Village Green/Town²

Thanks to the kindness of a friend, my family spent Thanksgiving close to nature and far away from The Bubble. Sunrise and sunset views of the water were spectacular, the quiet was nourishing, the darkness at night was palpable. Wow--is night really that dark?   The tiny town which serves as "civilization" is about a twenty minute's drive away. Small shops. Narrow streets. Old sidewalks. Restaurants with individual flavor and personality. Store clerks who talked to you. It was all freshly decorated for the holiday season.   Beautiful, and, dare I say, sincere.   I wondered what it would be like to live there in the town, without a car. Or using a car only rarely. Could I do it? There's a little Acme grocery store on the main street, a pharmacy, too. Churches are walkable. Surrounding the main street are lesser streets that cross-cross neatly with old wooden houses, many with gingerbread ornamentation. Tiny well-groomed yards.   Wouldn't it be lovely? Small-town li...

When I was in high school I acted in a production of Thornton Wilder's one-act play, The Long Christmas Dinner . The play covers ninety years of Christmas dinner of the Bayard family. Similar to other Wilder plays, sets were minimal and much depended on mime. All we had were a table and chairs. The rest was up to us. As we worked out the blocking for the play, I came up against a problem with the gravy boat. I would carefully "ladle" gravy onto my plate, but when I passed it on, my classmate picked it up and "poured" it. I was indignant. What kind of a philistine poured a gravy boat? Being young and inflexible, I pointed out her error to the director. What followed was, shall we say, educational. It turned out that there were two kinds of gravy boats. The one at our house looked like this. The top was fused to the saucer and you used a silver ladle to serve the gravy. The one at her house looked like this. You poured it. In fact, once the discussion started, I ...

Yesterday, Thanksgiving Day, there was a shooting in Oakland Mills. Of course it lit up the news . It is a horrible thing. Gunfire. Crime. Masked assailant. Columbia neighborhood. We wince and shudder against the image of it. This shouldn't be happening here, we think. Not in Howard County. Not in Columbia. Not in my neighborhood. "And on Thanksgiving!" No sooner was the news spreading on social media than the familiar comments began to accumulate. "White or black?" "It was the apartments, wasn't it?" "Those people are thugs." "The victim was probably involved in illegal activity." "Columbia will never be safe until we get rid of subsidized housing." "Columbia used to be safe. Before those people came." Those people. Those poor people. Those black people. Those other people. As frightening and damaging as the shooting itself is the unapologetic racism and hatred of these comments. It is the attitude which a...

I found myself thinking yesterday about the many guests I assembled for Thanksgiving dinner in "A Blogger's Thanksgiving." Where are they now? I got bogged down in the knowledge that the event (as it were) could never be recreated. Things change. We lose family and friends to life changes, moves, even death. Nothing stays the same.   Sarasays and DinosaurMom have moved away. Annathema, GCGeek, vinotrip, LifesLittleComedies and TJMayotte are no longer blogging. Patch is no more, the Patuxent name is but a memory, and HoCoMoJo still exists, but is not the same. WellandWise has gone through its own changes. Columbia Compass? Hope springs eternal...   And of course you know about WordBones.   I woke up this morning realizing I had gotten too hung up on loss. Change also brings growth, and new faces around the table. A virtual Thanksgiving today would include people like Kirstycat, urbanbushwoman, and ukhousewifeusa. Lisa Rossi and David Greisman, formerly of Patch, would stil...

A Blogger's Thanksgiving, 2011 I arrived at Tarragon Park a tad early, and sat in my car listening to NPR so as to avoid seeming over-eager. I brushed my hair, and checked that my ipad was charged. The door was answered by @Wordbones, gracious co-host of our event. "Come on in. We're just choosing the wines for the meal." Pondering the perfect choices with him were the wine enthusiasts of @vinotrip. I knew right away that the selections for our gathering were sure to be first-rate. I heard some banging from out back. "Don't worry about that," WB explained. "That's just @53Beers getting his tailgate operation on. He's determined to deep-fry a turkey out there." Delicious aromas wafted through the house. I headed to the kitchen, where @hocohousehon and @howchow were discussing the finer points of roasting vs. sauteing the Brussels sprouts. Heavy cream and toasted pine nuts sat nearby. My offer of help was promptly refused. @jessiex had ...

