Village Green/Town²

  I’d love to have readers’ suggestions for thrift / second-hand places in the area, especially for clothes. What options do we have besides 2nd Avenue (or whatever it’s called now?) and Goodwill? And I know about Second Chance (in Baltimore) and Belle Patri (McGaw Rd) for non-clothing. But where else? Oh! One more idea: Highlight the neighborhood Buy Nothing / freecycle / etc. groups. This, my friends, is a great idea for a blog post. And it wasn’t even my idea. Can you help? Second hand/thrift places in Howard County for clothes: 2nd Avenue, Goodwill, Salvation Army, Uptown Cheapskate…what else? For non-clothing: Belle Patri, ReStore…what else? For books: Gramps Attic, Second Edition, The Last Word (is there still one at Savage Mill?) Novel Refuge…what else? Send me your local recommendations and I’ll do a comprehensive listing. Some folks are squeamish about giving presents that are not “brand new” and I’ll admit that you need to know your audience. Is the recipient capable of ...

 Have you seen this picture? Columbia Community Care food pantry, Long Reach Village Center It was making the rounds on Facebook yesterday, accompanied by these words: This is NOT a photo of when we moved the pantry to the Long Reach location.  THIS is a pic that I took a couple hours ago at the pantry. Every shelf is empty. We desperately need food donations! Donations of both food/supplies as well as money have dropped precipitously, unfortunately. We need all four of these shelf units completely filled every week in order for us to be able to open our three Saturday sites. It takes an enormous amount of food to serve 350 families/1500+ people every week. And what we give out usually is only enough for a couple days because we don't have more than that to share.  PLEASE, if you are able to, please consider buying extra canned goods (beans, corn, soups, proteins) or packaged food (ramen, cereal, pasta) when you do your grocery shopping. THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE!! Thi...

There’s no place like home.  There are numerous local debates raging about APFO and how building new housing fits into who we are in Howard County. This is, at least to me, an extremely complicated topic and every time I approach it I come away feeling as though I wish I were smarter. You can rest assured that I am not going to attempt to explain it to you here. I am going to share three things that I’ve been saving for just the right moment. I think that moment is now. The first is from the newsletter of Bridges to Housing Stability. The Importance of Home (excerpt) I hope you'll take some time to visit our children's art exhibit at the Howard County Library's Miller Branch, starting Nov. 5. The exhibit, part of the library's programming for Hunger and Homeless Awareness week, showcases the meaning of home for kids in our community. The faded picture shown here was drawn by one of my daughters when she was little. It hangs on the wall of my office. I love the sentiment...

  There will be no hot takes today because you most certainly have your own. There will be no inspirational words because I haven’t any. I will tell you that the only way I am getting by right now is to limit my contemptation of reality to very short moments at a time. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that the kind of people who read this are not the kind of people who would slap a laughing face emoji on it.  What I do have for you today is a great little story.  ***** Mr. Atwood was my AP US History teacher. He was a mentor, advocate and guide in turbulent adolescent years. I’ve written about him before. Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up. Are there teachers who support students by honoring both their enjoyment and risk-taking? Write them a note. Let them know how they have made a difference for your child. My AP American History Teacher was that person for me. His contribution to the person, and teacher, I have become was so great that I made the trek to Connectic...

  We all hope for unexpected news that brings happiness or at least relief. If something is going to appear out of the blue it would be helpful if it didn’t do us any harm, right? Alas, we don’t get to pick and choose. Did you see this? An Amazon delivery truck went through a Howard County home yesterday! (No injuries.) Today, the homeowner spoke exclusively with @wbaltv11 about the bizarre incident. Skyteam 11 captured it all from above. I have the story @ 5:00 p.m. - - Tommie Clark, WBAL Let’s zoom in on this, shall we? Yep, that’s definitely an Amazon truck. In the house.  Exclusive: Clarksville homeowners 'blessed' situation isn't worse after truck crashes into hom e, Tommie Clark, WBAL TV CLARKSVILLE, Md. — An Amazon truck crashed into a Howard County house's garage on Wednesday when nobody was home.  The photos are dated October 31st. That’s one heck of a trick or treat experience, if you ask me.  Now here’s where the story takes a twist, in my opinion. ...

  Local stories, local stories…yeah. That’s the thing, right? Put everything else out of mind. Think local.  Think, think, think. In local news today, teachers will have to go to work and face students whose whole worlds have just been shattered in an election they couldn’t vote in. My heart is aching for them. Students from all manner of marginalized and vulnerable groups will be fearful or numb.  LGTBQIA students will be feeling less safe. Young women demoralized. Very young children will probably be unaware but they will certainly pick up on how the adults around them are feeling. They are like little barometers. They may not be able to articulate what is going on but they feel it, sometimes very deeply.  Teaching is hard enough on an ordinary day. Today is beyond comprehending.  Those who think that school is just about reading and math and that teachers should stay in their lane have probably never been in a classroom longer than occasional parent teacher n...

Cindy Vaillancourt posted the following on social media yesterday and I immediately knew I wanted to share it here. She has graciously given her permission. - - jam ***** I hear a lot of extremely negative comments about our elected representatives at all levels. There is no doubt there are a lot of just icky-yucky-gross, unavailable, corrupt, buffoonish, porcine, and truly dishonorable people running for office, holding office, or even retiring from office.   I would just like to take a minute to share with my Maryland neighbors some insight I gained as a result of my activism, and service as an elected official. With very few exceptions, the people on all levels who represent Howard County work harder than most folks know.  I could not maintain the schedules these folks keep.  I was exhausted just trying to keep up with the obligations of my office - but, without fail, wherever I went on BOE business, many other elected representatives were already there, and stayed lon...