Village Green/Town²

It’s getting to be a Monday thing.  Last night’s Elevate Maryland live podcast taping was a sold out crowd that moved upstairs from the Common Kitchen to Food Plenty due to a larger than usual rush for tickets. The reason? The guest was County Executive Calvin Ball, making his third visit to the show. Here you see hosts Tom Coale and Candace Dodson Reed doing their last minute show prep. This is serious work. And here you see them with their guest right before taping started. Not always so serious, eh? There was so much great stuff in the show last night that I hesitate to even attempt to do a rundown. You should listen for yourself.  One moment that jumped out to me happened during what is called the “Elevator Speech” part of the program, where Tom and Candace ask certain proscribed questions about books, movies, music, etc. They needed to come up with an entirely new set as Dr. Ball has answered them all before.  What was the b...

Saturday evening I posted: Well it wouldn’t be a Columbia Election Day if it didn’t end with me being mightily pissed off. Sunday morning Jim Smith Of Harper’s Choice said it much better. (You may remember Mr. Smith from a post I wrote last summer about grass-cutting.) It warmed my heart to see someone else pondering what feels like the death knell of Columbia Village Elections. I asked him if I could share it and he graciously consented. ************ We had an election yesterday in Harper’s Choice. We had 4 people running for 3 open seats. Not enough people voted, which means there was not a quorum, so the results were invalid. This is not the first time this has happened. In the next few weeks we have to figure out how to rectify this particular issue, but the whole thing seems like a big mess to me. There is so much going on in Harper’s Choice these days, it is odd to me that not enough people would vote but I have a theory.  I think most folks have no idea t...

I voted in my village election. Did you? Odds are that you didn’t. Maybe you lost the ballot they mailed out or didn’t have time to vote in person. I was startled to see Harpers Choice offering another option. Yes, that’s right, the Columbia Association has found a way to make online voting a possibility and Harpers Choice had it. My village board in Oakland Mills apparently took a pass. They’ll be hearing  from me on that. Village Elections are teetering on the brink of complete irrelevance in the public consciousness. We should be doing everything we can to connect with residents.  Yesterday the Inner Arbor Trust hosted Jazz in the Woods at the Chrysalis, featuring jazz ensembles from high schools, middle schools, and the greater community. I was not surprised to see Tweets from various schools touting their students performances. But this one, from a teacher at Howard High School, stood out: The structural technology of the Chrysalis?  ...

It’s three twenty-three in the morning and I can’t sleep. I picked up the kids from the Post Prom Party at the Main Event at the Mall, delivered the date safely home. I sent my tired but happy daughter off to bed, sat down in my comfy chair for a moment and sat on my car keys and set off my husband’s car alarm. That got my adrenaline running. But that’s not why I can’t sleep. My daughter and her date were talking about the kids who got caught for drinking at the Prom. I’m not going to go into detail because these are all somebody’s kids. But it made me really sad. It’s clear that my daughter felt that, for every student whose drunkenness was obvious, there were others who didn’t get caught. It’s a hard task for the adults present to keep on top of. I feel sad for kids who thought the only way to have fun at the Prom was to drink. I feel sad for those whose prom nights were cut short by their own foolish behavior. Yes, there absolutely must be boundaries and consequences ...

Now this is the job for me. DPW creates a $100,000 job for outspoken critic   Mark Reutter and Fern Shen for Baltimore Brew I’ll let you read the piece and draw your own conclusions. It’s a fascinating story. I share it here today because, as the young folks say on Twitter,  “career goals.” Dear employment universe, I am uniquely qualified to be hired as an Outspoken Critic in the $100,000 range. Additional skills and qualifications: Ardent Supporter, Bemused Observer. Strong writing skills, persistent, consistent work ethic. Hobbies include anecdotes, vignettes, free-form poetry and doggerel verse. Sincerely, Village Green/Town² I wonder if there’s anyone in Howard County who’s hiring?  It could be the opportunity of a lifetime.

“ Julia McCready writes from radically left agenda.“ I was a bit startled to read that criticism on a Facebook recently. I’m not sure it’s true, but I’m hardly offended by it. Or, for that matter, afraid of it. It put me in mind of a theme that ran through many of the late Dennis Lane’s blog posts, that Howard County was in need of “a lefty blogger.” Since then we’ve actually had a healthy sampling of local bloggers who are left of center. None of them are still blogging regularly. In fact, lots of folks seem to have moved on from regular blogging to other things. Life, Work. Podcasting. It appears I’ve been left holding the bag in the “lefty blogger” department. I haven’t won anything through merit but rather I appear to be the last one standing. And I’m not even a political blogger. But radical?  I think it’s all in who’s doing the name calling. 

