Village Green/Town²

I’ve seen some folks online express frustration recently by using statements like: I am so over Howard County. Or, was it: I just can’t even with Howard County. But one comment I spotted, left as a review of a local nonprofit, takes the cake: They do nothing to help the real housewives of HoCo. That’s   when my whole train of thought went off the rails. Who are the real housewives of HoCo? True Confession: I have never watched even one moment of any of the “Real Housewives” shows.  I didn’t watch Desperate Housewives either. Perhaps I don’t like the term “Housewife”. I know I cringe when people call the dramatic play area in a classroom “Housekeeping.” (Maybe that’s just me.) Here is your question of the day, dear readers. Who are the real housewives of HoCo? What qualifies them to be “real” and what constitutes a legitimate “housewife”? The HoCo part is pretty straightforward. If ”housewife” means not having gainful employment outside the home, I wonder h...

I’d like to take a moment today to address the role of schools during our pandemic quarantine. There’s a story here, but not the one most people are talking about. So let’s have a little exposition. Here are some ways that schools have been asked through the years to respond to changing needs and expectations: In response to:                                                            Schools provide: None of these are one-and-done additions to the educational mission of our schools. They require time to enact/complete, whether through daily operations, weekly or monthly meetings,  or annual training requirements. Add to this the national focus on high stakes standardized testing and you are adding more work, more forms to fill out, more meetings about data, more evaluations based on testing numbers. Despite increasing...

There’s life in the old gal yet. This gal: Back about a million years ago, in late February, I wrote about the present state of the Columbia Flier building. (“Behind the Door ” “On the Inside ”) Not even a month later, the scene is a bit different. The seasons change even as we stay inside. Spring has arrived and pink petals carpet the sidewalks leading to the doors.  Something else has changed. The school supplies that Board of Education member Vicky Cutroneo has been gathering there for use in schools have taken on a new purpose. In a quick change of plan, Ms. Cutroneo is getting those materials out to the HCPSS Grab & Go meal sites to support the work of Columbia Community Care. In addition, Ms. Cutroneo has reached out to friends and neighbors for additional materials to supplement her cache: Local friends:  Whilst cleaning out and organizing your closets and basements... if you come across board games, educational games, unused coloring b...

The announcement that all child care operations in Maryland were ordered to close, save for the ones serving the children of essential workers, prompted a sermon from me on Facebook yesterday. I know I am most likely preaching to the choir here, but I hope that anyone reading this understands that every single child care professional working right now is putting their life on the line daily, just as much as the essential personnel they support. We have to assume that every child and every parent dropping off and picking up is an asymptomatic carrier. The likelihood that teachers/carers will get sick is exponentially increased. It’s probable that these providers are not in a position to “not work”. Pay in early childhood jobs is abysmal. I know teachers and assistants who work two and three jobs. Please keep these amazing people in your thoughts. Without childcare the work of so many that we desperately need right now would not be possible. And maybe we could circle back on th...

Since it’s Friday, and I overslept, I’m going to fall back on the time-honored HoCoRising tradition of Friday links.  Elevate Maryland is going to do their new remote show thing on Saturday at noon with the folks of Oakland Mills Online. Here’s the link to the event announcement. No link on this but there is a growing trend of people going on Twitter to report sightings of people congregating in various locations around Howard County. To the Governor. A few thoughts: How were you able to see them if you were at home where you should be? What do you think the Governor will do? Wondering the racial make up of reporters vs. congregators. Apparently reporting people to the Governor is the new writing a hot letter to the editor. Woodbine Restaurant Tony Locos is offering a free roll of toilet paper with each take-out order. It’s both a helpful and humorous promotion and it earned them an article in the Howard County Times. Here’s the link to the artic...

March is Music in Our Schools month!  There are a lot of disappointed music teachers out there. Student performers, too. March is often the month for special presentations and performances. It’s also a time when music teachers try to involve all the other staff in the building in celebrating music. You might see a bulletin board with photos of the school’s teachers and staff describing their favorite kind of music or telling about how they participated in school music as a child. Of course, music teachers live and breathe music every day of the year but March is special. It’s a big deal.  And now we are all stuck in our homes. There are no Music in Our Schools concerts, or bulletin boards, morning announcements, staff-wide or school-wide activities.  In honor of our Howard County music teachers and students, I’d like to share a little information about someone who grew up in Columbia and attended Howard County Schools. His name is Deepak Ramapriyan. I...

As local children were returned to their homes from the school system for a period of self isolation, many parents began to worry. What were they to do? How could they make sure their children were “keeping up” academically? Where was the complete plan from HCPSS for daily instruction? The worry, of course, was only human. The way different people responded to that worry was, shall we say, educational. I’m not going to delve into the weeds here. I want to focus on a question that was asked in a Facebook group very early on in a discussion of the challenges ahead. I’m paraphrasing, but the gist of it was: Why is the school system focused on providing meals when their real mission is to educate? Hmm. Why is that? Schools should be about teaching and learning, right? They’re not food service operations like restaurants or grocery stores. In a time of crisis, shouldn’t they be attending to education? There’s plenty of very good academic work out there about the history of how...

News you can use from NextDoor: (Stevens Forest edition) Bear Hunt! A Bear Hunt is taking place in various parts of the country! Place a stuffed Bear or other animals or dolls, etc. randomly in your windows for children to see while walking or riding in cars. I’m participating, how about you? I’m in! Since the beginning of our social distancing I have seen several recommendations for sharing signs of goodwill with our neighbors. This is probably my favorite so far, although rainbows in windows and chalking sidewalks are also appealing. I just have a thing about bears. This is Buddy. He has been known to accompany me to the Second Chance Saloon. That’s not his beer, by the way. He’s not of age. Bears much bigger than Buddy have been making the rounds in France and around the world for the last several years since the advent of Les Nounours des Gobelins, whose daily adventures are chronicled on Facebook and beyond. Here’s a throwback piece by area journalist and blogger...

