Poet Shirley Brewer, right, reads from her chapbook, After Words, at scene of fatal stabbing of Johns Hopkins research assistant Stephen Pitcairn on the third anniversary (July 25, 2013) of his death in 2010, as Charles Village friends and neighbors look on. (VoB Photo/Bonnie J. Schupp)

BALTIMORE POET SHIRLEY BREWER
SPEAKS IN VOICE OF MURDER
VICTIM STEPHEN PITCAIRN

Johns Hopkins researcher stabbed
to death in Charles Village in 2010

POEMS PUBLISHED BY APPRENTICE HOUSE
 
By Sara Heilman
 
Shirley Brewer sat in her green “writing chair,” a piece of furniture that didn’t have a snowball’s chance of standing out among the eclectic décor of the Baltimore poet’s homey living room in Charles Village.

Brewer’s third-floor apartment was more comforting than the crisp autumn air outside… but it wasn’t the weather that was leaving chills that day.

Instead, it was Brewer’s story of how her chapbook, After Words, came to be published after 23-year-old Johns Hopkins University researcher Stephen Pitcairn was murdered three-and-a-half years ago just a block south of her Northeast Baltimore home.

Brewer’s After Words — a collection of poems revolving around Pitcairn’s murder — resonated with the grief-stricken Charles Village neighborhood, as well as the Pitcairn family.

Brewer, who is from Rochester, N.Y., had a passion for creative writing. After 32 years working for the Anne Arundel County School District as a speech therapist, she retired several years ago and moved to Baltimore, immersing herself in the writing of poetry.

However it wasn’t until Pitcairn’s death that Brewer’s deepest poetic passion came to life.

“I think he just had more to say and I was simply channeling it,” she told Voice of Baltimore in a recent interview, adding: “I really don’t know where the poems came from.

“I just felt, somehow, I connected with Stephen’s spirit. And you have to be careful when you talk like that, but I do [feel it]. I’m a writer and I’m very intuitive.”

Brewer began to write her initial Pitcairn poem at the request of one of her neighbors.

“My neighbor asked, ‘Do you think you could write a poem for the family because we all feel terrible about what happened to Stephen?’” Brewer said.

Pitcairn was walking north on St. Paul St., coming from Penn Station the night of July 25, 2010 after a weekend visit with his two sisters in New York, talking on his cellphone to his mother in Florida, when 37-year-old John Wagner and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Lavelva Merritt, stabbed him to death.

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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Friday Jan. 3

[Scroll down for full week’s compendia]
 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
 
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond.   Your weekday morning look  (with links)  at late-breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Friday:

The New York Times and Britain’s Guardian newspaper are calling for clemency for NSA secrets leaker Edward Snow- den, who is hiding out in Russia to avoid U.S. prosecution.

•  GUARDIAN, N.Y. TIMES CALL FOR CLEMENCY FOR NSA SECRETS LEAKER SNOWDEN

The two newspapers that originally published the former National Security Agency contractor’s leaks which allegedly put American agents’ lives in jeopardy published separate, apparently uncoordinated editorials this week asserting that the espionage worker-turned-privacy advocate who is hiding out in Russia should be praised rather than punished for his disclosures.

In calling for clemency for Snowden, the Times declared, “He may have committed a crime to do so, but he has done his country a great service. It is time for the United States to offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency that would allow him to return home, face at least substantially reduced punishment in light of his role as a whistle-blower, and have the hope of a life advocating for greater privacy and far stronger oversight of the runaway intelligence community.”

Read More at:  Yahoo! News

•  NOR’EASTER SOCKS AREA WITH SNOW, WIND, COLD

The wintry mix began late Thursday afternoon in Baltimore. It was far worse further west and north.

Read More at:  CNN

•  MARYLAND LIVE! CASINO MAY HIRE ATLANTIC CLUB WORKERS

The casino at Arundel Mills will hold a job fair next week for soon-to-be laid-off workers at Atlantic City’s Atlantic Club Casino Hotel, which was sold last month in a bankruptcy auction to Tropicana Entertainment and Caesar’s Entertainment, resulting in 1,600 employees losing their jobs.

Read More at:  The (Annapolis) Capital

•  CAMERAS TARGET DRIVERS PASSING STOPPED SCHOOL BUSES

The new enforcement program started Thursday in Montgomery County. Maryland law requires motorists traveling in the same direction as a stopped school bus with activated flashing red lights, to stop. Vehicles traveling in the opposite direction must also stop unless there is a barrier.

