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Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is hydraulically lifted to top of three-story Hanukkah menorah at McKeldin Square to light the first candle, at center. On her descent she admitted to Voice of Baltimore she was ‘just a little scared.’ (VoB Photos/Alan Z. Forman)

McKELDIN SQUARE IS SCENE
OF CEREMONIAL LIGHTING

LIKE A MARYLAND MACCABEE

By Alan Z. Forman

Having evicted Occupy Baltimore protesters from the city’s Inner Harbor under cover of darkness Dec. 13, the Mayor of Baltimore Tuesday night ceremoniously re-took McKeldin Square by lighting a three-story-high Hanukkah menorah the way the Maccabees did in Jerusalem more than two millennia ago.

The ancient Hebrews had been evicted from their Temple in the Holy City by the Hellenistic King Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 167 B.C., and 1-2 years later a guerrilla army of Jewish dissidents known as Maccabees re-took the Temple and expelled the pagan forces that had defiled it.

In 165 B.C. the Temple was freed and reconsecrated and the festival of Hanukkah — also known as the Feast of Lights — was instituted by Judas Maccabeus and his brothers to celebrate the event, continuing to the present.

Like a Maryland Maccabee balancing precariously on a hydraulic platform, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was hoisted high in the air via cherry picker to light the huge menorah, an eight-branch candelabrum that commemorates a miracle whereby a one-day supply of Temple oil miraculously burned for more than a week, hence the eight-day annual Jewish celebration known as Hanukkah, or Rededication.

The mayor lit the ninth branch of the menorah, the “servant” candle used to light the other eight branches, beginning with one candle the first night of the holiday and increasing one each evening until a total of eight candles are lit on the final night.

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Clerk of Courts Frank M. Conaway Sr., left, allegedly threw a punch and ‘brandished’ a handgun at local blogger Adam Meister.

MEISTER DESCRIBED AS ‘UNWITTING TOOL’
OF MARYLAND POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT

A provocateur intending to cause trouble
— Allegation regarding blogger Meister

By Alan Z. Forman

When blogger Adam Meister took it upon himself to single-handedly attack the anti-establishment Conaway Family, which is headed by Baltimore’s chief Circuit Court clerk, it’s unlikely the Reservoir Hill activist had any clue what he was in for.

Meister’s had some successes, to be sure. Case in point: 7th District City Councilwoman Belinda K. Conaway lost her seat in the September Democratic primary and November general election after ill-advisedly suing Meister for $21 million after he charged her with collecting illegal property tax credits and not living in her district as required by law, and then abruptly dropping the suit.

It’s likely the former city councilwoman would still be in office today had she ignored the blogger’s charges instead of calling attention to them by filing a high profile lawsuit.

But Meister has so far been unsuccessful in his attempt to drive her father, Clerk of Courts Frank M. Conaway Sr., from office, despite repeated attempts to do so, the latest involving an altercation between the blogger and the court clerk outside Conaway’s Liberty Heights Avenue home on Nov. 21.

The police say Meister, 35, tried to karate kick the 78-year-old Conaway during a shouting match that occurred while Meister was jogging past the court clerk’s Ashburton neighborhood residence, the same home that he asserted the younger Conaway did not live in, to represent her former City Council district.

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Who'd like to buy this 65-inch Samsung plasma TV new-in-the-box for $390? Don't all stampede at once: The deal just might be too good to be true. (Hint hint: It is!)

LOCAL SECURITY GUARD  WIRES DEPOSIT
FOR NEW-IN-THE-BOX LARGE PLASMA TV
AT PRICE THAT’S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

Classified ads used to fleece unwitting buyers;
Consumer Protection Division refuses to help

By Alan Z. Forman

How would you like to buy a new-in-the-box never-been-used 65-inch flat-screen plasma TV for under $400?

Sound too good to be true? Well, maybe that’s because it is.

Baltimore security guard Cynthia Green found out the hard way. She answered what seemed to be a reasonable classified ad; talked by cellphone to a woman with a Russian accent offering the television set for sale; and wired her a good faith deposit of $100.

That was the last she saw of her money. The last communication she had with the seller (except for several hang-up phone calls).

And the TV set?

The TV set was never really in the mix.

So, being the good citizen that she is, and expecting that the government to which she pays her taxes would help her, the security guard turned for assistance last week to the Maryland Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division. Surely they could help her try to get her $100 back.

Or could they?

Or, to put it another way:  Would they?

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NOTED ACADEMIC CITES BENEFITS
OF  CLASSIC  GREEK  PHILOSOPHY

By Anthony C. Hayes

You’re driving in the fast lane of a busy four-lane highway when you see a sign announcing your exit is two miles ahead.

Question:  Do you, (a) Turn on your directional signal and leisurely begin to move to the right, taking care not to cut off other drivers as you prepare to exit? or (b) Wait until the last possible moment to dart across several lanes of traffic, creating a potentially fatal hazard for yourself and other motorists?

Most would assert that the choice is a no-brainer. But try negotiating the demolition derby which constitutes any rush-hour ride and you’ll soon find yourself wondering: What in the heck was that jerk in the other car thinking?

P.M. Forni has given questions like the above scenario a great deal of thought. The Johns Hopkins University educator, who will be reading Saturday afternoon at the Towson Barnes & Noble, jump-started a national dialogue with his 2002 book, Choosing Civility: The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct. Now he wants people to think about… well, thinking.

Forni’s latest book, The Thinking Life: How To Thrive In The Age Of Distraction (St. Martin’s Press) offers readers his take on the subject. His approach relies heavily on the Stoic philosophy of the Greeks and Romans, not an area where one would expect to find this courtly professor of Italian literature.

Credit an intensive education in his native country of Italy which stressed studying the classics in their original tongues. The philosophy may be as ancient as the Parthenon but there’s nothing dusty or dated about Forni’s essays or end of chapter exercises.

It’s not the Cliff’s Notes version of Plato, but rather a popular wake-up call.

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The 71st Baltimore City Council was sworn in Thursday at the cavernous War Memorial building on Gay Street. (VoB Photo/Alan Z. Forman)

WAR MEMORIAL  ON GAY STREET
IS SCENE OF INAUGURAL EVENT

Prospective gubernatorial candidates Ken Ulman and Anthony G. Brown joined Stephanie Rawlings-Blake as the newly inaugurated mayor swore in the 71st Baltimore City Council Thursday morning at the cavernous War Memorial which faces City Hall on Gay Street.

Blake herself was inaugurated Tuesday for a full four-year term as Baltimore’s mayor  (click here).

Howard County Executive Ulman, who is widely considered to be running for governor in 2014 despite denials of current candidacy, told a large gathering of well-wishers, family members and supporters of the new 14-member council, “You can count on me as a partner,” and emphasized that the various surrounding Maryland jurisdictions “can only succeed together with a thriving Baltimore City.”

Lt. Gov. Brown also wished the new council well at the hour-long ceremony, which featured musical interludes by high school groups ORCHKids and Singing Sensations. WBAL-TV-11 anchorman Stan Stovall served as master of ceremonies.

Baltimore County was represented by Council Chairperson John Olszewski Sr., who also addressed the gathering.

In a brief address City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young promised the crowd that he and his 14 colleagues “plan to exceed your expectations….

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