Harlem , by Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? My heart is aching this morning. What can I possibly have to add to the conversation? Here is a sampling of what speaks to me on Twitter: @wilw: If only there were some process, perhaps a legal process, to present conflicting accounts and statements, weigh them, and come to a verdict. @rapsodymusic: "It doesn’t take 100 days to decide if murder is a crime, it takes 100 days to figure out how to tell people it isn’t" - @LeVelleMoton @billmaher: Waiting until night do to what you could in the day seems strange. Reminds me of how the Colts left Baltimore @michele_norris: Why was this announced at night @langston_poems: I am so tired of waiting, Aren...

Breaking: Sudden Crater Formations in Oakland Mills Yard!   I walked out of the house yesterday to this-- Animal tracks? One very large footprint? Two large footprints?   I looked around. More holes in the yard, in no particular formation. Holes, holes, holes. What the heck?   And then I remembered something my husband had said the day before.   I just found an unopened bag of almonds in my office, so I put some out in the yard for the local wildlife. This little guy came right up to me (closer than I've ever seen a squirrel come) and looked me right in the eyes as if to say "Happy Thanksgiving to you too, Mr. Dude!" So the squirrel buried them all Saturday and dug them up Sunday. Lack of patience? Intense hunger? Obsessive compulsive behavior? Or--horrors!--a squirrel thief? I hope not. I have always loved squirrels, as did my mother before me. She used to make them little peanut butter sandwiches with the heel ends of the bread, and they would come t...

I recommend to you today a man I have never met: Bill Goddard. I have come to respect him solely from my interactions with him on Twitter. I can't remember when I started following him, but it may have been in the aftermath of the shooting at the mall. His Twitter feed has been unfailingly polite, supportive of the community, informative, and wise. On November 21st, County Executive-elect Alan Kittleman announced that Mr. Goddard had resigned. The Sun article lays the groundwork for the possibility that this was not a decision the Fire Chief came to all by himself. New political administrations apparently have the right to shake things up, bring in their own people. The spoils of war, you know. Be that as it may, my gut tells me that this is a good, hard-working man who has served Howard County well, and that this is a loss for us. I am not an expert in the fire department. After all, you might say, I only know him on Twitter. What could I know? I challenge you to go to his Twitt...

A flock of geese just passed over my house, honking away. I saw a similar group yesterday as I sat in my car before teaching. The weather is colder, the days are darker. I'm sitting under a blanket, too chilled to get up and make coffee. Young children are taught to notice the changes in the seasons and to celebrate them. I remember gathering leaves and acorns in the Fall, and getting excited when we got out the winter hats coats and mittens because it meant playing in the snow was not too far away. But something has happened to me in recent years as the trees become completely bare and the temperatures drop. I'm resisting. I'm cold, and I long for sunlight and clear skies. I feel too keenly a sense of loss and things ending. I feel myself bargaining with God--just one more sunny day!--instead of celebrating what is and what is to come. For many years I taught preschoolers and kindergarteners to observe the natural world and to be filled with the joy of each season. Why do ...

Here is my testimony from last night's Planning Board meeting: I am here to speak in support of the Inner Arbor Trust, specifically the plan for Merriweather Park in Symphony Woods and the phase of the plan you are considering tonight. There is something deeply human in the desire to tell and retell the story of where we came from. It is a very natural thing to treasure our memories and seek ways to preserve them, whether in scrapbooks, time capsules, or museums. Right now in Columbia we are challenged to balance a deep respect for our roots with the needs of our residents today and in the future. Communities are living entities that grow, change, reach, adapt, and transform. Memories alone cannot sustain them. The plan you will be voting on tonight has its roots in the very beginnings of Columbia, while also meeting the requirements of our more recent Downtown Plan. Its design will attract new life to an area long-dormant. It will create spaces for play, enjoyment of nature, arts ...

Tonight the Planning Board will make a decision on the first phase of the Inner Arbor plan for Symphony Woods. In honor of this momentous occasion, I am reprinting this post from August 21, 2013. Good Night Columbia Came out of Clyde's to the full moon over the water.     I thought I caught a glimpse of Dennis on the way in. Like a scene from a hokey movie, I stopped and closed my eyes and looked again. "Goodnight, Columbia." Oh, oh, oh my what a day Making my way Around this town. Oh, oh, oh walking the lakefront with eager feet. Who will I meet? The light of the dream is shining its beam It's like a phone call from yesterday Oh, oh, oh pulling me closer to plans for a Brighter New Day Good night Columbia Every day sees me lovin' ya Every night near the People Tree (All the trees sing a symphony.) Columbia: Goodnight And some day when the time is right The world's gonna see what I see Columbia set ...

