Village Green/Town²

    I have an inordinate fondness for discovering what people think about Columbia/HoCo when I’m on Bluesky. (Same for Twitter, back in the day.) I think it’s good to see things through the eyes of folks with a different perspective. True, it’s not always flattering. But I usually learn something. And sometimes the takes are amusing. Here are a few recent ones: Q: What is the least culturally powerful city where people do the "you're not a real [local]" thing, because New York is very very far from the only one. A: Columbia MD, where all directions are given in terms of a business that closed 30 years ago. ***** The culture of Maryland is a married couple consisting of a doctor who works at a hospital in Baltimore and a lawyer who works in DC, who have 2-3 kids who pass down the same Volvo with each of their college stickers on the rear window, live in Columbia, and shop at Total Wine religiously. ***** [It] depends a lot on where you are in the state. Like, in Howard Co...

  Ready? Let’s get started. Grab a tote bag. You will need: Black light Magnet Tape measure Curious? Then you should take a look at this piece about thrifting tips before you head out to any yard sales this weekend. Why the owners of Twin Thrift Vintage bring a magnet and black light to every yard sale , Megan Knight, WMAR-2 News What I learned from reading this piece is that I am not looking for the same things at yard sales as the owners of Twin Thrift Vintage. No surprise there. Ali and Jordan Virden are professionals. As dealers, they are looking for high quality items to resell. I mostly go to yard sales for fun these days - - without any particular goal in mind. If I spend more than five dollars it’s a big day. When I was teaching I was primarily looking for children’s books and items that could be used in learning activities and dramatic play. Too bad a black light won’t automatically tell you if things like that have been stored in moldy conditions or spent years in rooms f...

  For reasons unknown to me, June 8th is Name Your Poison Day. While making the rounds of the usual “did you know about this holiday?” websites I discovered that no one seems to know the actual origin of the day. That’s odd. How do we know it’s really a holiday if no one can document its origins? Perhaps it’s even a hoax. How would we know? The poison du jour is AI, which is making it harder and harder to do online research or to tell truth from fiction. Examples: Facebook is now flooding my feed with accounts and posts from “Howard County” and “Columbia” but from other states entirely. When I search YouTube for current local stories these days, I routinely get substantial amounts of unrelated junk - - even if I put my search term in quotes.  My realtor’s newsletter just recommended this house to me. See the problem? What AI has meant in my daily life is less accuracy, more difficulty finding what I’m looking for, and an overall degradation in the quality of information. (See ...

  I always seem to be in my car at mealtime these days. These past few months have been an exercise in trying not to eat the worst sort of food while driving either to or from during lunch and/or dinner. I know it’s not good for me but often I don’t have the energy to do better. The one bright light in the vast wasteland of grab-and-go eating has been Bon Fresco.  Their food soothes me and calms my stomach no matter how crummy I feel. It’s slight out of my way but it is absolutely worth it. The quality of the food is excellent, the prices are fair, and the customer service is outstanding. I regret many things these days but I don’t regret one cent I’ve spent at Bon Fresco. One of the employees now recognizes me and calls me by name. I will forever be indebted to them for complimenting me on my favorite summer pants - - which are honestly on their last legs - -  on a day when I felt about one hundred years old.  My favorite menu items are the London Broil sandwich (no...

  Howard County celebrates Pride twice and I’m a fan. Once in June and and again in October. Today, from 12 - 5 pm, is OEC Pride's Sixth Annual Pride Festival: Exist, Persist, and Love! Visit the HoCo Pride FB page for a site map and information on parking. That’s where I learned that the trolley will be adding a stop at the Courthouse Lot just for Pride - - expanding their usual route to give attendees more options for parking.  The event is free. Click here to register. The following statement is both reassuring and depressing to me: Huge shout out to AfterHourz Security who will be protecting us throughout our event!! We know they have our backs so we can have yours! Everyone attending the event deserves to be safe. The fact that additional security is necessary in Howard County in the year 2026 makes me sad.  I couldn’t find OEC Pride on FB Events or Visit Howard County Events, the Columbia Mom events listing, Columbia Inspired, the Columbia Scoop newsletter events l...

  My mother-in-law checks the news on her iPad each morning. It’s rare that she finds anything there that doesn’t depress her or make her angry.  I know exactly how she feels. “Isn’t there any good news?” she asked me the other day.  “There probably is, but that’s not what the news outlets are feeding you,” I suggested. “They’re highlighting the stories that they think will make you click.” Isn’t there any good news? Her plaintive request gnawed at me. I started looking. You can do a Google search for “good news stories today.” I got about a page of websites to check.  One of them, the Goid News Network, put me onto stories like the following: Bruce Springsteen Celebrates His New Center for American Music Opening Soon with All-Star Concert for the Ages Heartwarming ‘Sock-er’ News: Arsenal Donates Old Football Socks to Sick Horses and Donkeys US Nonprofit Again Wipes Out Millions in Hospital Bills–This Time for 97,000 Residents of Connecticut I don’t really know much ...