Village Green/Town²

  The other night I looked at this sight on my kitchen island and something inside me snapped. I sighed a deep sigh and went on Facebook.  Does anyone still have/use a breadbox? I was surprised by how many people said yes. I thought that breadboxes had gone out of fashion long ago. My last memory of a breadbox in daily use was the avocado green one my mother picked out to go with her stylish new kitchen in the 1970’s.  Since then I’ve gone through times of keeping all bread in the refrigerator, the freezer, and then, recently, out on the kitchen counter. But at some point a two tiered, brushed nickel fruit holder morphed into bread storage. I don’t really know how. I do know that the idea of keeping fresh fruit around on the kitchen island was purely aspirational.  Those people who said they’d definitely eat more fruit if we did this? Well, I won’t name them. So as I contemplate a new year I’m looking into something which I consider deeply retro, something that harke...

  Visitors to the Columbia lakefront recently might have caught a glimpse of this historic moment.  (Photo used with permission*) This photo shows Barbara Kellner, retired director of the Columbia Archives, paying a farewell visit to the statue of Jim Rouse at Lake Kittamaqundi. Kellner added this caption when she posted the photo on Facebook: Thank you Jim.  You changed my life.  I will be forever grateful for the circumstances that brought me to Columbia and to my immersion in its history.  The new year will find Ms. Kellner making her home in Williamsburg, Virginia, to be closer to her grandchildren. She has new adventures on the horizon. Since her retirement from the Archives, Kellner has enjoyed travel and documented much of it in beautiful photographs, most especially of nature. But I suspect that visits with her family have been the best retirement pastime of all. I have a confession to make. While most people think of Rouse as the face of Columbia, for m...

   As we near the close of the year I’ve been thinking about all the local photographers who share their views with us. Over the years I’ve grown fond of an account on Twitter called Ellicott City Pix. (@ECPix) I don’t know the actual human behind this account, but I’ve long been a fan.  In 2018 I was so charmed by “A Summer Project” that I asked to run it as a guest post. Warning: this post may lead to the consumption of cupcakes. In recent years @ECPix has branched out from still photographs to short videos. They are shared every so often in their Twitter feed, but you can also find them on YouTube at Perspectives Ellicott City.  and on TikTok: @ellicottcitypix .  The ECPix Twitter feed is a comprehensive source for beautiful images, not only original posts, but also the work of other local photographers and artists. It’s both nature and Main Street, still photos, short videos and artwork. Something new: a book published for Amazon Kindle entitled “Alphabet C...

  My first attempt at writing started out more like a tweet. As of 7:38, blog is hovering in the neighborhood of “maybe so, maybe not.” There are days like this. Still seeking inspiration. Blog is apparently in limbo.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ After several hours of spinning my wheels I had to admit that, even if I did eventually write something, most people wouldn’t even see it unless they clicked over during a coffee break. Eureka ! Coffee. Wasn’t there someone who recently suggested how Village Centers could become the hubs of smaller, tight-knit communities within Columbia’s larger whole and mentioned people gathering in coffeehouses? Yes! It was over on the Columbia Conversation Facebook page. My first response was a deep longing for a healthy world where we can all hang out in coffeehouses without fear. I’ve generally always been a homebody, but what I would give for the freedom to meet a friend for coffee any time I wanted. It seems like a dream. Frankly I love the idea of an Essenti...

  One of the things I love about Columbia/HoCo is the ongoing commitment to public art. Whether it’s the familiar sight of statues down at the Lakefront, or the annually appearing ARTSites pieces, there’s something wonderful about these varied examples of artistic expression scattered throughout our community. My new favorite is located at Clarksville Commons. Although it is named “The Pleiades” it reminded me of a Christmas tree. Perhaps that’s because I was there for an outdoor holiday concert. Who knows? Here it is. See what you think. Now here is where it all goes a bit sideways. Seeing this sculpture put me in mind of the year we were stuck inside due to snow and I attempted to create a Christmas tree with what I had on hand. I am sorry to say that my efforts were not appreciated. That being said, I was rather tickled with my efforts. Perhaps they were not without value, as they produced a rather strenuous effort to get out of the house and locate a “real” tree. We all have wi...