I spent a little time outside the Bubble last night. The "Columbubble", that is. My daughter had a rehearsal in Towson and I found myself killing time at the Putty Hill Panera and thinking how rarely I leave Howard County these days. Trying to get from Columbia to Towson at six in the evening is a serious disincentive--how grateful I am that I no longer have a daily commute. Anyway--bubbles. In addition to the Columbia kind, I've been thinking of the kind of Bubble that blogger Tom Coale wrote about this summer. The Bubble is "us". It is the 500 to 800 people across the County that pay attention to hyper-local politics, talk about hyper-local politics, and can name at least three members of the Board of Education (if we were a club, that would be the pass-code). We pay attention to each and every move a candidate makes and will look at campaign literature more than once after it arrives in our mailbox. If you're reading this, you are at the pinnacle of...

Many years ago my oldest daughter visited a high church Episcopal Sunday service where her grandfather was serving as sub-deacon. Afterwards she told me, "Grandpère was giving out snacks and drinks, but I didn't have any." It was a preschool description of Holy Communion that has stuck in my head to this day. With the relentless posting and reposting of the HoCo Times story on Kittleman lifting the so-called "sugary drinks ban", I find my attention turning today to snacks and drinks. And not the Holy Communion kind, either. I think we forget that there was a time when vending machines were not ubiquitous. Now they seem to be expected. In fact, eating and drinking as a leisure activity has become woven into our daily existence, which is why our cars now have more crumbs and more empty McDonalds's cups than ever before. And we expect that if we go to a County office building, or the library, that our right to snacking will be accommodated. Why? Why is th...

Yesterday I stopped by the Walgreens at the corner of happy and--wait--I mean, Thunder Hill and Route 175. The parking lot was relatively full and Girl Scouts had set up shop outside, selling cookies. The grounds have been recently replanted and look lovely. It is hard to imagine that this business was the cause of such conflict for some local residents. Take a look at this post on Tales of Two Cities for a taste of the controversy. Certain residents described an empty parking lot and a boarded-up building as a "lovely natural setting" which should not be despoiled with a retail business. Individuals circulated petitions, stirring up fear that the Walgreens would be open 24 hours and attract a bad element. The traffic pattern would be hazardous and lead to multiple accidents. It was suggested that Rouse himself never wanted that space to be retail (not true) and that the Walgreens would be the destruction of the Village Center (hasn't happened.) In fact, the Food Lion ha...

Okay, HoCo friends, I am sending this one out to you. What if you didn't already have plans for Thanksgiving? What have you always been hankering to do, if you weren't already committed to your usual thing? What are the little-known Thanksgiving opportunities in Columbia and Howard County? I'm looking to break out of the mold this year. My older daughter will be celebrating with her father's side of the family, so it will just be the three of us. My husband is from the U.K./Belfast, Northern Ireland, so he doesn't have any particular attachment to the holiday. It seems completely ridiculous to me to recreate the whole menu for tradition's sake for only three people. What if we could do anything? I'm thinking local, not a trip to the Bahamas. Possibly a day trip to somewhere relatively close. Help me think outside the box on this one. Oh, and I am definitely not trolling for dinner invitations. This is not a pity-post, really. I know I have a lot of readers w...

This idea has been floating around in my brain for awhile. I guess it has gathered enough momentum at this point to get its own post. To be clear, some of these things my mother told me in good faith, in other words, she truly believed them, but they were lies nonetheless. So, here goes. You're lucky. Because you are a girl, you will get to choose whether you want to have a job and work or get married and raise a family. Boys don't get to choose. They just have to work. As a lady, you will never see the underside of a dinner check. I saw the way those boys looked at you. You're not a nice girl. No women stay blondes as adults. If you see a blonde adult, it's definitely bottle-blonde. You don't have any friends? What are you doing wrong? (In first grade) You're fat! (Weighed myself at health museum--I was four.) All people with allergies and asthma are allergic to chocolate and peanut butter. You don't get to do what you want to do when you grow up. You have...

On November 13th, 1999, Richard and I got married. On November 15th, 2000, our daughter was born. This arrangement of dates caused some confusion for her as a young child. I noticed that, when playing with dolls, a couple would get married and then drive directly to the hospital to pick up their baby. The intervening year was lost on her. It was a one-shot deal. Having a baby a year and two days after getting married has pretty much decimated our wedding anniversary. It's really seen just as a herald of the off-spring's Big Day. Ah, well. Once you have kids, everything becomes about them in one way or another, right? Over time November 14th has come to have its own personality. We call it "the In-Between Day." It's like the eye of the hurricane. Its existence serves to keep the other two celebrations separate, so they don't run together. While the birthday gets way more whoopdedoo than the anniversary, still each deserves its own space. Despite my daughter...

