Lookie here

Judiciary note: I found it interesting that a man was found not guilty in Towson District Court after being charged with two Peeping Tom charges.

There's no doubt that the man on trial, Johnnie Wade Jr, was looking into a first-floor window at the Donnybrook Apartments in Towson. Two women who lived in the apartment testified that they caught him peering in.

Judge Krystin Richardson found Wade not guilty on both charges. She said the prosecutors failed to prove that he actually saw any of the three women who lived in the flat, so he was not really peeping at anyone.

This peeping and creeping has been going on for almost a year in this apartment complex, and the police worked with the community to catch these creeps, only to have the first to be tried beat the rap because no one was seen.

State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said there are two other men who were caught loitering with intent to peep around the complex, and now he doesn't know if there will be any change to those charges after this ridiculous decision.

Céilí Doyle reported in The Banner that Shellenberger said, “I have never felt that there had to be somebody in the room,” he said. “If you’re crawling up to the room, and you’re looking in, your intent is to see the person.”

The three men were charged with misdemeanors under a law that says you break the law by conducting “visual surveillance of an individual in a private place without the consent of that individual.”

Make me the judge, and I will find that if you break into a safe, only to find it empty, you are still just as guilty as if you had found a pile of hundred dollar bills big enough to choke a horse. 

But I'm not a fancy lawyer or anything, just a man trying to carve out a little frontier justice here on the prairie.

And I can't help but feel that the judge would have found him guilty if his name were Tom, but that's just me.

 

Not funny

Last week, a United Airlines flight going from Newark, N.J., to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, did not get to its destination before the pilot hung a uey and went back to New Jersey.

It was all because there appears to have been a suspiciously named Bluetooth device on board.

And they were 4 hours and 24 minutes into what was supposed to be an eight-hour flight!

 

The friendly skies of United said in an email to NPR that the flight turned around "to address a potential security concern." Posts on social media from other passengers said that a Bluetooth device on board the plane was the problem.  

All anyone knew was that the flight attendants were asking everyone to shut off their devices, and this communication was overheard on air traffic control radio:

 "There's a security detail out there, someone had a Bluetooth speaker and they named it a certain four-letter word," another voice responded. "So they have to inspect the whole aircraft including the cargo area [and] passengers have to evacuate."

It turns out that the four-letter word was not a curse word per se, but some genius named his Bluetooth network "Bomb."

Smart, son.

Everything was checked out and the flight took off again, missing a few hours of Sangria time and getting to Palma de Mallorca nine and a half hours late.

I hope it's not a problem that I named my wifi "IT HURTS WHEN IP." 

Kindness abounds

A friend mentioned this on Facebook and it really struck me as being a wonderful gesture. Up in my second favorite state, New Jersey, in the town of Morristown, right there on South St, there's a nice looking place called the Swiss Chalet Bakery and Cafe. 

As you might have heard, we here on the east coast of the USA took it on the chin over the Fourth of July, and the Fifth, and some of us, on the Sixth. Typical July...hot, sunny and humid all day, and then storm clouds, followed by thunder, lightning, heavy winds, torrential sheets of rain, and the worst...trees and wires down, property damage, the whole sad panoply of summer problems. 

I saw a guy on Facebook musing that it's a good thing all that rain wasn't snow, because it's just too hot to shovel snow.

Anyway - this cafe, the Swiss Chalet, they took care of their neighbors, many of whom have had no power for several days and have lost their food and supplies and even more, sadly, They offered up a breakfast sandwich or pastry with water or coffee FOR FREE!

Here in Maryland, the legislature just passed a law prohibiting "surge pricing," which is when greedy moneygrubbers figure "people are in need, so let's fleece them and charge 40 dollars for a bacon/egg sammy." You will see those people in hell someday, so don't go there! And they will not be from Maryland as of last week.

As my friend said, "What a sensational gift for people of Morristown who maybe worked overtime cutting down trees and clearing brush, or assisting with flooded basements!"

I've only been outside of the US once, and even that sparked an international conflict, so I am no globetrotter, but I believe it is such a quintessential American thing to help our neighbors like this. So the next time I'm in Morristown, NJ, I'm off to the Swiss Chalet for a nice "Barbarian" Cream donut, as we say here in Baltimore.

Ya Got Trouble?

 I really enjoy recording old movies on the DVR and watching them as we wish, sometimes over and over for a year (after which time, Comcast disappears them.)

And I really hit the jackpot on Saturday with TCM showing "A Hard Day's Night" and "The Music Man."  "Hard Day's Night" takes me back to when the Beatles first happened along to warm our hearts and souls with vivid, tender music, such a balm after JFK was shot. I was 13 then, 1964, and you know teenagers have always had a thing for rebellion and being just a little bunch of smart alex. (I stole that from Ring Lardner)

In the 50s, James Dean and Elvis were the role models, all curly sneery lips and insouciant bearings. In the 60s, The Beatles taught us a whole new way to sass our elders.