So many years ago that I cannot remember*, I was visiting friends from college days and they had a surprise in store: tickets to hear Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak at New Brunswick Theological Seminary. They imparted this news with the kind of excitement one would expect to see when revealing tickets to a sold out rock concert or a World Series game.  I knew who Tutu was, of course, but I didn’t know quite what to expect. I guess I thought the talk might be highly theological (since it was at the seminary) or quite serious, maybe even dry. I knew I was being given a once in a lifetime experience to hear someone very special. Someone who was making history. A very good human being.  I’m not sure I was as excited as my friends, though. Archbishop Tutu died in Cape Town on December 26th at the age of ninety. I woke up to the news and immediately thought of that night, long ago, where we sat in the balcony and hung on every word. His talk was animated, engaging, touching, hu...

You may have noticed that I’ve been moving away from making the assumption that everyone celebrates the same holidays that I celebrate. When casting about in my mind about what I wanted to say today, it occurred to me nature and caring for the environment cross all religious and cultural lines. In Columbia/HoCo we are blessed with a number of organizations and initiatives which invite us to celebrate the beauty of the Earth and be active stewards of our environment. For me these are largely gifts that have remained unopened. Now that I have more time on my hands, I hope to change that. I’ve assembled a quick list of resources as much for myself as for my readers. Let me know if I’ve omitted something that ought to be here. Live Green Howard is a project of Howard County Government in Maryland. Sustainability, environment, being “green,” is a part of so many agencies and areas outside the government, that we have attempted to bring it all together in one place. One such initiative is: ...

  My husband and his family are from Belfast, Northern Ireland. What a joy it is to be married to someone from another country and to have the opportunity to learn fascinating new things about how people live other places. Over the years I’ve enjoyed many wonderful stories about life “back home”. I’ve come to adore my mother-in-law’s mince pies at Christmas, the homey comfort of her good wheaten bread. My husband fancies her potato farls. I’m still puzzled by why anyone would eat Brussels Sprouts voluntarily. Our younger daughter grew up with tales about Finn McCool, the Giant’s Causeway, Cuchulainn, and Tír na nÓg. She learned to look for fairies in the thin places and that leprechauns are no where near as harmless as Americans think they are. She grew up dancing to Irish music. Oh, and the music is truly beyond compare. The haunting beauty of the Celtic harp, the driving rhythms of the bodhran, the fun of old favorites like “I’ll Tell Me Ma”  . Being married into a musical f...

  Thanks for bearing with me yesterday. By the end of the day, my younger daughter had received her booster and we were sitting, double-masked, at the Olney Theatre Center to see “Beauty and the Beast.” It’s probably the last “indoor with lots of people” event we’ll be attending for a while. It was pure joy.  My daughter’s main interest in life is musical theatre. She is studying to become a theatre teacher in college. Seeing this production was her big Christmas gift this year. I didn’t realize it was going to be such a big gift to me as well.  Olney Theatre Center has gone to great lengths to make their current performance experience as safe as they possibly can. Proof of current vaccination status is required, as are masks. Concessions are closed since eating and drinking would require patrons to remove their masks. Seating is spaced throughout the house to establish physical distancing. The air temperature was a tad on the cool side which makes me wonder if they’ve ta...

  I’m trying so hard to focus on one thing that’s worth writing about today but the truth is that I woke up overwhelmed. There are plenty of local stories worth writing about today. My heart simply isn’t in it. Yesterday my college-aged daughter was able to get a free home testing kit for COVID-19 from the Health Department and subsequently tested negative. I was deliriously happy for about two hours until the weight of all the continuing news of the omicron variant began to crush me. Word that treatment with monoclonal antibodies is no longer effective has pretty much wiped out any feeling of security I might have had in case I become ill. A long standing Christmas Eve event will be canceled again this year. So far church is still in person but I feel much less safe about going. And what about celebrating with the members of our family who don’t live with us? What should we do? My husband, who is a teacher, knows he is very likely being exposed to COVID daily and it is wearing on ...

