Village Green/Town²

Advent hasn’t event started yet, but the local Christmas season is in full swing. Somehow one of my favorite annual events has snuck up on me. The WBAL Concert for Kids is this weekend in Oakland Mills. This year you have your choice of two days and events. Saturday afternoon is the Family Matinee of the Pops Concert, with full Pops Concert in the evening. Then, on Sunday evening at the Owen Brown Interfaith Center there’s the Classical Concert for Kids. These concerts showcase the work and gifts of our local young people and are a great way to kick off your holiday season. You can get tickets here . The Howard County Conservancy is having their annual NaturalHolidaySale Saturday from ten am to 3 pm. Come enjoy our annual Holiday Sale- fun for the whole family! Browse locally crafted natural gifts while enjoying music and refreshments. Children will enjoy creating whimsical critters from  cones, pods and seed heads with the help of our naturalists! Vendors includ...

Howard County Board of Education members may not approve of Cindy Vaillancourt, but Howard County voters do. -  - Blair Aimes, HoCo Times (November 5, 2014) Today will be Cindy Vaillancourt ‘s last meeting as a member of the Board of Education.  Over her years of service she has moved from being a much-maligned voice of dissent on the board into solid leadership. If there were a special gift for the number of times one has been falsely accused she would win it, hands down. Ms.Vaillancourt’s resolve has been tested, and tested again, by people who wanted to get her out of the way and silence her voice.  To lean a bit biblical here, the fiery furnace was no match for Ms. Vaillancourt. She has shown herself to be to be the embodiment of the now familiar quote: She was warned. She was given an explanation.  Nevertheless, she persisted. None of us will ever fully know the extent of the work Ms. Vaillancourt did while on the Board because she was never an aggre...

Serious case of the. I-don’t-wanna’s over here this morning. Today I recommend to you “ Home for the Holidays ”  by AnnieRie and The Invisible Woman  by HoCoHouseHon. We have some wonderful women’s voices in Columbia/HoCo. It’s never a bad idea to stop for a moment and lift them up.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday don’t phase me. All the adverts roll off me like water droplets on a raincoat. But Giving Tuesday, well, that’s different. There are so many good causes. I probably can only chose one or two. And I feel real sadness that I can’t do more. Giving Tuesday is painful for me and downright overwhelming. There gets to be a point when you have so many supplicants coming at you from all directions that it seems easier to close it all down and give nothing. Their long, thin arms reach out on Facebook and Twitter. In emails and through mass mailings. There are too many needs. Nothing can ever fill that enormous void. Why even try? I remember reading somewhere that people are more likely to give if the approach feels small and personalized. You must paint the need in such a way that the potential donor feels that their single donation has meaning, If the suffering and/or need feels too huge, people are more likely to feel that nothing they can do will help. ...

Tickets for three to “A Charlie Brown Christmas” with The Eric Byrd Trio: approximately $70 (with fees.) Food and drinks at the Soundry (including a generous tip): approximately $70. Let’s say: $150, all told. The experience of seeing a childhood classic on a big screen and then hearing the jazz score live? (You know what I’m going to say, right?) Priceless. It was our first visit to the Soundry, and it was a big gift from me to me, although I dragged two teens along for company. I’m happy to report that they enjoyed it.  If you’ve already been to the Soundry then you already know what they have done with the space. The old brightly-painted walls of the Tomato Palace are gone. Replacing them is a vibe that is both comfortable and elegant. The overall color scheme is red and black and, while we were there, the lights were low so it felt warm and cozy.  There’s a bit of an ombré pink glow from the backlit bar area. I liked it. No, they do not have Garli...

By now most of us are familiar with the case in which Governor Larry Hogan was cited for blocking constituents on his social media accounts. If not, you can learn more here . Something I read online yesterday got me to thinking. What about candidates? Are candidates obliged to allow continued trolling by bad actors on their social media platforms? By law they are not. But of course there is a judgement call between those who are expressing opposing points of view, even vehemently, and those who would be labeled as trolls and bad actors. That’s why candidates have social media teams. How much do you leave up? How much do you engage? What crosses the line? Once the candidate is elected, how does that social media policy evolve? Perhaps it was focused primarily on selling; now it needs to be about communication and interaction. Our elected official wants to be hard at work, sleeves rolled up, doing the things that create good policy. But someone else, or a group of someones, are ta...

