Village Green/Town²

Yes, it's Monday. What better time to look ahead to the weekend and make some fun plans? I am inviting you to join me, my family, my friends and neighbors at the Oakland Mills Cultural Arts Festival on Saturday from 11 am to 4 pm. As such, I am just going to copy and paste all the information here to pique your interest. Cultural Arts Festival Saturday, October 5, 2013 - 11:00am - 4:00pm Free, Rain or Shine Bring your family, friends, and neighbors - rain or shine - to a festival where admission and fun is always free! Enjoy continuous family entertainment in the courtyard. Listen to the Oakland Mills High School Band open the festivities, experience some magic with “Turner, Dean of Magic,” enjoy the Irish rock sound of “Donegal XPress,” dance and move to the beats of “Mambo Combo,” and feel the rhythm of the “FunDrum Rhythm Circle” with Jonathan Murray. Purchase unique crafts from local artisans and enjoy delicious festival food; including gourmet hotdogs, grilled spe...

Last night was Future Scorpions Night at the Oakland Mills High School Football game. The bands from Oakland Mills Middle and Lake Elkhorn Middle joined the Oakland Mills High School band for the evening. Since Margo was there playing tuba, my husband and I attended our first OMHS football game. I don't hang around with high school kids much. Preschoolers are my specialty, so I am sometimes apprehensive when approaching events with this age group. What struck me about last night was how much it was like the small-town Indiana experience where my nephews went to school. Although their tiny town was almost exclusively white, and Oakland Mills is much more racially diverse, the experience was much the same: seeing friends on a Friday night, buying and eating snacks, calling out to passing aquaintances, even watching a bit of the game. So this is that Friday Night Lights experience people talk about. The big difference between the Indiana crowd and the Oakland Mills crowd cam...

There will be signs. I am really excited to see this. There really will be signs. In fact, there are some already . In case you haven't been following my ongoing desire for better signage , the Columbia Patch article is a quick read and includes a photograph, as well. This is a great example of ideas being submitted through Inspire Columbia and put into action, although I suspect this one has been in the works longer than that. It is heartening to see the two-way communication going on there. If you haven't made your ideas known there, you should. CA is truly listening. I still hope to see invitational signs where the pathways begin at the street/sidewalk points. "To the Totlots" or "CA Pathway Entrance" would be good. The more we invite, encourage, and support community participation, the stronger our community will be. Not everyone agrees. A comment on the Patch article states: What a waste of money and time. Most people have smartphones that m...

I have a confession to make. I was an underage drinker. In Connecticut, in the mid to late '70's, the drinking age was eighteen. As a high school student going to summer theater cast parties, I was offered liquor and I drank. That's what you do at cast parties, right? But I never ordered a drink in a restaurant, even when surrounded by friends who did, in places that reliably served underage drinkers. Why? Because it was illegal. Yes, in my muddle-headed teenaged brain, it was okay to drink in someone's home, but not to order liquor in a restaurant. I raise this issue this morning because of a post by Dr. Clarence Lam on Facebook this morning. "Great discussion tonight sponsored by HC DrugFree at Wilde Lake High School on how parents can take an active role in reducing teen alcohol and drug use here in Howard County! Of note to parents: parents can be fined up to $2500 for providing alcohol to teens." Do you want to pay to be the cool parent? ...

Saturday I attended the kick off event for Courtney Watson's campaign for the office of Howard County Executive. I was with the band. The Lexington Brass Quintet Truth be told, I would have been there even if my husband hadn't been playing tuba. I like Courtney. I've seen her reaching out to constituents through social media, most notably during storms and power outages. And I like the people I see working to support her. Someone must do the work. Even before well-wishers walked in the door Saturday morning, people were busy. It's not just about wearing a "We're With Watson" t-shirt. The event itself had to be planned, the venue chosen and booked, tasks assigned, logos for signs and t-shirts created, food ordered, supplies purchased, speakers chosen and invited. In that room Saturday morning were people who care enough to get up early, stay up late, make lists, brainstorm, reach out and follow up. You can tell a lot about a candidate by looking...

