Village Green/Town²

  Let me bring you up to date. There’s even more disingenuous campaigning going on right now and I want you to think about what it really means. I’m jumping in because I feel uniquely qualified to comment, by virtue of personal experience. I’ve been seeing negative campaigning based on where candidates’ children go to school.  Some years back I had a sudden and ongoing problem with people who claimed I didn’t have the right to express my own opinions on this blog because of where one of my children went to school. Eventually they went after both children. And my spouse. What would you do? What would you think?  Choices you make for your own children are personal, mostly because they concern the privacy of a minor. No one has the right to ask you to betray that child in order to justify family choices.  Here’s the thing: this didn’t really have anything to do with where my kid went to school. It was solely because these folks didn’t like what I was writing and they we...

It’s going to be Spring-like rather than summery today. (I’m cool with that!) The big plus is that it will be sunny throughout, in case you are thinking of enjoying an outdoor event. The big HoCoLocal ‘happening’ today is in Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods.  The Asian American & Pacific Islander Festival will be from 12 - 4 pm.  Learn more about what will be going on in the Park this afternoon at the FB  event link.  I’m seeing two Farmers Markets: Clarkville Commons and Old Ellicott City. Farmers Market Old Ellicott City If you follow the footy you might want to head over to Sonoma’s at noon for the Champions League Final . The outdoor movie showing at The Wine Bin in Old Ellicott City is “Back to the Future.” Of note but not actually in Columbia/HoCo: The Patuxent Jazz Band has a concert at 3 PM but be aware that it’s at UMBC. Tickets appear to be free although you will be encouraged to make a donation.  Puerto Rico in Maryland Festival at the Sandy...

  Nostalgia. That’s what’s on the menu. Retro Restaurant Revival Craze , Today, May 19, 2026 From a Yum! Brands press release: Across 155 Pizza Hut restaurants in the U.S., guests are rediscovering iconic features from the brand’s earlier years, including red cups, checkered tablecloths, cozy vinyl booths, Tiffany-style lamps, classic arcade games and even the unmistakable red roof design. I don’t have a ton of nostalgia for Pizza Hut, but this advert from Wyndham Hotels set off all kinds of emotional bells and whistles in my psyche. Retro Modern Recharge, Howard Johnson by Wyndham The color palette! The memories! Have they brought back the authentic restaurant experience? (probably not.)  Nostalgia has been on my mind since this turned up on the Doodl app. Draw something you feel nostalgic about. Here was my response. Here is my Cecil the Sea Serpent talking plush toy. You had to pull a string the hear him talk. I kept him until very recently, believe it or not. Cecil had los...

  Back to the drawing board. Sticking this here for context: Sally Brown:Let Them Drown , Village Green/Town², 10/27/2025 The story of The Source is this: 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. - - the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu Let me draw a picture for you. This is why young people in our community are “falling in.” This is the center of the circle. If you don’t address this, nothing is solved. This is why more police at the Mall or more SROs in schools will never be the solution, because they don’t address what’s in the center of the circle. Addressing unmet needs must be proactive as well as reactive. If people are starving, for example, more police and more arrests will not solve the problem that people are stealing bread because they are starving. Look at how this plays out: Unmet needs negatively impact physical, cognitive, and emotional development. That, in turn, impacts...

  Once upon a time, if those stories I’ve read are true, ice cream was an event. You made it, you ate it. It was a big deal. Refrigeration, then freezers - - then home access to the same - - changed the ice cream experience. Folks could now purchase and eat ice cream year round.  When I was little all home ice cream was to be scooped into individual servings and eaten at the kitchen table. Bowl, spoon, napkin. Ice cream cones were a summertime treat. Now it’s not uncommon to enjoy the flavor of your choice right from a pint container while sitting on the couch watch tv/binge watching shows via streaming, etc.  I treated myself to a mint chocolate chip cone from Baskin Robbins this week. When the clerk asked what kind of cone I wanted, I said, “A soft cone.” “We have cake cones or sugar cones.” I guess my cone terminology is off. It was soft cones vs hard cones in Connecticut. My mother always called soft cones “wastebasket cones” but that was a Mom idiosyncrasy, I think....

  I woke up this morning to the news that a local Democratic Central Committee slate has scheduled a meeting on the Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha. There are only two major Muslim religious holidays. They happen every year. Anyone who is regularly scheduling meetings in our community should already have them marked out on their calendar. Acting in ignorance when you are a member of a party that claims to be inclusive of all is not acceptable. Inflexibility in the face of input when you have made such an error is appalling. This is not an innocent mistake or a scheduling conflict. It’s a choice. ***** Yesterday was interesting. I thought I’d be doing a lot more comment section intervention than I ended up needing to do. This is largely because the support for Erika Strauss Chavarria and Columbia Community Care is both broad and deep in the community. For this I am grateful. My daily life right now is not conducive to blog policing. I will be writing a follow-up post. I’ll need a da...