The best meal I have ever eaten in Howard County wasn’t a meal, exactly, but an evening of food and drink sampling put on by the Weckers of Cured/18th & 21st for area media types. I mention it  here in a piece entitled “Social Studies”. Waitstaff brought us plate after plate of carefully chosen selections from the menus of both of the newly opened restaurants. There were special beer, wine, and cocktail recommendations as well. It was the kind of food where each new taste prompted you to stop and really experience it. The flavors, aromas, and textures combined with beautiful presentation and even carefully-selected plates and bowls to create a bouquet of sensory delight. Each course was interspersed with brief talks on  subjects such as the history of the restaurant, the evolution of the “Cured”  and “18th & 21st” concepts, how new cocktails are created and executed, choosing tableware to go with menu items, and the personality of each side of the restau...

First of all, thanks to all of you who have been sharing and recommending my blog in the last twenty-four hours. I very much appreciate your support and I hope I will live up to your faith in me. Of course, the first thing I did this morning was oversleep... As someone who is self isolating, I have been observing a growing plan of action out there in HoCo land that concerns me. Perhaps my concern is unjustified. I’m putting it out there to my readers for feedback today. Most of us have never lived in a culture where food and product shortages are routine. I grew up reading about how they plagued the lives of citizens in the Soviet Union. And of course we were taught that the long lines at the shops and the chronic food shortages were the direct result of communism. “We don’t have that because we are a democracy.” Of course, capitalism figured in there somewhere but that’s not the simplistic lesson this elementary school student took away from these stories. But now, because of...

You’ve seen this, right? Facebook has created a way for us to monetize our birthdays for charity and it has caught on. Sometimes I give, sometimes I don’t, depending on the cause, my relationship to the birthday person, and my current financial situation. Some folks find these annoying - - I wouldn’t have been buying you a present in any case, so why are you soliciting me? - - but, like it or not, they have become a part of the social media scene. You know what’s coming, right? My birthday is Monday and I’m making my pitch. Take a deep breath. It’s not money I’m asking for. I know my readers are doing the best they can with what they have right now. I’m asking for a different sort of present this year. Presence.  That’s right, birthday presence. I’m asking you to share the Facebook page for my blog and invite people to Like it, with the goal of surpassing 500 Likes.  Here’s the page:  https://www.facebook.com/VillageGreenTownSquared/?ref=boo...

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?” The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.” “Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!” After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…” I made a difference for that one.” (Loren Eisley) You’ve probably read or heard those words before. It is, in many ways, a feel-good story about being willing to do what you can, where you are. I think most of us imagine we would be the child, focused on each small but achievable act, rather than the adult who sees only an enormous, impossible challenge. I had occasion to recall this st...

For those of us who are more or less housebound right now, here’s a virtual walk around one of Columbia’s most beloved places: Lake Kittamaqundi. These photos were taken about three years ago. I look forward to making this walk again. Right now I’m trying to think of all the wonderful places in Columbia/HoCo that I love, keeping them alive in my mind’s eye. What are your favorite local places? Do you have photos that makes you happy? Feel free to share here .

It could have been an advert but it was purely a sincere testimonial. While looking for story ideas, I found this conversation on Twitter: I'm not as content with VOD/home viewing options, so this'll be tough on me. But I did stock up on library DVDs in expectation that the library would close indefinitely, which it did earlier today. I signed up for kanopy, which seems pretty dope so far !! Which library system? I didn't think it was available locally. But maybe that's changed? I signed up for it with my howard county library card easy-peasy two days ago! I just tried it myself and it is easy-peasy. In addition to a range of film including documentaries there’s also Kanopy Kids, with plentiful choices for children. So, there’s just one more helpful service provided by your Howard County Library. Just go to kanopy.com and follow the directions to sign up. Have your library card handy, and you’ll need your four digit access code as well. (I think it’s the la...

I have a confession to make: I am not inspired by elected officials making statements while wearing baseball caps. I don’t care which political party they belong to. It just doesn’t make sense to me. What is the message that one is sending by wearing a baseball cap? I’m sporty I’m youthful I’m one of “the people” I’m trying to keep the sun out of my eyes  I’m advertising a slogan on the hat In the grand scheme of things,what with the real life and death things we are dealing with right now, I realize that hat choice is way down the list. On the other hand, if I do nothing but go on and on every day about the crisis we are in, our spirits will sink pretty fast. So forgive me if I flip my lid about headwear today. Men don’t wear hats anymore, other than the occasional wooly hat in winter and ball cap in summer.There used to be so many to choose from. Purely for the fun of it, I’m asking my readers to make suggestions as to what sort of hat might inspire confidence fro...

On the first business day/school day of our community quarantine I have some information about what people are doing around town to make things better. There’s probably more initiatives out there that I don’t know about yet, so, feel free to share them with me and I will boost their signal. First on the list is making a donation to support the Howard County Food Bank. As more and more families are impacted by workplace closures, the need for food will be increasing. Click here to donate . A specific need is highlighted in this campaign by the Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County: they are raising $5,000.00 to meet the food needs of families enrolled in our local Head Start programs. They have raised about $4,100.00 so far. Your donation could put them over the top. Click here to donate. A Spanish teacher at Wilde Lake High School, Erika Strauss Chavarria, has started a Facebook Group called Columbia Community Care. She explains: In light of our community centers and libra...