Village Green/Town²

  After many years of hinting and pining, I finally got that tour of Elkridge I’d been asking for. And I found it so fascinating - - and enjoyable - - that now I want more tours of Elkridge. So, the request still stands. Or I need to start making my own self-guided tours.  I also wish I had snapped pics and taken notes the whole way so I’d remember everything later. Still, I have no regrets. I was learning a lot and I was having a good time. It was a lovely day. It was lovely enough that we were able to conclude our tour with lunch at Daniels. (Full name: Daniels Restaurant and Open Air Bars.) Our waitress was wonderful, the food and the iced tea hit the spot. And, as we left, I noticed a flyer for The Blessing of the Bikes: May 1st.  Here’s what it says on the Daniel’s Facebook page : Our Annual Blessing of the Bikes is this Sunday, May 1st! Father Gerry Bowen will be doing the blessing! Great Train Robbery* 1 pm to 5 pm. Blessing at 3 pm. Live artwork by Gory Greg. An...

  Someone, somewhere has to think these things up. Then someone else develops them in the test kitchens. After that, it’s consumer taste-testing, focus groups, and then you market them. Here they are! “munchums”  Our limited edition M&M’S Munchums Chocolate Baked Snacks are a totally new type of chocolate snack. Inside our unique, crunchy baked outer shell is a crispy center coated in milk chocolate. They have 40% less sugar than M&M’S Milk Chocolate Candies, they’re gluten-free, and made with natural flavors so everyone can get in on the fun. The words that caught my eye here are “Baked Snacks”. This is clearly a term created by the food industry. Did your mother ever ask you when you got home from school, “Would you like a glass of milk and a Baked Snack?”  It isn’t candy, it isn’t junk food, it’s a Baked Snack. I honestly don’t know why they didn’t try to market this as a breakfast cereal. “The taste kids love with a wholesome baked shell!” Probably reducing th...

  Our alliteration overloads continue on their quest for world domination. Yesterday Howard County hosted Beer n’ Bots: And, beginning May 4th at the Mall in Columbia, it’s the Meerkat Meetup. Stop searching, start connecting Our mall is more than just a place to shop. It's a gathering place — a shared space where everyone can come together to share memorable experiences. Partnering with artist collective, Cracking Art, we’ve brought our community an awe-inspiring exhibition filled with vibrant meerkat sculptures made of regenerated plastic, sparking a community-wide conversation about caring for our environment and each other. Discover groups of meerkats standing in harmony, bringing a sense of wonder and togetherness throughout The Mall in Columbia. Join us for this one-of-a-kind experience. I’m speechless. Well, almost. My first impression is that these meerkats look like giant incarnations of preschool math manipulatives . The second is that the lead-off - - stop searching, sta...

  I’d like to introduce you to Malia Edelson, a student at Oakland Mills High School. Here she is on the far left: I was intrigued to learn that this year’s Columbia Cleans event in Oakland Mills was led by teens from the OMHS Class of 2025. It turns out that Edelson came up with the idea and saw it through to completion. She did the organizational work to prepare for the event, holding virtual meetings at night and liaising between the Village Manager and the OMHS teacher advisors.  Malia was kind enough to answer some questions for me about how this all came about. What motivated you to take on this project?  I've always cared for the environment and I thought it would be fun to try and get students more involved with the environment and a good way to get my class board to start a project. Have you helped with the cleanup in previous years? I have helped with the clean up before and some of the spots we would clean always had a ton of trash. Was it easier or harder than...

  I had planned to write about something else today but this tweet from a local political activist* set me off: FYI- 90% of our daily lives is impacted by the zoning and land use decisions made by County Govt. Any conversation of “books”, “SROs” or cultural issues will only serve to distract from the MONEY issue. And for that the Development industry is thankful.  Let’s boil that down to its essential components. The only issue is my issue, the Evil Developer issue. Anyone who highlights other issues is in league with the Dark Side. Or maybe: Suppressing books that support LGBTQ+ students and/or the negative impact of school policing don’t harm me and my family so I’m declaring them non-issues. This isn’t a matter of differences in political affiliation. I honestly don’t care what political party this individual belongs to because what they espouse is so deeply disrespectful of people who are different from themselves and so entirely selfish. People in our community are harmed...

  The last name has been removed to protect the innocent.  Eleven years ago, on this day, I looked up and saw these two signs: The first one: Melissa. The second one: Prom? I never did find out who Melissa was nor whether she accepted this invitation, which makes sense because she is a private individual and it’s none of my business. But making the “Prom-posal” in such a public way does tend to stir up some general interest. So, if you’re Melissa, message me, okay? Hope springs eternal in the Prom department, apparently, as one desperate asker revealed in a pizza order to River House Pizza on Thursday. I don’t know whether this ploy was successful either but I do have some thoughts. Who waits until the night before? Proms require all sorts of advance preparation. Back in the day, if someone asked you the night before you’d likely tell them you had a prior engagement. Washing your hair, for instance. Visiting your grandmother. Dog sitting. Speaking of pizza and prom night…the...

