Village Green/Town²

Once upon a time a wizard came to Columbia and caused a bit of a stir. I have lived here just long enough to have witnessed this and also to have forgotten the entire episode. A recent post on Bluesky jogged my memory. Screenshot from Bluesky Oh! I remember that. How could I forget? It was in Oakland Mills. It all began in 2014 when Oakland Mills residents Debbie and Roger Matherly came up with the idea to transform a dead tree in their front yard through the artistic talents of chainsaw artist Evelyn Mogren. Think of it as creative reuse.  Really, it was creative reuse and it also ran afoul of the architectural guidelines of the Oakland Mills Community Association. It was both at the same time. The homeowners appealed to the community for support. The Wizard even got his own Facebook account. Truly a hyperlocal tempest in a teapot. It was resolved with a lot of grace by the Oakland Mills Village Board. And now, more than ten years on, folks like Kimberly Ann Keyes can visit it. ...

It depends on how you look at it.  The annual onslaught of social media content about stocking stuffers has begun and they’re all too expensive to be stocking stuffers, as usual. Sigh. Or: The annual onslaught from The Olds that “holiday celebrations are not what they used to be” - - and are therefore wrong - - has begun.  Take your pick.  Yes, I’ve written about this before. I’m wedded to the notion that stocking stuffers should be small both in cost and in size. All while being fun and appealing. I guess that, to me, stocking stuffer gifts are the Children’s Chat of Christmas morning. I also wish that commercial entities wouldn’t start pushing Christmas consumerism at us until Thanksgiving. BUT… I’m not in charge of either one and, in my heart of hearts, I don’t want to tell other people how to celebrate. There ain’t no war on Christmas, Virginia, and no war on Christmas Stockings, neither. No one will stop me from doing it the way I like. And yet… Those perky example...

Okay, we’ve had a few days to let this settle. Let’s do the numbers. Oh, and about the numbers…   Commedian Don McMillan, Nerdy Statistics  In the case of Oakland Mills High School being displaced from the schedule of most urgent repairs, I want to talk about three things today.  1. I am completely unimpressed by folks filling up the comments section here or anywhere else on social media with graphs and charts and lists. Sure, you’ve got twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one. That’s impressive, I guess. But: How was your information gathered?  What did you prioritize?  What did you omit?  How are you framing it? Remember that old saying about “lies, damned lies, and statistics”? When someone comes along and says, “This is a really complicated subject so I have gathered all the information for you so you don’t have to go to the trouble” it makes sense for you to use your critical t...

We all love to say we support small independent businesses. Have you ever seen anyone go on the record as disliking Mom and Pop establishments? During the COVID lockdowns there was a concerted effort to find ways to support local restaurants whose incomes had plummeted. (That’s how the Facebook Group Howard County Eats originated.) Into one of these conversations came a HoCo resident making the case for a place called California Tortilla.  “But that’s a chain,” came many quick replies. Their response made me think. Essentially, the argument was that places like California Tortilla may be franchise operations and the owners may very well be Howard County locals. They are our neighbors, too, they argued.  Yes, they are our neighbors. But I’m not sure the economic playing field is identical. Association with a national brand may have advantages as far as advertising and even the cost of food and other restaurant supplies. All of those things are likely more expensive for homegro...

  No matter how unlikely this looks to you - - I promise you that the following conversation really happened. Please note: religion is not the point of this post. Bear with me. - - jam On Sunday after church my husband I were taking about Children’s Chats. (Some churches call them Children’s Sermons.) They are meant to personalize the church experience for younger children by presenting relevant topics in a way they can connect with and understand.  Both of us have been known to step up and do these things from time to time. As someone who spent my professional life interacting with young children, I have opinions .  At any rate, my husband acknowledged that his message on Sunday might have run a little long. It was a great message, no argument there. But I’ve given some thought to this and I responded as follows: I’ve decided that a Children’s Chat must be fascinating, and delicious…but it also must be small enough to fit in your pocket.  ***** This conversation ca...

  A friend posted: Facebook stole my memories.  I didn’t need to ask what he meant. I already knew. I check my Memories section every morning as a part of my waking-up process. Reading them reminds me where I was and what I was doing in years past. Sometimes they point up a local issue that still bears research or discussion. And sometimes they reveal that I used to feel one way about something and now my view has completely changed.  For me that would be things like cellphones in the classroom and school policing. But, I digress. I’ll admit that sometimes it’s hard to read my memories when they bring back sad times and disappointment. But even the worst of them haven’t been as bad as reading the daily news since last November. For several days my Memories section consisted solely of a few photos imported from Instagram, a service for which I had never asked. Yesterday evening the real memories were back. No idea why, but: I’m grateful. So I’m going to celebrate by congra...