Worry

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)

A week ago, the thought was that Ohio State -- despite knocking off 2012 national champion Loyola and Denver to capture the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament -- was overvalued as the third seed in the NCAA tournament. Despite a convincing 16-6 victory over Towson in the first round, the Buckeyes are viewed as underdogs. That has to do with Ohio State (13-3) meeting Cornell (13-3) in the first game of Saturday's quarterfinals at Byrd Stadium in College Park. The Big Red are unseeded, but after walloping sixth-seeded Maryland, 16-8, last Sunday, many pundits and fans insist that Cornell will be the first team to advance to the national semifinals at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia next weekend.

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Towson became the second team in Division I (after Lehigh) to seal its path to the NCAA tournament when it knocked off No. 9 Penn State, 11-10, for the Colonial Athletic Association tournament championship last Friday. So unlike area neighbors like No. 5 Loyola, No. 11 Maryland and Johns Hopkins, the Tigers enjoyed last weekend. “It was actually pretty nice after being away for four days,” coach Shawn Nadelen said with a chuckle Sunday night. “It allowed our guys to catch up with some of their school work, and it gave us two days of a little extra rest.

Q. I am 38 years old and have had anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) almost my entire life. I've tried many psychiatric medications, but they cause too many side effects. I constantly worry, worry, worry about my health. I'm always arranging and rearranging my desk, clothes and closets, and I make lots of lists every day. Do you know of any natural products that can help these problems? A. Ask your doctor about Saint-John's-wort. A small preliminary study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (August 2000)

If you're a worrywart, these could be the busiest days of your life.Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are camped out in the Saudi Arabian desert, poised for war. The economy's flat. Gas prices are up; housing sales are down. Unemployment is rising; the stock market is in a slump.Poachers are killing elephants for their ivory. The Everglades may be dying. Even grocery shopping offers a choice to worry about: paper or plastic?"The level of anxiety in the nation is rapidly rising," said Alan Caruba, executive director of the National Anxiety Center, a New Jersey outfit that monitors the causes of worry.

RICHMOND, Va. - With trepidation, Union Theological Seminary's 250 students are beginning to circulate their resumes among search committees.Seth Weeldreyer, 27, is concerned that a congregation might not be interested enough in theology and Scripture. "I hope I won't shut the mind off totally," he said.After 10 years on college campuses, he also worries about the inconveniences of starting in a small town. "I'm sure there are not stores like Wal-Mart," he said.Second-career seminarian Tom Waltz, a former corporate executive, wonders who wants to hire a 63-year-old.

A scholar says Jews should worry about the vitality of their own faith before worrying about the next generation.Referring to future generations, Rabbi David Hartman, who gave the closing address yesterday to the 60th General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations at the Baltimore Convention Center, said, "you can't control their future. You're not going to control the people they're going to meet. Instead of worrying about their continuity, worry about your joy in Judaism."Hartman is the founder of an institute in Jerusalem dedicated to drawing upon the heritage of Judaism in the confrontation between Jewish identity and modern society.

Alot of nice people look at you differently when your husband is in a war.They cock their heads to one side or the other, smile a half smile and furrow their brows with sad eyes as they ask you how you're getting along.I began noticing this on Jan. 15, the day of the United Nations deadline, which in our house began in the dining room strewn with newspapers."That's Saddam," my 4-year-old said, pointing to a photograph of the Iraqi with a mustache who would take his country to war rather than withdraw his soldiers from Kuwait.

Sometimes I take after my namesake, my Great Uncle Bill, a man who had only a nodding acquaintance with reality and who delighted in worrying about improbable things.For instance, he worried himself sick about meteorites and avoided going outside during the peak of meteor showers. On the other hand, he spent most of his working life in the logging fields of the Pacific Northwest, during a place and a time when the term "widow maker" was coined for cutting a tree down in a careless fashion.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - It's far too early to suggest that Orioles first baseman Chris Davis could miss significant time with the r ight knee injury he suffered while running out a ground ball on Friday night, but Orioles manager Buck Showalter used Friday night's postgame to give a familiar rallying cry just in case his team will be without its top run producer. Davis will have an MRI on Saturday morning, and while Showalter was optimistic about the unknown, he was also realistic about the possible.

Reigning national champion Loyola boasts the 14th-most prolific offense in Division I despite not getting much production from its first midfield. Senior Chris Layne ranks fourth on the team in goals (12) and points (20), but senior Davis Butts is tied for sixth in points (12) and senior Sean O'Sullivan is eighth in points (11). Butts is on pace for just five goals, which would be the fewest of his career since his freshman year in 2010. Sullivan is on pace to finish the season with 14 points, which would his lowest since transferring from Army.

State lawmakers put finishing touches last week on plans to apply federal health care reforms in Maryland come Jan. 1. But who becomes newly insured — and at what cost —still worries stakeholders as the state speeds toward becoming one of the first to adopt a revamped system. Under legislation passed by the House of Delegates and Senate, more low-income Marylanders would qualify for government-funded health care through Medicaid, and an existing tax on health insurers would sustain a new insurance marketplace once federal support wanes.

A bill moving through the General Assembly would give Maryland farmers a 10-year reprieve from new state or local environmental regulations if the state Department of Agriculture deems they're doing their part to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. To get the deal, farmers would first have to reduce pollution from their land more quickly than is now required – an important point, supporters say, since farm runoff is the largest contributor to the bay's...

Here's a question for a snowy day in spring: Will Marylanders, and Baltimoreans in particular, ever grow so accustomed to snow that they stop worrying so much about it? Could climate change do enough crazy things to the atmosphere to bring us more snow on a regular basis - and even in late March or April - therefore making Marylanders less snowanoid? Will we soon see the day when kids and their parents trudge on to school and work when just 2 or 3 inches of snow fall on the area?

Torrey Smith has heard it before. About three months after the wide receiver was drafted, the Ravens released three popular and productive offensive players, and Smith remembers the talk that the team was headed for some struggles. "They had cut [ Derrick] Mason , [ Todd] Heap and Willis McGahee [and] everybody was panicking and saying, 'Oh, you're going to be terrible,'” Smith said Saturday before hosting his charity basketball game at Stafford High School, his alma mater.

Gavin de Becker's latest book, "Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane)" (Dial Press, $22.95), is intended to help those who are the most vulnerable in our society. De Becker, an expert on predicting and preventing violence, spoke recently about the book:Q. What worries parents?A. How can I know a baby-sitter won't turn out to be someone who will harm my child? What should I do if my child is lost in public? How can I spot sexual predators? What can I do to help my child be safer at school?

Sgt. 1st Class Brad Bonnell isn't worried about his two brothers in Iraq. His brother Bryon is a major and, because he's an aide to the commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division, stays a safe distance from the action. His oldest brother, Brett, is also a major; he flies helicopters, but Brad doesn't think he has done so in this war theater. It's their mother Brad worries about most. "She's never been in a conflict with all three sons," he said one afternoon last week, while sitting on the back of a Humvee in Baghdad.

The economy is improving and so is employment, but workers' optimism about a comfortable retirement has fallen to a new low, according to the annual Retirement Confidence Survey released Tuesday. Just over half of workers say they are either very confident about their retirement prospects or somewhat so. But 28 percent - a record high - have no confidence while an additional 21 percent express pessimism about their retirement future. The survey by the Employment Benefit Research Institute gauged the outlook on retirement among 1,254 U.S. workers and retirees interviewed in January.