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Among the leading returning vote-getters for 2014 entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y. are: Left to right — Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Jack Morris and Mike Piazza.

Orioles’ Rafael Palmeiro will never get my vote
 
By David Maril
 
One of the perks of covering major league baseball for too many years to mention is being given the lifetime honor of voting each winter in the Hall of Fame elections.

I’ve received a ballot since the late 1990s and for most of those years many people I talk to are curious about how I vote when it comes to Pete Rose.

To me, it’s a simple issue.

Rose is banned from baseball because of gambling and is not on the official ballot. If at some point the ban is lifted and he survives the screening process to be placed on the ballot, I will vote for him.

On the field, Rose was a hustling, hard-nosed modern-day Ty Cobb, holding an impressive number of baseball records. But as long as he’s banned from baseball and not on the ballot, I am unable to vote for him.

In the last year or so, the Hall of Fame voting controversy has shifted away from Rose to former superstars Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Roger Clemens. Allegations that they used banned performance enhancers swirl around their names.

For the Class of 2013, none of them came close to receiving votes on the required 75 percent or more of the 569 ballots cast. McGwire had been eligible for seven years while Clemens, Sosa and Bonds were on the ballot for the first time.

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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Friday Dec. 27

[Scroll down for full week’s compendia]
 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
 
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond.   Your weekday morning look  (with links)  at late-breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Friday:

Former Orioles center fielder Paul Blair died Thursday at age 69.

•  FORMER ORIOLES CENTER FIELDER
PAUL BLAIR DIES AT 69 IN PIKESVILLE

Blair won eight Gold Glove awards during 12 years with the Birds and played on the 1966 and 1970 World Series championship teams. He collapsed while bowling Thursday in Pikesville and was taken to Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Read More at:  WJZ-TV (Channel 13)

•  MD. POLITICAL FUNDRAISING ISSUE GOING TO COURT

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler’s gubernatorial campaign supporters sued Thursday to prohibit rival Anthony G. Brown’s running mate — Howard County Executive Ken Ulman — from raising money during the 90-day General Assembly session that begins next month. Statewide officeholders and state legislators cannot raise money during the session, but the Maryland State Board of Elections has issued guidance saying Ulman, who is not a state officeholder, can do so.

Read More at:  Baltimore Sun

•  UNDER ARMOUR, BODY ARMOR SETTLE LAWSUIT

The Baltimore-based sports apparel giant settled its trademark infringement lawsuit against California-based sports beverage maker Body Armor Nutrition LLC.

Read More at:  Maryland Daily Record

•  BALTIMOREAN HEADED TO 2014 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES IN SOCHI

Summer Britcher, a native of Baltimore who is a member of the U.S. Women’s Luge Team, was given a sendoff Thursday by firefighters at Baltimore City Engine Company 29, where her father, grandfather and two uncles are employed. The 22nd Winter Olympics are scheduled to take place Feb. 6-23 in Sochi, Russia.

Read More at:  WBAL-Radio (1090AM)

•  SNOWDEN SAYS MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

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When’s the last time you wrote a letter to your auto repair shop praising the good work done by one of their mechanics on your car?

GIVING A COMPLIMENT TO A WORKER
IS SOMETIMES THE BEST GIFT OF ALL

Too often ‘a job well done’
gets  taken  for  granted

CALL UP THE PERSON’S BOSS
 
By David Maril
 
As we head toward the New Year and have finished off the holiday shopping season, many of us are weary from making deci- sions about what to buy for gifts. You wanted to surprise members of the family but on the other hand it’s disappointing if the gift is something not needed or wanted.

The high number of returned gifts is probably responsible for the increase in shoppers who settle for merchandise certificates that can be used for whatever the person receiving the present wants.

Then there are the decisions about gifts for people who perform services. If the person who delivers your newspaper in all kinds of weather gets the paper in the vicinity of your front door every day and hasn’t thrown it on the roof or broken a window, some type of holiday bonus is due.

But how much?

What about your mailman or mailwoman, providing postal delivery in rain, sleet and snow? But what if you have several people who deliver your mail instead of one individual?

How many others who perform work for you deserve some type of reward?

I believe that lost in all these monetary deliberations is the importance of simple recognition and appreciation for extra effort and quality work. This doesn’t necessarily mean money. Too often  we take the easy, impersonal way out, simply writing a check and mailing it off to someone.

Here’s a different option  to consider:

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