Look Up

See things in a new way. 

That could apply to a lot of things today: Easter, the change of seasons and the coming of Spring, International Transgender Day of Visibility, probably more that I don’t know about.

It is often hard to see things in a new way especially if it involves some kind of personal transformation. And sometimes it requires downright grieving and loss. Folks who live around the Key Bridge in Baltimore are now required to see things in a new way that they most certainly didn’t ask for. 

We all hope that seeing things in a new way will be cause to rejoice, although, some of us find more joy in maintaining what we know. Forget change: we know what we like. It’s hard to see things in a new way. 

For some odd reason, something that has always helped me is finding a quite literal way to change my perspective.

Photo credit Michael McCall

I love looking at ceilings.* When I was little my mother handed me my dad’s shaving mirror and told me to look down into it while I walked around the house. Voilà. I was walking on the ceiling. It was a rather trippy experience.

Sometimes you need to take some time to look up, I guess.

Finding a different way to look at things that doesn’t put you at the center can feel scary. It also can be rather restful.

Here’s a ceiling I’d love to take in one of these days. But I doubt that would be convenient.

Photo credit Mike Stog Photography 

What do you do to see things in a new way? And, are there any other Columbia/HoCo ceilings you’d recommend?

Whatever you do today, I hope you find some peace and joy.

Village Green/Town² Comments 

1. The Chrysalis, Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods  2. East Columbia Branch, HCLS  3. 18th & 21st, Town Center Columbia

It’s an Elkridge Miracle

 

When I go online looking for local stories, it’s hard to find anything about Elkridge. This frustrates me. I know that many hocolocals feel that Elkridge doesn’t get the respect that other communities get, so I am always on the lookout for Elkridge-centric information. Perhaps I am looking in the wrong places.

If you have some good online sources for all things Elkridge, please point me in the right direction.

But today - - miracle of miracles - - TwitterX yielded three perfectly respectable Elkridge mentions and I’m taking this as a sign.

First up, Visit Howard County is crowing about getaway visits to our area. Their post features Cascade Falls in Elkridge. True confession: I’ve never been there and had to look it up. That’s when I discovered it’s in Elkridge.

Orioles broadcaster Ben Wagner snapped a pic of two happy kids on Openung Day at OPACY. You guessed it - - one of them is from Elkridge.

The next post was more of a learning experience for me. I thought the T & J Waffle operation was a food truck only. I was unaware that they have a brick and mortar store on Washington Boulevard in Laurel. I see that the truck will be at the Elkridge Fire Department this evening. 

Can you read the next tidbit without hearing the jingle in your head? Bet you can’t!

“The Sue in Mary Sue eggs is a nun named Sister Susanne who lives in Elkridge,” Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun 

Truth in advertising: Sister Susanne is not originally from Elkridge but lives there now, in a retirement community. It’s a fun story and doesn’t appear to be behind a paywall.

This last tidbit comes from Facebook. It appears that Elkridge will be celebrating the Thomas Viaduct Bridge in April.

The 1835 railroad bridge has been designated a National Historic Civic Engineering Landmark. You can learn more at the American Society of Civil Engineers (Maryland Section) website. 

Got any good Elkridge stories? I’m looking for guest bloggers, you know. 

Village Green/Town² Comments

F ³: We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program

 

Playing tonight at The Reckless Shepherd:

The Players Band, bringing some Jamaican Ska and Reggae to the end of a long, sad week. 

You may wonder why this doesn’t look like a usual Free Form Friday. Well, it’s been a long, sad week. And I’ve been just flattened by the amount of hateful, ugly racism unleashed almost every where I look. It has honestly stopped my brain from doing that creative thing I love to do.

So how about this: there will be music playing tonight if you want to go. The Players Band features hocolocal David Saunier, well known around town as a member of the Unity Reggae Band. Saunier has recently released a song on iTunes (or wherever you get your music.)

I was introduced to David Saunier at an event at the Chrysalis several years ago. (I’ve met some of the most interesting people there!) To learn more about his music, take a listen to this Episode of the Ska Dads Podcast: David Saunier explains Why It’s Good To Be King.

