Village Green/Town²

    When I asked about tornadoes the other day it was not an invitation. Sheesh. But here I am again thinking about them. I am not an expert on tornadoes. In fact, one hundred percent of my childhood knowledge was dependent upon Ajax brand cleaner. National Geographic Kids gives a great introductory description for beginners (like me.) it turns about the United States leads the world in the incidence of tornadoes. Go us, I guess. All of this brings me back to good old HoCo. Are we experiencing tornadoes more frequently than in years past? If so, do we know the reason why? It turns out that you can search history of tornadoes in Howard County, Maryland. One of the top hits will be a website called  “Tornado Path.” They have an app, too. They have easy-to-read information, colorful charts, and a really cool logo. You know what they don’t have? My wholehearted endorsement. And this is why: When you click on “About” on the website, they don’t exactly tell you who they are...

  Yesterday I wrote a great piece about Target - - the history of the company itself and the boycott. I was one hundred per cent satisfied with it. My iPad ate it. Blogger ate it. I don’t know who ate it but I know it was tasty. You’ll just have to take my word for it. Today I’m harkening back to an old post because, if the blog-munching demons are still hungry, I know I’ve got this one saved. ***** Music in My Head , Village Green/Town² March 20, 2020 March is Music in our Schools month. Yesterday I came across a post by local blogger HoCoHouseHon that is a celebration of music from start to finish. Worth the read: Soundtrack of the Self The writer touches on a theme that means a lot to me: Music is emotion, music is a lodestone. It doesn't matter if you can name chords or identify instruments in a symphony - it doesn't matter if you had piano lessons or played in your elementary school band - music is where our souls rest. Where we rejoice - where we are truly alive. Maybe th...

  I can’t find it now, but I recently spied a question from a new HoCo resident who wanted to know if we had weekly tornado tests.  I did not know that weekly tornado tests were a thing but I guess they are in tornado-prone areas. You won’t be surprised that I was thinking about that post last night as I saw pictures of people “hunkering down” in their basements. Are we becoming a tornado-prone area? Or at least a dangerous storm area? Do I have any data?  Nope. But definitely curious. ***** Art by aarondoodles This is a screen shot from a reel so it isn’t the clearest image. stressdoodlejames shared this with the word: Agreed. LET’S GET ONE THING STRAIGHT. IF IT'S MADE BY AI, IT ISN'T ART. IT'S SLOP. WORSE. IT'S THEFT. IT STEALS FROM REAL ARTISTS. POISONS THE AIR & WATER. AND IT'S MAKING YOU DUMBER. I’ve decided to take a stand on this. If you’re a local business and you use AI slop I will not buy your product, recommend it, or share your posts. If you are a lo...

  This is not a new article (February 19th) but somehow it caught my eye for the first time this morning as I scanned the Howard County stories on the Baltimore Banner website.  Columbia’s figure skating pioneer is 86 and not about to quit , Lillian Reed, Baltimore Banner With a stellar photo by Kaitlin Newman: Pat Muth, 86, skates on the ice at Columbia Ice Rink. Murth has been skating since she was a child and now teaches young kids how to be confident on the ice. (Kaitlin Newman/The Banner) This sentence about Muth’s connection to the Columbia Ice Rink intrigued me: I found out there was an ice rink being built at the end of my street.  So that means that she lived in Oakland Mills, which automatically makes her story more interesting to me.  The rink was built in 1970. The quadplex community where we live was built in 1972. So the rink predates our house. I wonder what Oakland Mills looked like back then? Yes, I’m digressing a bit. (But don’t come at me with you...

On my morning scroll through Bluesky for a blog topic… Maryland mentioned? SUPERMAN On the planet Krypton, Kal-El (Kryp-tonese for "Star-Child") was the son of scientist Jor-El and his wife Lara. Discovering that Krypton's core was unstable, Jor-El warned the Science Council that planetary destruction was imminent. But due to too much time spent in deliberation, it was not possible to build a space ark to evacuate any of Krypton's population. As the planet underwent its death throes, Jor-El sent his four-year old son, Kal-El towards planet Earth aboard an experimental rocket. On Earth the child was found and adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent who called him Clark (Martha's maiden name) and instilled in him a high moral code and Earthian values. From the beginning the Kents knew of his otherwordly nature, and it was not long before they discovered his otherworldly capacities: he was incredibly strong, seemingly impervious to harm, able to float in the air, and was...

It is not Howard County Government’s fault. It is not the Columbia Association’s fault. It is not the Wilde Lake Village Association’s fault. The Grocery Outlet parent company has made the decision to close 36 stores. One of them is the one in Wilde Lake.  Companies like this do not make it their business to know the history of this individual site. They do not know how long Wilde Lake was without a grocery after the Giant closed. They probably don’t know about the work that went into the building to create the perfect home for an expanded David’s Natural Market. Big companies know spreadsheets and profits, earnings, losses, demographics, projections…But Jay and Rizwana Mirza, who have operated the Wilde Lake store, probably understand far better how much the people of Wilde Lake wanted their own grocery. They tried to give it to them. I went googling for a photo of the old Wilde Lake Giant and found this article in Columbia Patch instead. Image from Columbia Maryland Archives, us...