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

Comments

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...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday. Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018. 2018 . But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest. In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Columbia Chance Connection

Last night, as my husband and I were about to sit down to dinner, our front door swung open and a cheery voice announced, “I’m ba—ack!” We weren’t expecting anyone. Clearly the only people who’d walk right in to our house would be one of our offspring. I had my reading glasses on so I wasn’t seeing too clearly. It seemed too tall for our youngest, but we knew our eldest was at work. I took off my glasses to see a friendly but confused face scanning our living room. When her gaze landed on us we all had a sudden realization. We didn’t know eachother. “Oh I’m so sorry! I’m in the wrong house! My daughter just moved in and she needed hooks for the kitchen so I ran out to get them.” She waved the package. “All these houses look the same and I don’t know the neighborhood yet. I thought this was my daughter’s house.” We were all getting a bit giggly. “That’s okay. For a quick second we thought you were our daughter,” said my husband. I told her our names and said she should defin...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog