Submitted by Thayer Young of Baltimore:

"I am freaked out that the city is asking for my opinion about how the Howard St bridge should be painted but they aren't allowing me to vote for the classic Orange and White! The Howard St bridge is like comfort food! I drive downtown on the JFX and amidst the all the boring and ugly and beautiful sights there's the Howard St bridge to shock me and say "You're here man! This is Downtown Baltimore!" The sedate coloring of Charles and St Paul's fit their serious character, and the splash of yellow on Guilford aludes to our creativity, but Howard just has to stay ORANGE to say "this town knows how to have fun!" Better definitely isn't going to be good enough if Howard Street goes green (as though City Hall isn't already spending enough of its time focused on corporate green)!"

What's wrong with green, Thayer?

Speaking of Howard St., I just found this little chesnut re: the Marathon a couple weeks ago, submitted by Marie Elb of Baltimore on 10/18 (If you could get around Howard Street, you were golden. But Mt. Royal Ave., the only useful route, was clogged by the Brown Center opening at MICA):

"The organizers of the traffic control for this event fell short. (I am being charitable here, as I think stronger words are called for) Thanks to the lousy organization of traffic control/rerouting, you can count this wage-earner O-U-T for any future donations to this or any other Baltimore-city-based marathon. I WILL NOT EVER make donations to support a marathon again, as I have in the past. There are many other fundraisers out there that don't cause me to waste a precious day of my time."