  What makes good journalism? What makes a local blog valuable? What makes a social media post trustworthy? Sources. High quality sources, reliable sources, and a variety of sources that provide perspective and depth. Here is the one source at the heart of a story about The Source. Here she is: active in the community, and not hard to find. Erika Strauss Chavarria, founder and Executive Director of  Columbia Community Care.  Now I’m going to tell you something that will blow your mind: The Sun didn’t interview her for their original article.* The Merriweather Post didn’t reach out to her, either. Why would anyone write a piece about the most aspirational project of Columbia Community Care and not want to talk to the founder and director? Did they think she’s not intelligent enough to know what’s going on with her own project? Did they assume she’s dishonest? A scammer? Did they just decide that she was…irrelevant? Who does that? Could it possibly be someone who has alrea...

I believe you know I’m a fan of the unintentional quirkiness of Facebook Marketplace. I often find items which are either puzzling or hilarious. Yesterday, though…there was one offering that made me think of politics.   BRAND NEW - Progressive 3-in-1 Party Carrier Much has been made of the current dearth of Republican candidates in local elections. And some Republicans seem to be dealing with that by running as Democrats, which I find odd and unhelpful. What I find far more troubling is how quickly some local Democrats have descended into the kind of just plain nasty politicking that we’ve normally seen from the opposing party. Is this what happens when the regular competition is out of the picture? You turn on each other? Don’t tell me “it’s just the primary” because in some races the primary will have the final say. (See above.) In my opinion the primary campaign should help clarify what each candidate stands for so voters can make an educated choice at the polls. What’s happeni...

  I wasn’t going to write this morning. I’m cold, my head hurts, I didn’t sleep well, and I’m mad at the world.  But then something struck me: I missed my blogiversary. It’s largely a big deal only to me, but, I usually find a way to mark the day. This year, while living a life that could best be described as “just keep swimming”, I completely missed it. I don’t know if that’s a matter of concern or a sign of personal growth.  Anyway, you know the drill. Village Green/Town² first appeared on March 5th, 2011 on Columbia Patch. I eventually moved it to Blogger. That’s it. 2011 - 2026 and counting. I’m not going to get sentimental about it. Well, except for one small thing.  Last summer when I was going through a terrible, horrible, no-good time in my life I just plain stopped writing. I didn’t see how the blog could continue. If it hadn’t been for the encouragement of a good friend plus the quiet support of many folks whose names I do not know, I would not have given i...

  Sometimes you don’t know how absolutely perfect something is until you lose it.  February 21st. Draw where you’d rather be right now. March 9th. Draw a safe place. March 22nd. Draw a lighthouse in an unexpected place. May 21st. Draw a holiday you think should exist. My little quadplex: the house I once jokingly compared to a hamster habitrail. It has been shedding its builder’s grade components since I arrived in 1999. Last summer a ceiling fell in. I have joked that we have replaced so much that, by the time we leave, none  of the original house will remain. I don’t think I’ve ever been so keenly aware of how deeply this place is rooted in my heart.  One day, as yet unknown, I will walk into this place, unpack my bags, and stay. I promise I won’t ever forget this feeling - - a yearning for the Great Good Place - - humble though it may be.  Village Green/Town² comments 

  You know their names: Gilligan’s Island, Fantasy Island, Temptation Island, Love Island. Well, they can all just move over. There’s a new island in town. Cul de sac island. Oakland Mills Village:  Do you have a cul-de-sac island on your street? Or do you want to hold a block party with your neighbors? OMCA wants to help! Visit Oaklandmills.org* and scroll down the homepage for more info and to find out how to request funds. I did a double take upon reading this post from the the good folks at OMCA because for a brief moment I thought the term was redundant. In other words, that the island was what made it a cul de sac. Au contraire. Merriam Webster defines cul de sac as “a street or passage closed at one end. Example:  Our house is located on a quiet cul-de-sac. I guess that islands are an extra. I went looking for the origin of cul de sac islands and found this friendly conversation on Cyburbia , where they are referred to as “landscape circles.” (It has nowhere near ...

  In the Public Forum portion of yesterday’s Board of Education meeting, the first speaker was there to castigate the school system for failing to uphold “Christian Biblical morality.” That’s odd. Public schools are for everyone. It is not their mission to preach and teach “Christian Biblical morality” whatever the speaker thinks that is.  The speaker blamed a “DEI framework” for what she deemed to be objectionable, including (but probably not limited to) being allowed to decide what sex they are God says marriage is between a man and a woman God's plan regarding marriage and children  …and gender Perhaps the speaker was alluding to these words on the HCPSS website?   HCPSS is committed to creating a welcoming and positive school culture as well as an inclusive environment for all students and ensuring that all backgrounds and interests equally represent the voice of the student body. Students have the opportunity to share their experiences both inside and outside of...