And no one can strip Moore\u2019s honorable service from his biography.<\/p>\n
Nobody asked me, but the governor\u2019s support of supermarkets selling beer and wine<\/a> is a solution looking for a problem. Who in Maryland is begging for this? Is there some groundswell of support for buying vino at Giant, brewskies at Safeway? If there\u2019s a clamor for this convenience, I haven\u2019t heard it. \u201cWe\u2019re out of step with the rest of the country,\u201d Moore told Maryland Matters<\/a>. That\u2019s no argument. Are people leaving the state because they can\u2019t buy a six pack of Modelo at Weis? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n And, on the benefit-to-corporations versus harm-to-small-business scale, that idea is a loser.<\/p>\n One more thing regarding the governor: I hope he ordered that a portion of scrap steel from the Francis Scott Key Bridge<\/a> be saved and recycled into the new span. It would not take much, just a couple of tons of symbolism \u2014 a nod to the original structure that collapsed in March \u2014 poured into the steel of the second bridge.<\/p>\n Nobody asked me, but, as you count your blessings of 2024 and list your hopes for 2025, be thankful you live in the time of Lamar Jackson.<\/p>\n And be even more thankful that you\u2019re a Ravens fan in the year when Jackson and Derrick Henry are in the same backfield.<\/p>\n Nobody asked me, but after driving some of Baltimore\u2019s ridiculously rough streets, every motorist should go into concussion protocol.<\/p>\n Or start wearing helmets.<\/p>\n Nobody asked me, but few things in the male wardrobe are as comforting and as stylish as a wool cardigan with a shawl collar.<\/p>\n And few things are as goofy as the guy who wears both a belt and suspenders.<\/p>\n Nobody asked me, but it would be fitting for a Maryland institution, perhaps one of our law schools, to name an annual award after the state\u2019s long-serving and retiring senator, Ben Cardin<\/a>. The award would recognize quiet integrity \u2014 that woman or man, in public or private life, who maintained principles and worked tirelessly for some common good, even when no one was looking.<\/p>\n During an exit interview over breakfast in October, Cardin mentioned one of his Senate colleagues, the late John McCain of Arizona, and what Cardin called \u201cone of the great moments in American history.\u201d In 2008, when McCain was the Republican nominee for president, a woman at a town hall<\/a> claimed Barack Obama, McCain\u2019s Democratic opponent, was an Arab. \u201cNo, ma\u2019am,\u201d McCain responded. \u201cHe\u2019s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.\u201d That was a moment of integrity and truth prevailing over the kind of nonsense and innuendo the right spews in the time of Trump. Cardin\u2019s point: The nation needs more people like John McCain \u2014 and, I would add, like Ben Cardin.<\/p>\n Nobody asked me, but the mournful tributes to Ed Gilliss<\/a>, the Towson attorney and former Baltimore County school board chair who died suddenly on Sunday, should include praise for his substantial pitching talents. I witnessed Ed\u2019s dazzling slow ball in recreation league baseball nearly 30 years ago, at the coach pitch level. With patience and precision, he tossed ball after ball into the compact strike zones of six- and seven-year-olds, gently urging them to keep their eyes on the ball and swing. He was so good natured, so cheerful and encouraging with all those little boys. I don\u2019t know if any of them remember Coach Ed, but this parent certainly does. Rest in peace, you good man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nobody asked me, but . . . my last column of 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99999,"featured_media":11072766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2024-12-27T14:55:23Z","apple_news_api_id":"79294fbe-8acf-4ff9-8168-da228c0ed43b","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2024-12-27T14:55:23Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AeSlPvorPT_mBaNoijA7UOw","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"subheadline":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[83,96,99],"tags":[24457],"feature":[],"location":[223],"type-of-work":[],"coauthors":[404],"class_list":["post-11072741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-headlines","category-opinion","category-opinion-columnists","tag-social","location-maryland"],"post_status":"","edit_last":0,"edit_lock":0,"highlights":"","original_byline":"","original_canonical":"","original_category":"","original_email":"","original_id":0,"original_pubdate":"","original_source":"","primary_section":"99","primary_tag":0,"print_workflow_body":{"deck_headline":"","print_title":"Dan Rodricks: One scarf, two kinds of people and 10 things nobody asked about | STAFF COMMENTARY","print_subheadline":"","print_priority":"","print_placement":"cover","print_planned_ready":"","print_pub_date":"1735448400","print_slug":"TBS-L-RODRICKS-1229","print_budget_line":"","print_excerpt":"Nobody asked me, but . . . my last column of 2024.","print_notes":"","photo_limits":"Photo limits are: 1 featured image, 5 featured gallery images, 5 embedded gallery images and 5 in-article embedded images. Articles that exceed these limits will not export. Please adjust images to reflect these limits.","print_featured_gallery_richtext":"","print_inline_galleries_richtext":"","print_inline_images_richtext":"","print_content":" Nobody asked me, but there are basically two kinds of people in this world: One sees a nearly new scarf on a city sidewalk, picks it up and ties it to a drain pipe near where it was found (on Baltimore\u2019s Fallsway, under the Orleans Street Viaduct) in the hope that its owner will find it there. The other takes it home, wraps it up and gives it as a Christmas gift.