Village Green/Town²

  Years ago I taught at a small independent school in Baltimore that celebrated Halloween with the full Halloween Parade tradition. Parents and friends were invited. The playground was packed with groups of costumed children, harried classroom teachers, and doting adults with cameras.  Over the many years I worked there, three costumes stood out.  1. The first was a boy in the second grade whose homemade costume charmed me. He was a chef, with all the appropriate clothing. But the pièce de resistance was a pot he carried that appeared to be boiling and emitting steam. It was all done with cotton balls or cotton batting.  It was not a fancy costume and I don’t think it cost a lot to create. It was perfect in every way and this kid was rocking it. It just made me happy to see him enjoying himself. 2. Then there was the year my own kid wanted to be Xena Warrior Princess. She fully believed I could make that costume. I fully believed I was incapable of pulling it off. We...

  Let’s do the numbers, shall we? In reading the Banner article about the unveiling of the COVID-19 memorial statue , I came across these numbers: Since March 2020, Howard County has seen more than 74,000 cases of COVID-19 and 544 deaths. The article, by Lillian Reed, seems to have more than one title.  “Howard County unveils COVID-19 pandemic memorial” And “Howard County has lost 544 residents to COVID-19. A new memorial honors them.” I don’t know why they do that. Possibly to see which title gets more engagement? The numbers: cases of COVID-19 are at 74,000 and counting. This is an ongoing public health challenge. It is not over.  Deaths from COVID-19 at this time stand at 544.  Numbers are funny. People who have wanted to downplay the seriousness of COVID act like 544 is practically nothing. A small percentage. A drop in the bucket. Yet we all know that, if even one of those deaths is someone we know, the impact is staggering. 544 people. How many people went to ...

  I’ve been saving this…for twenty-two days. Hmm. What do you think? At one point there was a doll hospital.  I’ve heard it may have had haunted possibilities . It may still be there. And there’s a place called live unusually which is rather spooky-adjacent. There are seasonal nods to all things creepy and kooky such as Trick or Treating on Main Street. And I would be remiss to overlook Ellicott City’s Ghost Tours.  But, a haunted doll shop? We might have one and not even know it. I mean - - would the dolls tell , necessarily? How would that work? Does one need to provide a certificate of authenticity for a haunted doll? And what about liability? Or maybe the dolls are not for sale, and it’s a space for haunted doll events and experiences: seances, tea parties, midnight read-alouds… I am curious.  Scrap B’more (in Pigtown) once held a Creepy Doll Parts sale . And on my bucket list tour of the old Flier building my guide and I stumbled across two dolls that we suspe...

When big earthquakes hit, dazed residents can often be found wandering the streets surveying the destruction. Post-quake, sometimes the street is safer than being in your own home. When little earthquakes hit, dazed Howard Countians can be found wandering social media, asking the same few questions, looking for reassurance. What was that? Did anyone feel that?  I live here, what about where you are? We just had a big THUMP. I thought my husband had dropped an amplifier upstairs. But the first time we had an earthquake* I thought it was just the washer struggling on the last spin cycle. Then I noticed that our big bookcase was vibrating.  I am not a good judge of small earthquakes. Guess what? Most of us aren’t, despite the fact that some folks were online announcing that they knew earthquakes and this wasn’t  an earthquake. I’m going to look to professionals on that one.  In any kind of emergency, or something unknown that feels like an emergency, it’s easy to take...

Yes, I know I already wrote about this. Alas, it’s back for another season and the plot line is pathetically similar. Recap: Falling In , March 25, 2023 About the new Mall restrictions on teens, and reflecting on this quote from the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu: There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.  White Grievance HoCo Style , September 1, 2024 About the new YEP programs for youth and the disappointing (but not surprising) response from racist trolls. Dear me. It is so terribly hard to be white. Imagine spending one’s days looking for opportunities to complain that Black people may possibly be getting something that you didn’t get.  Guess what? They’re still doing it. Yesterday’s update on the YEP programs brought out the same old, same old. If these folks don’t see enough white faces in the pictures, they are sure someone is up to no good.  Welcome to Howard County, wh...

What did your parents want for you? What do you want for the next generation? Let’s think for a minute. It seems to me that the push in recent years is for young people to specialize. An interest in sports turns into a commitment to a travel team. High school course loads pile high with the “right” courses for competitive college admission. College students hone in on the majors that will get you recruited by the Fortune 500 companies, or over the hurdles into law or medical school.  And then one day none of that makes any sense.  I am currently furloughed, i.e. am a government employee who is not working or getting paid due to a lapse in funding for the federal government. And since it is week 3, doesn't look like it is going to end any time soon, and there are talks that we may not get paid - I figured I would offer my services in the meantime.  Here’s the kicker: My current job that I can't work right now is an Aerospace Engineer at NASA where I design and build instru...