Facebook reminded me today of some friends who appear to be the kiss of death for local restaurants. It seems that all they have to do is be frequent visitors or, in some cases, merely drive by, to cause a restaurant’s demise. The restaurant in question was Chicken Out in the Columbia Crossing Shopping Center. (Mission Barbecue is there now.) As I recall, there were others. Mamma Lucia, maybe? Cosi? I can’t remember. In the thread (from 2013) helpful friends make suggestions of mediocre restaurants they’d be happy to see removed from the local scene. I notice that Mimi’s at Gateway Overlook was one of them, and it appears they were successful on that front. Someone suggested that my friends were the restaurant Grim Reapers. The lists of restaurants my friends were begged to stay away from included: Stanford Grill, On the Border, Houlihan’s, Royal Taj, and Tigi’s Ethiopian. All are still in operation so they have clearly been spared. So, in a spirit of fun, can you think of an...

‎ Concord, Concord is here, Concord is here / Our days to bless / And this our land, our land to endue / With plenty, peace and happiness. / Concord, Concord and Time, Concord and Time / Each needeth each: / The ripest fruit hangs where / Not one, not one, but only two, only two can reach. Choral Dance Number 2, Gloriana  Benjamin Britten As I began to think about Thanksgiving this morning, the sounds of this piece stirred in my memory. Concord, Concord is here, Concord is here Our days to bless It brought to mind lovely images of American autumn landscapes, plentiful harvest, families gathered around a food-laden Thanksgiving table. Generic American feel-good Thanksgiving where everything is fine and nothing is complicated. What is concord? Dictionary.com defines it as: Agreement or harmony between people or groups Concord is precisely what is not here.  The oppostive of concord is discord. That is where we are in America today. Bu...

Let me bring to your attention this comprehensive and insightful post by Elizabeth Brunetti on her blog, Take on E. Friendsgiving at the Turn House She begins, A few weeks ago, The Turn House contacted me and asked if I’d like to attend the annual Friendsgiving dinner they host for their social media influencers.  Two things that struck me while reading this piece. First, it is unbelievably thorough. She has quite a bit of information to convey here, along with plentiful photographs of the food she sampled. This kind of piece takes a lot of work. Ms. Brunetti makes it look easy. I’m not at all surprised the folks at the Turn House invited her. As I read I had memories of delightful longer-form pieces from the dearly departed Gourmet Magazine. Second, Ms. Brunetti’s take on the evolution from bloggers to social media influencers is spot on. I noticed the change when I attended such an event at Cured/18th & 21st. The team across the room came with special lighting...

If I’m going to go to the Mall, I should do it soon, because I generally try to avoid any trip after Thanksgiving. Dealing with crowds of people in our local cathedral of retail has been known to knock all sense of the Christmas Spirit right out of me. I lose all sense of Peace on Earth, Goodwill to  fellow creatures. As we watch all the usual signs of the holiday season being rolled out locally, I’ve been wondering. Has anyone seen anythng about the Poinsettia Tree? You may recall there was one year that Mall management thought they’d do away with this local tradition. Dennis Lane wrote about it on Tales of Two Cities blog. I’d like to share the actual blog posts with  you but it looks as though they are no longer accessible. If true, that’s a great loss to anyone looking for his insight on local affairs. At any rate, what of the famed Poinsettia Tree? Is it going forward as usual? Is Mall management quietly going in a different direction? What difference would...

