coppola's stature, to lead the way. De Palma was coming off a big win with "The Untouchables."

ANY DAY NOW, General Motors' sporty little electric roadster, the EV1, will reach Saturn showrooms in California and Arizona. As the first new kind of car from Detroit in about 90 years -- and one that may improve air quality in smoggy cities, trim America's dependence on foreign oil, even reduce synthetic carbon dioxide emissions that lead to global warming -- the EV1 would seem to merit at least the benefit of doubt. Yet once again, the skeptics are in full cry.The largest chorus emanates from Detroit, where the automotive media are based, though if you listen hard, you can hear the basso profundo of Big Oil in the background.

Nine years ago, Jeff George was the toast of the NFL.The Indianapolis Colts, his hometown team, traded up to make him the first player selected in the 1990 draft.It's been all downhill since.He left Indianapolis in a storm of controversy. He left Atlanta in a storm of controversy after a public shouting match with his coach on national TV.He couldn't even make it with the team noted for renegades -- the Oakland Raiders.All that was left was the quarterback team of last resort -- the Minnesota Vikings.

Those of you paying attention have noticed that the Obama administration is actually doing what it promised: transforming America into a gigantic welfare state. And there are plenty of takers willing to cash in on it and "get mine. " Numbers don't lie. Forty percent of the population was on some form of public assistance when the president took office; today, that number stands at 55 percent. And fraud is rampant. "Exhibit A" is the Social Security Disability Insurance program (SSDI)

On the X-ray image they printed out for me, trouble is a pink triangular speck, labeled LAD. The pink spot represents a calcium buildup - hardened plaque. And the LAD tag means the plaque lies in my "left anterior descending" coronary artery - the one cardiologists call "the widow maker." A blockage in the LAD tends to kill you. No one has said definitively that's what killed NBC newsman Tim Russert last week at the age of 58. But it wouldn't be a bad bet. Russert died after a heart attack in his Washington office.

EARLEVILLE -- As eager as he is to sell his 707-acre waterfront estate in Cecil County, William J. Crocker said he won't be too upset if no one bids high enough when his McGill Creek Farm is put up for auction Sept. 24."We'll just stay here," said the third-generation developer, who also owns a winter home in Boca Raton, Fla. "There's worse fates."Worse fates, for sure, than staying in a Georgian-style mansion with 12 bedrooms, 10 full baths, a heated swimming pool, a tennis court and a wet bar with gold-plated faucet foot pedals.