by Michael Olesker | Jan 8, 2021 | Blogs, Blogs & Opinion, Michael Olesker
On the evening of the mob’s assault on the U.S. Capitol, my wife tried to read me a message that had just arrived on her phone. She got halfway through a sentence and then paused. She could either stop talking, or start sobbing. The message said, “Maybe the... read more
by Michael Olesker | Jan 4, 2021 | Blogs, Michael Olesker
Nearly half a century since Spiro Agnew departed from politics, and almost a quarter-century since he departed this earthly vale, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has exhumed the body of the Baltimore native who became the only vice president in U.S. history to resign in... read more
by Michael Olesker | Dec 27, 2020 | Blogs, Blogs & Opinion, Michael Olesker
John Steadman was one of Baltimore’s great rememberers. I think of him now because this week — Jan. 1, 2021 — marks precisely 20 years since he slipped away, and it’s nice to recall what he meant as a newspaper columnist and as a man. He wrote sports for... read more
by Michael Olesker | Dec 21, 2020 | Blogs, Blogs & Opinion, Michael Olesker
We can look back from this slum of a year by revisiting Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land.” It’s a reminder of a president who could lead the country and write a marvelous book, instead of a departing president who has misled the country and probably never even read a... read more
by Michael Olesker | Dec 11, 2020 | Blogs, Blogs & Opinion, Michael Olesker
Paul Sarbanes slips away the other day, and I’m left with a memory of Roy Tucker, a fictional baseball player, and a telephone call at my old newspaper office nearly 30 years ago. The voice on the line was a woman’s, full of urgency. She said, “This is Senator... read more
by Michael Olesker | Dec 9, 2020 | Blogs, Blogs & Opinion, Michael Olesker
The old man’s name was Henry Yost. He stood there with his rheumy voice and what must’ve been the last high-collared dress shirt in all of North America, and told us we were now part of a marvelous legacy. “Gentlemen,” said this esteemed school principal, “you have... read more
by Michael Olesker | Dec 7, 2020 | Blogs, Blogs & Opinion, Michael Olesker
There’s a snapshot image of Mary Pat Clarke that’s stayed with me for 44 years, because it captures the city of Baltimore at its most vulnerable and Clarke at her most sensitive. It was minutes after a deranged gunman named Charles A. Hopkins walked into the temporary... read more
by Michael Olesker | Nov 29, 2020 | Blogs, Michael Olesker
Let the record show I covered scores of courtroom cases over the years, and can’t recall a single judge handing down a decision based on the kind of raw, muscular, naked politics now attempted by President Donald Trump. So, tough luck for the lame duck. I’ve seen... read more
by Michael Olesker | Nov 23, 2020 | Blogs, Blogs & Opinion, Michael Olesker
The lead sports headline in Sunday’s Sun arrived like a blind-side tackle, announcing the loss of a Thanksgiving Day football game that used be one-half of a grand Bawlamer tradition which survived a full century but was doomed by this year’s killer virus. Game called... read more
by Michael Olesker | Nov 16, 2020 | Blogs, Blogs & Opinion, Michael Olesker
If John Waters isn’t careful, he’ll wind up blowing his whole lowlife reputation. He’s spent decades convincing the entire civilized world he’s Baltimore’s unrepentant bad boy of cinema. He practically drove the old Maryland Censor Board out of their uptight little... read more