Okay, they're not girls, they're women. And the names have been changed to protect the innocent. But I present this as evidence of the enormous success of the Howard County Library System in our community. Setting: Facebook Characters: Scarlet, Maura, Lisa, Anna, Theresa, Barb, Leigh, Hailey.   Scarlet: Going to the library feels like winning the lottery. Maura: So true! Scarlet: I mean, woah!!! Lisa: Free knowledge! Lisa: Paid by our tax dollars. ;-) Anna: Oh. I thought you meant that half the books were lost to taxes and distant relatives began coming out of the woodwork to hit you up for favors. Theresa: No way man! I always return books late. I vow never to step foot back in that place. Scarlet: Those librarians will break your kneecaps. Barb: I love the library. I've given my out-of-town family members tours of the Miller Branch Scarlet: I feel like wearing a cocktail dress when I go in the Miller Branch...with the floor lighting and marble and fountains...

Tonight at the Columbia Comedy Club--a star-studded line-up guaranteed to chase your post-election blues away! You know you need to be there to hear Mickey Gomez (of crazy hairbrush and AllDogs fame) do her wild and crazy stand-up routine, famous in Howard County and beyond. And the glamorous Bita Dayhoff, a fixture at HoCo society events, is not to be missed as she focuses her keen insight on local shenanigans. Rounding off the evening, Beverly White-Seals and Joan Driessen are sure to have the crowd rolling in the aisles. Don't forget, your ticket entitles you to one free drink at the bar! Champion mixologists Alan Brody and Josh Friedman have got your libation choices covered--only top shelf for these guys. It's a can't-miss event and it all starts tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Jeffers Hill Neighborhood Center, 6030 Tamar Drive, Columbia. ***** Okay...I'm done pulling your leg. Tonight's event is sponsored by the Columbia Democratic Club. Although I am having ...

Byron Cornell Jackson, born in 1927, enlisted in the army and was on a troop ship on the way to Japan when the Armistice was signed. He served as a staff sergeant running a military post office in the Army of the Occupation. That's about all I know. My dad didn't talk about his military service. He once said, "My generation doesn't want to put on our uniforms and march in parades. We went there, we did what we were supposed to do. There's nothing glorious about it." I still don't know how my father actually got accepted into the army. He was dyslexic, asthmatic, allergic to numerous things, had suffered pneumonia and lung collapse more than once, and had terrible eyesight. And he may have been underage. It was the end of the war, I guess. I do know that he went voluntarily, and that it was probably the roughest thing he ever did in his life. He was not a "man's man". He was sickly, rather than tough or athletic. He loved theater, music, and p...

You may have seen this article . It has been making the rounds on social media lately. A veteran teacher spends two days shadowing students and learns " Students sit all day, and sitting is exhausting." These were high school students. The teacher writes: I could not believe how tired I was after the first day. I literally sat down the entire day, except for walking to and from classes. We forget as teachers, because we are on our feet a lot – in front of the board, pacing as we speak, circling around the room to check on student work, sitting, standing, kneeling down to chat with a student as she works through a difficult problem…we move a lot. Those of us who teach younger children have serious concerns about the trend to push the passive, receptacle of learning approach further and further down the line. As the high school teacher learned, everyone needs to move. It is exhausting not to move. For young children, movement is an imperative. I highly recommend this video , ...

I am not alone in feeling that one of the things that made life worth living this week was the birth of a little girl the day after Election Day. No matter what your political affiliation, you just have to stop in your tracks when the miracle of new life bursts upon the scene. There's nothing better for easing the cares of the day than a birth announcement, a photograph, and the promise of life going forward. I feel the same way about the eightieth birthday yesterday of a man in my church congregation. This is someone who has faced many significant health challenges in recent years. His wife, with fierce, constant, enduring care, has seen him through every crisis. She brings to each day the determination to love. Through ordinary and extraordinary days, she is there. And so we end the week with a girl who is four days old, and a gentleman who is eighty. And neither one would be here today without love. No matter what perspective I come to in the future about the events of this week...