  It’s a holiday story, a feel-good story, and a reminder. Three-in-one! If you will forgive my saying so, today’s post hits all the right notes. It starts with a story in the Howard County Times . Mt. Hebron students offer ukulele performance to Alzheimer’s Association for holiday music therapy  , Katie V. Jones, Baltimore Sun Media The article begins: On a recent December afternoon, five teenage members of Mt. Hebron High School’s ukulele club gathered to rehearse and record holiday songs. The recording wasn’t just for fun. Sanika Devare, 16, has arranged for it to air on social media, with the hope of providing a source of music therapy for dementia patients. I immediately thought of that episode of Science Friday that fascinated me back in 2014, the one that focused on the Music and Memory project.  What Henry Knows , August 13th, 2014 Interviewed for this episode, the late, brilliant neurologist Oliver Sacks said the following: Well, when music is played or imagined ...

  Yes, I’m one of those people who still watches “A Charlie Brown Christmas” annually. It’s a generational thing, I think. It was such a big deal in my childhood. So many small bits in it were special memories to look forward to each year: Snoopy dancing on the piano, Lucy providing psychiatric help for a nickel, Linus adroitly turning his blanket into a shepherd’s costume. Embedded in those memories are vague recollections, such as, “ ‘A Charlie Brown Chistmas’ is brought to you by Dolley Madison Cakes and the folks at your local Coca-Cola Bottling Company.” It’s funny what you remember. Readers of this blog know that there is one moment in this Christmas special which has come up time and again: I did a quick count last night. Sally Brown has appeared at least seven times since 2015.  …little Sally Brown plaintively justifying her grotesquely inflated wish list for Santa, “all I want is what’s coming to me. All I want is my fair share.”  ( Duck Tales , December 25, 2020...

  Yesterday I learned something about Santa that I had never known. He’s a musician. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...We are thrilled to have our beloved and talented Santa fill Syriana with lovely Holidays spirited music and songs Fridays and Saturday 7-9 and Sunday 12-2 until January 2, 2022. Happy Holidays to all... (Syriana Facebook page) Photo credit Syriana Alright then, well he does look like Santa, you think. But how can you be sure? Perhaps this will convince you: Here he is in clothing more familiar and in settings that put us in mind of Christmas. Perhaps you have already seen him around Old Ellicott City. As to whether you believe that this is “the real Santa”?  That all depends on what theory you subscribe to. I’m inclined to believe he is one of Santa’s many helpers, as Santa is far too busy at the North Pole this time of year to make personal appearances.  The fact that he plays piano in his off-hours truly endears him to me. When he’s not ticklin...

  Good morning, Columbia/HoCo-land! Happy Saturday! Thanks so much to all of you who gave me such positive feedback after yesterday’s post. It gave me the kind of a lift that I imagine one gets from a rousing retirement send-off, and that truly helped ease a bittersweet moment for me. I have a bit of a round-up for you this morning. First up, a correction. I can’t find anyone who agrees with my take about the stuffed plush creature at H ickory Ridge estate in Highland . So I will go back and edit my original post to reflect that. It does appear to be a fox-hunting reference, and not a nod to the cast iron lawn jockeys of yore. I’m not too keen on fox hunting either, but that’s another story altogether. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt when I read the news this week that the two escaped zebras in Maryland had finally been captured. From the @MarylandZebra Twitter account: Well, Well, Well…they got us. We had an amazing time and it’s all about being outside. On a personal note, I had a...