Should you worry about your teens eating junk food? Maybe not for the reasons you think.  Try something for me. Go to Google. Search “bag of chips.” Look the responses in the All category. Now click on the News category.  Did what you saw look something like this? All: News: Yes, a bag of chips in Baltimore County made news around the world this week.  Baltimore County school’s AI gun detection system mistook a bag of chips for a weapon , Kristen Griffith, Baltimore Banner After football practice Monday night, Taki Allen chatted with friends outside Kenwood High School while munching on Cool Ranch Doritos. When he finished his snack he put the bag in his pocket. Minutes later, several police officers pulled up, pointed their guns at him and yelled for him to get on the ground, he said. “Me?” he recalled thinking. “I was confused at the time.” He put his hands in the air while following orders. Police handcuffed him, bent him over the hood of a police car, searched him and...

  While I was going through a rough time this summer I found myself running out of ways to cope. The usual things weren’t always working.  Lying in a hotel room in what felt like a chaotic and malevolent world, I reached out to an old friend: picture books.  Using the Libby App, which our awesome library system makes available to us, I experimented with different ways to search children’s picture books. Yes, they really have picture books on Libby. I was surprised but very grateful. Why didn’t I just go to the library and check things out? Well, when you are experiencing an onslaught of anxiety at two in the morning, you need a more immediate plan of action. And something about paging through story after story - - immersed in colors and images and simple plot lines - - would gradually shift my state of being. The wild electrical storm in my brain would subside.  In the morning I’d find myself putting snippets of those magical worlds into my art journal, and even mak...

So far I’ve started at least one Facebook thread and written two blog posts about buckets.  That’s right, buckets.* I’m a fan.   It’s a recurring theme.  A bell went off in my head. I remembered a time when I held forth on social media about how more food should come in buckets. If one could get a bucket of chicken or ribs, why not a bucket of samosas? Egg rolls? Burritos? Why did more foods not come by the bucket? Apparently there was a time, all too brief,  when one could get schnitzel by the bucket at the Rathskeller in Elkridge. Alas - - no more. I had an Almost-Bucket experience on Sunday and I got so excited I actually took photographs for you. But first, some math.  It’s a word problem. Mrs. Smith hears that Althea’s Almost Famous food truck is at the Oakland Mills Farmers Market. The new one specializing in Jamaican patties. Image from Althea’s Almost Famous social media  I must go down and see the new truck and buy a beef patty for my lunch , sh...

  Before I forget to remind you: HoCo PRIDE is this weekend! (It was rescheduled due to weather.) This year’s theme is RISE: Resist, Inspire, Support, Empower. Howard County Pride, Sunday October 26th, 11 am - 5 pm Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods A grateful shout out to the good folks at HoCo PPRIDE who do the work and make this event happen. You can support their work today by participating in the restaurant fundraiser at Shake Shack. DONATION DAY Wednesday, October 22nd 11 am- 10pm Mention Donation Day at the register or use promo code DONATE on the Shack App, web, or kiosk at checkout and we'll donate 25% of your total meal purchase to HCPSS PRIDE MALL IN COLUMBIA 10300 Little Patuxent Parkway | Columbia, MD 21044 Also today: PFLAG National kicks off their new initiative: Fighting For Our Pride.  PFLAG families know this: love and liberty are inseparable. That’s why we launched Fighting for Our Pride—a nationwide campaign focused on advocacy at the state and local leve...

October 21st. It occurs to me that, if I did not have a blog and an easy way to search it, I don’t think I’d remember all that much about my life and times. Let’s roll the footage , shall we?  One year ago: One Hundred Years and Other Good News  Warren’s Barbershop, solar panels at the library and other good stuff around town.  Five years ago:  Pondering the typo-plagued campaign of Kim Klacik for Congress.   The Little Things  Ten years ago: Keep Columbia Weird  , inspired by an article entitled How to Keep [Your City] Weird by Kriston Capps  Still relevant:  Capps makes the case that preserving a community for the benefit of those who got there first is not only exclusionary, but also ultimately destructive to the health of the community overall. It makes housing more expensive. It keeps out the kind of "immigration" that brings diversity and life. Some notable quotes: Picking character over people winds up hurting both. Affordability is cr...

