Village Green/Town²

As I headed out of Clarksville Commons Saturday it occurred to me that I needed something from a hardware store and that I hadn’t been inside Kendall’s in quite some time.  Why not? I was right there.  In case you have never been, Kendall’s before Christmas is a delightful combination of mom and pop community hardware store around the edges (and the back) and Christmas goods in the middle. Need a screwdriver? No problem. You can also pick up some ornaments and a few stocking presents while you are at it.  When I walked in a young cashier greeted me and asked if I was looking for something in particular and I told her. She paused ringing up items for a second and gave me the aisle number. It was an auspicious beginning. I’m not a big fan of Christmas displays before Thanksgiving. Nevertheless, I felt as though I had walked into Kendall’s at the precise moment when everything had been set up to its best advantage and several customers were beginning to explore the aisles o...

Despite the damp and gray weather conditions on Saturday, I headed out to the Thanksgiving Market at Clarksville Commons. After all, there are only a few more times this season to get my hands on one of these. I can’t show you how gorgeous it was because I scarfed the entire thing on my way home. However, I did have a back up plan for Sunday. I don’t know what Rob and Sons does during the off season but I am going to find out. (Imagine that last bit in all caps.) If you want to see why these baked goods keep coming up on the blog, check out his website to see where he’ll be selling for the rest of the season.  I had a nice chat with the proprietor of The Salvaged Stitch about my quest for a brightly colored “something” to house the new remote for our overhead light/ceiling fan in the bedroom. It is white. Our new comforter is mostly white. It has quickly become the invisible remote. She had several things that were almost-but-not-quite-right. After some back and forth I realized ...

In case you have ever wondered how deep my commitment to the truth is, I present some excruciatingly honest revelations. 1. It’s true about the french fries.  2. While I didn’t find Downtown Library Regret, I did find one rather large block of Objection to one possible library in particular. I did not include it in my post because 1. It’s not regret, and 2. It wouldn’t be a public library with comprehensive community resources.  3. I am hearing (though I need to verify) that the same person who testified against prompt renovation at Oakland Mills High School because the new chart proved their needs were not dire is the same person who testified against funding for the new Downtown Library citing the dire needs of Oakland Mills High school.  Big, if true.  UPDATE: Not exactly true. OMHS is not named directly.  I can’t tell if this is an example of Schrodinger’s Public Funding or something more along the lines of Lewis Carroll’s rule from the Mad Hatter’s Tea Par...

It’s Saturday and the formatting on the Facebook Events listing appears to have changed and it’s annoying me.  You now have your choice of two funhouse mirror views and they are both…mediocre. General Listing: Individual listing: Anyway, the above event is tomorrow, not today but it’s worth learning more about.  Hugsgiving Tasting Event Fundraiser  Where: The Common Kitchen - 12250 Clarksville Pike Clarksville, MD When: Sunday November 23, 2025 12:00-2:00pm $20 per person What: 2 hours of unlimited food and drink tastings Why: Raising funds for Free Mom Hugs IMPORTANT INFO: *Each ticket includes two hours (12-2pm) of unlimited tastings from our food hall vendors *Event Tasting Menu available on the event page under the discussion tab *Tasting menu is subject to change without notice *Ticket sales benefit Free Mom Hugs, a 501(3)(c) non-profit organization. *This event takes place indoors, and is therefore rain or shine *ALL TICKET SALES ARE FINAL Learn more about Free Mom...

  It wasn’t all that long ago that I wrote about why we humans mark the beginnings of things by wielding a shovel or or an enormous pair of scissors.  Ceremonial , Village Green/Town², 6/20/2024 Perhaps it was the groundbreaking for a new Lakefront bandshell or the wall-breaking for  new patient facilities at the Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Cente r   that set my imagination in motion. Why do we these things that are not really the things but are ritual references of the things? I think that archeologists looking back many years hence will be having a field day with us. Years ago I sang at a wedding where the priest accidentally turned too many pages and addressed the (startled) young couple with these words: For those baptized in Christ, life has not ended, but changed.  The big laugh of the day was the apology of the officiant who confessed he had turned to the funeral rite by mistake. I share this anecdote by way of suggesting that, if we are going ...

  Someone in Columbia Hills* has reduced the concept of a treehouse to its most essential elements and I can’t tell if it’s adorable or creepy. I think it might need chicken legs. Question of the day for the cognoscenti: why is a place called Columbia Hills located in Ellicott City? The Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services is again recruiting adopters for fire hydrants.  A worthy endeavor. But, if they’re not going to let folks paint, decorate, and adorn them with googly eyes I’m not ready to jump at the opportunity. Yet. If you are old enough to remember the television game show Supermarket Sweep , you might be interested in the anniversary celebration for the Columbia Grocery Outlet in (vibrant) Wilde Lake. Check the image below for what they are planning for their big day: November 22nd. You can enter for a chance to win a 2-minute shopping spree!  A graduate of Centennial High School makes music on Saturday Night Live. I’m looking forward to learnin...

  Tonight the County Council will be hearing testimony on moving forward with the Downtown Library. What can I say that I haven’t already said? I have been struggling mightily with this for weeks.  In a last-ditch effort, I went to Bluesky looking for inspiration. I searched the words “Downtown Library.” Here is a small portion of what I found. Other Downtown Library posts referenced community food pantries, workshops encouraging civic involvement, classes for children, presentations on legal issues, craft fairs, dinosaur displays, local history, access to computers, public restrooms, biking, public transit, workplace topics, human connection. Then I tried a little experiment. I searched the words “Downtown Library Regret.”  Nothing. Well, just about nothing. As I recall someone was deeply regretful about that second order of fries they ate before going to the Downtown Library. I tried it on Google, too. Very little Downtown Library regret.* There are two very important r...

