A Pleasant Surprise

It seems that a lot of my my life these days involves grabbing dinner with my daughter before a choral rehearsal. This is how I happened to be at YouPizza in Clarksville last week. You may recall I was not entirely convinced by this establishment after my first visit, largely because of this:

With all the problems we have in our society right now around rest rooms, this is not even remotely amusing. This pizza is fine. You can get similar pizza elsewhere in town without being insulted by the restroom. Just a thought. (“The New Market”, July 28, 2017)

Well, last week’s visit was darned near perfect. My daughter and I agreed that of all the local pizza places based on this particular model, YouPizza is the best. And we both felt that was due to how good the pizza crust is. 

As I headed back to the rest room to wash my hands I girded myself for the inevitable annoyance. Instead:

I don’t know when this happened but I’d like to say thanks. YouPizza deserves to be known for its
food, not its bathrooms. 

So, a tip of the hat to the folks at YouPizza. Oh, and if you haven’t tried them, you should. See what you think.

Sticks

This is our little plot of land, our piece of earth that we tend and till. In the Spring we cleared it and planted flowers to attract bees and butterflies. Last week on Community Day we cleared it yet again and planted...

...sticks?

Farmer Joe brought us a box filled with what looked like sticks. But they were blackberry plants. 

Growing Blackberries from Cuttings Blackberries can be propagated through leafy stem cuttings as well as root cuttings. If you want to propagate lots of plants, leafy stem cuttings are probably the best way to go. This is usually accomplished while the cane is still firm and succulent. You’ll want to take about 4-6 inches of the cane stems. These should be placed in a moist peat/sand mix, sticking them in a couple inches deep.

Read more at Gardening Know How: Propagating Blackberries – Rooting Blackberries From Cuttings https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/blackberries/propagating-blackberries
cuttings.htm 

It was such an odd feeling to yank out all the old growth, remove rocks, break up soil, and then plant what felt like sticks, with only a bit of green showing to hint at life. The picture above is of our work completed.

It doesn’t look like much.

Today I feel like that barren and seemingly empty garden. I feel that the work of those who are good has come to naught. What good is the love and care and toil if our land is left almost naked, filled with nothing but sticks? 

I’m struggling. 

I think of the saying (rooted in a Greek poem):

They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.

I think of the closing song from Candide:

We’ll build our house and chop our wood

And make our garden grow.

It doesn’t help.

The act of gardening holds the promise of new life but today I feel death. I feel the life force of women draining out. Women who have been damaged and harassed and silenced and betrayed. Women who have fought for the truth for themselves and their sisters. And now they—we—are cut down and broken and expected to somehow take root and rise up again.

But today we are sticks. You can barely see us. You can hardly imagine that our dreams will ever bear fruit.

Eavesdropping

Have you ever had an experience where you are listening in to someone else’s conversation and then you realize they are talking about you? 

Awkward.

I had a comparable experience on Twitter this morning while following a thread about the Perkins Transformation Plan in Baltimore. It started out like any other live tweeting of a civic event.

At the Perkins Transformation Plan meeting to hear more about Perkins/Old Town/Summerset plans

.@MayorPugh50 says that Baltimore is going to make sure the residents can stay. She points out that you can go to school at the new City Springs, and then go to community college for free, and then Morgan for free. Keep people in the city.

And then, a comment.

She thinks if we make Baltimore look like Columbia, people will want to stay here. Emblematic of her lack of vision.

And another.

I lived in Columbia for a brief time. I left to move to the City.

Sigh.

I am not always a big fan of Pugh, but this seems like a pretty big win for Baltimore. I hope residents don't get displaced, but this is not going to get us anywhere close to the suburban hellscape that is Columbia.

Wait a minute, now. Them’s fightin’ words!

Although Columbia now has better bike infrastructure than Baltimore, so...

Columbia really isn't that bad.

Looking better every day. Like I said, they’re building bike infrastructure, we’re tearing it out.

Well. That’ll teach me not to eavesdrop. Maybe.

So, from what I can tell, some people think that Mayor Pugh is using a TIF to make Baltimore more like Columbia, which is possibly rather ironic because we know some folks think that Howard Hughes is using a TIF to make Columbia more like Baltimore.

My head hurts.

Fear not, friends, the good news from all this is that the bike people will save us.

More in the Mills

If you’re coming over to Oakland Mills on Saturday for the Fall Festival, it would be an idea time to visit Blandair Park.

Here’s a comprehensive informational piece on the park put together by HoCo blogger Harry Schwarz. Not only will it tell  you what’s  there now, it’s also a useful source of what in the works for the future.

