Commentary

I try to imagine what it would be like to stand along a river — say, the Jones Falls as it meanders through Baltimore — and look up from the mesmerizing flow to suddenly see a woman draped in a long cape of plastic bottles. What would I think? Did she rise from the river, like some gritty sprite burdened and barnacled with trash? Is she a cast member from a new post-apocalyptic movie: “Mad Max in Waterworld”? Who is this woman in the Jones Falls, bristling with bottles, and each bottle containing a stick with colored string?

Too bad the biggest headlines coming out of President Joe Biden’s recent State of the Union address had to do with decorum, whether it was Marjorie Taylor Greene’s booing — and the many right-wingers who joined in this act of infantilism — or the beyond-ironic observation from serial fabulist George Santos who posted on social media that Biden was “gaslighting” Americans. Really? At least the latter received a well-earned rebuke of “You don’t belong here” from Republican U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney. The nation had no shortage of evidence that the U.S. House of Representatives (and the state of partisan politics, in general) was a mess before the speech.

Americans are accustomed to tipping for a wide array of services. We understand that our gratuity makes up an important percentage of the wages earned by many different types of laborers: massage therapists, Uber drivers, hair stylists, tour guides, room service providers, valets — the list goes on. Much of the time, we don’t just add a tip because we’re adhering to a cultural norm, but rather because we genuinely want to acknowledge good service and show gratitude.

What exactly are the schools in Baltimore City doing? That is the question many should be asking after recent statewide test results showed that only 7% of its students are proficient in math, including 23 schools with zero students meeting standards. It’s unacceptable and yet another indication that the Democrats in the city who run the schools are as competent at their jobs as their students are in rudimentary arithmetic.

The two people charged in federal court with plotting to blow up Baltimore’s power grid are certainly to blame for putting the region in danger, if the allegations against them are accurate. But they’re not the only responsible parties. You can draw a direct line from the foiled neo-Nazi plot, revealed by federal authorities Monday, to conservative commentators and conspiracy-mongering cult figures like Donald Trump, who for years have riled up their minions on the alt-right with distortions about Maryland’s largest city.

With a jump shot last night against the Oklahoma City Thunder, LeBron James did it. Despite the Lakers’ 133-130 loss to OKC, no NBA great — from Wilt Chamberlain to Kareem Abdul Jabbar to Michael Jordan to Kobe Bryant — can ever say that they scored more NBA regular season points than James. Now it’s official: James is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. He didn’t need the record to cement his place as one of the greatest talents to ever step on the hardwood. But here we are.