New and Different

A few unrelated things:

This year’s new American Girl doll is named Summer McKinny and she apparently lives in Columbia, Maryland. From what I can tell there’s really nothing idiosyncratically Columbia about her. She looks to be an upper middle class white girl. The author of Summer’s story, Clare Hutton, grew up in Columbia.

I sincerely hope that some enterprising young local doll owner runs with this and creates a social media account photographing Summer all around her hometown. I’m thinking Instagram. Just imagine: Summer at the Mall, the Lakefront, the People Tree, the fireworks, the ice rink, a concert at the Chrysalis, the farmers market…Let’s give this doll the full Columbia treatment.

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I bumped into a short video on TikTok that said,

“This is your sign to volunteer at a bunny adoption center.”

Did you know Columbia had a bunny adoption center? I didn’t. It’s called Friends of Rabbits and was founded in 1997. Check them out on Facebook and Instagram, too. They facilitate adoptions, provide a number of services, and even sell bunny castles made by one of their volunteers.

Does your bunny need a castle? Look no further.

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Finally, today is Small Business Saturday, also known as Shop Small Saturday. Do you have any local small businesses on your list for today? Recommendations?

Let me know.

Village Green/Town² Comments

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Teacher Gifts

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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...

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