Let there be music. Right now it’s looking better than almost everything else.

Village Green/Town² Comments

Time to Report Back

 

It has been about a year since the Mall in Columbia instituted new rules pertaining to the entry of teens.

Falling In, Village Green/Town²,  March 25, 2023

The Mall in Columbia announced Thursday that youth must be chaperoned by adults after reports of unruly behavior at the shopping center. The "parental guidance required" rule will take effect on March 31. Any visitors under 18 will need to be accompanied by a parent or supervising adult who is at least 21 years old after 4 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, the mall said. During those hours, officers will be present to check the IDs of young visitors. 

So, how’s that going?

Is the Mall the kind of institution that will look back on twelve months of the practice and assess whether or not it has value? Has it fostered a safer place overall or has it unnecessarily targeted Black and Brown teens in order to placate white adults?

I’m curious.

Howard County Government stepped up to offer increased Youth Engagement Programming. How did that go? Were the assorted offerings easily accessible by local teens? Were they successful from the standpoint of participation? Will the county look back on the past year and examine the relative successes of the YEP! Program? Does grant money exist to continue it? How can those moneys best be spent?

Whether you look at all this as “the problem of teens” or “our community’s responsibility to teens,” one thing I keep hearing from teachers is how teens have changed since the intrusion of COVID-19 into our lives. I’m not going to delve into the particulars of why that happened. What’s important is that we engage with young people accepting fully that things have changed and that an entire generation doesn’t have the ability to “snap back” and become what the world expected of them pre-2020.

They need help, and guidance, acceptance, and support. Do extra police at the mall and security at the entrances help?

I’d like to know. And, if you have a teen, I’d love to know their take on all this, 

Village Green/Town² Comments

Guest Post: Suzannah Porter on Names and Community

 

Today’s post takes us out of The Bubble. Like most of us, I took in a lot of information yesterday, both in images and verbal responses to a horrific tragedy. The following short essay stayed with me. Suzannah Porter lives in Baltimore and her words about calling places and people by their true names moved me. It is shared here with permission.  

*****

Biden is not my favorite person, but ngl, his address on the Key Bridge weirdly comforted me. And it wasn't just that he pledged to fully front the cost of rebuilding the bridge. I mean, America has to. The money they will lose each day is massive. I had to sit in it a bit, trying to figure out why I was down with his address. Then I figured it out. 

He pronounced it "right". 

I heard "balmer" and "bawdimore" several times. And it was his default. Like it was his backyard and he was a little territorial the way I was.

Last time Baltimore made the national news this big it was the death of Freddie Gray. Every anchor on the scene purporting to know all about Baltimore and the police culture and racism here were clearly a sham to me because they hadn't spent a second here otherwise they would have pronounced it differently. Baltimore was just a links-getter and hot button topic, and white people saying Baltimore with that offensive "T" sticking out like it was the center of the world grated my last nerve every second of their "reporting". How can you do any in depth knowledge-gathering in this town and still pronounce that 't" with your whole grown-**s chest? I was grateful when that one blm activist took down Geraldo letting him know we all knew he didn't know sh*t about this community and what it was doing to support each other during that time, he was just there to paint Baltimore as some sort of riot town, not the struggling community - but community nonetheless - that it was. 

And Biden actually saying our name right hit differently. Reconstruction here clearly has economic motivators, but at least I knew he had been here when it wasn't a hot topic. When it was just Baltimore, the city I know and love.

You gotta call people by their name. It's true for everyone. It's true for the people who have been murdered by law enforcement, you gotta say their name. It's true for naming lgbtq people in your welcome statements instead of just saying "all are welcome." It was true when Jesus called the fishermen by their name, (because what fishermen really were gonna assume he wanted a fisherman for a holy journey?), it's true when you gotta use people's pronouns.

It makes community happen. It makes you connect to a person's personhood.

Just my musings for the day. My brain is in a weird place.