Yesterday, before my daughter asked for a pass to the Health Room so she could go home (sick with a nasty cold) she endured a lecture from the 7th grade GT Social Studies teacher about poor handwriting. Apparently the teacher is "too old to be trying to read chicken scratches",and she will be taking off points for poor handwriting. The lecture was addressed to the entire class, but Margo thinks she has already had some points taken off. There's just one problem here. With the exception of Kindergarten, where letter formation was taught, the students at Talbott Springs received no handwriting instruction. Nada, zilch, as they say. And don't get me started on not teaching cursive. That's another story altogether. And yet, in my travels as an itinerant music teacher in the County, I have seen some schools using the Handwriting Without Tears method. And so I am beginning to wonder. Are some elementary schools teaching handwriting? And, if so, are they the schoo...

So, the State of Maryand has decided to go ahead and administer the MSA's this year. But this year is a little bit different. The state has changed over to teaching the new Common Core Curriculum. Exams for the new curriculum are not available yet. So using the old tests means we will not be assessing students on the material they have learned. The recent (and misguided) trend to use standardized test scores to as a way to evaluate teachers is embedded in the the Common Core. So, what does it mean if the test administered doesn't match up with what the teachers are required to teach? Don't worry, says the State of Maryand. We'll give the tests, but they just won't count. They won't count on teacher evaluation, they won't count on school evaluation. (And they never count on student evaluation--report cards or promotion from year to year.) Well, I think we are going to need to send the State of Maryland, and any local Board of Education that complies, b...

At the suggestion of Lisa B., Mrs. S. , I am forgoing today's critical blog post in favor of some good news.   Thank you, Baltimore Sun! *** Critical blog post on deck for tomorrow. --jam hocoblogs@@@   Posted with Blogsy

After the happenings of yesterday I have no answers. I am left with only questions. So, in no particular order... What makes Miss Kansas more American than Miss New York? Why is nobody making snarky comments about those white criminals in Clarksville and Glenelg? Who are the people behind "Stop Traffic Calmings" on Thunder Hill Road, who appear to desire anonymity? How many people have signed up so far for Excite Columbia? Is the new-style Patch any more successful than the original? What is causing the power outage at Worthington Elementary School? Why is the State of Maryland going to make our children take the MSA's when they are irrelevant to their current learning experiences? How can my husband leave the house with an old sofa and come home with a new car? Is everyone as excited as I am about the return of HowChow? Is nine-thirty am on a Saturday morning a good time to have a special event? How many folks know that Saturday is a Ladies Night...

On Saturday we had made plans to meet up with some friends for a picnic. We were running late, grabbed some sandwiches from Subway, arrived at Cedar Lane Park, and no one was there. Well, that's not quite right. There were plenty of people there enjoying the beautiful day, but our friends were nowhere to be found. We sat down, I checked my email, and discovered we had come a whole week early. Well... It was a beautiful day. We had our picnic anyway, and a little bit of unplanned family time, just the three of us. The last time we went to Cedar Lane Park West, we were disappointed. The playground was GONE! It was one of our favorites. I suspect it had been built in conjunction with the needs of students of the old Cedar Lane School, as parts of it appeared to be disability-friendly. It was on two levels, with a wide variety of equipment. When we saw it had been removed, we were sad. A quick tweet brought reassurances from HoCo Rec and Parks that a new one would be going...

The Columbia Association is going to be gathering information from older adults as a part of their Comprehensive Plan for Serving the Older Adult Community. For the purposes of their survey, "older" is defined as 45 years of age and older. From where I am sitting, 45 looks mighty young, but then, it's all in your perspective. My gut feeling is that we are not nearly concerned enough about the needs and concerns of younger Columbians. I don't fault CA for doing this, but it does worry me a bit. The future of Columbia lies not just in those aged 45 and up. I was asked at the Candidates' Forum in Oakland Mills if I had a "Senior Agenda." No, I replied. I have a human agenda. Columbia is only going to work if people of all generations are reaching out a helping hand to each other. We're all in this together. I worry that some of the proposed changes I see on the horizon are benefiting one demographic at the expense of others. That could be rea...

This morning we experienced yet another skirmish in the Lunch Bag War. My daughter narrowly escaped a lunch-less school day. Why? Because she didn't return her lunch bag to the kitchen, so it could be washed and refilled. She brings her lunch every other day, and when she comes home, she flings it on the bench along side her book bag and promptly forgets all about it. The expectation is that she will return it to the kitchen. It is not happening. Is that so much to ask? I think to myself. Boom. My mother used to wash and fold my clothes and put them on the stairs for me to carry up and put away. I was a teenager, and just sailed on by those clothes. I don't know why. My mother would eventually bring them upstairs, grumbling mightily about the injustice of it all. "I just want you to take them upstairs. Is that so much to ask?" In his play Our Town, set before the First World War, Thornton Wilder paints a similar picture when George, a young man consumed b...

