Skip to main content

Plans





The weekend is upon us and I have some recommendations.

 You can support the music programs at River Hill High School by stopping in at the Indoor Yard Sale, Saturday morning between eight and eleven am. It’s truly the biggest yard sale I have ever seen. I hear that there will be 50 vendors selling a variety of things: empanadas, baked goods, local Howard County honey, antiques, vinyl albums, Legos, toys, books, clothing, jewelry, prom dresses, games, sports equipment and on and on and on. It’s an indoor sale so it will be held rain or shine, there’s free admission and parking. Proceeds from vendor space rentals benefit River Hill Music Boosters.

 I know there’s a big push to declutter these days, what with Marie Kondo and all, but I’m pretty sure you can have fun shopping and find a few things that spark joy without throwing your entire life out of balance.

 Tonight, Saturday, (at 7 pm) and Sunday (at 2 pm) you can treat yourself to a classic musical experience at the Oakland Mills High School production of Mary Poppins. Tickets available here. Support the students of the Oakland Mills Fine Arts programs and enjoy a show that’s suitable for all ages. Musical theatre season in Howard County is really a treat, year after year. The students put so much work into the productions and their joy in performing is beautiful to witness.

 A bit of a postscript: Howard County Times reporter Erin B. Logan wrote about the prom dress giveaway event at Atholton High School that I featured In March. It’s a lovely piece and will make you feel good about our community. 

 Prom dress giveaway in Columbia draws nearly 400 girls

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
2 comments
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more