F ³: All Treats Edition

 

Years ago I taught at a small independent school in Baltimore that celebrated Halloween with the full Halloween Parade tradition. Parents and friends were invited. The playground was packed with groups of costumed children, harried classroom teachers, and doting adults with cameras. 

Over the many years I worked there, three costumes stood out. 

1. The first was a boy in the second grade whose homemade costume charmed me. He was a chef, with all the appropriate clothing. But the pièce de resistance was a pot he carried that appeared to be boiling and emitting steam. It was all done with cotton balls or cotton batting. 

It was not a fancy costume and I don’t think it cost a lot to create. It was perfect in every way and this kid was rocking it. It just made me happy to see him enjoying himself.

2. Then there was the year my own kid wanted to be Xena Warrior Princess. She fully believed I could make that costume. I fully believed I was incapable of pulling it off. We are talking limited time, limited funds, limited tools, and limited ability. 

Somehow I did it. It may have been my crowning achievement in life. It was definitely an example of how faith and/or courage require doing the impossible thing while reckoning with your own flaws and limitations. 

3. One year I actually went all out on myself: tricking out a long dress I already had to create a Renn Fest princess-esque costume. This involved figuring out how to give it a lace-up bodice sort of thing by means of buying and using a special Grommet Tool. I distinctly remember needing to go outside and hammer the darn grommets on the sidewalk in front of our apartment building.

I had a vision. I was determined. This costume was going to be appropriate for the school Halloween Parade and maybe, just maybe, attractive enough to wear elsewhere. My memory is a little fuzzy here but I think this costume may have caught the eye of the cute fellow who I’d met in the church choir associated with the school.

You know what they say: reader, I married him.

May your day be full of treats - - both giving and receiving.

Village Green/Town² Comments

The Five Hundred and Forty-Four

 

Let’s do the numbers, shall we?

In reading the Banner article about the unveiling of the COVID-19 memorial statue, I came across these numbers:

Since March 2020, Howard County has seen more than 74,000 cases of COVID-19 and 544 deaths.

The article, by Lillian Reed, seems to have more than one title. 

“Howard County unveils COVID-19 pandemic memorial”

And

“Howard County has lost 544 residents to COVID-19. A new memorial honors them.”

I don’t know why they do that. Possibly to see which title gets more engagement?

The numbers: cases of COVID-19 are at 74,000 and counting. This is an ongoing public health challenge. It is not over. 

Deaths from COVID-19 at this time stand at 544. 

Numbers are funny. People who have wanted to downplay the seriousness of COVID act like 544 is practically nothing. A small percentage. A drop in the bucket. Yet we all know that, if even one of those deaths is someone we know, the impact is staggering.

544 people.

How many people went to your high school or are employed where you work? How many people have you been genuinely friends with over a lifetime? Now take away 544. 

Gone.

There are far too many statues in this world to war and conquest. And we spend far too much time in our culture honoring people largely for their wealth and status. 

544 people lived in our community and were felled by a horrific illness. They suffered. They died. Their families and friends grieved and feared for their own vulnerability.

We know that people are far more than numbers, don’t we? It also matters who they were. And, above all else - -  above age, gender, race or ethnicity, or financial status  - -  they were our neighbors. 

Photo from HoCoGov

Artists: Jim Benedict and Lily Kuonen

“16-foot sculpture symbolizes remembrance, comfort, hope, empathy, compassion

                     and the strength of the human spirit.”

Village Green/Town² Comments 

Main Street Macabre

 

I’ve been saving this…for twenty-two days.

Hmm. What do you think?

At one point there was a doll hospital. I’ve heard it may have had haunted possibilities. It may still be there. And there’s a place called live unusually which is rather spooky-adjacent.

There are seasonal nods to all things creepy and kooky such as Trick or Treating on Main Street.

And I would be remiss to overlook Ellicott City’s Ghost Tours. 

But, a haunted doll shop? We might have one and not even know it. I mean - - would the dolls tell, necessarily? How would that work?

Does one need to provide a certificate of authenticity for a haunted doll? And what about liability? Or maybe the dolls are not for sale, and it’s a space for haunted doll events and experiences: seances, tea parties, midnight read-alouds…

I am curious. 

Scrap B’more (in Pigtown) once held a Creepy Doll Parts sale. And on my bucket list tour of the old Flier building my guide and I stumbled across two dolls that we suspected might be possessed. I wonder where they are now?

My favorite Halloween experiences lean more spoopy than scary. What about you?

Let me know. 

Village Green/Town² Comments

This Is Only A Test

When big earthquakes hit, dazed residents can often be found wandering the streets surveying the destruction. Post-quake, sometimes the street is safer than being in your own home. When little earthquakes hit, dazed Howard Countians can be found wandering social media, asking the same few questions, looking for reassurance.

