Commentary

Taylor Swift was quite the romantic when she burst on the scene in 2006. She sang about the ecstasies of young love and the heartbreak of it. But her mood has hardened as her star has risen. Her excellent new album, “Midnights,” plays upon a string of negative emotions — anxiety, restlessness, exhaustion and occasionally anger. “I don’t dress for women,” she sings at one point, “I don’t dress for men/ Lately I’ve been dressing for revenge.” It turns out Swift is part of a larger trend. Researchers Charlotte Brand, Alberto Acerbi and Alex Mesoudi analyzed more than 150,000 pop songs released between 1965 and 2015. Over that time, the appearance of the word “love” in top-100 hits roughly halved. Meanwhile, the number of times such songs contained negative emotion words, like “hate” rose sharply.

For decades, the stretch of roadway known as the Highway to Nowhere has split West Baltimore in half. Its origins date back to the 1950s, when the Federal-Aid Highway Act incentivized towns and cities across America to build out the growing interstate highway system. With federal highway funds nearly guaranteed, and later secured, Baltimore officials moved forward with a plan to link Interstate 70 and Interstate 95 with a crosstown expressway. Project leaders broke ground on the west side of the city and bulldozed through Black neighborhoods to make room for the new highway — razing 971 homes, destroying 62 businesses, and displacing 1,500 residents.

Early voting has begun in Maryland. As Marylanders head to the polls to exercise their fundamental right to choose their elected leaders, they can be confident in the integrity of our elections. A recent nonpartisan report found that Maryland ranks second in the nation in election integrity. Despite weeks of headlines, campaign rhetoric and lawsuits surrounding the process, our elections remain free and fair. When the results are counted — whether we like them or not — we must accept them.

My family moved during my teenage years to the neighborhood of single-family and semi-detached homes known as Ednor Gardens-Lakeside, which sits at the foot of where Memorial Stadium once stood. My mother was always proud to mention that the developer of Ednor Gardens-Lakeside was also the developer of the Guilford neighborhood, with its stately homes and beautifully-landscaped yards.

As a holiday of contrasts, Halloween celebrates sweetness and superstition — trick or treat. Traditions range from pumpkin carving and candy eating to the personification of werewolves and ghosts. Yet as adults seek thrills in haunted houses and horror movies, one common and disturbing motif is the “gorification” of the seriously mentally ill. Haunted houses across the country leverage settings, actors and props around the theme of mental illness.

Memo: To the next governor. After learning of your (and it doesn’t matter who wins, both gubernatorial candidates voiced the same position) interest in considering the re-use of the old Nice-Middleton Bridge as an outdoor recreation asset for bicyclists and pedestrians — a position shared by our congressional leadership — Gov. Larry Hogan and Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary Jim Ports sped up the process of not just opening the new bridge, but also doing enough damage to the old bridge to deny you the option of repurposing it.

The media frequently justify their election coverage with claims that a vital democracy needs a well-informed public. Unfortunately, their coverage often repeats long-standing myths about politics that undermine this worthwhile goal.