*****

Suzannah Porter (she/her) is a former Field Director for various congressional campaigns and political action committees and women’s advocacy organizations such as NOW and NARAL. Currently she is a member of the ELCA Delaware-Maryland Synod Council and worships at Dreams & Visions church in Baltimore Maryland. She currently consults on technology, live worship, database management and other technological needs of small faith communities.

Queen on the Scene

If you love books, and you’ve lived in the area awhile, you’ll know why this turned up in my Facebook memories this morning. 

Daedalus books, located on Gerwig Lane in Columbia, closed in March of 2018 and its passing did not go unnoticed. 

Daedalus Books Warehouse Store Closing, Away from the Things of Man, Eric Freed

Last Call, Village Green/Town² 

It exists now as an online entity which does nothing for those of us who loved to noodle around the store in person. It’s just not the same. That serendipitous joy of discovery is gone forever. 

I didn’t feel quite so wistful seeing that memory pop up today because of this:

From Queen Takes Book:

MARK YOUR CALENDARS, BOOK LOVERS! We are officially open on April 4th.  Doors open at 10am.  See you there!

We’re getting close to opening day! No, sorry O’s, I mean the official opening of Queen Takes Book, Columbia/HoCo’s newest bookstore. It will also be Columbia’s only Indie bookstore, which means “Mom and Pop” rather than part of a chain. 

Long-time Columbians - - people who have lived here longer than I have - - lament the passing of an era where Mom and Pop businesses were more the norm than big box stores. I hope that they will be coming out to support Queen Takes Book. In this case, Mom and Pop = Katie McNally and Tim Pinel.

The truth is we’ve all gotten used to the lower prices on many things which are afforded to us by the purchasing power of large national and international retail chains. This problem is compounded by the lure of online giants like Amazon.  For a mom and pop store to survive today it must overcome this hurdle: independent merchants invariably must charge a bit more than the chains. 

Will Columbia and the surrounding area be committed enough to the concept of an Indie bookstore to vote with their pocketbooks? I hope so. One of the special things about independent small businesses is the relationships that owners can build with customers over time. Large chains, where frequent employee turnover is a given, rarely foster that kind of customer service. A fond memory I have of Daedalus still makes me smile:

So nice of the manager at Daedalus Books to come on the loud speaker and warn people that it was about to pour, in case they had their windows down. #itsthelittlethings

So mark April 4th on your calendar and start saving your pennies. 

Upon my retirement I wrote a post about making my reduced income stretch to fit my new back yard birding hobby. 

Birds and Budgets Village Green/Town² 6/10/2022

Looking at the location of this new book store I am realizing that I am in a lot of trouble. 

Birds and books and budgets, oh my! 

Village Green/Town² Comments

Let’s Do It

 

Yesterday I was having a bit of pity party about turning sixty-five.

Other birthdays come with exhortations to treat yourself or try new things. This birthday comes with an email from the drugstore.

Today I awoke with ideas for treating myself and for trying new things. Go figure.

You may recall that I wrote about the limitations of my scope recently in “Community Blogs: The Larger Puzzle.”

If I had my way Columbia/HoCo would have as many community blogs as there are communities. I want to read about what’s happening in Kings Contrivance, learn more about the ins and outs of Elkridge, understand how all the different areas of Ellicott City are connected, and get a peek into what it’s like to live in Western HoCo. Yes, I would read all of them, if they existed.

This response from a longtime reader got me thinking:

If I recall correctly, in the past you’ve had guest bloggers. Perhaps you could start a series where we hear from an author in a different village or part of HoCo every week about what it is like to live there or a local issue? I know it is a lot to write every day. This would give you a planned break each week.

Hmm…could I make it work? I make no guarantees but I’m going to give it a try.

Announcing: “Take It On The Road Tuesdays” or perhaps “Traveling Tuesdays.”*

I’m going to start reaching out to folks around the Columbia/HoCo area for their blog-sized views about where they live. Have an idea? Reach out to me through the email address associated with the blog or message me through the Village Green/Town² Facebook page.

Let’s tell some new and different stories together.