  “In your opinion, what do you think (food wise) Howard County needs more of?” It’s the sort of fun, speculative question that elicits all sorts of wishful responses.  And it’s just the kind of discussion suitable for a social media page created to support HoCo local restaurants. The question was asked three days ago and so far there are 393 responses. I just added one this morning. My husband would like a truly authentic Brit-style chip shop. I love questions like this. Don’t forget I spent many hours imagining fantasy re-uses for the former Columbia Flier building. My family knows me as the person who will discuss such things as, “if you could cast your family/friend group as the characters in the Muppets, who would they be?” I spend afternoons contemplating my future career as a philanthropist once I win the lottery. There’s no delight quite like envisioning who I could give that money to. We all have our dreams. Back to the question of the day: In your opinion,...

  It’s big local news. Everyone has already written about it. For example: Grammy and Oscar-winning singer Billie Eilish donates to Maryland climate leadership program , Adam Thompson, CBS News Musician Billie Eilish donates $11,000 to Howard County Conservancy climate program , Jess Nocera, Baltimore Banner The money will be used to support the Conservancy’s Youth Climate Institute. From their Facebook page: Building the next generation of climate leaders. The Youth Climate Institute educates and certifies the next generation of leaders on climate science, environmental justice and real world solutions. A program of The Howard County Conservancy It is Monday, November 17th and this story broke weeks ago. Why am I late on this? Because I wanted to focus on something that no one else was looking at. So, here goes. Do you remember this? In October of 2023 the Howard County Conservancy hosted a Climate Justice Concert.  Join us for the YCI Alumni Network Climate Justice Concert ...

I’m getting a late start today. If I take the time to fully flesh out any of the ideas I have, I will miss the golden hour when people tend to read. And that means you won’t see it.  It’s a quandary.  On my mind this morning:  Disability Rights Activitst and Author Alice Wong Dies at 51 , Chloe Veltman, NPR My knowledge of Ms.Wong is solely from Twitter. I somehow got disconnected in my move to Bluesky. She’s not someone I would have met in real life nor come in contact with on Facebook unless I had known to look for her.  And that’s a loss. Her life was all about creating and supporting visibility for the disabled. She won a MacArthur grant in October of 2024 in recognition of her work, especially for  The Disability Visibility Project.  Increasing the political and cultural visibility of people with disabilities and catalyzing broader understandings of disability. Please take a moment to read the NPR piece if you can. Yesterday County Executive Calvin Bal...

Once upon a time a wizard came to Columbia and caused a bit of a stir. I have lived here just long enough to have witnessed this and also to have forgotten the entire episode. A recent post on Bluesky jogged my memory. Screenshot from Bluesky Oh! I remember that. How could I forget? It was in Oakland Mills. It all began in 2014 when Oakland Mills residents Debbie and Roger Matherly came up with the idea to transform a dead tree in their front yard through the artistic talents of chainsaw artist Evelyn Mogren. Think of it as creative reuse.  Really, it was creative reuse and it also ran afoul of the architectural guidelines of the Oakland Mills Community Association. It was both at the same time. The homeowners appealed to the community for support. The Wizard even got his own Facebook account. Truly a hyperlocal tempest in a teapot. It was resolved with a lot of grace by the Oakland Mills Village Board. And now, more than ten years on, folks like Kimberly Ann Keyes can visit it. ...

It depends on how you look at it.  The annual onslaught of social media content about stocking stuffers has begun and they’re all too expensive to be stocking stuffers, as usual. Sigh. Or: The annual onslaught from The Olds that “holiday celebrations are not what they used to be” - - and are therefore wrong - - has begun.  Take your pick.  Yes, I’ve written about this before. I’m wedded to the notion that stocking stuffers should be small both in cost and in size. All while being fun and appealing. I guess that, to me, stocking stuffer gifts are the Children’s Chat of Christmas morning. I also wish that commercial entities wouldn’t start pushing Christmas consumerism at us until Thanksgiving. BUT… I’m not in charge of either one and, in my heart of hearts, I don’t want to tell other people how to celebrate. There ain’t no war on Christmas, Virginia, and no war on Christmas Stockings, neither. No one will stop me from doing it the way I like. And yet… Those perky example...

Okay, we’ve had a few days to let this settle. Let’s do the numbers. Oh, and about the numbers…   Commedian Don McMillan, Nerdy Statistics  In the case of Oakland Mills High School being displaced from the schedule of most urgent repairs, I want to talk about three things today.  1. I am completely unimpressed by folks filling up the comments section here or anywhere else on social media with graphs and charts and lists. Sure, you’ve got twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one. That’s impressive, I guess. But: How was your information gathered?  What did you prioritize?  What did you omit?  How are you framing it? Remember that old saying about “lies, damned lies, and statistics”? When someone comes along and says, “This is a really complicated subject so I have gathered all the information for you so you don’t have to go to the trouble” it makes sense for you to use your critical t...

We all love to say we support small independent businesses. Have you ever seen anyone go on the record as disliking Mom and Pop establishments? During the COVID lockdowns there was a concerted effort to find ways to support local restaurants whose incomes had plummeted. (That’s how the Facebook Group Howard County Eats originated.) Into one of these conversations came a HoCo resident making the case for a place called California Tortilla.  “But that’s a chain,” came many quick replies. Their response made me think. Essentially, the argument was that places like California Tortilla may be franchise operations and the owners may very well be Howard County locals. They are our neighbors, too, they argued.  Yes, they are our neighbors. But I’m not sure the economic playing field is identical. Association with a national brand may have advantages as far as advertising and even the cost of food and other restaurant supplies. All of those things are likely more expensive for homegro...