<\/p> Nobody asked me, but you\u2019d think a national museum devoted to American history would have a place for visiting school children to eat their bag lunches. However, as a Baltimore parent recently discovered during a field trip, there\u2019s no such place at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington. The small group of sixth-graders that Dan Baldwin chaperoned from Mount Royal Elementary School were not allowed to eat their lunches in the museum cafe, even when there were plenty of seats available; a security guard told them they couldn\u2019t eat on hallway benches, either. Baldwin found the woman at the customer service desk polite but resolute. \u201cShe made it clear,\u201d he says, \u201cthat there was nowhere inside the building that the children could eat.\u201d So they ate outside on a chilly, windy day. Hard to believe the museum\u2019s planners did not include a simple lunchroom for visiting school kids, who constitute a large part of most any museum\u2019s customer base.<\/p> Nobody asked me, but now that Gov. Wes Moore can wear the Bronze Star<\/a> his Army superiors recommended he receive years ago, questions about his premature and erroneous claim<\/a> to it will probably fade. Those questions, while troubling, never threatened to kill his career; they are even less likely to do so now. Moore\u2019s failures to correct the record \u2014 that he was recommended for the Bronze Star but never received it \u2014 are bound to come up again, but explanations about delays and the medal-issuing process seem to hold up and blunt criticism.<\/p> And no one can strip Moore\u2019s honorable service from his biography.<\/p> Nobody asked me, but the governor\u2019s support of supermarkets selling beer and wine<\/a> is a solution looking for a problem. Who in Maryland is begging for this? Is there some groundswell of support for buying vino at Giant, brewskies at Safeway? If there\u2019s a clamor for this convenience, I haven\u2019t heard it. \u201cWe\u2019re out of step with the rest of the country,\u201d Moore told Maryland Matters<\/a>. That\u2019s no argument. Are people leaving the state because they can\u2019t buy a six pack of Modelo at Weis? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p> And, on the benefit-to-corporations versus harm-to-small-business scale, that idea is a loser.<\/p> One more thing regarding the governor: I hope he ordered that a portion of scrap steel from the Francis Scott Key Bridge<\/a> be saved and recycled into the new span. It would not take much, just a couple of tons of symbolism \u2014 a nod to the original structure that collapsed in March \u2014 poured into the steel of the second bridge.<\/p> Nobody asked me, but, as you count your blessings of 2024 and list your hopes for 2025, be thankful you live in the time of Lamar Jackson.<\/p> And be even more thankful that you\u2019re a Ravens fan in the year when Jackson and Derrick Henry are in the same backfield.<\/p> Nobody asked me, but after driving some of Baltimore\u2019s ridiculously rough streets, every motorist should go into concussion protocol.<\/p> Or start wearing helmets.<\/p> Nobody asked me, but few things in the male wardrobe are as comforting and as stylish as a wool cardigan with a shawl collar.<\/p> And few things are as goofy as the guy who wears both a belt and suspenders.<\/p> Nobody asked me, but it would be fitting for a Maryland institution, perhaps one of our law schools, to name an annual award after the state\u2019s long-serving and retiring senator, Ben Cardin<\/a>. The award would recognize quiet integrity \u2014 that woman or man, in public or private life, who maintained principles and worked tirelessly for some common good, even when no one was looking.<\/p> During an exit interview over breakfast in October, Cardin mentioned one of his Senate colleagues, the late John McCain of Arizona, and what Cardin called \u201cone of the great moments in American history.\u201d In 2008, when McCain was the Republican nominee for president, a woman at a town hall<\/a> claimed Barack Obama, McCain\u2019s Democratic opponent, was an Arab. \u201cNo, ma\u2019am,\u201d McCain responded. \u201cHe\u2019s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.\u201d That was a moment of integrity and truth prevailing over the kind of nonsense and innuendo the right spews in the time of Trump. Cardin\u2019s point: The nation needs more people like John McCain \u2014 and, I would add, like Ben Cardin.<\/p>
![\"Someone](\"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg\")
"},"attachments":[{"ID":11072766,"post_author":99999,"post_name":"scarf","post_type":"attachment","post_title":"scarf","post_date":"2024-12-27 07:54:48","post_date_gmt":"2024-12-27 12:54:48","post_excerpt":"Someone tied a nearly new, blue plaid scarf around a drain pipe from the Orleans Street Viaduct, along Fallsway in Baltimore.","post_status":"inherit","post_parent":11072741,"post_modified":"2024-12-27 08:01:21","post_modified_gmt":"2024-12-27 13:01:21","guid":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg","post_mime_type":"image\/jpeg","credit":"Baltimore Sun Staff","prepared_image":{"id":11072766,"title":"scarf","filename":"scarf.