But last week's announcement was still a melancholy moment. Any "disaster" that has befallen the crabs, though it may fit the appropriate federal criteria, is hardly an act of God. It's a long-term failure of environmental management and a failure to heed abundant warnings by experts.

The two senators, along with Gov. Martin O'Malley, are asking the federal government for $15 million over three years - to be shared by Maryland and Virginia - to help out people in the seafood industry while harvests are curtailed to reduce the catch of female crabs by 34 percent. The state of Maryland has already set aside $3 million for similar purposes.

The watermen can no doubt use the help. But they are in this situation not only because Maryland and Virginia failed to put less drastic restrictions on harvests in previous years, but because the states have let the bay's water quality deteriorate.

"It's unfortunate we've gotten to this place," said a lobbyist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. It is indeed.

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DUTY - Judicial leniency is a favorite punching bag of letter writers on this page, with some of them pointedly wondering what it takes to get local judges to crack down.

A self-employed defense contractor from Pasadena recently found out. All you've got to do is be called to jury duty, stalk out of a court hearing, stop off at the deputy jury commissioner's office to curse her and give her a rude finger gesture - and then refuse to apologize when a judge calls you in to explain yourself.

Circuit Court Judge William C. Mulford II obviously wasn't impressed by John H. Williams Jr.'s recital of his personal woes - two mortgages, a sick mother and a 2-year-old child - or his remark that jury duty is "a joke … You guys waste an entire day of my time sitting around doing nothing."

The judge - telling Mr. Williams that "You are completely in contempt of court" - put him in jail for the night to cool off.

The judge noted that he meted out similar treatment to five of the six people - out of 12,600 called - who failed to show up for jury service here. This may explain the compliance gap between this jurisdiction and Baltimore city, where only 33 percent to 35 percent of the summoned jurors bother to put in an appearance.

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TRADITION - There was some good news this week for all of Annapolis' unreconstructed traditionalists: The Naval Academy has decided to maintain a favorite commissioning week ritual, the Herndon Monument climb.

There had been talk of limiting the number of freshmen who get to scale the lard-smeared granite obelisk - and rumblings from graduates that academy brass were really upset not because of hypothetical safety problems, but because no female plebe has so far reached the top to remove the plebe hat that upperclassmen tape there.

A committee of midshipmen, asked to review the matter, came down on the side of tradition. There will be more crowd control and safety officers, but otherwise the monument climb will be back as usual this year - and we look forward to it.