Why does the Charles/MGH T station public address system announce that a train is coming after you’ve already spotted it and heard it rumbling toward you across the bridge?

This is a question no one can answer. The announcement makes you think the MBTA considers its passengers morons. Don’t they realize we can see the train coming? We can hear it coming. Why are they telling us what we already know?

Personally, if I can’t see the train, I would prefer to read a digital sign telling me how long I must wait for the next one. After all, London’s ancient subway system has notified riders of the timing of approaching trains for at least a decade.

This amenity is coming, said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo. It took awhile for the T to put it in, but “real-time countdown” design should begin in September if the MassDOT gives the T the go-ahead. Three firms were on the short list, but here still is not a firm up-and-running date.

Our subway system had to wait for the electrical upgrades that make these countdowns possible, Pesaturo said. Check out a countdown sign at a Silver Line stop, which Pesaturo says has them. I did so down on Temple Place. I waited for about 5 minutes and the sign that said a bus was coming in 5 minutes never changed. Maybe the T just doesn’t have the kinks out.

Those roses in the middle of Cambridge Street bloomed all summer and into December. What is their name, and how can I get some?

You do know that this December was unseasonably warm don’t you? So don’t expect that every year. Nevertheless, those bright pink roses were great, blooming repeatedly.

In the interest of good reporting, I made my husband get out of the car on the busy street, climb onto the median and snatch one of the little tags off a bush. (I didn’t ask Mass Highway, now affectionately known at MassDOT, since I figured if they couldn’t finish the roadway in under six years there was no chance they’d know what kind of roses their team had planted.)

The tag tells me they are “Pink Knock-Out,” a shrub rose developed by Bill Radler about a decade ago. This sounds like the perfect plant. It is hardy until you get way up in Maine and New Hampshire (zone 4). It is “naturally mildew tolerant, self-cleaning and drought tolerant.” It requires only five hours of sun a day. What more could you want?

You can buy this rose over the Internet at a number of outlets, and it is likely that your favorite gardening supply store will have it come spring. Call before you get in the car.

Harness your gardening genes, however. The tag says you can’t propagate this plant without breaking the law. But how would they ever know?

Will John Hynes, the leader of the development team that has left a big hole in the ground at Filene’s ever work in this town again?

Well, what do you think?

Who is the best dressed Bostonian?

You might expect me to name some svelte, six-foot tall, 23-year-old, or, at the least, Giselle Bundchen.

But no. It’s Callie Crossley. She’s on Emily Rooney’s “Beat the Press” on Fridays at 7 p.m. on Channel 2, as well as “Basic Black.”

She’s overweight and middle-aged. But this woman is dressed beautifully every time she’s on the tube. She keeps her hair cropped short. Her jewelry is always interesting. Her clothes are imaginative, flattering. She has beautiful skin and her makeup is always perfectly applied.

How can a woman who has produced such television documentaries as “Eyes on the Prize” and now hosts a radio show on WGBH as well as performing on television find the time to put herself together so well?

Whatever the answer, she ought to take Emily Rooney shopping. Emily is probably Boston’s best interviewer, but she needs Callie’s helping hand with her clothes.

Why did Scott Brown call Martha a member of the “Democrat” party?

A few years ago, when I first heard this version of the adjective that should have been “Democratic” I thought it confirmed my opinion that all Republicans (except for my grandfather, uncles, mother and the rest of my relatives, who would never have used the term) had only gotten to third grade. Then I learned that using “Democrat” was intentional, for reasons I never understood, since its use made people sound as if they didn’t know English.

As for Scott himself, he’s just copying Karl Rove, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, who also sound like they can’t tell the difference between an adjective and a noun. I guess it’s supposed to be an insult. Maybe Democrats should start calling Scott and his fellow party members “Repubs.”