Village Green/Town² Comments 

*I’m open to a better name, if you’ve got one.

The Big Birthday

 

Today is my birthday and for some reason I’m having a hard time with this one. It’s rather a milestone age and I feel, well, conflicted. Other birthdays come with exhortations to treat yourself or try new things. This birthday comes with an email from the drugstore.

On the other hand, this birthday comes with some vivid reminders of how lucky I am to be alive. This week our community learned of the passing of Patti Gonzalez, a fierce, loving, and beautiful soul who worked for good and never stopped learning. I met Patti only twice in real life but knew her well from our interactions online. She was wise and funny, a persistent advocate for good in so many ways.

The world is not as bright without her but she most certainly put so much brightness into it while she was here. Patti worked for many years as a science assistant at Wilde Lake High School. She cared about education in Howard County and she cared about kids - - not idealized ones who came from the “best” neighborhoods or who got the “best” test scores - - real, imperfect, beautiful, precious kids. That’s how I came to know her online, through her insightful posts about our schools.

I had been mulling over doing something for my birthday that honored Ms. Gonzales and one of the causes she was passionate about. Then: more tragedy. Almost directly on the heels of this loss came the announcement that a fifteen year old Wilde Lake student, Katie Chase, had died when her family’s home was destroyed by fire. 

When the Bright Minds Foundation set up a fund for the Chase family I thought of Patti, a long time Wilde Lake staff member and Katie, the Wilde Lake student and member of the band. Then something inside me clicked.

I don’t put out a Facebook fundraiser for my birthday each year because I feel uncomfortable soliciting people who most likely weren’t going to be getting me a gift or a card in any case. But this year I’m going to put a request here. 

On March 20, 2024, the Chase family experienced a house fire that led to the death of their youngest child. In addition to this devastating tragedy, they also lost their house and all of their belongings in the fire. The family are members of multiple HCPSS school communities, and the Bright Minds Foundation is helping to coordinate donations in support of the family's needs. If you are interested in donating to support the Chase family, please donate here or contact jennifer@brightmindsfoundation.org. - - Bright Minds Foundation 

I will be making a gift in celebration of my birthday, and in celebration for the lives of Patti Gonzalez and Kate Chase. If this is something you are able to do, I invite you to participate. 

I didn’t know quite how I wanted to mark this birthday on the blog but I was entirely sure I didn’t want to make it about myself. Maybe I can do a little bit of good instead.

Village Green/Town² Comments

F ³: The Face of Trash

 

Thursday’s high winds brought some unwanted visitors into my front garden bed: a plastic trash bag, some bubble wrap, and a paper plate. Where did it all come from?

If you follow the daily exploits of Sharky D’Shark, you’ll know that a better question might be “Where didn’t it come from?”

Here’s a recent pic of Sharky at work cleaning up trash in Prince George’s County:

Image from Sharky d’Shark Facebook Page

Just who is Sharky? According to his Facebook Fan Page - - created in July of 2022 - - “Sharkey cares about our world and works to pick up trash everywhere so it doesn't reach the ocean!” The page documents his travels around Maryland with an unseen human companion named Jon, gathering and safely disposing of trash, junk, recyclables, and other unwanted and uncategorizable stuff.

Are you following the adventures of Sharkey d'Shark? Well you should. Sharkey has been cleaning trash from our waterways in the Patapsco region and beyond. He’s been inspiring others too. Good job, Sharkey! - - Chesapeake Mermaid

I have a hunch that Sharky’s companion Jon just might be this guy. 

Image from University of Delaware Magazine

TALKIN' TRASH & FIGHTIN' DIRTY

Jon Merryman is on a mission to clean the planet, one piece of litter at a time, Artika Rangan Cassini, University of Delaware Magazine

If you don’t dispose of that unwanted item safely and responsibly - no matter what it is - - it pollutes the natural environment and often ends up in local waterways. Read the article to get an idea of the kinds of things that he’s found.

But how does Sharky factor into Merryman’s mission? (Assuming it is Merryman, that is.) Well, take a look at this:

Not my image. Found on social media. Watermark reads Bored Panda.