It’s not hocolocal, but everyone knows I’m a sucker for this sort of thing. Shared by Jimmie Cone , an ice cream place with two locations in Mt.Airy and Damascus: Brown Puppy was left behind at our Mt. Airy store this evening. We’re sure someone special is missing their pup! We will keep him safe and fed overnight- if he belongs to you- we open at 1pm tomorrow. Oh, my. That much ice cream for a dog that size probably isn’t a good idea. Dogs don’t digest dairy all that well.  All kidding aside, if you or someone you know is the owner of this cute fella, you’d better hightail it out there this afternoon and bring him home. I don’t know how they know that Brown Puppy is a “he” but presumably the folks at Jimmie Cone have experience in these things. If you don’t already know about Jimmie Cone, here’s some information shared on the Town of Mount Airy Facebook page: Business Spotlight In addition to dishing up a variety of sweet treats, the Mount Airy location is known for its Cruise N...

  Happy Columbia Election Day, to all who observe. ***** Today also marks the official opening of the Chrysalis  (Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods) for the 2022 season. Yesterday, Earth Day, was the fifth anniversary of their opening and dedication. Kicking off this year’s season is a celebration of Holi and Dance Party  (today) and a concert by the Maryland Winds called Music of Stage and Screen  (tomorrow). Continuing their commitment to making the arts accessible to all, both events are free. Follow the Eventbrite link to register for your free ticket. Down at the lakefront The 3rd is hosting an open house event. (Next weekend!) Come out to get a sneak peek of The 3rd and hear all about the amazing plans we have in store. We are inviting members, followers, and supporters to The 3rd for a fundraising open home tour. So be the first to see inside The 3rd and be a part of history-making in Columbia, MD.  Click the link below to sign up and let us know ...

  The word was “pourover”. It caught my eye in a Facebook advert and set my mind spinning into a sort of dizzying word association game. Why are there so many words that end in “over”? Voice over Flyover  Layover Do over Popover Run over Hungover Pushover Boilover Stopover Makeover Turnover Takeover Leftover Turnover Holdover Carryover Changeover Spillover Sleepover  Rollover And so on, and so on … So, pourover. I know what that means. It’s a method of coffee preparation. That must be why this product was recommended to me by Facebook. It’s pretty clear that I love, love, love coffee.  But, no. The photograph depicted something that resembled a juice box, or a gourmet soup in aseptic packaging. This was not coffee. I started at the top of the box and read to the bottom. When I got there I was startled to read, “meal enhancer for dogs.” Yes, friends, this is some tasty concoction that you “pour over” your dog’s food to make it taste better. They come in different flav...

  Have you ever heard of the expression, “wrapping yourself in the flag”?  Here’s a useful piece on  Idioms Online: According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms, to wrap yourself in the flag is to make an excessive show of your patriotism, especially for political ends. With that concept in mind, I’d like to highlight a tactic being employed by Republican candidate for County Executive Allan Kittleman. It appears that his strategy is to wrap himself in the police. Everywhere one turns is a concerned Kittleman calling for more police. In schools: On the roads:   I’ve already talked here a number of times about how multiple studies of school policing have shown that it does not make schools safer, and in fact makes schools less safe for Black and Brown students. But let’s talk about traffic stops. From a recent article in the New York Times : “Cities Try to Turn the Tide on Police Traffic Stops: Chiefs, prosecutors and lawmakers are rethinking the value, and t...

  Among the responses to yesterday’s post on Camp Ilchester was this suggestion: I’m hoping the County will provide public transit to it. Not seeing anything nearby. This issues comes up a lot for me, doesn’t it? Public transit. If a place is inaccessible by public transit, we are essentially saying it is for those with cars only. Can a place truly be a public park if only a portion of the public can go there? Speaking of which: Here is a listing of all of Maryland’s State Parks. I wonder how many are served by public transit? And here’s an additional hurdle: fees. This website, Low Income Relief, gives you advice on: How to Save Money When Visiting Maryland State Parks Now, you can get in free if you are disabled or over sixty-two. If you are poor and don’t have a car? Well, you very likely can’t get there. And if you can, you still won’t be able to afford to get in. I don’t want you to think that I have never before contemplated how poverty is an obstacle that comes between peop...

