Takers

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.

Scott McNutt's first six months as a call-taker in the county emergency operations center have been busier than he could have imagined. The 21-year-old Bel Air resident has assisted in the births of two babies (both in the same week), consoled a man who had attempted suicide, and dispatched police and firefighters to emergencies ranging from fires and car accidents to water main breaks and gas leaks. None of that includes being injured in a fire last month in his other job. McNutt works from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., answering 911 calls at the EOC. By day, he switches roles and responds to calls as a volunteer firefighter for the Bel Air company.

The Mount Hebron Viking Backers will sponsor preparatory courses for the October PSAT and SAT, taught by Marian McCain, a former mathematics teacher at Centennial High School. Classes, which will be held Wednesdays in Room 121 at Mount Hebron High School, are scheduled from this week through Oct. 11, with additional classes Oct. 2, 9 and 16. Sessions are offered from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The cost is $395. Information: 410-461-9057.

It was a night to recognize cowboys, eccentric literary geniuses and powerful 1950s senators. But the style honors went to a handful of lovely ladies who managed to pull off a nearly flawless red carpet during last night's Academy Awards. There was very little to complain about as veterans such as Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, as well as newbies such as Keira Knightley and Jessica Alba, strolled past a parade of cameras and microphones in one elegant look after another. It was almost disappointing, all that perfection.

DR. PETER L. Beilenson has a prescription for the nation and for the Democratic Party: more straight-talking and outspoken leaders - and another doctor in Congress. The doctor he has in mind, of course, is himself. As Baltimore's health commissioner, he was responsible for preparing a major city for weapons of mass destruction. And he's been dealing with other weapons of mass destruction on city streets: HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, violence and a failure to confront them. With the support of two mayors - Kurt L. Schmoke and Martin O'Malley - he confronted them all with considerable success.

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.

A self-described impulsive "house-a-holic," who before yesterday had never seen the inside of Baltimore's landmark Sherwood Mansion, bought it on a $2.52 million whim at auction. The purchase apparently set a Baltimore sales record, and successfully punctuates the end of a long, sluggish ride on the market for one of the city's most celebrated homes. "I went there, I liked it, I bought it. I'm very impulsive," said winning bidder Leroy M. Merritt, a Baltimore native and industrial developer.

STUDENTS SURVEYED as they finished the revised college SAT test earlier this month overwhelmingly reported that the new test was punishing at three hours and 45 minutes. Ironically, reported Kaplan Test Prep, which conducted the survey of almost 2,000 students at 39 testing sites, the students also said they did not have enough time to complete the new essay portion of the test. "The students described themselves as drained, bedraggled, bewildered and completely overwhelmed," said Jennifer Karan, national director of Kaplan's SAT program.

Carroll County Carroll County's high school students made across-the-board improvement on all four Maryland High School Assessment tests, with more than 70 percent of test-takers passing the English, algebra, biology and government exams. Carroll's strongest showing was on the English test, with students posting an 18.4 percentage-point gain, bringing to 70.3 percent the number of students who passed. On the other exams, 76.7 percent passed algebra, 78.1 passed biology and 80.6 passed government, according to results released yesterday by state education officials.

BESLAN, Russia - As desperate relatives scrambled to learn the fate of their loved ones, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin called on his nation yesterday to mobilize against "international terror" after a hostage crisis at a school ended in the deaths of more than 340 people, nearly half of them children. "We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten," Putin said in a rare nationally televised address after a brief visit to the scene in southern Russia. The attack "was a terrorist act that was inhuman and unprecedented in its cruelty," Putin said.