For those of us who have been working months and months toward the fruition of the One Big Thing, only to see it come to a trainwreck of a conclusion, this week has been hell on wheels. As I said Wednesday, "I woke up, my head hurt, and the world was wrong." It is as though gravity and the compass ceased to exist. How do we orient ourselves? Which way is up? Where do we go? All of us who are grieving must find our own way back, back from this weightless, directionless void to a world that makes more sense. This post by Lisa B, Mrs. S . did a lot towards helping me get my feet back in the ground. "Let's get it done," she says. I know what I stand for. I know what problems concern me most, and all I want is to see them solved. I don't care about credit. I don't care who does it. I just want it done. I want people to have food and shelter and recreation. I want people to earn wages on which they can live and thrive. I want people to have health care. ...

Educational buzzwords come and go. I am here today to take a stand against the newest darling of the ed reform crowd. "Rigor." Every day I see tweets from individual schools within the Howard County Schools (and well beyond) about increasing rigor for students. Back up the truck. Hold the phone. We have a problem . Let's go to the dictionary . * Stop. Just stop. You want us to get all excited about a concept that has its roots in the stiffness of death? Adversity, inflexibility, cruelty... What about that says "learning" to you? Now, maybe they were thinking "vigor"? Okay, I am all on board for vigor, which has its roots in liveliness--a healthy life force, well-balanced growth, enthusiasm , mental strength. But thinking that we need to go in and increase "rigor" for our kids and that will just snap 'em into shape? I don't buy it. The work our kids need is meaningful work, meaningful to them , and meaningful challenges where they can ...

I went looking for information on the Inner Arbor Trust to write this post and, to my surprise, I found this . Wow. That's me. That's my testimony at a CA Board Meeting in support of the Inner Arbor plan for Symphony Woods. Of course there's much more information at the IAT site , but it gave me a little thrill to see myself there. That, in a nutshell, is what is vitally important about the Inner Arbor. It is a park where all kinds of Columbians will be able to see themselves. It will be a place for all generations. It will foster cultural celebrations that acknowledge our beautiful diversity. It is an expression of who we are today, where we have come from, and where we are going tomorrow. The creation of Columbia, with its buildings and villages, green space and pathways, institutions and institutional process is something that benefits all of us. But it is also a product of its time, and more importantly, was never intended to be static, but, to grow. And the Inner Arbor...

I woke up, my head hurt, and the world was wrong. I read this from the pastor of Bridgeway Community Church: @AndersonSpeaks: Whoever your candidate is or was it is the call of the "gracist" to celebrate with those who won and grieve with those who lost. #gracism I am still really too sick to ponder much more than this. Perhaps that is a blessing. A few things thoughts-- Thanks to the people who believe . Your energy is not wasted, your beliefs are not invalidated. Thank you for fighting the good fight. Congratulations to Bess Altwerger and Cindy Vaillancourt for winning seats on the Board of Education. Anyone touched by Tom Coale's campaign has learned something about grace in the race that won't soon be forgotten. One last thing. Tomorrow night there will be a Planning Board hearing about the first phase of building the Inner Arbor. (Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods.) Please come and show your support. You have a chance to influence to creation of so...

You might say that there is no room for looking backward on Election Day. Months of work, aimed at forward motion, push towards the finish line. There's not one moment to spare for a backward glance. And yet. And yet everything and everyone has a history which is as much a part of Election Day as promises for the future. Those who do not learn from the past--well, you know. So these three moments are on my mind today: 1. This post from the late blogger Dennis Lane about preparing to work the polls for Courtney Watson. It is just one piece among many which show his evolution from someone who had supported her Republican opponent to gradually becoming both an admirer and a true supporter. And though itwasn't really his thing, he was willing to put on his t-shirt and get out there. 2. Tom Coale's announcement for the 9B Delegate seat. This was the first time I had attended an announcement event, and the first for an actual friend. Knowing someone personally has comple...

Well, fasten your seatbelt. Let's go back in time. While I have been nursing my cold, someone else wrote a great description of what I had been planning to discuss. Let's start with that. Once upon a time "standardized tests" were administered periodically, without any particular fanfare, to students across the country. The results were looked at in general terms to see how districts compared, and which schools within a district might be stronger or weaker --- and that information was used to initiate additional review. Somewhere along the line scores began to get out and were used by some folks to claim one school was better than another --- then property values went up around "good schools" --- then schools began to chase high test scores. That wouldn't be a problem if it were purely a function of improved instruction... but it wasn't. In many cases instruction became so focused on test scores, that large chunks of other important education got l...