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The Baltimore Sun Laura Vozzella column(Baltimore Sun, The Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dec. 5--When Variety Auto Brokers closed its doors last month, one guy lost his business of 30 years. Five employees lost their jobs. And all of Southwest Baltimore lost a beacon of both political discourse and check-bouncing shame. The Caton Avenue used-car lot had a big light-up sign that owner Mark Richards turned into a soapbox to comment on world events ("Let 'em have it, George," as the war in Iraq was launched) and local politics ("Dixon and O'Malley -- Bonnie and Clyde.") The sign also served as a modern-day scarlet letter for writers of rubber checks. "It would say, 'Introducing the bad check club' and it would list customers' names that had bad checks with the store," Richards said. "It was effective. They'd want to rectify it." The sign, which Richards put up about five years ago, was one of Greater Arbutus' more notable landmarks. A Salisbury University student once told Richards that when he visited his parents in Violetville, he always got off the highway at Caton Avenue instead of Wilkens because he wanted to see what was up on the sign. "I come through to see what's going on," the kid told Richards. Richards said his employees -- he had eight as recently as four years ago -- would beg him to wipe out the political messages when he went on vacation. Otherwise, they'd have to take the calls from irate motorists who dialed the number out front. When he was in, Richards would gladly get on the horn with them. "We'd always tell them, 'Come in for a debate,'" he said. "Of course, they'd never come in because the liberals can't debate." Today, no one's calling Variety for debates or cars or anything else. The economy in general and the credit meltdown in particular did the place in. "We lost all our funding for midscore credit tier people," he said. "We lost all those banks. We probably had, a year ago, 13 to 15 banks we had access to to get a customer a loan. When we closed the door the week before Thanksgiving, we were down to two." He sold off all the cars and plans to retire in Florida. And the sign? "I have that in a barn at my farm," he said. "Do you want to buy it?" Fox newswoman Greta Van Susteren didn't like what The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik wrote about her recently on his blog, Z on TV. So instead of just stewing about it, she fired back on a blog of her own. "I am supposed to take his silly whacks? I don't think so," she wrote on GretaWire. "I don't take his criticism personally -- frankly I am on TV, he isn't. You know ... those who can, do ... those who can't, are TV critics." Was it more fun being a TV reviewer before reviewees got their own blogs? "Call me strange, but I actually enjoy the give and take of doing criticism on the blogosphere -- even with people like Greta Van Susteren," Zurawik said. Yikes! I'm staying out of this one. Baltimore cartoonist Tom Chalkley teaches his art at Hopkins, has made The New Yorker twice and early this year had one of his political caricatures featured in a Super Bowl ad for Coke. Now he's achieved something else: creating a poster-sized cartoon map of the city. "This is a work of personal OCD but, I hope, a popular item with Balto-philes this holiday season, and something parents can use to teach kids history and civic awareness," he writes in an e-mail. "This is a big 2-foot by 3-foot, full-color poster featuring caricatures of about 150 famous, infamous, and oughta-be famous Baltimoreans -- from Charles Carroll and Frederick Douglass to Sisqo and Michael Phelps, from H.L. Mencken to Mother Mary Lange, founder of the Oblate Sisterhood, Wild Bill Hagy to Big Jim Staton. Deciding whom to include has been an interesting and slightly agonizing process. ... The city itself is caricatured -- about 30 landmarks and a grossly compressed street grid." He'll be autographing and selling them from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. tomorrow at Hometown Girl in Hampden. "It could get some interesting discussions and arguments started," he wrote. "I already hear choruses of, 'You left so-and-so out.' I left out several of my own favorites, too." If you haven't rented out your house yet for Inauguration Week, there's news that one more person is flying in and, presumably, looking for lodging. She's got lots of cash, too. Oprah will do her show from Washington that week, AccessHollywood reports. Note to the talk queen: I've got a spare bedroom for you in Southwest Baltimore. I'll even cart you to the train. ... On the Today Show yesterday, they were throwing around the names of Republicans who might run for president in 2012. Among them: Michael Steele. Really. I'm not kidding. ... Michael Phelps is in for a major case of writer's cramp. The New York Times is offering framed sports sections chronicling the swimmer's Beijing triumphs -- personally autographed by the Olympian. All for the low, low price of $559. ... Holiday wreaths went up on the lamp poles around State Circle in Annapolis yesterday, thanks to 16 area garden clubs and some sure-footed state workers. A member of the Wardour Garden Club came up with the idea of making the wreaths at least 25 years ago. The gardeners had to hang the decorations "Over the years, there are many stories about Wardour members climbing ladders in snowy, icy weather to hang the wreaths," says a release from the state Department of General Services. "Fortunately, there were not stories of broken bones, and now DGS grounds crews handle the wreath hanging." To see more of The Baltimore Sun, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.baltimoresun.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Baltimore Sun Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 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