On Sunday my family made plans for Easter lunch at Seasons. It’s pretty much our restaurant of choice for family gatherings because they take the gluten-free thing seriously, and we have a member of our party for whom gluten-free is no joke. Our only problem: church was going to be over 11:45ish, and our reservation wasn’t until 1:15. “No problem,” said my husband. “We’ll just have a cup of coffee at Starbucks.” This seemed like a good plan right up until we arrived at the Mall and discovered that Starbucks was closed. So were the main doors to the Mall. The weather was beautiful and there were plenty of folks on the outside plaza area. The fountain was on. People were toing and froing from restaurants. The parking lot was amply filled while the Mall itself was closed. Garnering cool points from my family, I recalled that the new Barnes and Noble had a coffee bar. They were open. We met up there, enjoyed our coffee, and my husband found a book he had been looking for. The ...

Many thanks to Inner Arbor Trust President Nina Basu for highlighting this memory for me yesterday.                            What an honor it was to be included in the opening festivities of the Chrysalis two years ago. I’m still excited about it. The third season opens this weekend. On Saturday you can enjoy  HCPSS Jazz in the Woods.  This free festival event runs from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm and showcases jazz bands from Howard County Middle and High Schools. On Sunday it’s  Mystic India the World Tour.   On April 28, 2019, the Chrysalis in Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods will transform into an explosion of color and culture! Created by Director Amit Shah and featuring the AATMA Performing Arts dance company,  Mystic India: The World Tour  is an internationally-acclaimed Bollywood dance spectacular based on the concept of ancient India’s transition into mode...

This caught my eye: Hopeworks is holding a fundraiser at Cured/18th & 21st. From their website : 100% of proceeds from this event will support survivors as they move from crisis to recovery. Safety, recovery from trauma, and protection from violence are all priceless resources that victims find here at HopeWorks. Your support will leave a lasting impact on those we serve. In case you are not aware, Hopeworks is Howard County's sexual assault and domestic violence center. They host a variety of programs and operate a 24-hour help hotline. A while back I wondered at an advertisement for an event at Cured which boasted high priced tickets for a VIP evening of fun and classic cocktails. I was perplexed that anyone would pay that much money for an event that wasn’t “in aid of” something. Readers let me know that such events were really a thing, and also came back with high praise for the venue itself:  Cured/18th & 21st.  It only makes sense that I wou...

Yesterday was a perfect Spring day. On days of such exquisite weather I imagine that all that Columbia/Howard County has to offer is alive with invitation. Walk or bike on Columbia’s pathways.  Visit the Robinson Nature Center or the Howard County Conservancy. Go down to the Lakefront and enjoy the fountain. Have a picnic at Blandair, Centennial, or other local parks. Give your children extra time at the playground. I spent yesterday observing the beauty of nature from my comfy chair, partially immobilized by a Benadryl haze. I love Spring. I also have allergies. I opened up the house to let the fresh air blow through, opened the curtains to enjoy the view, and then I dozed. A lot. One of my favorite sights each year is this tree which sits in our neighbor’s yard. We are on our fourth set of neighbors in that house, but the glory of the tree remains constant. Yesterday I watched the Spring breezes blow billows of “pink snow” into the air. I thought of all the folks ...

Today’s featured vocabulary: cherry-picking comparing apples and oranges for extra-credit, see also: apophenia    Let’s begin. County Executive Calvin Ball has released his first budget for Howard County. You can read more about the education focus of the budget here . The usual budget process has been followed and there has been input from the community and budget analysis from staff whose expertise is in examining and evaluating financial choices. That’s how it is done every year in Howard County. The County has been open in sharing that revenue projections are down and community needs are up.  This means, of course, that decisions on what will be funded require more scrutiny. That’s not unlike one’s own family budget. You need to choose what is most crucial for the money you have. What is the best investment based on known efficacy and value? Despite the fact that anyone following this process has all of this context at their disposal,  a baldl...

Hilda’s Place. Have you heard of it? From their  website : OUR MISSION IS TO PROVIDE THE TOOLS OF RECOVERY TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY THE DISEASE OF ADDICTION. WE OFFER AN EVIDENCE-BASED TREATMENT MODEL IN CONJUNCTION WITH OTHER COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES THAT HELP OUR CLIENTS LEARN WAYS TO LIVE DRUG AND ALCOHOL-FREE LIVES AS THEY BUILD RESILIENCY. I think most of us are aware of how underserved Howard County is when it comes to helping residents who struggle with addiction. The County Executive is working to make the opioid crisis a priority in his administration. Community Advocate Laurie Lundy has been pushing to change local attitudes about addiction and the need for local  treatment facilities  for years now. So the news that Howard County has a (relatively) new choice for addiction treatment should be good news. Right? Maybe not if it’s in a shopping center in Glenwood. (Cooksville, technically)  Some folks are up in arms that a drug treat...