Stuffy old uptight man on train:  "Don't take that tone with me, young man. I fought the war for your sort." 

 Ringo Starr: "I bet you're sorry you won."

And besides the wonderful music from Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, the Buffalo Bills* and the others in "The Music Man," there was the story of a career swindling con man who "got his foot caught in the door" of love and finally cut out the cheating and fooling. An all-time classic, and the home of the first rap song ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2ySBtVLCYA

 *Not THOSE Buffalo Bills!

Sunday rerun: Not Taylor Swift!

 Zac Taylor is the coach of the Cincinnati Bengals football team. I'm sure I'm not the only football fan who wonders if he were named for the 12th president of the United States, and if the coach avoids cold milk and cherries.

What, now? President Zachary Taylor (1784 - 1850) spent his final Fourth of July on the land in Washington DC where the Washington Monument was to be built. He had only served 16 months at the time. Remember, sanitation and hygiene were primitive in those days, and maybe it would have been better if he had not gobbled a lot of cherries and cold milk on that scorching hot day.

Cholera, the killer disease borne by bacteria, was not uncommon at all in the 19th century, especially in hot weather in areas of poor sewage systems. What it was that caused the president to become ill is still in doubt. Perhaps it was cholera, perhaps gastroenteritis from all those acidic cherries mixed with milk. It might even have been food poisoning or typhoid fever that felled Taylor, a Mexican War hero, but his last four days were full of sickness (cramping, diarrhea, nausea and dehydration) and an agonizing death that his doctors attributed to cholera morbus, a bacterial infection of the small intestine.

Zachary Taylor

Millard Fillmore succeeded Taylor as president, and we can assume that he avoided dangerous foods. He was unable to secure his Whig party's nomination to run for president in 1852. His wife caught a cold at the 1853 inauguration of Franklin Pierce, who won that election, and died of pneumonia soon thereafter...and his only daughter died of cholera in 1854.

I'll have a happier story for you on Monday. Until then, watch what you eat! 

The Saturday Picture Show, Semiquincentennial Edition, July 4, 2026

 

We remember 1976, the Bicentennial, and how Baltimore's Inner Harbor was packed with people to see the tall ships. Four years later, Harborplace opened, and for years, every weekend down there was packed like 1976. But that shopping destination has fallen, the way all malls are either closing or tottering on the brink thereof. An interesting future awaits. We're doing a July 4-themed picture show this week.

Out in far Western Maryland, boaters float on Deep Creek Lake for the holiday.

Even in the smallest towns across the nation, banners fly and hopes soar.

We are under a heat dome these days, so uniforms like these, snazzy as they may be, are hazardous to the marchers. Stay cool and hydrated.

And for the love of Pete, if you insist on being around fireworks, leave it to the professionals. This house being destroyed would still be standing, except that someone thought they knew what they were doing with bottle rockets.

We love baseball, hot dogs, and deep fried apple pie, just like Mom used to deep fry.  McDonald's is bringing these back for a limited time, just because we missed them.

Here you go, the way it should be.  A neighborhood display at the park, with professionals lighting the way.

This is not what it seems to be! This is a roast beef sundae, with mashed taters and gravy!

Back in the days of reading newspaper, I was often hollered at for reading a paper and then reaching into the Kelvinator, leaving black fingerprints from the printer's ink. 250 years later, we still don't know who left prints on this early hand copy of the Declaration of Independence.

It's still a grand old flag.

"I need a love to keep me happy" - Keith Richards

When it comes to happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky will be glad to tell you how to find it and keep it. After all, she is a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California at Riverside, and she's been at this chase for 30 years now, studying happiness and how to keep it around.

Pro tip from Dr Lyubormirsky - it ain't easy!

She says it's one thing to know the basics, such as maintaining connections with other humans, staying exercised, meditating, but knowing how to fit it all into your life while you're working, shopping for food, taking the Dodge to the dealer for new tires...it's a lot.

Connecting with people, exercising regularly, meditating — all of these research-backed strategies to improve health and happiness take effort. Like many of us, said it’s challenging to fit it all in.

Like so many in her line, Lyubomirsky wrote a book for you to read, called “The How of Happiness.” 

Here's how!

• Exercise every day, even if only for a half a minute. It's invigorating.  
• Reach out to people, literally. Being social makes us happier.
• Go beyond small talk. Lyubomirsky says, “So many of us are really hesitant to share ourselves and it just seems scary." Learn to be honest and vulnerable when sharing your thoughts.
• Practice spirituality, because people who identify as religious are happier, according to research.
• Breathe deeply. Breathing exercises can calm us down. And in times of anxiety, consciously slowing our breathing will take our body to a more physiologically relaxed place. 
• List the good things. She says you don't have to maintain a formal gratitude journal, but just keeping a running list of good things coming your way on your phone or pc is a benefit.

So what I'm going to do, is start my list with Professor Lyubomirsky's list!