It’s  going to be a bit of a day (see Lin-Manuel Miranda for context )  for the folks at the Elevate Maryland podcast. Tonight at Lupa hosts Candace Dodson Reed and Tom Coale will be doing a live taping with guests Calvin Ball, Rich Gibson, and Marcus Harris. (Newly-elected County Executive, State’s Attorney, and Sherriff, respectively) Billed as a Special Thanksgiving Show with Howard County Historymakers, it’s the closest thing a podcast can do to giving front-page status to the first African Americans elected to these posts in Howard County. Three things I’m thinking about tonight’s podcast: 1. We are at the very beginning of an entirely new era of leadership in Howard County. Will we learn anything tonight that hints at either the style or substance of how these men will serve? 2. The vile KKK flyers dumped off over the weekend in Old Ellicott City. The language they contained seemed awfully reminiscent of the folks who tuned out en masse to oppose CB-9. Does t...

Being white brings privilege. Add to that: White male. White cisgender male White straight cisgender male Bubble upon bubble of  protection encircles this segment of our society.  Other are not so lucky. If you are transgender (and especially a trans person of color) it seems that instead of a bubble you carry a target. Already in 2018 there have been at least 22 murders of trans individuals in the US. There are likely more we do not know about. To mark the Transgender Day of Remembrance, The Rev’d Paige Getty will be leading a vespers service tonight, November 18th, to “honor the memory of those whose lives have been lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.” The service begins at 7:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation Of Columbia, which is located in the Owen Brown Interfath Center. The address is:  7246 Cradlerock Way, Columbia, MD 21045. You can learn more about TDOR here , and Trans week of Awareness (November 12-19th) here .

Once upon a time the Baltimore Sun sponsored a celebration of local blogs and social media called the Mobbies . Remember them? Then, for one year they were called The Crabbies. This year they appear to be no more. I’ve been digging around on Twitter for info and, although the Crabbies account is still there, it hasn’t been updated for a year and no one responds to inquiries. Farewell, Mobbies. You were nice while you lasted. And yet, looking at a picture of the final year’s winners, a Howard County reader noted:   I find myself wondering if this is reflective of the diversity of internet voices in Baltimore... She’s got a good point. The photo shows an all-white crowd. Predominantly male. But this is where things go downhill in a hurry. Hmm. These offensive tweets appear to be from a writer of one of the winners of the Crabbies. They reference MSB, Maryland Sports Blog.    This man decided to target and harass a woman on Twitter who dared to q...

I did. Laugh out loud, that is, when I saw this announcement from the Rotary Club of Columbia/Patuxent: Support group? I have thought of the Friends and Foundation of Howard County Library in many different ways but I must admit I have never thought of it as a “support group.” Who should use support groups?   (From Mental Health America) Support groups are offered as a space where individuals can come together to share their stories, experiences, and lives in a way that helps reduce isolation and loneliness. Oftentimes, we think we are struggling alone, but support groups help us see that there are others who may dealing with similar situations and who in turn can help us get better.  My imagination ran wild with the thought of an assortment of bibliophiles meeting together in a circle of folding chairs, each revealing a confessional truth in turn. “I have twenty-seven overdue books.” “I’m forty-five and I still love picture books.” “I sneak in ...

Yesterday was Union Day. The journalists of the Capital Gazette , the Carroll County Times and the Baltimore Sun Media Group have united to form a union. Want to learn more? Visit the Chesapeake News Guild  website. And here’s their promotional video .  Taken from their mission statement: We are tired of bearing a workload that requires a newsroom four times the size. We are tired of not receiving reasonable cost of living raises, despite the fact we bear the additional responsibilities of our former co-workers. We are tired of having staffs too small to cover all the stories our readers care about. It seems as though we were just talking about this , doesn’t it? BaltSun reporter Pamela Wood tweeted this morning: Speaking to a political club in Columbia (the  Columbia Democratic Club)  tonight, I heard concerns from members that they want a strong @HoCoTimes/Columbia Flier. I urged them to show support for  @ChesapeakeGuild in order to...

