My brother-in-law, my boss

We all know the wedding etiquette: Bride's family sits on the left side of the church, groom's on the right. But what to do with the brother-in-law/direct-report? Emily Post is mum.

University of Baltimore President Robert Bogomolny got married in Evanston, Ill., yesterday to Janice Toran. That made him not only a happy man, but a relative by marriage to his vice president for planning, Peter Toran, brother of the bride.

Can the UB prez's new brother-in-law still report to him?

"They did go out and look at the regulations about that and did some asking around," said university spokesman Chris Hart. "There's going to be some change in reporting status."

Janice Toran's job will change, too. Right now she's a vice president at the Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas, based in the Chicago area. She's leaving to teach at American University's Washington College of Law in the fall, avoiding the whole commuter marriage thing.

"They're both looking forward to being part of the Baltimore community," Hart said.

Who says it's not a great time to work in journalism? As colleagues leave, they clean out their desks and occasionally turn up something we can put in the paper.

Witness the pile of William Donald Schaefer's mayoral memos that departing Sun Deputy Managing Editor Sandy Banisky just came across.

"I have just completed a delightful walk from the Market - thru Lexington Mall - to Fayette St.," began Mayor's Action Memo No. 4347. "Delightful. I was able to play soccer with all the empty cans. I was able to wade thru the trash. I was able to smell the dead flowers - the odd shapes they have in the large 'pots.' I was able to stumble on poorly laid black top. ... One other person also enjoyed himself - he was 'sleeping it off' on one of our fine benches. I know the excuse - construction - and the Transit. I somewhat like THE LITTLE THINGS!!"

Mayor's Action Memorandum No. 4821, addressed to something called the Impossible Task Force, complained about a house in Arlington.

"I do NOT see any Action by the Task Force," he wrote. "Nice memo's are NOT satisfactory. ... Gee, guess it's impossible for the task force to leave the desks."

Another, No. 4825, noted a block with lots of trash and vacant houses. "Just keep the old eyes closed and they disappear," he wrote.

Two of the memos end with "NOW," written in oversized caps.

Mayor Do It Now dashed off the memos sometime during his City Hall reign, from 1971 to 1987. Can't be more specific than that because instead of filling in the date, Schaefer just wrote "Saturday."

Telling in its own way: All five of the memos Banisky unearthed were written up on Saturdays.

So Gov. Martin O'Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown took spins on three-wheeled, stand-up electric scooters the other day. And everybody's wondering: Where were their helmets? Were they trying to avoid a Mike Dukakis moment?

"We were there doing a press conference on hybrid buses, and the T-3 ride was a bit impromptu," said O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese.

As in, the governor greeted a transit officer, then asked to take a ride on his scooter. "He said hello and said he wanted to take a ride, and he did," Abbruzzese said.

Impromptu but not reckless, the governor's spokesman stressed.

"The governor is skilled on a Segway. I think he had the opportunity at MACO [Maryland Association of Counties] or MML [Maryland Municipal League] to ride on a Segway in Ocean City."

O'Malley is a pro-helmet politician, Abbruzzese insisted, noting that officers who ride the scooters wear them.

"The governor does encourage all children to wear helmets while riding bicycles or motorized vehicles of any kind."

OK, I promise this is the last you'll hear about that portrait discovered in Dick and Susannah Kiefer's Catonsville attic. I finally have the full name of the guy in the picture: Dr. John V. Hopkins.

He died in the 1950s or 1960s, according to Margaret Trail of Sykesville, a former patient who happened to be administrator of the cemetery where he was buried. (Hopkins made house calls and, with his wife, even took then-21-year-old Trail to a dinner-dance after patching up her badly broken leg in 1942, she said.)

Hopkins' widow, Julie Hopkins, was a client of Dick Kiefer, an attorney. She died in the late 1960s or 1970s, and there was no immediate family, so the lawyer apparently kept the portrait, said Anglee Mandish, who worked in the office.

When there are no heirs, Mandish said, "You end up carting everything to the office or the home."

Related topic galleries: Executive Branch, Government, Sykesville, Martin O'Malley, Family, Pharmaceuticals, Evanston

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