Skip to main content

Plans and Pipedreams



I would never have imagined as a child that I would someday be so excited to get shots. On the other hand, I must admit the second dose of the shingles vaccine packed a punch. (Sorry about yesterday. Rest, extra fluids, and new library books got me through. 

Speaking of library books, the newly renovated Glenwood Library is having its grand opening tomorrow at ten am. Here’s what to expect:

Following a presentation of colors by Girl Scout Troop 830, remarks and ribbon cutting, customers will be invited into the renovated branch for an open house featuring a new makerspace, reimagined teen area, builder’s barn for children, games, demos, and more. 

 Open House schedule: 

10:15 am — 3 pm          Passports 

10:15 am — 4:30 pm     Games on the patio 

                                       Branch tours 

10:15 am — 5:30 pm     Gaming  

                                       Scavenger hunts for all ages 

                                       Hot chocolate bar courtesy of Walker's Tap & Table 

                                       Engagement station 

10:30 am — 1 pm          Makerspace demos 

                                          10:30 am — Laser cutter engraver  

                                          11 am — Recording booth  

                                          11:30 am — Large format printer  

                                          12 pm — Digital memory station  

                                          12:30 pm — 3D printers 

10:30 am — 2:30 pm     Builder's Barn activities 

11 — 11:30 am              All Together Now 

11 am — 1 pm               Button making 

                                       Art activity 


This sounds like a lot of fun. It seems as though, every time I turn around, something amazing is happening in our Howard County libraries. 

Also tomorrow, the return of the WBAL Concert for Kids at Oakland Mills High School. You have your choice of the Family Matinee at 2:00 pm, and the Evening Pops Concert at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available here.



I’ve been to this concert in past years and have written about it as well. As of 2019 this concert had raised $101,000.00 for the WBAL Radio Kids Campaign. About the Kids Campaign:

The WBAL Radio Kids Campaign seeks to promote, foster, encourage, support and sponsor various activities for the general educational, vocational, recreational, civic and social improvement and betterment of young, economically deprived boys and girls in the WBAL Radio listening area, without regard to race, creed, color, or national origin.

This is a wonderful way to kick off your holiday season. It’s a local, affordable musical extravaganza and it’s all for a good cause.

A reminder: there’s a lot going on this Saturday. The We Are The People Rally will be held at the Lakefront from 11 am to 1 pm.  Saunter Claus meets up at the People Tree at 1:00 pm. (Suddenly the thought of a mashup seems an interesting possibility.) We can’t all be everywhere at the same time (though maybe Santa can?) so you’ll need to pick what’s best for you.

On a totally different note, I’ve been pondering turning Fridays blog into a free-for-all of things I want to write about that fall outside of the HoCo local territory of the blog. It’s long been known that people tend to read blogs less on Fridays. I wonder what would happen if I had “off-topic Fridays”? (In my head the working title has been, “The hell with it; it’s Friday.”)  Perhaps it’s the temptation to write about the things I would write about if no one were watching. 

Yeah, right. It’s the internet. Someone is always watching. At any rate, as always, I’m open to your feedback. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  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...
2 comments
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more