Village Green/Town²

This week I inadvertently made someone feel terrible and I have been thinking a lot about that. It started when I posted the following: I guess I should be grateful that Target has made it unequivocally clear that they don’t want my business anymore. I had already been deeply disappointed by how Target folded on supporting Pride this summer and their recent disavowal of their own Diversity Equity and Inclusion initiatives was the last straw for me. I was expressing my intention to take my dollars elsewhere. A friend of mine perceived this as public judgement of anyone who didn’t follow suit. It so happened that she had felt the same when I expressed a desire to cut back on my purchases from Amazon.  I felt awful. It’s okay to say “I have made a decision to boycott a business because of the following reasons.” It is never okay to say “so everyone else has to do it, too.” I hope that I have never done that but I do understand the feeling of gradually feeling piled on.When those aroun...

  It is extremely difficult right now to focus on good little stories of the local variety. Sure, our nation is being set on fire with selfishness and hatred but can I interest you in Restaurant Week or a show at Toby’s?  It feels callous and unfeeling to act like things are normal. And I feel like such a disclaimer will be hanging over this space for quite some time.  And yet, a large part of who we are is made up of our good little stories. They are signs of our humanity. - -  jam ***** Today at eleven am there will be an official ribbon cutting event for the new 7 - Eleven in Oakland Mills. This location consists of the usual convenience store along with gas pumps and a car wash. If the stars align and my yearly heating inspection cooperate, I will be there. What’s the big deal about a 7-Eleven, you ask? Well, the bigger deal is probably the land it’s sitting on, which has been empty for a really long time. A hazy recollection puts it at twenty-plus years. I moved...

  Dear friends, I have a confession to make.  I have a hard time reading white type on a dark background. It occurs to me that other people may be in the same boat.  Image is a screenshot from the County Executive’s social media/Facebook account Yesterday County Executive Calvin Ball released a statement on actions taken by the Executive Branch which will likely bring adverse effects on many Howard residents. You may already have seen it but I think it’s important to share it here, especially for those of us who would benefit from seeing it in black and white. Here goes: HOWARD COUNTY EXECUTIVE CALVIN BALL RELEASES STATEMENT ON FEDERAL FUNDING FREEZE BY TRUMP ADMINISTRATION Calvin Ball, County Executive January 28th, 2025 "We are deeply concerned by President Trump and the Office of Management and Budget's directive to freeze federal funding for a broad swath of public and nonprofit organizations across the United States. Our team is continuing to evaluate the full impact...

  One minute you’re a well meaning, aspirational planned community and the next you’re in the crosshairs of presidential retribution. Image is a screenshot taken from a post on Bluesky . THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 01/26/25 ICYMI: President Donald J. Trump's TRUTH on Columbia Sanctions A few nights ago The New American City found itself the topic of many a social media post when the President announced sanctions on Columbia.  Columbia? Columbia, Maryland? Of course he really meant “Colombia” (the country) but he didn’t take the time to check his own work and apparently no one else in the White House did, either. Yes, we have all been the victim of our own stupid-ass typos but then, we are not the President of the United States, are we? Over on Bluesky folks had a field day with the careless error. Guess this means that my Columbia Association dues will increase? — concerned Columbia, MD resident Hey I work in Columbia…MD.  Call Governor Moore, we’ve b...

  I haven’t asked you to write a letter lately, so: here goes. The following is from the Anti-Racist Education Alliance: CALL-TO-ACTION AREA is joining the HCPSS BOE in opposing local bill Ho Co 15-25, which would impose an unfunded mandate on HCPSS to study weapons detection technology for our schools.  If you share our objection, please send a letter to the Howard County Delegation by 6pm on Tuesday, January 28. You can reach all of them at once using this email address: hoc1@mlis.state.md.us Below you’ll find a link to an email template but it’s not necessary to use it.  Please share!  Email template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qYvBCUBTukQlYOlA0sLW9wjNnCum13gXIOkFCvhs_sc/edit Draft legislation: https://www.howardcountymd.gov/sites/default/files/2024-11/Ho.Co_.%2015-25.pdf AREA advocacy letter We should not be diverting valuable resources from educational programs, especially at a time when needs are so great and financial resources are so limited.  I...