I think that, in his own chompy sort of way, Sharky d’Shark is a relative of Goby. He’s meant to capture the imagination, to educate while also making the act of caring for the planet fun. Be like Sharky. Feed Goby. Does any of this sound familiar? 

Image from Mr. Trash Wheel’s Instagram account 

Yup, that’s Baltimore’s own Mr. Trash Wheel, who’s celebrating his tenth anniversary this year as the friendly face of Harbor cleanup. And now there’s an entire Trash Wheel family.

And this is what they’ve been doing:

Both images from  Mr. Trash Wheel website 

A water wheel that scoops plastic out of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is cool. One with big eyes and a personality? Irresistible! There’s even a not-so-secret society called the Order of the Wheel  

Aspiring members agree to:

• Pledge your unyielding devotion to Mr. Trash Wheel

• Promise to reduce your reliance on single-use plastics

• Commit to clean up litter in your community

In all three initiatives - - Sharky d’Shark, Goby, and Mr. Trash Wheel, environmentalists are engaging the community by integrating an element of play. They’ve also personalized the mission by giving it a face.

 

When community members respond to the eco-friendly message they may also be feeling a sense of connection to these anthropomorphic environmental crusaders. 

Both (personalization and play) are especially inviting to children, but they’re catching on with adults as well. Connection and enjoyment are very human needs. Infusing them into initiatives to care for the environment is an imaginative way to bring more people into an important cause.

What do you think?

Village Green/Town² Comments 

But Where Are You Really From?

Where are you from? 

No, let me rephrase that. If you are far from home and need to tell people where you are from, what do you say?

Do you say Columbia or Howard County? Do you just say Maryland? Or do you go so far as to say “near Baltimore” or “close to DC?” We tend to think we are living in a very important place here in Columbia/HoCo. But the farther way you get, the smaller we are. 

This thought came to mind after I discovered an interesting post on TwitterX about a musician from Columbia.

North White School Corporation @NWhiteSchools:

Thanks to singer/songwriter Evan Nicole Bell for making the trip from Columbia, Maryland to join us for a two day artist in residence session with our music students at North White.@SecJennerIN @PurdueEDU @EducateIN

This is Evan Nicole Bell performing “Cross Cut Saw”.

Video posted on You Tube

According to the tweet/twix? above she is from Columbia, Maryland. But if you go to her website, it tells you she is from Baltimore. Hmm.

Bell is a 2014 graduate of Wilde Lake High School in Columbia Maryland. At one point her website carried these words:

Evan Nicole Bell is a songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and Columbia, Maryland native (she is a proud graduate of Wilde Lake High…)

Not anymore. 

I’m guessing that as a place Baltimore is more well-known - - and perhaps it’s a cooler place to be from - - in the music industry.

So, anyway, take a listen to her new EP, Runaway Girl. It’s available for purchase where ever you buy digital music. 

Image from “Runaway Girl”, Evan Nicole Bell 

She may be a runaway girl now but (shhh!) she’s really a hometown girl, and one we can rightly be proud of.

Village Green/Town² Comments

A Sign of Spring

 

Late yesterday afternoon the Howard County School System released the schedule of graduation dates and times. You can see them all in one image on Instagram.

What followed was the annual tradition which is peculiar to Columbia/HoCo: the sharing of the graduation information. For about twenty four hours, I’d say, it is socially acceptable to share this information anywhere, to anyone, for any reason. It is the local equivalent of:

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

During this time window you can post that information and receive nothing but positive feedback. No one will question your motivation. No one will accuse you of spreading fake news. There will be no resulting controversy and no one will be told off, trolled, blocked, or dropped from the group chat.

I wish there were more times like that. 

As silly as it is to live in a community whose high school graduations are essentially held hostage by the commercial music industry/concert market, it is also most assuredly a blessed sign of Spring each year. It doesn’t truly make any sense to do it this way but it is our hometown kind of quirkiness and, most of the time, we embrace it. 

