Skip to main content

Hodgepodge Lodge, or: Mixed-Up Miscellany


 

Okay, I admit it. This post has nothing with the MPT children’s program but I did discover that it has a Howard County connection. I chose that title because I don’t have much for you this morning other than scraps and bits of this and that. 

1. The Howard County Future Farmers of America has released the names of local students honored with their “3.0 Award.”


The 3.0 Award recognizes students enrolled in Agricultural Science courses who achieved a 3.0 or Greater GPA in the 2nd Quarter. 

Revealing my ignorance here: I didn’t know that HCPSS offered an Agricultural Science curriculum. I do now. 

2. I’m curious about this project by Maryland artist Art Hondros. Why Ellicott City? Why the 1940’s?



Hondros recently had an art show in Olney at the BeachKraft Gallery. That’s about all I know. Also: has anyone ever seen Tarzan and the Amazons?

3. This lead-in to an article in the Banner about a ribbon-cutting at the Lakefront annoys me. That is all.


I realize that my objection may put me in the “get off my lawn” category but, really? “Sick view”? Someone over there must have thought they were very clever, methinks.

4. This recent post on Bluesky intrigued me:

My family were "pioneers" in Columbia Md. We lived on one of the security clearance streets. Yes, they had those back in the day. Hard to believe that during my childhood that area was already integrated.

Security clearance streets? Was that really a thing?

5. Highly recommended palate cleanser for whatever ails you. Go read local blogger Mike Hartley until you begin to feel your breathing even out and your heart rate normalizing.

Threw Mikes Eyez, Mike Hartley 

Thought for the day:

There are a tremendous amount of good people. I just wished they would speak out more often. - - Mike Hartley 

Got any scraps to add to my hodgepodge? Let me know. 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...