Village Green/Town²

  Celebrate Caribbean American Heritage Month today at the Chrysalis!  The event is from 3-7 pm, Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods: Join Howard County Executive Calvin Ball, the Office of Human Rights and Equity, and Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods as we celebrate the diverse and vibrant heritage of the Caribbean at our 2026 Caribbean American Heritage Month (CAHM) Festival! This family-friendly event will showcase traditional Caribbean dances, children's activities, live music performances, interactive exercise classes, vendors, and delicious Caribbean cuisine. Don't miss out on this opportunity to immerse yourself in the rich heritage of the Caribbean. Come experience a taste of the islands! FEATURED PERFORMERS: DJ Shomari KRL Lennard Jack Jr. SocaRobics White House Studios Eclipse International Band The announcement mentions food but I have not seen a list of today’s vendors. If you have this information, let me know and I will add it in here. Saturday, August 8, 2026...

  I couldn’t resolve the bill by phone. I couldn’t resolve the bill by mail. So yesterday I got in my car and drove forty-five minutes to the place where they generate the bills. They call what they do there Customer Service. When I arrived I discovered that the building is locked to anyone who doesn’t work there and that customers are never allowed in the building.  Surprise.  It’s a long story and I won’t trouble you with the details. The upshot is that I found myself in Middle River at around eleven am and I was too mentally exhausted to hop right back in the car and drive home. I was in a place that reminded me a bit of Maple Lawn. Very, very new. Mixed use - - offices, a cute little retail center that was mostly restaurants, a few office buildings. Oh, and a hotel.  Welcome to Greenleigh .* Image from Greenleigh.com Greenleigh is Baltimore County's fastest-growing mixed-use community. The master-planned, 1,000-acre project features commercial office, flex, and r...

  The dramatic photographs just won’t stop coming.  Vultures flock to a Columbia neighborhood where woman won’t stop feeding them raw meat, Lillian Reed, Baltimore Banner  Image from Baltimore Banner includes this caption: In a photo provided by a resident, black vultures are seen standing on a deck in the Glenmont neighborhood. As per usual, my attention has been drawn somewhere else. I don’t care about the raw meat. Why has this woman thrown her teddy bear to the vultures??? Who would do that?  I guess you can be tenderhearted enough to want to care for birds that revolt and scare everybody else and somehow not tenderhearted enough to care about…teddy bears. I have feelings about this.  Anyway the story is not about teddy bears and if you want to follow the entire saga, it’s here . You will never feel the same way about raw chicken again.  I find it wild that this could have been going on so long in a community where we have so many restrictions on what...

  The girl gets around. Photo credit Jessie Newburn, HoCo Blogs No, not me. Her. Ginger Breadgirl, AKA Pink Gingerbread Girl Gingerbread Girl became a bit of a HoCoLocal celebrity as a spokesperson for Howard County Tourism in the early teens. She made her big comeback in conjunction with the movement and restoration of many of the old Enchanted Forest figures to Clark’s Elioak Farm on Route 108. For a time you could take a selfie with her at the Howard County Welcome Center on Main Street in Old Ellicott City. Not sure if she’s still there. She had her own Facebook account  documenting her travels.* Ambassador at Large at Visit Howard County, Maryland Former Farm Hand at Clark's Elioak Farm This girl was everywhere and (seemingly) all at once. As you can see from the opening photo she turned up at a blogtail party at the Second Chance Saloon. (She didn’t drink.) I even bumped into her at the Inn at Norwood in Sykesville once.  Apparently Pink Gingerbread Girl was a well-...

  Welcome to the world of the beyond weird.  Wait, what? Those are not book bags and school supplies. Those look like cigars. 2nd Annual Back to School BookBag & School Supplies Drive Public Event by Beck and Becky LLC Savage-Guilford Wednesday, August 5, 5 - 9 PM When you want to show people you’re community-minded but really want to promote your cigar business… Yikes. CIGAR LOVE, big and little, it's a Lifestyle brand... #unisexsmoke #couplesmoke #singlesmoke #sexystick. We are a lifestyle brand that intensely focuses on providing a premium cigar and accessory experience to each client. This started out being a weird photo that made me laugh. Now it’s giving me The Ick. Big surprise, the flier they’ve posted for this event on their own Facebook page is unadulterated AI slop.  But, wait. There’s more! We will be supporting students in gorgeous Prince George’s County, and Washington, DC!! We will also have limited Back to School care packages for teachers, more to com...

  I love photographic images. I’m not so good at taking them myself. For example, the things I catch while on vacation aren’t exactly picturesque: The view out of our hotel room window. Breakfast at the Robin Hood in Rehoboth. Reading by the pool. Absolutely required dinner at Go Brit: Room service? One sight that draws me in, time after time, is this: It’s a wall of retro candy in a little toy store along Penny Lane in Rehoboth. I return to it like a pilgrim to a shrine. It’s not because I eat any of these sweets. It’s because they speak to me of my childhood. People and places change or even disappear. Looking at those familiar wrappers brings it all back for a moment.  Look what I found from ten years ago:   Something Sweet, August 23, 2016 I can't visit Rehoboth without stopping in to Fun For All! Toys on Penny Lane. Something about paying homage to the candy and toys of my childhood gives me a sense of reassurance. My childhood is still there. It hasn't been forgott...