Village Green/Town²

  One beer, in the heat of the early evening, and I am just about fit for nothing this morning. For this I repent and am truly sorry.  This was the beer. This was the evening. Inner Arbor Trust CEO and President Nina Basu welcomes concert-goers to the  park. Vocalist Deborah Moore and the Columbia Jazz Band It was a lovely evening for music at Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods, and you don’t have to take my word for it. You may very likely know someone who was there. Quite the crowd turned out to enjoy the Columbia Jazz Band and vocalists Deborah Moore and Matt Williams. Many folks, including me, brought along a picnic supper. I splurged at Whole Foods on a fancy sandwich and dessert and enjoyed every bite - - it was a rare treat. My rating for the entire evening would be practically perfect in every way with the possible exception of my stupidity for drinking in the heat. Next time around I’ll be smarter. The next time will be June 10th, for the Navy Commodores, who ar...

  Photo from the Historical Marker Database This marker is in Elkridge. It’s on Old Washington Road in front of the former Norbel School building. The building was originally a public school.  If I were an historian I could tell you when it was placed, and how many Elkridge residents went to fight in wars but never came home. I chose Elkridge because I imagined that its long history would likely mean more memorials to beloved local sons. I had the naïveté to believe the information I was seeking would be right at my fingertips. So what I did today was more of a beginning. It was a reminder that some local stories will not just be a click away. I need to do more and study more if I want to know more. How many times did war come knocking and ask Elkridge families to sacrifice those they loved? Or Ellicott City? Or Woodbine? Or Simpsonville? At the Howard County Courthouse, photo: American Legion I find holidays honoring military service and sacrifice deeply troubling because I f...

  It was just too beautiful to eat dinner inside last night. We don’t eat out much these days, on account of COVID, but clearly the glorious temperatures yesterday were calling for some much-deserved outdoor dining.  We chose the Common Kitchen in Clarksville, because it offered the most choice for the three of us, plus the added benefits of outdoor seating in the courtyard of Clarksville Commons.  Dinner time entertainment was provided two rather serious-looking skateboarders practicing their moves on the open space of the courtyard. I say serious mostly because they were actually wearing knee pads, etc, for bodily protection and they had fancy cases for transporting their boards when not in use. To be clear, they were not there in any official capacity. We enjoyed them nonetheless. Since this sort of thing is often noted in posts centered around mealtime: I had a lemongrass noodle bowl with chicken from Anh-Mazing Banh Mi and my husband and daughter choose items from th...

  Maybe it’s raining. Maybe it’s just too darn hot. Maybe you’re under a big umbrella at the beach or the pool. The one thing you’re sure to need under those conditions is a good book. Several, probably. The promotional video for the HCLS Summmer Reading Progra m is out and it’s a moment of pure delight.  I love this video. Yes, it’s a well-crafted production, but it wouldn’t have worked without the delightful people featured in each vignette. I’d watch a television show about these characters and the libraries they love. Yes, I’m gushing, but watch it and see if you catch my enthusiasm. Do you see what I mean? This could be the beginning of a library-based show like Abbott Elementary, or maybe a detective series where the library crew are sleuths, using all available resources to work out head-scratching mysteries. Yes, it could be an educational kid show (à la Ghost Writer) but it wouldn’t need to be. A musical? Well, that last fellow who’s trying to read might object. ...

  Friday. Flood watch. Tornado watch. The COVID-19 Community Level is High.  The Supreme Courts intends to destroy Roe v Wade. Hateful trolls are spewing lies and disgusting smears at the school system for supporting HCPSS Pride. The nation is reeling from two mass shootings. I always wondered what this fortune meant. Now I know. The only thing I have wanted to do was scribble my feelings in black crayon. Alas, I have lost the innate ability to do that the way that a child would: unselfconscious and unfiltered. I had to look up “angry black crayon scribble” on Pinterest for guidance. It doesn’t look emotional or angry. It looks like I am pretending to be something I am not. It’s too orderly, tidy, all the uncontrollable emotions carefully organized. I have become an adult: civilized, muted, compartmentalized, powerless to express my rage. Everything will come your way.   You may survive. You may be destroyed or you may attempt to absorb it all and assimilate it. That may ...

  You may have noticed that the Downtown Columbia Partnership is very excited. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. #lakefrontlive lakefrontlive.org If you’ve been hoping to see more life down at the lakefront, you’re probably getting excited, too. Here are some photos courtesy of DTC: So here’s my friendly reminder that Tonight! Tonight! Tonight! is the kickoff event for a summer of Lakefront Live brought to you by Columbia Association in collaboration with Columbia Festival of the Arts. Yes, that’s right, you’ll want to be down at the Lakefront tonight to hear Mambo Combo and enjoy some tasty food from Cured. They’re asking you to RSVP here , probably to get an idea of how many people to expect. The event itself is free, the food will be available for purchase. DTC is so excited about tonight’s event that they expressed regret that the CA Board won’t be able to attend and join in all the fun.  But... but... but... they are going to miss Mambo Combo at the first #LakefrontLive hea...