What was that?

Did anyone feel that? 

I live here, what about where you are?

We just had a big THUMP. I thought my husband had dropped an amplifier upstairs.

But the first time we had an earthquake* I thought it was just the washer struggling on the last spin cycle. Then I noticed that our big bookcase was vibrating. 

I am not a good judge of small earthquakes.

Guess what? Most of us aren’t, despite the fact that some folks were online announcing that they knew earthquakes and this wasn’t an earthquake.

I’m going to look to professionals on that one. 

In any kind of emergency, or something unknown that feels like an emergency, it’s easy to take what little information we have and run straight for emotions. The facts-to-feelings ratio can get wildly skewed. I can’t ignore the fact that we are living in such a chaotic and dysfunctional time that it didn’t take much to move many of us into full-on crisis mode. 

This might explain why a lot of people forgot what dialing 911 is meant to be used for. 

These days we head to social media either to add more facts to our limited supply, or to find familiar faces to share our feelings with. That’s only human, or maybe, that’s only natural.

While watching this phenomenon last night I had the rather unserious thought that we were all quite a bit like prairie dogs sticking our heads up to assess the threat level of danger nearby. It’s not just a human thing. 

Clearly I had the ability to weigh such frivolous concepts in my mind because my experience of the earthquake was mild. I was not afraid. I might have felt quite different had I been closer.

All of this is to say that pooling personal experiences on social media is 1.a great way to get a whole lot of anecdotal information in a hurry and 2. An opportunity for human contact and reassurance. It may not be the best way to get the big picture.

If this had been an actual emergency…

Village Green/Town² Comments

*I think it was this one:

Sally Brown: Let Them Drown

Yes, I know I already wrote about this. Alas, it’s back for another season and the plot line is pathetically similar.

Recap:

Falling In, March 25, 2023

About the new Mall restrictions on teens, and reflecting on this quote from the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu:

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. 

White Grievance HoCo Style, September 1, 2024

About the new YEP programs for youth and the disappointing (but not surprising) response from racist trolls.

Dear me. It is so terribly hard to be white. Imagine spending one’s days looking for opportunities to complain that Black people may possibly be getting something that you didn’t get. 

Guess what? They’re still doing it. Yesterday’s update on the YEP programs brought out the same old, same old. If these folks don’t see enough white faces in the pictures, they are sure someone is up to no good. 

Welcome to Howard County, where folks see racism everywhere but where it actually is - - in the mirror.

Everyone is up in arms about those young people causing trouble at the Mall or at school. “Somebody should do something!”

Well, guess what? Somebody did do something and is still doing something by responding to a community need and investing in young people.

But that’s not what they wanted, was it? They wanted something punitive, something exclusionary. Most of all they wanted a big, scary, incendiary issue to flog the County Executive with. The Black, Democratic, elected-easily-for-two-terms County Executive.

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. 

But these folks seem to think,

There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. Just let them drown.

They don’t want to know why they’re falling in. They just want them out of the way. 

The truth is that the reason these folks are so uncomfortable seeing so many happy and successful Black residents on the County Executive’s Facebook page is because there have never, ever been enough there before he was elected. Where were they before? They certainly belonged there. 

If previous local leaders tended to include only as many nonwhites as would not make white folks uncomfortable, that’s not representation. It’s tokenism.  (White Grievance HoCo Style)

Most of all, it reinforced the lie that a reasonable and accurate representation of people who aren’t white is something to feel uncomfortable about, even offended.

This whole situation reminds me of a verse in the Book of Matthew (wild paraphrase ahead). 

We played wedding and you wouldn’t dance, we played funeral and you wouldn’t mourn. - - Matthew 11:22

Or maybe it’s simpler than that: damned if you do, damned if you don’t. 

Today’s post is dedicated to a very good person who rolled up her sleeves on the County Executive’s page and refused to let the trolls go unanswered. Brava.

Village Green/Town² Comments 

Post Script: About Sally Brown

All I want is what’s coming to me. All I want is my fair share.

The reason I keep coming back to Sally Brown year after year is this: in this moment she looks to be a harmless-looking child, but, all the while, she is spouting the demands of complete selfishness. She has no concern for anyone but herself, no awareness about how her “fair share” may far outreach what is reasonable if others are not to be left wanting. - - The Villain I Fear, December 20, 2021

Career Goals?

What did your parents want for you? What do you want for the next generation? Let’s think for a minute.

It seems to me that the push in recent years is for young people to specialize. An interest in sports turns into a commitment to a travel team. High school course loads pile high with the “right” courses for competitive college admission. College students hone in on the majors that will get you recruited by the Fortune 500 companies, or over the hurdles into law or medical school. 

And then one day none of that makes any sense. 

I am currently furloughed, i.e. am a government employee who is not working or getting paid due to a lapse in funding for the federal government. And since it is week 3, doesn't look like it is going to end any time soon, and there are talks that we may not get paid - I figured I would offer my services in the meantime. 

Here’s the kicker:

My current job that I can't work right now is an Aerospace Engineer at NASA where I design and build instrumentation for spacecraft. I am not supposed to work with any company that does work with NASA if I keep my job. 

You’ve spent I-don’t-know-how-long-preparing for a specialized career, got the job, looked forward to career advancement, job security and…

Now what?

You have no work, a diminishing sense of job security, and you are prohibited from doing the specialized work you have trained to do.

This is not a hypothetical situation. These words were written by a real person who lives in our community and I am certain that this situation is not an isolated one. 

What would you do if this happened to you? (If it has happened to you - - I’m sorry.)

The next part of his post is where I get knocked for a loop. 

I fix EVERYTHING - I have experience in most things house related including multiple kitchen and bathroom remodels (framing, plumbing, electrical, drywall, cabinetry ect.) , wood working, metal work/ welding, fix vehicles/cars/ machines, electronic repair, appliance repair, computer repair, and probably most other things you can think of.

I also get hired for all types of photography including portraits and event photography. 

In addition I was trained at Arthur Murray as a full time ballroom dance instructor and teach occasionally. My specialty is west coast swing. 

If you have any questions, want photos, my resume, or my portfolio please reach out to me! Thanks for your consideration!

Perhaps I had assumed that an Aerospace Engineer was strictly a specialist. I was wrong. Do you have such a fascinating assortment of marketable skills? Honestly, it brought a smile in the midst of such truly disheartening news.

The young man who penned this appeal may be innately curious, the kind of person who loves to get his hands into new things. Or perhaps he had parental guidance along the way, encouraging him to develop a variety of interests. But his story reminded me that putting all your eggs in one basket may not be, as they say, “career goals.”

I don’t know this fellow in real life. He does not know me. He could not possibly have known that my grandfather, out of work during the Great Depression, taught Ballroom Dancing just to get by. (He later became a Special Agent for the IRS.)

That old saw about doing a bunch of activities because college admissions offices want to see a “well- rounded applicant” misses the point, I think. Encouraging young people to engage in more than one thing because they truly enjoy it fosters self esteem, supports mental health, and one day it just might pay the rent. 

If you think you might have some work for a furloughed neighbor, reach out to me and I’ll connect you. I have a feeling that we need to be on the lookout for other neighbors who are similarly in need but may find it difficult to ask for help. 

Village Green/Town² Comments

All That and a Bag of Chips

Should you worry about your teens eating junk food? Maybe not for the reasons you think. 

Try something for me. Go to Google. Search “bag of chips.” Look the responses in the All category. Now click on the News category. 

Did what you saw look something like this?

All:

News:

Yes, a bag of chips in Baltimore County made news around the world this week. 

Baltimore County school’s AI gun detection system mistook a bag of chips for a weapon, Kristen Griffith, Baltimore Banner

After football practice Monday night, Taki Allen chatted with friends outside Kenwood High School while munching on Cool Ranch Doritos. When he finished his snack he put the bag in his pocket. Minutes later, several police officers pulled up, pointed their guns at him and yelled for him to get on the ground, he said.

“Me?” he recalled thinking. “I was confused at the time.”

He put his hands in the air while following orders. Police handcuffed him, bent him over the hood of a police car, searched him and sat him on the curb, he said.

All they found was the Doritos bag, he said.

The false alarm was triggered by Baltimore County Public Schools’ AI-powered gun-detection system, Omnilert. Spokespersons for the company and the school district said the technology was working as intended to keep students and staff safe, and that they quickly realized no one was in danger on Monday.

So how did a student eating a snack end in a police search?

Good question. Right off the bat, I can think of two answers, 

1. Companies are selling AI systems like this to schools who are desperate to improve school safety but the fact is that these systems are nowhere near evolved enough to do what the companies say they do.

2. Good old lazy racism.

Was Howard County looking at a system like this in the last year or so? Or was it discussed in the State Legislature? I’ve been digging around this morning but I’m not finding the information I’m looking for. I definitely remember this being a topic of conversation locally.

I thought it was a terrible idea then and I still do. 

One respondent on Bluesky speaks my mind:

Today in the cyberpunk dystopia. As always, USA: We could have actual effective #GunControlNow. Instead of unwarranted mass surveillance as security theater.

When you think about what’s best for your teens, you should probably worry less about junk food and more about the junk technology that puts them in harm’s way - - all while pretending it’s for their own good. 

Village Green/Town² Comments 

Don’t forget our local markets today in Old Ellicott City and at Clarksville Commons! The season will be over before you know it.