The report of the Public Garden Focus Group is now available.  I tip my hat to them. Creating reports like this takes a lot of effort and their work has definitely been a public service. So, check it out! You can view the county’s press release here , and the full report is available at this link: A Public Garden for Howard County Maryland Here’s a write-up from the Baltimore Banner:  Howard County’s public garden will honor its troubled past , Jess Nocera While I’m not keen on the title of the article, I’m also aware that Nocera probably didn’t have any input in writing it, so I won’t hold it against her.  If you read the article and/or the report itself it’s clear that the plans for the public garden are meant to honor the history of the site itself: a former plantation which held and exploited enslaved people.  The title of the article makes it look as though the focus is a troubled Howard County in general.  What can I say? Things like this bug me. When...

Earlier this week… From the Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services: Last night, firefighters responded to the 10800 block of Timber Line Lane in Ellicott City for the report of a dog who had fallen through the ice of a frozen pond. Firefighters were able to quickly rescue and reunite the dog with his family. In an attempt to rescue the pet prior to our arrival, one civilian had gotten into the water. That patient was evaluated by EMS and refused transport to the hospital. As these cold temperatures continue, this is an important reminder of just how dangerous ice can be. If you have kids at home, talk to them about ice safety. Falling through a frozen pond, lake, or river can kill you. Image credit: Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services We don’t often get this kind of extended cold snap. The idea of getting on the ice doesn’t just tempt pets, either. Several days after the dog rescue, a social media post showed humans out on Lake Elkhorn. The poster express...

  Quite by accident a panel show from the UK turned up in my suggested Facebook videos recently. Or was it on YouTube? I can’t remember. One day I was completely ignorant and the next day I was obsessed.  These things happen The show, on the air since 2003, is called QI and the letters stand for Quite Interesting. IMDB describes QI as: A comedy panel game in which being Quite Interesting is more important than being right. Sandi Toksvig is joined each week by four comedians to share anecdotes and trivia, and maybe answer some questions as well. One thing you learn after watching a few episodes is that the first answer you think of, indeed, the one you are sure is correct, is absolutely going to be wrong. QI will teach you about things you didn’t know, challenge your assumptions, make you think, and, above all, make you laugh. But that’s not why I wanted to write about it today. There’s something rather subversive going on over there at QI. It’s something glaringly obvious to ...

  At twelve noon I made a cup of ginger tea   And reached out to tell my children  How much we love them. It was like death was hurtling towards me, Nothing in its way.  I saw the destruction of all that I love before my eyes. The tea was warm.  The day was bitter. There was no holding back the great death,  The waves of loss.  Silently the minutes passed.  When I realized the day was over  My cup was empty. And my heart was numb. The great death had begun. The messages of love are all that’s left - -  Last minute incantations of protection. Just wanted to let you know how much we love you  and that we are here for you no matter what.  Dear God, please keep them safe. 

Read this morning on Bluesky: People complain about others’ phone use but honestly, if you’re somewhere sort of waiting, seems almost suspect to others if you’re not on a phone or talking to people. I realized that at [a conference] a couple of weeks ago. People will look at you funny if you’re not tapping away. “Is that person sitting around, looking at others, taking in the scenery? Trying to live in the moment & take in the scenery? Ugh! Weirdo!!” - - Emily Langerholc, author: Guide to Teachable Features in Popular Music  I had to sit with that a minute. Cell phone use has become so prevalent that a person not “killing time” on their phone sticks out. And not in a good way.  When we talk about getting phones out of schools - - and I think we should - - we need to realize that we will then be asking young people to do something that most of us don’t do ourselves. It won’t feel “normal” to them. Are there ways that we as adults can shape our own behavior in order to make ...

Books in the news this week… book_dragon_bookclub: My book will be available at the Savage Branch of the Howard County Library system! So excited! The public library has been such a constant in my life from very early on. Definitely a dream come true.   - - Kate Cole JO Writes: Never gets old seeing your book on the shelf at Barnes and Noble. Head over to Ellicott City for signed copies!  - -  Jay O’Keefe   Bookstore in the news this week… Shop Small in Old Ellicott City and get lost in a good book , Stevie Daniel’s, WMAR TV. Check out this article and the accompanying video feature about Ellicott City’s indie bookstore.  Libraries on social media this week… One thing before tomorrow: Use your local libraries. Get your card. Borrow books, manga, films, audios, ebooks. Recommend titles for purchase (usually online). Attend promoted activities. Fill out those "How are we doing?" questionnaires. Tell your kids that libraries are good. They are. - - Bailey Poletti, ...