To be sure, if you need to plan for relatives coming from out of town, or are adjusting complicated work schedules, it feels like nothing more than an unnecessary hurdle. Trying to explain that your kid will be graduating but you don’t know when or that you are going to need to travel but you don’t know when is not always an easy task. 

It reminds me of the early morning taxi ride in Spain, many years ago, when a fellow choir member and I had to explain to the driver, in clumsy Spanish, that there were two train stations in town and we couldn’t remember which one we were supposed to go to. Honestly it’s a miracle that we picked the right one.

For high school students and their families, the road from birth to high school graduation has already provided plenty of challenges. “What’s one more?” You might say. Yet that long stretch from around New Year’s Day until the information comes out can prompt less than cheery sentiments. The annual “waiting for the date” game is played, unfortunately, by the folks who are the closest to hanging by that proverbial thread.

It is what it is, as they say. That’s just how we do it here. 

Happy Graduation Day Reveal, to all who are observing.

Village Green/Town² Comments 

Equity is Not a Luxury Item

I’m absolutely cheating here by copying and pasting a post I made yesterday on a local education-oriented site. If you have already read it, you may want your money back.

Food for thought: I’ve seen several posts from community members suggesting that we forego the expense of a national search for a new superintendent. I think it’s wonderful that Mr. Barnes has such widespread support. But there are people who were upset that we didn’t do a search *last time*, because we bypassed the responsibility of considering applicants regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, and so on. For them a choice to pick a white man to follow a white man - - without considering anyone else - - could be hurtful.

Now, the Board is absolutely going to fulfill its responsibility to have a complete search for a new superintendent and yes, it feels wildly expensive, especially right now. We all have a need in our back pocket for that money - - a school need, I mean. I’m not an expert in the process or how one chooses a firm to conduct a search. Is it possible that a cut-rate search would produce low-value applicants?

I don’t know.

But I do know that it matters to look at more than white men in an applicant pool. Not because the law requires it, but because you can’t have considered your best options if you don’t. I’m tired of people saying that all hiring should be color blind when they really mean being blind to people of color. If we keep on doing things the same way, and seeing things the same way, the only candidates for leadership positions will keep on looking like us.

Every single time. 

And what that says, in regards to the superintendent search, is that a big chunk of students and families and faculty and staff will feel disregarded and disempowered. And they would have every right to.

Acting superintendent Barnes has stepped in at a very difficult time and I am grateful for his willingness to take on current challenges. I don’t blame folks who feel confident in him and just want to keep moving in that direction and avoid any more upheaval. But we can’t just throw up our hands and say that we don’t have money to follow the law and practice equity in our hiring process. 

Some things we just need to do. Not to be nice, not because someone makes us, but because the best results will come from opening ourselves to different kinds of candidates, with different training, skills, and experience. Leadership in k-12 education is a tough place to be right now. It is looking less and less appealing from a potential applicant’s standpoint.

I wonder if we have what it takes to attract the kind of leader that we need?

Village Green/Town² Comments 

Survey Says…

 

The Howard County Board of Education is running a survey to learn what the public wants in a new Superintendent of Schools. 

Howard County Government is running a survey about the new Downtown Library.

The theatre group in residence at DoodleHATCH, Stand Up for Theatre, would like to know what shows you’re interested in seeing. Here’s their survey. 

Howard County Government has formed the West Friendship Park Agricultural Programming Focus Group to generate ideas for, well, just what the title says. Can a survey be far behind? Won’t they want to know what the public thinks about the ideas they come up with?

It feels as though we are awash in surveys at the moment. (Almost as much as we used to be awash in Task Forces back in the day.) I have mixed feelings. I think it’s great to solicit input. I do believe that the information gathered will be looked at and considered. That doesn’t mean the decisions made will reflect my point of view one hundred per cent.

Some folks think that, if things don’t go their particular way, that it’s an indication that the survey wasn’t put forward and/or analyzed in good faith. This is especially so when politics are involved. That feels somewhat self-defeating to me.

