Around Town and On the Air

A few odds and ends this morning.

For those of you who might be wondering, “why picnic tables?” after the announcement of this year’s contest at Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods, here’s a lovely piece from the folks at the Inner Arbor Trust:

Why Picnic Tables Matter

Something to think about:

...these outdoor gathering spaces will continue to be critical - and we believe that this refound love of the outdoors is here to stay. We need large, socially distanced outdoor spaces to begin to rebuild that feeling of community, that joy of being together in a common space.

A picnic in the park sounds like just the thing.

Reader Katie Kirk recommended another option for my “first freedom” Saturday:

Tomorrow from 10 am to 3 pm at HCC will be this year’s Howard County Greenfest. You can learn more about this year’s event here.

Lastly, this week marks the four year anniversary of local podcast Elevate Maryland. It began on the couches at Joe’s Deli (now sadly departed) with the production expertise of Ilana Bittner of HoCoMoJo and Pixel Workshop. Hosts Candace Dodson Reed and Tom Coale then struck out on their own, presenting from local venues like La Palapa, Lupa, The Common Kitchen, then finally settling in to the Howard Hughes event space downtown. Over the last year they’ve transitioned to a virtual format.

They just keep on going.

Occasionally they’ve joked that it’s just a hobby, but, frankly, doing what they do is hard work. If you’re going to do it well it takes preparation and a good deal of focus and presence in the moment when interviewing guests. As a listener, I find it’s not necessary to agree with the points of view expressed on the podcast to learn something new and/or valuable.

Cheers to Elevate Maryland for four years of discourse on our “small little big town”* and beyond.

*Thanks to Dianne Mustapha Henry for the delightfully appropriate monicker.

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