Fun fact: since BlueSky is a relatively new social media platform it is very difficult to find information specific to Columbia or Howard County as a whole. You get the occasional reference to concerts at Merriweather or Columbia as a creation of Rouse’s idealistic vision. It just hasn’t had enough time to build up a large enough quantity of users from this area.  After this weekend there has been a big blip in Columbia/HoCo mentions. I’ll let you figure that out on your own. ***** I often wonder about how people see us from the outside. I remember the grief we felt as a community after the Zumiez shooting at the Mall in 2014. The resultant surge in media coverage meant that the very first thing one found when searching “Columbia” on Google were stories about that horrific event. The actual tragedy was bad enough. Having it become our “face” to the outside world was demoralizing. Internet searches form the basis of a lot of our individual research these days. You can check out a re...

I don’t know about you, but - - I’m almost always up for a Pops Concert at the Chrysalis. Especially with the Columbia Orchestra. Columbia's first and premier orchestra returns to the Chrysalis stage on October 19 with a collection of beloved pops favorites, perfect for longtime fans of the orchestra and newcomers alike! The evening will be complete with concessions sold by the park as well as local food trucks.  The event is free but you must reserve your tickets so they’ll know how many people to expect and how to allocate parking. For more information and to register for tickets: A Fall Pops Concert , October 19th, 4 - 5:30 pm. Chrysalis Amphitheater, Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods I’ve checked the weather and the forecast looks positive. Here’s hoping it will be as lovely as yesterday. And, don’t forget! The Sunday Farmers Market in Oakland Mills is open this morning from 9 to 1. The last date for the season is November 1st so don’t miss these last few weeks to enjoy loca...

  It’s six am on a Saturday morning and I should be writing my usual run-down about events around town. I can’t.  Believe me, I’ve been trying since about four am and that door is shut.  Today is an important day in our community and across the country. What do we believe in? What do we reject? What can we do to put our beliefs into action? I found this brief video to be quietly truthful and terrifying. This is Fascism , Randy Tolley on Instagram  I have no advice today. I bring no folksy anecdote, no inspiring parable, no impassioned exhortation.  I have only deep gratitude for the good people who are living out their goodness in thought, word, and deed. Whether it is quietly, day by day or in an unexpected burst of bravery - - that surprises even themselves - - all of it is a gift.  My father was a deeply cynical man who didn’t think much of my earnest idealism. Yet I learned shortly before he died that he was driven all his life not just to do the expec...

  This question caused a ripple on Twitter in 2017  - - back when Twitter was Twitter. Do you remember? What's the most unpopular benign opinion you hold? (i.e. not politically dodgy, just socially derided)  - -Stephanie Boland, Prospect Mag It even turned up in one of those compilation content pieces. The people sharing their unpopular opinions on Twitter are the most fearless among us , Shropshire Star The reason that I still remember is that this question was adopted by HoCoLocals Candace Dodson Reed and Tom Coale on their podcast, "Elevate Maryland." (2017-2022) Some of their guests had a terrible time coming up with anything they’d be willing to reveal to the public. (Politicians in particular.*) Some folks just plain didn’t understand the premise.  Here’s mine: I don’t like chocolate and peanut butter together. A more forthright way to frame that would be “chocolate and peanut butter taste terrible together.” I’d have a hard time being that assertive. Whe...

  This morning I’m going to wade into an area where I generally express broad goals rather than getting technical or specific. Bear with me.  You already know that I think that Howard County needs more housing, more housing at a variety of price points, and while we are at it, housing options that are accessible for those with disabilities. I’m also in favor of ADU’s (Accessory Dwelling Units.) So, when I saw an announcement from the County about ADU’s my first response was positive. “Oh good, ADU’s.” I’m here to sheepishly admit I didn’t do any further reading until yesterday. Always read the fine print, as they say. A few things. Here’s the announcement from the County Executive. Here’s information about tonight’s meeting of the Planning Board which will discuss this.  Here’s a recent article in the Baltimore Sun which I haven’t read yet because I no longer subscribe but I will try to access it through the library. Accessory apartments are already allowed in Howard Coun...

Oof. Life comes at you fast. Kind of.   Friends, I saved a screenshot of this on August 15th so that I would absolutely, positively write about it and, boom! It’s tomorrow night.  As Grover says at the end of that book about a monster, “Oh, I am so embarrassed.” Still, better late than never. There’s still time to buy your tickets and/or bid on silent auction items.  Tickets and more information. Silent auction (deadline 10/16 at 8:15 PM) Just FYI:  Can't attend our event but still want to support? Choose "In Spirit" Ticke t to donate the cost of an event ticket to CEI. As a reminder, here are some words that explain what the Community Ecology Institute is all about: We envision a world of thriving communities rooted in healthy relationships with nature.  Our mission is to cultivate communities where people and nature thrive together. Our work focuses on tangible, community-level change at the intersection of environment, education, equity, and health.  ​...