Playgrounds for all ages at Blandair Regional Park, Columbia

My first order of business this weekend involves sleeping well past my weekday morning wake up time. After that, there’s the Fair on Saturday and the Mini Maker Faire at the Chrysalis on Sunday.

Have a great Friday doing what you love. It’s impossible not to.

Fired

It was a lovely night at Clarksville Commons.

Everything was prepared and ready to go.

As night fell, the bonfire came alive.

The homecoming week bonfire has long been a tradition at River Hill High School. It has recently become a joint venture with the folks at Clarksville Commons. I continue to be impressed with how they are inviting community events into that space. 

Last night it was buzzing with teens and their families. Someone was handing out free glow necklaces in River Hill Blue. There was music. The Common Kitchen opened its folding doors to the evening and patrons were happily coming and going with Indian food, Egyptian food, ice cream from Scoop and Paddle, and snacks from Trifecto. Others chose You Pizza. Some parents headed upstairs to Food Plenty to give their teens some space.

It struck me that this was exactly the kind of event to show off what Clarksville Commons strives to be. It feels more like a Village Center than the actual Village Center. And that’s pretty deliberate, I think. They are making the  kinds of choices that put them at the heart of the River Hill/Clarksville community.

A few things made me smile. One was the fellow who passed by our table in the crowd and said, “Dude! There’s nobody here!” (Remember being a teenager? “Where is everybody?”) Another was the man who lay flat on his back on the cobblestones with his young son to watch the sparks from the bonfire fly up to the sky.

As we left, we spotted a small stream of teenagers heading over with food from Wendy’s. Sometimes when you’re a teenager you just want burgers and fries.

A shout out to the River Hill Parents who organized the event and to Clarksville Commons for hosting it.

Festival Facts

This Saturday is the Oakland Mills Fall Festival. This year we are celebrating the 50th Birthday Of our Village. Throughout the years it has been an international festival and a cultural arts festival but, whatever the name, it has been an annual source of community fun. There will be live music, food, vendors, kids’ activities, and the whole thing will kick off with a performance by the Oakland Mills High School Band.

There’s a lot going on in Oakland Mills right now. Have you taken a walk across the newly updated pedestrian bridge that connects us to Downtown? Or have you explored the most recent updates to Blandair Park? I’m guessing that you’ll be popping into my neighborhood more frequently once the new international market opens up. I know I’ll be bumping in to you once the Dunkin Donuts opens up...

A special shoutout to Sandy Cederbaum, our Village Manager, and Brigitta Warren (special events coordinator) for all the work they put into the Festival every year. Many thanks, too, to OMCA Village Board Chair Jonathan Edelson and the entire board for everything they do to foster a vibrant and welcoming community in Oakland Mills.

I hope I’ll see you this weekend. The fun starts at 11 am.

Them’s the Rules

A few thoughts about the Board of Ed race and the rules. I am increasingly wary of how we apply them.

It all depends. If we like a candidate, and we see misplaced campaign signs, we are more apt to say they were placed by over-zealous volunteers who don’t understand the rules. If we don’t like the candidate, we say it is a sign that this candidate thinks they are above the law and cannot be trusted. This is not exactly an even-handed application of campaign law.

If the candidate belongs to our political party, we say we find it important to know their values and have no difficulty with seeing open campaign support from that party. If the candidate is from a political party we dislike we are quick to point out the outrageousness of their being supported by a political party. They got campaign help, so that must mean they are surely taking money and that their party means to take over the Board of Education

Until very recently, it was my understanding that correct placing of political signs and running a non partisan race were the rules that all BOE candidates were required to follow. And this meant that if a candidate didn’t follow those rules, they were showing disrespect for the process. And that troubled me. I don’t want anyone on the BOE who thinks that the rules don’t apply to them.

What I have learned over the last few months is that no one can point me to the irrefutable truth of why the BOE race is non-partisan and what that means for candidates. It may very well be as simple as allowing independents to vote for BOE candidates is the Maryland primaries. To be clear, the fact that there isn’t one Really Good Explanation ticks me off. There should be.

I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that my entire way of looking at a non-partisan race is something that I assumed, based on my own reasoning of why there should be a non-partisan race in the first place. It’s very idealistic, and some think it’s naive. Perhaps so.

I still think I am correct in wanting to avoid a board member who thinks they are above the rules. But I am less and less certain as to whether these two particular rules are useful yardsticks by which to measure this. Why? Because they are applied so haphazardly and based very often on who we like and who we don’t.

Do me a favor. Don’t tell me why your candidate doesn’t have to follow the rules while skewering
the other folks for violating those same rules. It doesn’t make me like your candidate any better, and
all it does is render those rules meaningless.

And now: back to the issues.