Even before the bad news came that Robby Robertson had died, his colleagues in the Baltimore County Sheriff's Department had decided to find a way to take care of Robertson's wife and two children. The deputy was critically injured while off duty Oct. 15 after he was thrown from his motorcycle and struck by an automobile in an accident in East Baltimore. He died early yesterday at University of Maryland Medical Center. "He was one of my most outstanding people," Sheriff Norman Pepersack said of Robertson, who started working for the office in 1982, becoming a full deputy in 1987 and coordinating the sheriff's K-9 unit since 1990. A funeral service will be held Saturday morning at 11 at the Schimunek Funeral Home, 9705 Belair Road. And the fund-raiser fellow deputies organized will go on. It's scheduled for Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. in the 4-H building at the Timonium Fairgrounds. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased through the sheriff's office or by calling 887-3151.
*
Listen for a roar to come from behind the potato piles in five of Baltimore's municipal markets. I hear the city is planning a "new fee structure" for merchants in the Lafayette, Belair, Northwest, Cross Street and Hollins markets, and most of the merchants interpret that as "rate increase." Some of the vendors who rent space from the city think their monthly fees will double under the new rate system. It's hard to tell how the produce sellers and deli boys figured this out. The Nov. 12 letter they received from the Municipal Market Administration was full of gobbledygook: "Each merchant under this system will be directly assessed their equivalent share of operational cost pertaining to the day to day operation of their individual market. All other fees excluding the basic rent will be abolished effective July 1, 1993." I tried to get this turned into English, but calls to the potentate in charge of markets were not returned. Watch this space.
*
Overheard in Baltimore was this gripe from an elderly woman behind a mop, swabbing a corridor at a local hospital during evening cleanup: "My son took me shopping today and we were out so long he made me miss my story." Translation: She missed her favorite soap.
*
Are these desperate times or what? I have come across a flier from a York Road dentist, apparently distributed door-to-door in an attempt to drum up business. The dentist's name appeared at the top of the handout, followed by this: "Fifteen Year Experience. Free Initial Examiniation With This Ad (a $45 value). Complete Dental Care For Adults And Children. Gentle Caring Denitistry at Affordable Fees. Union And Insurance Plans Accepted. Senior Citizen Discount." Weird, yes, but at least he hasn't been walking along York Road with a sandwich board that says: "Will Do Crowns For Food."
*
Most industrial parks have industrial park kinda names -- Menlo, Riverside, Merritt. You get the idea. Now, refreshingly, we hear about a Baltimore industrial park that has a more human-sounding name -- Fred. As in Fred's Industrial Park, 725 North Point Road. I love it.
*
Tiffany Troch, the Baltimore County girl whose death at St. Joseph Hospital last spring is now at the center of negligence claims brought by her parents against the hospital and two doctors, was an excellent student at Perry Hall Middle School and apparently had creative talents. Her parents, through their attorney Marvin Ellin, passed along a poem Tiffany wrote for a class. She passed it in Nov. 21 of last year.
"Please God don't let me get trapped in one of those pastel worlds
where everything is homework
school mushrooms stuckup people
I want to live royal blue
green, white
cotton and silk
modeling, skating
Don't let me get earthbound
with doing chores
or eating foods you don't like
I want to snuggle
run, play
like a dog
Let me frame the sky
and hang it on my wall
Let me hold nature
In my hand forever.