  This is the time of year that you are likely to see posts on Twitter which begin, “and, in some personal news…” Since I follow such interesting people their personal news tends to be pretty interesting as well. And, in some personal news, today is my last day at X because: I’m going on sabbatical in Greece. I’ve been appointed as the Chief of staff for Y. I’ll be writing for the New York Times. I’ll be finishing my novel. I’m running for public office. It’s almost always something impressive and fascinating. Of course, every so often these announcements are spoofed by some wag who tells us that “in some personal news, I’m going down to Subway for a footlong tuna sub,” but those are the exceptions rather than the rule. So, inspired by all these end of year tweets, here goes: And, in some personal news, as of December 1st I am retired. That first Social Security payment slid into my bank account and I’ve been pondering the significance of my decision ever since.  It had never ...

  Yesterday the Howard County Schools cancelled all extracurricular activities, effective immediately, and continuing through January 15th. This includes “Athletic practices and contests, Theater rehearsals and performances, School concerts and performances, Extracurricular activities, and Field trips.”  Nobody wants this. Absolutely no one is cheering, “Yay! No extracurriculars!”  But the numbers of COVID cases have been on the rise in such an alarming way that it was necessary to address it. Some folks feel that this situation is serious enough to warrant going to virtual learning immediately. While that may be true from a public health standpoint, it’s clear that hcpss wants to do anything they can to avoid that. Ceasing extracurriculars is something they have in their power to do without curtailing face-to-face learning. I don’t know if it will be enough. But we will have to limp along together towards the winter break and see what happens. I read a statement yesterda...

  I don’t know why I was surprised, but I was. A little. What with all the amazing things the Howard County Library System does in our community, why should it surprise me that they have an “in” with the big man in red? Come into any library branch to write – or drop off – your letter to Santa. Mail it by Thursday, December 23 at 12 pm so we can make sure Santa gets it in time! Years ago (Back when Columbia Patch was new and we were all excited about it) I wrote a Letter to Santa with a Columbia/HoCo focus. Wow. 2011 seems like a million years ago, doesn’t it? When I saw that I could mail my letter to Santa at my local library branch, thoughts of that old letter came back to me. I wonder how it would be different if I wrote it today. I still haven’t had that tour of Elkridge… My Buy Nothing community has a holiday tradition where everyone is invited to make a Big Ask and a Small Ask to see if anyone else in the group can fulfill them. No request is too big or too small. It’s ...

  Linking to an NPR story may seem as though I’m going rather far afield this morning, but, I’m not. Here’s the story.: You don’t have to drink to celebrate the holiday season , Brian Mann for NPR That’s a local story wherever there are alcoholic beverages and holidays. The article touches on the stress experienced by party-goers when coaxed to imbibe at social events and offers a variety of helpful suggestions. This one made me sad: Or: If you want to avoid the "Where's your drink?" question altogether, you can also carry around a cup of a non-alcoholic beverage like soda, seltzer or even water. Good grief. What kind of a world is it where something as simple as not wanting to drinking alcohol at a party requires so much planning and even subterfuge?  For heavens sake, let’s not ever be that person who conveys to others that it’s just not a party without a drink, or that they’re just not a legitimate part of the party unless they drink.  Now, here’s where it gets local....

  Yesterday was an unusually temperate December day. Sunny, clear skies, not too cold. I hopped in the car and headed to the Holiday Bazaar at The Third . Outside the event I purchased some raffle tickets in hopes of winning a stylish and amply-sized tote bag emblazoned with The Third’s logo. Whoever wins will also receive sample items from all the businesses who participated in the bazaar.  The vendors were set up inside the space that some of us remember as Comptoir, the café side of Petit Louis. Shoppers could make their way around the perimeter and talk to business owners and learn about the products they were selling. There was a whole lot of that going on while I was there as a steady stream of interested folks kept arriving. I found myself attracted to the selection offered by Yolo Health and Wellness.  I picked out a grapefruit granite spray and a lemon room spritz. I rarely buy anything with fragrance because of my asthma but, since I was able to test these out ...