My problem with surveys is length. If they are too long I experience a sort of panic and my brain shuts down. I now know that this is due to ADHD. Too many choices. Too many questions. That leads to too much overthinking on my part. Under those circumstances I throw my hands in the air. And then I quit.

That happened to me with the library survey. I will need to go back and try again. I really care about the library project and I’d be disappointed in myself if I bailed on that one.

How do you feel about HoCoLocal surveys? Do you take them? Do you have an internal limit on how long is too long?

That’s only three questions and I’m not going to call it a survey.

Village Green/Town² Comments

The Micromini

Three micromini local stories for your Sunday:

Is it legal to own goats in Columbia, Maryland? I do not know. I know there are rules about chickens, but - - goats? It seems to me that goats are more likely to turn up in a Columbia street name than in Columbia neighborhoods. How about “Serene Goat Way” or “Green Goat Garth”?

Be that as it may, this advert from Clark’s Ace Hardware in Columbia made me smile.

Spring into the season with a fresh and clean pup...or goat!  We love supporting our amazing customers- including all your furry friends! Why not treat them to our deluxe self-serve dog wash, iClean? Celebrity narrations walk you through the brief, yet thorough, wash cycle making a somewhat uninspired chore an event to remember (for both you and your canine...or any furry companion)!

I don’t know if they are truly serious about washing your goat or just seizing an opportunity to recommend their convenient dog washing station. Certainly you wouldn’t have to live in Columbia proper to avail yourself of this service. But the thought of pockets of backyard goat owners in the New American City made me chuckle.

*****

In other micromini news, if you lost your library card at the  Maryland Zoo yesterday, a kind soul picked it up and has mailed it back to the Elkridge Branch. And people say there’s nothing good happening on TwitterX. You just never know what you might find.

*****

I often say that three things make a blog post. Well, the third one today is a micromini sermon. If you are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day today and your celebrations include alcohol: bring a designated driver. Or, be the reliable friend who chooses to be the designated driver. If you are on your own, do not hesitate for one minute to call a taxi or ride service if you are not safe to drive yourself home. 

Have a plan. Love yourself - - and everyone who may be out on the roads tonight - - enough to get behind the wheel only if you are reliably sober. 

In the meantime, there are many ways to enjoy Irish culture that don’t include alcohol: music, dance, food, art, literature, history, folk arts and craft…Make sure you are around to enjoy them all next year.

Stylish Saturday

Happy Saturday! My weather app tells me it’s going to be a sunny and clear Spring day (but watch out for the pollen.) Here are three indoor activities that might entice you away from nature walks or yard work:

Check out the Sustainability Clothing Swap at Freetown Farm/Community Ecology Institute from 11 am to 1pm. 

CEl's Green SEEDS interns invite you to a Sustainability Clothing Swap at Freetown Farm (8000 Harriet Tubman Ln) on Saturday, March 16th from 11am - 1pm. Bring clothing you're ready to part with and a bag to bring home your clothing swap finds!

New and gently used clothing only. No undergarments, please.

This clothing swap is part of the interns' Climate Action Plan Project -

Strategy: Expand the Use of Sustainable Materials and Reduce Waste Generation and Disposal

Action: Reduce the use of single-use items, particularly plastics and promote waste reduction and reuse throughout Howard County.

Columbia Moms of Multiples is back for another year of their Children’s Consignment Sale at Cradlerock Elementary School. 

If you have purchased a VIP pass you can enter at 7:30am. Free public admission starts at 8am. Half-price shopping is from 12-1pm. 

Atholton High School’s Becca’s Closet student group, in collaboration with Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, are holding their annual free promwear event today from 9-2.  

We have over 2,000 dresses, shoes, jewelry, and purses all for FREE. This is truly an amazing event that we work so hard for all year and we would love to see a great turnout, spread the word! 

The event organizers have posted photos of the items on offer in a variety of places on social media: this is quite a haul! 

I just realized that all of these items are clothing oriented. Let me know of other events this weekend that my readers might be interested in and I will share them.

Village Green/Town² Comments