Villain

Tamara Dobson, the Baltimore-born model-turned-actress best known for her leading role in two films as kung fu-fighting government super-agent Cleopatra Jones, died Monday at Keswick Multi-Care Center from complications of pneumonia and multiple sclerosis. She was 59. One of four children of a beauty shop operator and railroad clerk, Miss Dobson was a graduate of Western High School.

Hines Ward may be gone, but he won't soon be forgotten by Ravens fans. Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers have parted ways with the wide receiver and his maddening, ever-present smile, here's a look at some other famous Baltimore sports villains.  Robert Irsay -- Erratic owner who moved the beloved Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis under cover of darkness in March, 1984, breaking a city's heart. Paul Tagliabue -- Cold-hearted NFL commissioner who bluntly suggested, in the wake of the Colts leaving town, that Baltimore should have built a museum rather than pine for a new pro football team.

IN OUR celebrity-worshipping culture, where we are starved, it seems, for authentic heroes, a 26-year-old single mother has emerged as our latest cultural icon. Ashley Smith demonstrated an ability to simultaneously plead for her life and identify with the needs, emotional and spiritual, of the Atlanta courthouse shooter. And so he let her go and surrendered peacefully to police. And now she, like Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the American POW rescued in Iraq, is about to have her 15 minutes of fame.

PARIS -- The verdict in France's trial of Maurice Papon for complicity in crimes against humanity -- "guilty," but with a sentence of just 10 years -- was apologetic, not Solomonic. It followed from the realization by the jury and by much of the public that they had the wrong man.They wanted a man of recognizable evil, defiant in his crimes or contemptible in his evasions. What they got was an arrogant old man whose crime was to have been a careerist.While the jury convicted him of the charge that had been brought, they did not impose the full possible sentence, life imprisonment, or the 20 years in prison that the prosecutor demanded.

The Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis, executive director of the NAACP, closed the organization's recent convention in Chicago with an almost obligatory potshot at the news media.Invoking divine assistance in what the NAACP sees as a veritable holy war, Mr. Chavis intoned, "Lord, we know if you embrace us, nothing can get through -- no news media, no stone, no stick, no bullet, nothing of evil."So there you have it. The news media, in the eyes of the NAACP, is a "thing of evil" -- somewhat akin, we might surmise, to the Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz."

My African violets are becoming distorted and gnarly. What's going on?Cyclamen mites are the likely culprit.The mites attack a variety of houseplants. Besides African violets and cyclamens, these include begonias and kalanchoes. Leaves on infected plants often become brittle and change from green to bronze, gray or tan. Buds will often fail to open, and when they do, flowers will be small and distorted.Isolate infested plants immediately and throw out any that are badly damaged. Spray salvageable plants with a miticide or insecticide that is labeled for use on cyclamen mites and houseplants.

Vines give me the creeps. I don't trust them. Vines grow too fast and they always want to grab onto things. Mostly they stick to walls and trees, but who knows? I couldn't sleep if I thought vines were scrambling up the side of my house.My mother shares my concern. A 40-year veteran of the `f honeysuckle wars, her goal is to drive the stubborn vines from her yard. But the honeysuckle won't die. Two new plants appear for every one she digs up.To Mom, vines are the boogeymen of the botanical world.

"It is better to be cruel than weak. " - Theon Greyjoy Whoa. Did Theon Greyjoy really just kill Bran and Rickon Stark?! Moreover: Why is this show so insanely cruel to its only honorable family? The seventh episode in the second season of"Game of Thrones"ended with Greyjoy's soliders hanging the tarred bodies of two young boys, leading the people of Winterfell (and viewers) to presume that he had killed Bran and Rickon (who I believe are only 9 and 4 years old, respectively)

Move over, Omarosa. The D.C. Beltway has a couple of new villains in town inching their way towards most-hated status. Catherine "Cat" Ommanney, the British-born housewife given to making cringe-worthy racially charged comments, and Michaele Salahi, the infamous White House crasher who recently had a run-in with Whoopi Goldberg on "The View," have been scene-stealers for their bad behavior since "The Real Housewives of D.C. " premiered earlier this...

I am glad that Occupy Baltimore is focusing on the foreclosure problem ("Occupy turns to housing," June 13), but blaming "those who amassed fortunes by speculating on collateralized mortgage payments" is off the mark. There is plenty of blame to go around, starting with the homeowners who treated their houses as ATM machines and refinanced several times over in a rising market only to find themselves underwater when the housing bubble burst. What about the real estate speculators who flew in on the red-eye from California to buy slum properties in Baltimore, figuring they could sell them later at a profit?