Arizona’s Martha McSally charmed the Internet with her video concession to Krysten Sinema. It was gracious and it had a Golden Retriever. What’s not to like? Compare that to this Facebook post by HoCo Republican Lisa Kim. Even a strategically placed Golden Retriever couldn’t save this post. It’s a hot mess of insults, accusations, and conservative conspiracy-theory gobbledegook. Holy Mackerel, am I glad that she did not win a Council Seat. Enough said. Tomorrow the latest issue of the Howard County Times comes out. Can’t wait to see how they treat last week’s election results. I sure hope it’s worth the wait.

The new hot spot in town, Cured/18th and 21st, is having a big to-do on December 5th. A shindig. A soirée. Take your pick . Here are the details: Join us for a Repeal Party.  December 5th 5:30 - 11:00pm We are celebrating the repeal of Prohibition on December 5th! Classic Cocktails | Food | Live Music | Fun | Champagne Toast Two Ticket Options VIP Ticket ($100) Includes:  Special 5:30 early access (general tickets cannot enter till 7:00pm) Open Bar* from 5:30 - 7:00pm includes choice of five Classic cocktails, select beer and wine.  Champagne Toast at 7:30pm  Food Buffet  General Admission Ticket ($50) includes: Entry to the party at 7:00pm One Classic Cocktail of your choice. Cash bar available Food Buffet Champagne Toast at 7:30 pm. Sounds fancy. There’s just one thing. I realized while reading it that I was looking for information to tell me what it’s in aid of. Surely people aren’t spending $100 a head just for...fun?...

My plans to attend yesterday’s Veterans Day Parade were derailed by a trip to urgent care with a sick kid. I am indebted to Scott Ewart of ScottE Blog for the photos he took of the event. Were you there? What did you think? I don’t know the last time an actual parade traversed down Columbia’s main street but it was most assuredly a long, long time ago. Last year I wrote a piece about the Veterans Day Parade in Old Ellicott City. It seemed to me that the parade didn’t reflect the diversity of the Howard County citizens who have served. As I looked at the photos from yesterday’s parade, it was clearly a much more diverse turnout. Does having the parade in Columbia make a difference? Or did parade organizers make a concerted effort to include more folks? Our Veterans Day Parade hasn’t been around that long so perhaps it has just taken some time to build momentum. I wonder what will happen when the parade returns to Old Ellicott City. One thing I’m sure of is that this year’s par...

Almost as soon as I posted yesterday’s blog I began to have second thoughts. So, here I am. I was looking at the election news as a sort of last minute crisis that couldn’t be accommodated by the skeleton crew that our local paper has become. But the election wasn’t unexpected. The candidates were known well in advance. Along with that should have come the understanding of how historic it would be in our community should Calvin Ball win the election. A cover story for each candidate should have been at the ready. It certainly could have been done in advance. The fact that the powers that be knew an election was coming and invested their efforts in a retirement piece for Dario Broccolino shows an incredible lack of foresight. They actually decided that an election was no reason to turn their attention from “business as usual.” Somebody, somewhere in the BaltSun/HoCoTimes management made that judgement call. That the County Executive election was not worth preparing for and tha...

While Howard County made history this week by electing our first African American County Executive on Tuesday night, the front page of Wednesday’s Howard County Times didn’t seem to acknowledge that. Instead, the week’s cover story is about the career and retirement of longtime prosecutor Dario Broccolino. The information about Dr. Ball’s victory has been added in on the lower left corner of the front page photo. I have read some rather blunt quotes on social media questioning the wisdom of this choice. I haven’t had time to touch base with folks and get approval to run those comments here, so I’m going to err on the side of caution and ask you to take my word for it. A few thoughts on this: The Howard County Times is not a daily publication. It’s a weekly, and as such it probably has a different timeline for preparing longer pieces. At what point in the week do they “put the paper to bed ”, so to speak? Modern technology allows them to work like mad and slot in election resu...

I attended an event celebrating the Grand Opening of The Common Kitchen last night. A shoutout to Anastasia MacDonald and Roger Caplan for giving me such a warm welcome when I arrived. So many different flavors and cuisines to explore! If you want to know what all the buzz is about, they are holding a big celebratory event for the community on Saturday. My daughter’s school choir will be performing, so I’ll be back for that, too. Maybe I’ll see you there.