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2024\/12\/27\/rodricks-nobody-asked-2\/scarf\/","alt":"Someone tied a nearly new, blue plaid scarf around a drain pipe from the Orleans Street Viaduct, along Fallsway in Baltimore.","author":"99999","description":"Someone tied a nearly new, blue plaid scarf around a drain pipe from the Orleans Street Viaduct, along Fallsway in Baltimore.","caption":"Someone tied a nearly new, blue plaid scarf around a drain pipe from the Orleans Street Viaduct, along Fallsway in Baltimore.","name":"scarf","status":"inherit","uploadedTo":11072741,"date":1735304088000,"modified":1735304481000,"menuOrder":0,"mime":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.svg","dateFormatted":"December 27, 2024","nonces":{"update":false,"delete":false,"edit":false},"editLink":false,"meta":false,"authorName":"(no author)","uploadedToTitle":"Dan Rodricks: One scarf, two kinds of people and 10 things nobody asked about | STAFF COMMENTARY","uploadedToLink":null,"filesizeInBytes":10450567,"filesizeHumanReadable":"10 MB","context":"","height":2744,"width":4080,"orientation":"landscape","sizes":{"thumbnail":{"height":"150","width":"150","url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","orientation":"landscape"},"medium":{"height":202,"width":300,"url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg?w=300","orientation":"landscape"},"large":{"height":689,"width":1024,"url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg?w=1024","orientation":"landscape"},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg","height":2744,"width":4080,"orientation":"landscape"}},"custom_captions":{"11072741":"Someone tied a nearly new, blue plaid scarf around a drain pipe from the Orleans Street Viaduct, along Fallsway in Baltimore."}},"custom_captions":{"11072741":"Someone tied a nearly new, blue plaid scarf around a drain pipe from the Orleans Street Viaduct, along Fallsway in Baltimore."}}],"authors":[{"ID":629,"display_name":"Dan Rodricks","description":"","first_name":"Dan","last_name":"Rodricks","user_nicename":"dan-rodricks","user_login":"dan-rodricks","user_email":"","type":"guest-author","linked_account":0,"website":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com","twitter":"","facebook":"","google_plus":""}],"taxonomies":{"category":[{"term_id":83,"name":"Latest Headlines","slug":"latest-headlines","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":83,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":72148,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":96,"name":"Opinion","slug":"opinion","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":96,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":101122,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":99,"name":"Opinion Columnists","slug":"opinion-columnists","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":99,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":6030,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[{"term_id":24457,"name":"social","slug":"social","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":24457,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":8116,"filter":"raw"}],"location":[{"term_id":223,"name":"Maryland","slug":"maryland","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":223,"taxonomy":"location","description":"","parent":0,"count":243541,"filter":"raw"}]},"featured_media_array":{"id":11072766,"title":"scarf","filename":"scarf.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2024\/12\/27\/rodricks-nobody-asked-2\/scarf\/","alt":"Someone tied a nearly new, blue plaid scarf around a drain pipe from the Orleans Street Viaduct, along Fallsway in Baltimore.","author":"99999","description":"Someone tied a nearly new, blue plaid scarf around a drain pipe from the Orleans Street Viaduct, along Fallsway in Baltimore.","caption":"Someone tied a nearly new, blue plaid scarf around a drain pipe from the Orleans Street Viaduct, along Fallsway in Baltimore.","name":"scarf","status":"inherit","uploadedTo":11072741,"date":1735304088000,"modified":1735304481000,"menuOrder":0,"mime":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.svg","dateFormatted":"December 27, 2024","nonces":{"update":false,"delete":false,"edit":false},"editLink":false,"meta":false,"authorName":"(no author)","uploadedToTitle":"Dan Rodricks: One scarf, two kinds of people and 10 things nobody asked about | STAFF COMMENTARY","uploadedToLink":null,"filesizeInBytes":10450567,"filesizeHumanReadable":"10 MB","context":"","height":2744,"width":4080,"orientation":"landscape","sizes":{"thumbnail":{"height":"150","width":"150","url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","orientation":"landscape"},"medium":{"height":202,"width":300,"url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg?w=300","orientation":"landscape"},"large":{"height":689,"width":1024,"url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg?w=1024","orientation":"landscape"},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg","height":2744,"width":4080,"orientation":"landscape"}},"credit":"Baltimore Sun Staff","custom_caption":"Someone tied a nearly new, blue plaid scarf around a drain pipe from the Orleans Street Viaduct, along Fallsway in Baltimore."},"syndication_canonical":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2024\/12\/27\/rodricks-nobody-asked-2\/","apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/baltimoresun.com\/2024\/12\/27\/rodricks-nobody-asked-2\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Dan Rodricks: One scarf, two kinds of people and 10 things nobody asked about | STAFF COMMENTARY","url":"http:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2024\/12\/27\/rodricks-nobody-asked-2\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2024\/12\/27\/rodricks-nobody-asked-2\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg?w=150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/scarf.jpg"},"articleSection":"Other","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Rodricks"}],"creator":["Dan Rodricks"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Baltimore Sun","logo":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/baltimore-sun-fallback.png?w=600"},"keywords":["social"],"dateCreated":"2024-12-27T14:55:16Z","datePublished":"2024-12-27T14:55:16Z","dateModified":"2024-12-28T08:47:24Z"},"rendered":"