  None of us are free, performed by Solomon Burke Well you better listen my sister's and brothers, 'cause if you do you can hear There are voices still calling across the years. And they're all crying across the ocean, And they're cryin' across the land, And they will till we all come to understand. None of us are free. None of us are free. None of us are free, one of us are chained. None of us are free. And there are people still in darkness, And they just can't see the light. If you don't say it's wrong then that says it right. We got try to feel for each other, let our brother's know that We care. Got to get the message, send it out loud and clear. None of us are free. None of us are free. None of us are free, one of us are chained. None of us are free. It's a simple truth we all need, just to hear and to see. None of us are free, one of us is chained. None of us are free. Now I swear your salvation isn't too hard too find, None of us can ...

Yesterday the Columbia Association posted a short video to their social media accounts and it really took me back. Good vibes means finding your happy place , Columbia Association  The video features CA’s President and CEO, Shawn MacInness, suited up for some ice hockey at the Columbia Association’s ice rink in Oakland Mills. Skating is, he tells us, “his happy place.” He encourages viewers to explore the many CA facilities to find their own happy place.  I couldn’t help but think of one of my earliest blog posts about another CA President and CEO: Phil Nelson. Originally published on Columbia Patch, it was entitled “ Phil Nelson Is On My Refrigerator. ” It all began with a promotional mailing featuring then President Nelson in his swimsuit, smiling from the pool at Supreme Sports Club. It was the first thing I had ever received from CA that made me feel like joining, probably because I felt as though Nelson had stepped out of his comfort zone a bit in order to make a personal...

Does this number mean anything to you? Let me give you a hint. Does that ring a bell? This is a recent post from the Instagram account of Upcycled , a Howard County nonprofit which was founded in 2019. Waste Warriors is an educational outreach program to local students providing free workshops about the environmental effects of plastic. Their Waste to Wonder initiative, begun in 2021, turns single-use plastics into building materials. At Upcycled, our goal is to create a more environmentally conscious community through the collection of post-consumer plastic waste and upcycling into long-term products. We give single-use plastics, ones that most traditional recycling plants cannot process, a long-term purpose by turning them into building materials.  So, what’s the picture all about? 9,000 what? There you have it. Since 2021, Upcycled has diverted 9,000 pounds of plastic waste which woukd have ended up at the landfill or clogging area waterways and turned it into something new and ...

This Monday is the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. It’s also the federal holiday marking Dr. King’s birthday. Many folks will have a day off from work, though not all. I think it’s important to remember that certain sections of the work force almost never get these days off, for example: retail, hospitality, health care. For those who can, the MLK birthday holiday is observed as “a day on, not a day off” by participating in activities to serve others. A lot of people I know are making plans for Monday. I’ve been asking around.  Glen Mar Church is again holding its day of service event. To learn more, and to register, visit this page. 8:30 - 4:30, Glen Mar United Methodist Church, 4701 New Cut Road Ellicott City, MD 21043 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM: Morning Session 12:30 PM to 4:30 PM: Afternoon Session 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM: All-day Session Off-site Projects (various times) Howard Ecoworks is holding a Watershed Makeover workday and they are looking for volunteers. UPDATE: Thi...

No hope. If I went with my gut this morning I’d be calling this No Hope Thursday. I’m deep into a “what’s the point?” mindset this morning. If you know, you know.  There are no local stories that rise above the overwhelming dread I feel about the future. Write anyway. There are no upcoming events that entice me to believe they are worth doing. Write anyway. There are no local initiatives or ideas currently under discussion that feel possible to me anymore. Write anyway.  Yesterday I received a box in the mail from the Penzey Spice company. It was a surprise . It contained 27 sample-sized packets of a spice blend named Resist. That’s a whole heck of a lot of resistance in one box. These days I’m not sure I’m capable of enough resistance to fill just one of those small packets. Light a single candle? Curse the darkness? Go back to bed? Write anyway. Yesterday   for the first time I stepped out of my comfort zone and showed up at the drop-in coloring session at the East Colu...

Have you seen this? REAL ESTATE: What a hedge fund’s $1 billion play has to do with downtown Columbia  Lillian Reed, Baltimore Banner Well!  I didn’t, as they say, have this on my bingo card. But I suppose we should talk about it. The article begins like this: The hedge fund is displeased. Billionaire Bill Ackman of investment firm Pershing Square made that much clear in his letter Monday to Howard Hughes Holdings, the Texas-based developer that owns much of downtown Columbia. Pershing Square owns a 38% stake in Howard Hughes and has been frustrated for months with the company’s stock price. Ackman’s letter this week put Howard Hughes’ board of directors on notice that the firm now wants to pay $1 billion to snap up more of the developer’s stock with the intent of a merger. There’s a local conversation about this going on over on the Columbia reddit , if you are interested. I am no expert in real estate, mergers, or hedge funds. But, like all of you, I have opinions. The Howar...