Vague

Howard Street. This most visible of downtown thoroughfares, this route traveled by thousands on the light rail bound for Camden Yards, is no corridor of hope. From a seat on the gleaming white train, the drab scene flashes by the window like a recession-era documentary. The once-proud retail giants loom cold and gray like tombstones.Once considered the Fifth Avenue of Baltimore, Howard Street was a showplace. Grand display windows at department stores competed for the attention of shoppers who ventured downtown in their finest attire.

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)

WHAT DOES it mean when you hear that a dear friend has had a heart attack and is in the hospital in critical condition? Just how bad is critical? You might call the hospital the next day and be told his condition is stable. Does that mean he is out of danger now?Perhaps you read about an accident on I-95 in which three local teen-agers are hurt. The paper says one of the passengers was hospitalized in critical condition. The next day you read that the teen's condition is guarded. Does that mean he is getting better or worse?

I agree with letter writer Fred Pasek's warning about "vague promises," but this applies to all politicians, Rep. Paul Ryan no less than President Barack Obama ("What Ryan actually said about that GM plant," Sept. 6). Mr. Ryan vaguely promises to preserve Medicare for future generations with schmaltzy references to his mom and grandmother, while his policies clearly eviscerate the program. So much for "vague promises," eh? And anybody who thinks Mr. Ryan was on the up and up with his narrative about the plant closure is surely in denial.

It was refreshing last week to hear Anne Arundel school Superintendent Carol Parham abandon the usual pre-school opening pep talk to principals for an honest, jolting and not altogether flattering assessment of public education in the county. "All is not right with the world" of schools and children, she said. "We are in a fight for our very survival." School leaders in Anne Arundel historically have responded to problems by pretending they do not exist; i.e., the teacher sex scandals. Here, for a change, is a superintendent admitting to a crisis and demanding that front-line educators start coping with it.The problem with Dr. Parham's speech, however, was that it never specified the nature of that crisis.

Here's a request from a frustrated voter to all public servants: Will you please be specific? I'm supposed to make informed decisions based on the information public officials provide. But where is that data? What's the address of the Medicare facility they intend to close? The department in the Pentagon where the ax will fall? The name of the government contractor whose contract will end, and the state where his business is located? Tell us exactly what should be stopped and where.

In Umar Farooq's recent letter concerning Occupy Baltimore ("Occupy Baltimore: The Sun doesn't get it," Oct. 10), he states that The Sun's reporters wouldn't understand the concerns of the protesters. On the contrary, I believe that a reporter for the Sun would understand them all too well. The lament that the janitor who sweeps the stands after a football game makes too little money is nothing new. There's a mechanism by which the wages of that janitor can be raised, and that would be to raise the minimum wage.

Even the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, heavily backed by unions, has a detailed plan to cut state pension liabilities that are billions of dollars underfunded. The proposal includes raising the retirement age for state employees and requiring more worker contributions. The Republican candidate would go further, not only delaying retirement and making employees pay more but replacing traditional pensions with a 401(k)-like plan for many new government workers. The two talked repeatedly and in some depth about pension solutions in their televised debate.

After U.S. consulate employee Gary C. Durell was killed by terrorist bullets this spring in Pakistan, Amer-ican officials met his flag-draped coffin at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington and mourned the loss of the 44-year-old father of two from Severn.They praised him for serving his country. But they carefully sidestepped the nature of his work.Mr. Durell was a spy for the Special Collection Service, an elite eavesdropping unit culled from the ranks of the National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency.

Andrea Leepa owns her mobile home in the Deep Run Mobile Home Park in Elkridge, but not the land it sits on. She is urging legislators to support a bill that would require mobile home park owners to notify residents and provide relocation assistance if the owner sells the land for another use. "Even though our home is called mobile, it really isn't," Leepa told lawmakers in Annapolis recently. Moving a manufactured home can cost between $10,000 and $15,000, she said, and many parks only accept homes that are fewer than 10 years old. Leepa's is 17 years old. While she's under no threat of moving right now, she worries about it. Current law says park owners must provide a relocation plan, but it is vague about what the plan must contain, said Jacob Ouslander, an attorney for the Southern Maryland office of the Legal Aid Bureau.