Village Green/Town²

  Well, I took one day off and my page views have gone up dramatically. Not just for the last post I wrote, but for every single one in the recent past. It’s as though someone in an office somewhere discovered a backlog of page views that had never gone through and awarded them to me retroactively. Go figure. ***** Folks, we’re having a rash of the following behavior in Howard County. Aside from the influence of national politics, which is probably another whole post altogether, the influence of social media in this behavior cannot be ignored.  Social media’s business model is dependent upon clicks and engagement. Therefore it’s not enough to share information, feature images, or promote events. The machine feeds on clicks and engagement and it doesn’t matter whether it’s truthful or helpful.  And that’s where it intersects with our worst impulses. It tells us - - no, begs us - - to have and express an opinion on things which we don’t know enough about and don’t really ha...

This piece originally ran on October 11, 2021. The Biggest Lie and Its Undoing Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Howard County and in a growing number of places across the US. County Executive Calvin Ball made the announcement of the change in September of 2020. Howard County replaces Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day “Indigenous and Native American history is embedded in our nomenclature and our geography — Patuxent, Potomac, Kittamaqundi. And yet there is a clear erasure of their history and their connection to our land,” Ball said. “Indigenous Peoples’ Day presents an opportunity of all ages and backgrounds to learn more about the people who were here before Columbus and colonization. Representation matters, but it must be more than a rallying cry.” It can be difficult for some of us to let go of the tales from our early years about brave explorers who discovered new lands. But all those stories are rooted in the basic falsehood that any places that Western Europeans didn’...

  I don’t know what I was expecting when I went to YouTube looking for local stories this morning but I most certainly didn’t expect to find this. The Chronicles of the Kingdom of King’s Contrivance, Arthur Kunkle, YouTube I don’t know Mr. Kunkle but it looks like he had a lot of fun with this piece, which he describes as a mock-epic local history. Every great kingdom has a founding legend. Rome had a she-wolf. Camelot had a sword in a stone. The Kingdom of King's Contrivance, a village in Columbia, Maryland, has a restaurant. A mock-epic (and affectionate) history of King's Contrivance: colonial land tracts with names like "Lost by Neglect" and "Mistake", the 1962 restaurant of Kingdon Gould Jr. (King", we are told), James Rouse's quiet purchase of a tenth of Howard County, a village proclaimed in 1973 and postponed indefinitely in 1974, three neighborhoods named for folk songs, Carl Sandburg and Emily Dickinson, and a royal marketplace with a lin...

  Weather forecasts are telling us it’s going to rain tomorrow. Alas, this means that HoCo PRIDE will not take place tomorrow but has been moved to November 1st. If you have any pull with meterological magicians then will you please put in a request for an absolutely beautiful day on November 1st? Thanks. Today it will be cloudy but perfectly fine Fall weather for getting out and about. Here are four opportunities that caught my eye this morning. At the HCLS Central Branch there’s a Game Fest from 12 - 3 PM. What do video game music, retro games, independent game developers, and 50 years of gaming history have in common? They're all part of this year's Game Fest at HCS Central Branch! We're excited to have three small ensembles from the Baltimore Gamer Symphony Orchestra providing live music for the second annual Howard County Library System Game Fest: Past, Present & Future on Saturday, October 10th. The event runs 12-3pm and music will be 12-1pm. Other activities incl...

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...

  Does football attract violence? Does football encourage violence?  I don’t know. I do know that it’s an inherently violent sport. The fact that the United States continues to celebrate football when the incidence of Traumatic Brain Injury in players (even under the age of 18) has been well-documented tells me that we tolerate violence.  It’s just a part of the game.  When I think about the activities that young people participate in at the high school level, I have a hard time coming up with any that have the culture of violence that football does.  To be clear: all kids can get into problems with drugs and alcohol. And even one or two charismatic and unkind classmates can turn any group into a toxic environment. It could be band, cheerleading, or the student business leaders. None are exempt because adolescence is a struggle.  But it seems to me that the behavior on display at Howard High School - - which has caused the cancellation of the rest of the ...