Village Green/Town²

  Thursday: I have the greatest idea for Friday’s blog post! Friday: Oh, that’s probably a really dumb idea. Well, let’s do it anyway. This week I saw a promo post for a HoCoLocal event that truly creeped me out. After some research I learned that it’s quite a common thing. I can’t claim to have discovered anything new or shocking and yet it still bothers me. Rather like the woman in this cartoon by the late (and brilliant) James Thurber. Cartoon by James Thurber This is Rachel Anne Accurso  . Photo credit Penguin Random House  She is the creator and lead performer of Ms. Rachel Music for Littles, an extremely successful program which appears on YouTube.  This is not Rachel Anne Accurso: Image from PJ’s Coffee social media  What we see here is an actor who works for a company called Courtney’s Character Corner.   Personally, I find the idea of a Ms. Rachel impersonator rather horrifying.  Why? We’ve all seen performers in costume suits hired to e...

  I had something entirely different planned for today and then I saw this reel from the Ellicott City Partnership. I can’t embed it here so you will need to click the link below. It’s a promo for this Saturday’s activities in Old Ellicott City: https://www.facebook.com/stories/110481028182162/UzpfSVNDOjI1OTY3MDk2OTQxNzg0MDg=/?view_single=1&source=shared_permalink Please forgive my amateurish screenshot here.  It begins: You know what UMBC, CCBC, AND HCC have in common? Y’all don’t have anything to do this Saturday!  The young man in the video then lays out all the possibilities - - Farmer’s Market, Music Festival, Flea Market. He tells you the times of each and he shows you where they will take place.  This is brilliant. You know who are always looking for fun things to do on the weekends? College students. You know who are young and energetic enough to take on a Farmer’s Market, a Music Festival, and a Flea Market all in one day? College students. You know who ...

    I’ve got a map for you. Can you guess what it is showing you? No, it’s not hot chicken places. It’s showing you the location of Little Free Libraries in our area that are officially registered with the  Little Free Library organization in Wisconsin  St. Paul, Minnesota. * There’s a new one in town.  Thanks to the good folks in Dorsey’s Search Community Association I now know that a new LFL has popped up on Leyden Way. You can see the locations of many more at their world wide map.  There’s even an app! To learn more about the mission of Little Free Libraries a good place to start is the About Us section of their website. Now I have a question for you. Who are these Little Free Libraries for? If you put one up in your yard, who is welcome to use it? Is it for the people in your neighborhood? Or is it for anyone in the whole wide world? All the information I see is telling me that anyone is welcome to visit the library and take a book. The existence of a...

  My readers truly made my Monday yesterday by chiming in on the Little Tikes “neutral” toy collection. What a wonderful discussion! It was a great way to start the week. A tip of the hat to this suggestion: Maybe Legos could be next - beige Legos on a beige carpet would be so much fun to find... with your foot. Ouch!  To top it off, Facebook got in the act and has started targeting me for adverts for clothing in neutral shades. Gee, thanks. Sarah Sundae has reported that the Rowan’s Dream cupcake fundraiser at Icing on the Cake raised $1,155 dollars! At an overall goal of $60,000 dollars for a wheelchair-accessible van for her son, she is in a long journey. Community response to the cupcake fundraiser has to be encouraging, though. So much of crowdfunding for medical needs these days depends so much on connecting with someone who knows someone who has an idea about someone else who might help. In my opinion that’s not at all how it should work. And yet: here we are. Bushy Pa...

  Did you know?  In recent years the Columbia Association has made a concerted effort to upgrade their network of play areas overall - - you can learn more here.  Columbia Association’s new play area upgrades, explained , April 2026 Columbia’s original Tot Lots (now called  play areas)  were created to blend in with the natural environment. Over the years, as trends in playground equipment have changed, color and sturdy plastic pieces have crept in. As you may expect, this has met with dismay by some Columbia purists. When I first moved to Columbia the color of the playground equipment would not have mattered me one iota because I couldn’t even find the totlots. (“ Looking for a Sign ”, Village Green/Town², 2013)  It has never made sense to me that a community has relied upon new residents to find valuable amenities based upon the theory of , “If you know, you know.”  CA has added much helpful signage since then but, to my knowledge, none of them read...

  So I did make it to Icing on the Cake to pick up a couple of Rowan’s Dream cupcakes . I had a lovely chat with the folks over there and was glad I finally got the motivation to try them out. Icing on the Cake opened in (approximately) December of 2023 and I’ve seen great comments about them from locals on social media. I have no excuse for why their rave reviews didn’t get me out of my house earlier. Possibly it’s because cupcakes are a want-to-have and not a need-to-have.  I do have a question for you. I don’t think I understand that parking lot at all.  Image from Google Maps According to the available signage, you cannot visit any of the businesses on the left side of this photo without taking a free trip around the business on the right side. Am I doing this wrong? Does Victoria Gastropub really want all these extraneous cars doing the loop around their restaurant? If there’s a better way to do this or if you can explain why this makes sense, please let me know. I’v...