So yesterday was Swap Ideas Day. If you don't believe me, check this out. (I, for one, am a little sorry that I missed Lumpy Rug Day and Nothing Day.) Anyway, I put out a call on Facebook, looking for ideas to swap. No one had any they could spare. Or the time to swap, I guess. Perhaps idea swapping just gets a bad rap as something one has to do in professional development sessions. Mandatory idea swapping, followed by a pre-determined, canned response from management. "Let's all play a fun game with our Halloween candy! You can choose the values and the rules for swapping. Good. Now turn in all the candy and go clean your room." Been there? Me, too. It is far easier to collect pet peeves than get people to swap ideas. It's easy, it's one-way, no muss, no fuss, no uncomfortable interaction. But one local blogger has been quite successful using the Starbucks approach, with the occasional happy hour thrown in for good measure. Bill Santos, of Colum...

Once there was a tree, a lovely decorative apple tree, that lived for many years outside a Columbia home, blooming nicely in the Spring and producing indelible, slippery little apples each year. It was a beautiful little tree, but as time went on it began to fail. As its branches reached closer and closer to the little house, the strength of the tree faded, and it became a hazard. One day it was cut down, and the stump ground down, leaving an open rectangle of mulch right in front of the house. When Spring came, the owners of the little house cleared the patch of mulch and weeds, and turned the soil. They planted high quality grass seed, and watered faithfully. Nothing happened. But they did not give up. They planted more high quality grass seed, watered faithfully, and were cheered when a bit of grass began to sprout. And yet, when summer came to an end, the little patch looked like this: The open patch had been filled by an invasive and highly successful ground-cover. At...

A quick note this morning. I spotted a publicity poster for this interesting event on Facebook. I bring your attention to the circled item.   I feel reasonably certain that Dennis would have pointed out that, as political events are coming thick and fast these days, any event with "no speeches" would be cheap at twice the price. hocoblogs@@@   Posted with Blogsy

I don't follow football. In fact, I truly don't like football. But the enthusiasm with which Marshmallow Man of The 53 Blog prepares for this yearly set of rituals makes me smile. It just makes me happy to see someone so full of enjoyment. For me, the only equivalent I can think of is going to the closet under the stairs and getting out the Christmas boxes. What a joy it is to unpack, decorate, plan menus, and look forward to seeing friends. So I don't pass judgement. My daughter Alice, of HoCoHouseHon Blog, has come to the celebration of football as an adult. You can check out her take on the game here . Although there is little to no support for football on either side of her family, she has found her own way to enjoy it--at first through her husband's eyes--and found a way to just let go and have fun. So I don't pass judgement. At our house, we follow baseball. I follow the Orioles because my husband follows the Orioles. And he follows the Orioles beca...

Back when all of our kids were young, my sister and brother-in-law had two ways to categorize behavior when it came to their two rambunctious boys. Was it an "accident"? Or was it a "bad plan"? I remember hearing my ever-patient brother-in-law call out, "Don't do it, Greg!" in a warning tone before one of these incidents would occur. And then, the aftermath. "That was a baaaaad plaaannn, Greg." This expression came to mind when I was discussing pet peeves with my local Facebook friends. I was stumped by the following: "The general request for the need for "walkability" when no one wants to walk more than 50 feet to get into a store...or the gym." She elaborated, "There are many, many people who like to walk, or bike around town. The people who annoy me are the ones who "claim" to want walkability and then complain when they can't get a close parking space." Hmm...I had to think about th...

Sunday morning I asked the following question on Facebook: What's your (local) pet peeve? I got a boat-load of responses. Here they are: Street sweepers. Really? My money is paying for that 2 times per year??? Car drivers that ignore traffic coming from Sohap, at the stop sign at Oakland Mills Road and Sohap Lane. Well we kinda covered it this morning, but people who loiter and hurl trash and beer bottles on the ground. They have no respect for how hard the rest of us have worked so that we all have a nice place to live. Then they wonder why businesses pack up move elsewhere. Cigarette butts thrown out of car windows and on the ground...the world is my ashtray. We should implement that $1500 littering fine. No bike rack at the elementary school. The fine should be $1500 normally and $3000 if you have a "Choose Civility" sticker on your car. Julia Jackson McCready Well, you got me going pondering a blog post. I know th...