Village Green/Town²

In order to make up for lost school time, due to weather closures, today will be a school day in Howard County. No one is overjoyed by this, least of all people who had plans made well in advance.  I have nothing useful to add that hasn’t been said by other people already. It may be a difficult day in some schools. It may be just fine in others. This feels like a good opportunity to remind folks that we continually ask schools to turn on a dime, pick up the slack, and just  “make it work” under more than challenging circumstances.  ***** If you don’t have work or school commitments today you can always wander over to Clark’s Elioak Farm. They’re open, too. * New* We will be open Monday, April 6th WITH Egg Hunts • all day! Open Hours 10AM-5PM We will also be open every other day this week and resume our regular hours of Tuesday through Sunday 10 AM to 5 PM (5:30PM on weekends) Come on out to enjoy our brand new baby goats! ***** Speaking of egg hunts… If you’d like to beg...

  Ten years ago on this date I was deep into yet another HCPSS Board of Education race. Five years ago I continued to be perplexed by the lack of transparency from a Columbia group calling themselves The Rouse Project. Today? National news makes it hard to concentrate on the local scene these days. In the past I found myself passionate, frustrated, or even angry about Columbia/HoCo issues. Now there are far too many days when I look at my world and feel more fearful than anything else. I still care deeply about the school system. I am worn out from hoping that elected BOE members will vote to prioritize the most vulnerable. So often they do not. I still distrust groups who won’t tell you who they are.  On the other hand, there are people in our community doing wonderful things. Some of them weren’t in existence back in 2016 or even 2021. (Or I hadn’t yet learned about them.) For example: Columbia Community Care Community Ecology Institute  Merriweather Park at Symphony W...

  In case you were wondering what sort of things pique my curiosity…here are today’s three things. Why do people film tours of local elevators? Tour of the elevators at TenM Flats & The Metropolitan in Columbia MD Tour of the elevators at Howard Community College in Columbia MD Strange Unknown Hydraulic Elevator, 5999 Harpers Farm Rd, Columbia, MD My personal favorite is the “Strange Unknown Hydraulic Elevator.” It’s clearly not unknown. It’s in a building on Harper’s Farm Road. Is filming elevators a TikTok trend? Part of training in elevator repair programs? What is the origin of the logo of the Howard County Historical Society? It caught my eye this morning and I suddenly wondered if it had always been that way and what it is meant to represent. Yes, I did a basic Google search. So far I have not looked under the right rock. If you are in possession of this knowledge, clue me in. This last one might be hard for you to spot. It’s from an article in the Baltimore Sun about can...

  I’ve been over here flailing around trying to think of a blog topic and then I realized: it’s Friday. I can do what the heck I want. So this is what I want. I want a kitchen sink that faces towards the room and I want people to realize that, if they want me to do the dishes, they need to keep me company and talk to me. My kitchen sink faces a wall and we put a lovely photograph of the beach there. It’s attractive but hardly interactive.  If I cannot have interactive dishwashing my second choice is no dishwashing. I’m flexible. I want kitchen shelves that can be made to move up or down at the push of a button. I do not want to reach up or bend down ever again. I do not want to have to get up on a kitchen ladder. Make the shelves move for me. Put them on some kind of track. How, exactly? That’s not my job. I’m the idea person. I know this is possible because I saw it on HGTV once. Okay, maybe it was on a show called “Extreme Homes.” So what? This is an extreme want. Lastly: I ...

A brief story. I saw a documentary about Little People some years back. (Dwarfism, achondroplasia).  One gentleman featured in the film described an experience where someone of typical height visited his home. Naturally, many of the features in his residence had been retrofitted to accommodate his height. Including in the bathroom. When the visitor emerged from “using the facilities” he remarked, with some irritation, “There’s something wrong with your toilet!” That response has stayed with me for a long time. I am normal, thinks the man. I am of normal height. This toilet doesn’t accommodate me. There is something wrong with this toilet. This mindset prevails in too many areas of our lives and it is not only demeaning and limiting (think education and the workplace) but it can also be dangerous. If humans come in a variety of manifestations, acknowledging that and acting on that should be the goal. Sorting out the “normal” from everyone else and then planning only for that “normal...

Yesterday, on International Trans Day of Visibility, County Executive Calvin Ball released this statement: Howard County is a community where all people, can live openly and authentically, no matter their gender identity. That's why on Trans Day of Visibility; we stand with the transgender and non-binary individuals in Howard County and beyond. We raise awareness and we recognize the discrimination that many still face. Howard County sees you, and we will always be here to advocate for you. I responded: Thank you. The value of community depends upon acceptance and respect. A no-name troll came back at me with this: Unless you happen to be a heterosexual white male, then you're SOL.  ***** "Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us."   - - from a passage in the Wisdom of Sirach (44:1) Image from Cured/18th and 21st social media* “Let us now praise famous men” because Women’s History Month is over and we have the rest of the year to fill up. “Let us n...