  Last week County Executive Calvin Ball announced that the County had come to an agreement with the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland to purchase the land known as Camp Ilchester. This has been welcome news to those who have advocated that the land be preserved as natural parkland. Howard County’s $6M offer to purchase Camp Ilchester accepted; Ball pledges to preserve the land as open space , Katie V. Jones, Baltimore Sun The announcement took me back to about a year ago when I first learned that word of a possible sale was afoot. On March 31st a reader reached out to me with the question: is this on your radar? The enclosed link took me to an announcement that the Girl Scouts of Maryland were considering the sale of Camp Ilchester. The reasoning was that they would be the best stewards of their resources by using money from the sale to support other state Girl Scout properties and programs. The best defense for what the land could be, in my opinion, came from people who had experie...

  Hell hath no fury like a local blogger who thinks she’s clicking on a local story on Columbia Patch only to discover it is sourced “from all over America.” Sheesh. Uncut Grass, Junked Car Graveyards, Blight: Block Talk Hears Your Pain , Beth Dalbey, Patch Staff Well, phooey. I was so hoping for some juicy local complaints about other people’s yards. You may recall that four years ago I got sucked into what I called The Great Columbia Grass-Cutting War. This. Means. War. As the weather warms and when - - and if - - Spring decides it’s here to stay, we’ll all be spending more time outside. Perhaps we’ll be casting our eyes over at our neighbors’ yards. The Patch article suggests that there’s a lot of that going on.  Respect My Lawn! Americans spend about $115 billion annually on landscaping, according to an industry estimate. Does that give them veto power over what people do in their own yards? Some readers think so. I’d like to turn this concept on its head and ask what yo...

  This is not a blessing: Advert in today’s Baltimore Sun This is a blessing: Wishing you a story and song full Passover, Thought-provoking Good Friday and Easter (and some good quality chocolate) And those who are observing Ramadan, may your fasting be easy and your iftar is fun and the food on your plate plenty. Pagans, remember to light a candle, too 🧡 These words from a friend (and used with permission) spoke to me this week in a way that many other seasonal posts have not. Probably because they are inclusive, spoken in love, and leavened with a touch of humor. They are a reminder that these days do not belong to one faith alone, or even to any particular form of established religion.  Around town some folks are celebrating simply because the season for declaring political candidacy has ended and at long last we know who is running. Others look at the list of candidates and are moved more to penitence than feasting.  Some greet these days with a desire to immerse th...

  The sight of the man troubled me, somehow. As I turned into the Walgreen’s parking lot I took a second look. No, there wasn’t anything alarming about his appearance. What was bothering me? He was walking. He was coming from further down Twin Knolls, where there’s a funeral home, a hotel, and a variety of small offices. He was clearly headed to Walgreen’s. Why did the sight of him stand out so much to me? Because he was walking along the grassy side of the road. There’s no sidewalk there. I’ve had this experience more than once over the years, where merely the act of someone walking along the road made them look out of place. Sketchy, even. Did their car break down? Are they a panhandler, homeless?  But it’s not the person who’s wrong. It’s the sidewalks that are missing. When my older daughter used to live in Columbia/HoCo, she attempted on numerous occasions to explore her neighborhood on foot. It went something like this: Just had a great walk! Went from our apartment to t...

I recently provoked some amusement from an old highschool friend by announcing that I have reached the bird feeder phase of my retirement. I’m on my third. (Feeder, not friend.) The first was taken out by a squirrel and the second was damaged (we think) by deer. So far the third one is going strong but we bring it in every night now. That’s when we were losing the most seed, plus portions of the feeder itself. I actually pondered getting one of those front door camera devices, but for the bird feeder.  But this post is not really about bird watching, as educational as that has been for me. No, it’s about this guy: The other evening this photo leapt out at me as I scrolled on Twitter. The poster claims this is an owl that has been rained on. I am not sure that’s absolutely true (try searching “wet owls” on Google images) but this bird simply charms me. I think this photo needs a caption. So far, this is my favorite: The popular social media account   @effinbirds  migh...

  You’ve probably been seeing a lot of buzz around County Executive Calvin Ball’s proposed 2023  capital budget plan. I know I have. It happens every year. In Howard County the Executive creates a budget proposal and it goes to the County Council. As I recall, they may alter it by removing things, but not by adding. Naturally the Executive believes in the budget and wants to communicate that to the general public and build some momentum for getting it passed in a form which is largely unchanged. Basically, all these news articles and social media posts about the priorities put forward in Dr. Ball’s budget are to inform the public, because these are public dollars and the budget process is a public process. Some folks seem to think that Ball just enjoys showing off - - not that he and his team shouldn’t be proud of their work - - but, in fact, it’s his responsibility to keep the budget process transparent. I’d be worried if I weren’t seeing articles and posts about the budget...