Grace’s Law 2.0 will be signed into law today by the Governor. The greatest thing in this world would be if there were no need for this law, and that a beautiful girl named Grace McComas never had to suffer at the hands of vicious cyber bullying, I wish that were the reality. It is not. We know from following the local news that cyber bullying is still happening in our schools . We have so much to do to address this. A law that codifies cyber bullying as a crime is only one part of that. Parents must make it their responsibility to be actively involved in teaching their children about responsible and respectful social media use, and to be vigilant in monitoring that use. School administrators must create an atmosphere in which victims and their families can have no doubt that they will be heard and treated fairly. Christine McComas took an unspeakable loss and worked to create something to make other children safer. She has worked through heartache and persisted despite setb...

Monday night I got myself a beer and some lovely salmon toast at Trifecto at the Common Kitchen and settled in for the Elevate Maryland.podcast. Here’s the beer. The salmon toast disappeared too fast to be photographed. Monday’s show featured a roundup of the recent Maryland General Assembly session in Annapolis. The guests were Luke Broadwater of the Baltimore Sun and Mileah Kromer of Goucher Polls, who together are the team for the Roughly Speaking: Government Edition Podcast. ( “Roughly Speaking: Government Edition”, a partnership between the Baltimore Sun and Goucher College,  ran  during the 90-day Maryland General Assembly session.) It was a first for Elevate, a podcast team interviewing a podcast team. As meta as that may sound, the actual event ran smoothly, largely due to to a strong sense of collegiality  amongst all parties, combined with a healthy sense of humor. I’ve long been a fan of Mr. Broadwater’s work at the Sun, so I was please...

This one goes out to music educators, all my special needs peeps , and anyone who has ever loved a child. Sharing, with permission from the author, the editorial from the March issue of Choral Director, by Mike Lawson. The Magic of Singing  In early 1996, my daughter Kelly was just over two years old. She had met normal milestones for development, but they slowed down, exhibiting some tell-tale signs of autism, something I knew almost nothing about. Staring off in space, no longer en­gaging in play, stimming behaviors, but most worrying, she had simply stopped speaking. She cried, and she cried a lot. Bedtime were hours long ordeals figuring out how to get her settled in and start sleeping. Music, and only certain music, seemed to calm her, quiet her, and settle her from standing at the side of her crib and wailing, to sitting down, then lying down. But it lasted as long as the song. I played music for her on a CD player "boombox" that I put in her room. I had a rathe...

At long last, there may be a better dress code in the Howard County Schools. I hope. Here is a link to the proposed new policy. A lot of good people from a variety of community constituencies worked on this, and I, for one, am grateful. From the response that this information got on Facebook, not everyone shares my positive outlook. The thread on this topic took up 25 pages, more or less. I had it in mind to go through with a highlighter and color code the use of certain key words, counting their use, and looking at how this differed by gender. But then real life intervened. After reading and rereading the comments certain things about the objections stuck out. Most were sexual in nature, and most (overwhelmingly) were aimed at young women. Words like: Booty Boob Cleavage Thong Spaghetti straps Skin Bra straps And these words were tied up in two larger concepts: that the clothing itself was innately sexual and would distract male students which would cause clas...

I am not a dedicated gardener. I have one small front garden bed about the size of a large dining room table. Most years I dutifully weed it and put down fresh mulch. I used to have a war going with dandelions in the Spring until I learned better. When the weather warms, my daughter and I buy some new annuals to plant and enjoy. We have a few tulips that have been hanging in there with us for multiple seasons. That’s about it. Yesterday I noticed that the tulips were doing their thing so I spent some time out front clearing away weeds. Every year it seems that I have a whole new strain of invasive plants along with the usuals. They come up. That’s their job. I pull them out, that’s my job. I’m by no means a gardener but I feel some sense of responsibility to at least take a stab at it. Yesterday’s weather inspired my daughter and I to get lunch at Whole Foods down at the Lakefront and eat outside to enjoy the view. The view did not disappoint. We saw a ...

Friday night found me circling the parking lot off of Dobbin trying to find a spot near QDoba. For a while there, it didn’t look like it was going to happen, largely because of patrons of the Ale House. It reminded me of the time someone suggested to me that no one actually cooks in Columbia because they are too busy eating out. Certainly many of us are out on Friday night, circling for parking spaces That particular shopping center is oddly shaped and far from level. In the evening it’s drawing to Pei Wei, QDoba, and Ale House. Earlier it also includes Roggenart and First Watch, plus retail establishments. Is it “Columbia proper” or an outparcel? I don’t know. Across the road is Dobbin Center. I’m not a particular fan of that parking lot either, although it is certainly regularly shaped and graded. I saw this on Twitter and wondered: 4/11/19 - -  What in the fresh hell is happening today?! It took me over 45 minutes to get out of Dobbin Center! People were cutting othe...