Village Green/Town²

  One thing that the pandemic has taught us is that there are plenty of of people who are not teachers who think they know everything about education and people who are not epidemiologists who think they know everything about the spread of disease. It is a great tragedy for the state of Maryland that Governor Larry Hogan is both. His strong-arm tactics forced school systems to send teachers and staff back to face-to-face learning without being fully vaccinated and without adequate safety preparation. In Howard County we are already seeing new cases attributable to this premature decision.  In addition, the persistent inequity of vaccine distribution basically amounts to Hogan giving white folks a head start and saying the heck with everyone else.  And now, the icing on the cake: Hogan is relaxing limitations on public gatherings which will surely kick off increased spread of the coronavirus throughout the state. His decision may feel “good for business” but it is not comp...

Something that’s been going through my head since I saw the rundown of donations to the group trying to repeal Howard County’s sanctuary status: $5000.00 is a lot of money. Former Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman made a donation of $5000.00 to Citizens For A Strong And Safe Howard County (In Opposition of CB 63-2020). As my mother would have said, that’s not carfare. Or pin money. It’s more than money. It’s a statement. A leadership gift. Now I’m quite clear that Mr. Kittleman and I don’t have the same politcal views. I have disagreed with him on many issues. But I have always felt that it matters a good deal to him to be an honorable man. He has worked quite hard to be the Republican that Democrats could engage in conversation. You know, “I don’t always agree with him, but he’s a nice guy.”  But here we have a substantial donation to a group which is using methods that are far from honorable. Remember : These  folks have been planting themselves around town and downri...

  These two stories just happened to be back to back in my Twitter feed this morning: It suggested to me that Columbia just might be happier due to the reopening of much-loved local restaurant and watering hole Pub Dog. Yes, the juxtaposition is merely coincidental, but, can you blame me? As to the parameters for the Wallet Hub survey, they’re pretty dreadful. I’d recommend skipping that story altogether and focusing on Pub Dog instead. The last time I went to Pub Dog was to meet up with friend and journalist/writer extraordinaire Marge Neal. That was probably a longer time back than I realize. We went when it wasn’t likely to be busy, possibly the middle of the afternoon. While I like the place overall, I’ve always found the noise levels there to make decent conversation almost impossible. No Columbia story would be complete without mentioning “the place that used to be there” before Pub Dog. It was the Hard Times Cafe, specializing in Cincinnati Chili in seemingly endless permuta...

  Today is International Women’s Day. How will you be celebrating? Perhaps it’s not the sort of holiday one gears up for with a trip to Party City or with a catered spread from a fancy restaurant. Besides, so much of the labor for festive events is performed by women in the first place. If there were an actual “holiday” celebrating women, who would do the work? So, no parties. We’ll stick to thoughtful observance instead.  Today I’m thinking of three women whose worlds intersected at the Penthouse Club in Baltimore this week. As you may know, adult entertainment establishments in the city had been shut down due to the coronavirus but have recently been reopened. You can learn more in this article: Baltimore’s Strip Clubs Reopen as Pandemic Peril Lurks, Emily Opilo, Baltimore Sun Making the rounds on Twitter yesterday was the pull quote of all pull quotes: “I hope it’s safe enough. I hope we’re all protected,” said one man who declined to give his name, saying his wife believe...

It’s possible that I haven’t been to Reisterstown in thirty years. Thoughts of taking public transportation after work to my childcare certification classes were running through my head yesterday as I used the GPS in my iPhone to find my way to a CVS on Reisterstown Road. A lot about my life has changed in those years. I was far outside my usual bubble and headed to an appointment for my first COVID vaccine thanks to a friend with mad appointment-setting skills.  For those of you following along at home, this was my first visit inside a retail establishment since mid-March of 2020. Holy Mackerel - - Easter Candy! - - was my immediate internal response. People, merchandise, lights, signage, labels, displays...it has been a long time since I’ve been out. What a cheap date I would be these days: let’s go to the CVS and look at Easter Candy. In the interest of brevity, I won’t outline every detail of my visit. Most important to me is the conversation with the nurse who administered my ...

  I arrived in Columbia in 1999 about to begin married life with the wonderful fellow who has now been my husband for 21 years. I didn’t come here because: Columbia. I came here because this is where he owned a house. For his part, my husband orginally bought the house because his work was divided between DC and Towson. So: location. Neither of us came here because of Columbia as a community concept, its ideals, amenities, nothing of the sort. And it took quite a long time for us to find out. When I began to get inklings of this whole Columbia thing, I became convinced that CA ought to have something like the old Welcome Wagon service. New residents should be promptly engaged with information and offers that oriented them to the opportunities inherent in the Columbia way of life. Interestingly, I received some pretty consistent pushback on this. “You just need to go to CA headquarters.” “Why don’t you go to your Village Association?” I didn’t buy that and I still don’t. People who ...

  I told myself I would write about something positive this morning, but my head is still spinning from all the mindboggling news of the week in Columbia/HoCo, to wit: Sending teachers and staff back into school buildings without an adequate plan or equipment and while not fully vaccinated, accompanied by perky PR social media gaslighting from management Excruciating drama in a local political group which has left little room for productive discourse A lawsuit for defamation of character which seems to be a great test for whether folks understand 1) the First Amendent and 2) frivolous lawsuits  The arrest of a fairly well-known retired police chief for multiple acts of arson over a period of ten years The Governor’s persistent disrespect for Baltimore City and other predominantly Black municipalities in Maryland Add to that the large glass of iced coffee I had in the late afternoon yesterday followed very little sleep...I’d say I feel less than positive this morning.  So....