  I am full of rage this morning. Maybe the rage is protecting me from experiencing the horror and grief which is surely there, waiting to fill my consciousness.  What I am feeling today is too big for the page.  I’m offering this piece from 2019 instead. It was born on the floor of a classroom.  Final Thoughts (August 24, 2019) They say your whole life passes before your eyes. In my case, it was a little different. It was my daughter’s life. I lay on the floor of a preschool classroom. I heard screams and the sounds of people running and furniture being pushed aside. Then, for a moment, I was briefly alone. I lay there, my face against the cool linoleum floor and thought of my daughter. How she was at home, packing the last of her things for college. How I would have to drive her somewhere and leave her and our lives and relationship would never be the same. She was the child of my old age, I used to joke. The child I had longed for all those years when I was divor...

I owe today’s post to a tweet from the Downtown Columbia Partnership , featuring a painting by artist Mary Jo Tydlaka: Recognizing the #DowntownColumbiaMd Lakefront and what looks like a @ColumbiaAssn concert with some Dancing Under the #PeopleTree in this Mary Jo Tydlacka artwork. Mary Jo Tydlaka (Howard County) Uppity Blues Women ll. Acrylic. 2017 From the artist : My artwork is my response to the world around me and it is also my participation in the world. Over the years my subjects have been homes, neighborhoods, families and cities. During the last several years I have focused on the outdoor Shakespeare plays at the Patapsco Female Institute Ruins and other locales. I attend the plays , multiple times if possible, and sketch. The plays are a combination of my interests in landscape, weather, classic architecture, groups of people and Shakespeare. I love this work. There’s so much going on here, and the colors are exceptionally notable for their warmth. I think of the Lakefront as...

  One of the few things that can get me out of my house in the heat is the Oakland Mills Farmers’ Market. Held each Sunday from 9 am to 1 pm from May to November, the market lures me out of my air conditioned home for the best foods of the season.  And may I just say that yesterday was far too hot for this point in the year and I object. There’s something so beautiful to me to see the Oakland Mills Village Center alive with people. Yesterday was one of those days. A crowd was gathering for an  event happening at the ice rink, regular Sunday shoppers at the LAMart, and, of course, the many folks there for the Farmers’ Market. I’m going to refrain from using the word ‘vibrant’ because, well, some folks in the commercial world have wrestled it to the ground and broken its arm, so to speak. As I consulted the synonym factory, I found the words ‘dynamic’ and ‘thriving’ to have just the right essence for what I was feeling. It has taken a lot of work to get and keep the market...

  When I wrote about considering alternatives to the typical suburban lawn recently, I received probably the most enthusiastic response I have ever received to a blog topic. There’s a good bit of support out there in Columbia/HoCo for creating more environmentally friendly yard spaces. Some reader submissions: I have been attempting over the years to replace many of the grass areas with stuff that isn’t grass. Well, the muddy areas too. First I planted liriope in the muddy area, then put some black eyed Susan’s next to the garage. Then came the rain garden, and somewhere in there I added hydrangea and a small corner fern garden. Oh, and the vinca around the front trees where grass never grew anyway.  My next door neighbor has zero grass in his backyard, and only a small patch in the front. The rest is robust, lovely ground cover. * I also have been composting with worms for the last several years. They make a great soil amendment. Plant red clover instead of grass! I’ve been d...

  Sometimes good people do bad things Sometimes kind people do unkind things. Sometimes smart people do…things that defy explanation. I am referring to the decision to use a property which is being called “Historic Oakdale” as the site of this year’s Decorator Show House .You may recall I wrote about this house when it came on the market.  It’s a prison. A private jail. A forced labor camp. Here is where generations of human beings were held against their will. It doesn’t matter how carefully it is preserved or how beautifully it’s decorated. It’s a living monument that our country was founded on the worst kind of injustice. See how pretty it is…the house of horrors. “Honoring History”, Village Green/Town² 12/11/21 I honestly don’t know what should be done with places like this but I do know they should not be celebrated nor used to generate funds. I am stunned that the horrific foundation of all this wealth and grandeur was not a dealbreaker for those who chose to make Oakd...

  I was up early this morning looking for an answer to this question: What is the point of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue? Why?  Jordan Peterson quits Twitter after calling plus-size model Yumi Nu’s SI Swimsuit cover 'not beautiful' Here is Yumi Nu photograph on the cover of Sports Illustrated : Here is what Peterson wrote on Twitter: Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that. Apparently he decided to leave Twitter because he didn’t like the pushback he got from his remarks. Frankly, I don’t care who Peterson is or whether he left Twitter. I care about the continual, toxic judgement of women’s bodies.  We are bombarded by unsolicited advice and comments about our weight and overall appearance from childhood onwards. Whether on television, from people we know, men on the street, comments on social media, women’s bodies are considered to be fair game. We spend far too much time struggling with these destructive messages. O...

  How about some links? I have a few local stories lined up that caught my eye. First off, alliteration runs wild in this tweet about a new local business: “Columbia couple” to open “Dill Dinkers”. Good grief! If you’re interested in pickle ball, you’ll definitely want to take a look at this story in the Baltimore Business Journal. Columbia couple to open new indoor pickle ball court in Howard County , Melody Simmons, BBJ In a different kind of entrepreneurship: Sisters Create Clothing Line Honoring South Asian Heritage , Aimee Cho, NBC4 The sisters, now in college, are from Howard County. They’ve created a clothing line called Urban Desi. In the past year they’ve sold about one thousand items. Want to learn more? This article from UMD’s Diamondback is much more comprehensive. And here is their website: Urban Desi Howard County blog Howard County Progress Report zooms in on a crucial issue in the upcoming Board of Education Race: Kids’ Lives are at Stake in the Board of Education...