Former Executives 'Celebrate' Purple Friday

Purple Friday is so powerful, even Spiro Agnew is getting in on the act.

Mid-morning on Friday, employees in County Executive Kevin Kamenetz's discovered that the portraits of former county executives hung in the courthouse hallway—from Michael Birmingham to Jim Smith—were suddenly decked in their black and purple best.

The culprit was Anne Marie Humphries, a special assistant to Kamenetz. Humphries stayed late Thursday and came in early on Friday to complete her department's entry into the county's door-decorating contest, to be judged by Kamenetz.

"We should do something with the elder statesmen," she said.

So she took her children's used Ravens gear, some adhesives and fishing wire and put jerseys on most of the former executives. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger wear's Ed Reed's No. 20. Jim Smith wears former Raven Todd Heap's No. 86. Ted Venetoulis wears a "Wacko for Flacco" T-shirt. For the first three executives, the pictures were not covered in glass, so she used the fishing wire to carefully dangle hats in place.

"I can't wait till I'm a retired executive, so I can get my jersey," joked Kamenetz as he walked down the hall Friday afternoon to examine Humphries' handiwork.

This is a special Purple Friday, and the Ravens aren't even playing—they will play Denver, Pittsburgh or Houston next Sunday. The county will tonight and on Tuesday, a Ravens ground crew will paint the team logo on grass outside The county's website will don a purple color scheme through the end of Baltimore's playoff run which, if all goes well, will last through February.