That Last Big Weekend of Summer

Well, I have learned my lesson. Doing a Saturday activity calendar is time consuming, labor intensive, and just the kind of fiddly organizational work that drives me batty. I have made it until Labor Day but I am officially setting myself free after today.

I commend other local outlets who are doing these kinds of weekly listings. Keep these links handy:

Events on Facebook (Choose Local and This Week), the activity calendar at Visit Howard County, and HoCo Calendar from Guilford Gazette, plus the weekly roundup from the Baltimore Banner.

A few suggestions:

Todays the last day to see “When Sustainability Meets Creativity” at the Miller Branch Library in Ellicott City.

The upcycling artwork showcase is hosted by Clarksville Youth Care Group. More than 60 pieces of artwork are featured, all made by Howard County students from household items like magazines, shopping bags, toilet paper rolls, eggshells, glass, and more.

Sobar Maryland will be gathering at Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Ellicott City this evening to observe International Overdose Awareness Day.

Join us Saturday from 6 pm to 8:30 pm at St. John's Episcopal Church in Ellicott City for International Overdose Awareness Day. Celebrate recovery, learn about county resources, and honor those lost to overdose.

More Than Java Cafe is hosting “Wine, Words, & Wisdom: Expressions Under the Stars Open Mic Night” at their new location in Savage Mill from 7-9 PM.

For more information and to purchase tickets: Wine, Words & Wisdom.

Maple Lawn Farmers Market begins at 9 am, Clarksville Commons Market starts at 10, and Freetown Farm is closed today, taking a well-deserved rest from all of their labors.

Do you have any exciting HoCoLocal plans for today or for the rest of the Labor Day weekend? Let me know.

Village Green/Town² Comments

Comments

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...

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...

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 ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog