Village Green/Town²

  I always seem to be in my car at mealtime these days. These past few months have been an exercise in trying not to eat the worst sort of food while driving either to or from during lunch and/or dinner. I know it’s not good for me but often I don’t have the energy to do better. The one bright light in the vast wasteland of grab-and-go eating has been Bon Fresco.  Their food soothes me and calms my stomach no matter how crummy I feel. It’s slight out of my way but it is absolutely worth it. The quality of the food is excellent, the prices are fair, and the customer service is outstanding. I regret many things these days but I don’t regret one cent I’ve spent at Bon Fresco. One of the employees now recognizes me and calls me by name. I will forever be indebted to them for complimenting me on my favorite summer pants - - which are honestly on their last legs - -  on a day when I felt about one hundred years old.  My favorite menu items are the London Broil sandwich (no...

  Howard County celebrates Pride twice and I’m a fan. Once in June and and again in October. Today, from 12 - 5 pm, is OEC Pride's Sixth Annual Pride Festival: Exist, Persist, and Love! Visit the HoCo Pride FB page for a site map and information on parking. That’s where I learned that the trolley will be adding a stop at the Courthouse Lot just for Pride - - expanding their usual route to give attendees more options for parking.  The event is free. Click here to register. The following statement is both reassuring and depressing to me: Huge shout out to AfterHourz Security who will be protecting us throughout our event!! We know they have our backs so we can have yours! Everyone attending the event deserves to be safe. The fact that additional security is necessary in Howard County in the year 2026 makes me sad.  I couldn’t find OEC Pride on FB Events or Visit Howard County Events, the Columbia Mom events listing, Columbia Inspired, the Columbia Scoop newsletter events l...

  My mother-in-law checks the news on her iPad each morning. It’s rare that she finds anything there that doesn’t depress her or make her angry.  I know exactly how she feels. “Isn’t there any good news?” she asked me the other day.  “There probably is, but that’s not what the news outlets are feeding you,” I suggested. “They’re highlighting the stories that they think will make you click.” Isn’t there any good news? Her plaintive request gnawed at me. I started looking. You can do a Google search for “good news stories today.” I got about a page of websites to check.  One of them, the Goid News Network, put me onto stories like the following: Bruce Springsteen Celebrates His New Center for American Music Opening Soon with All-Star Concert for the Ages Heartwarming ‘Sock-er’ News: Arsenal Donates Old Football Socks to Sick Horses and Donkeys US Nonprofit Again Wipes Out Millions in Hospital Bills–This Time for 97,000 Residents of Connecticut I don’t really know much ...

  It’s not a secret. But it isn’t exactly front page news, either. Where I usually learn about upcoming county special events: County Executive FB account HoCoGov FB account Local FB events page Instagram accounts of the above Local media  Where I learned about the opening tomorrow of a new skatepark facility at Blandair: Columbia Reddit , which linked to  hoco.skateboarding on Instagram I finally broke down and searched the County website. Here it is: Ribbon Cutting & Special Event Blandair Park Phase 6 If you look carefully you’ll see that this isn’t just about skateboarding. Phase 6 also includes pickleball courts and (long-awaited) basketball courts. I would have mentioned this earlier but I was looking for confirmation from an official source.  Rec and Parks has a ton going on this time of year - - just check out their Instagram . The skate park opening at Blandair may not be at the top of their list for social media publicity, I get that. But, for HoCoLoca...

 Where to begin? The Columbia Association is often thought of as the Pools, Parks, and Pathways people. I see they are not done with the alliteration game. Apparently they held a People, Plants, and Purpose event last Friday. Any guesses as to what snappy alliteration will be next? CA is doing a membership study of some sort. I’m curious as to how they will select participants and whether they can get a representative sampling by only offering two dates midweek for their focus group sessions. But, hey, if they choose you and you participate, you’ll get a gift card. There’s an entire ode to the pathway system on Reddit right now, including a cool view of the pedestrian bridge over Route 29. It’s fun to read if you’re tired of the current political grind and need some cheering up.  Love the Columbia Pathway System , Columbia Reddit  Remember when I noticed that The Metropolitan was no longer the Metropolitan?  Guess what? Ten M Flats is now Versa Merriweather. True co...

I’m not sure that I’ve ever sent you over to read something at Business Monthly. Today’s the day.  I have to admit I sometimes forget they are there. Glancing through their website this morning, I realize I need to bookmark it for a more regular look-through. If you’re curious about this local publication, here’s some background information:  The Business Monthly covers the business, government and people of Howard and Anne Arundel counties, the BWI Business Corridor, and Laurel. We report on local companies, economic development, and the people building businesses in our region : monthly in print and more frequently online at bizmonthly.com. They’ve been in business since 1993. Want to know more? Here’s a piece on their founding and history by Len Lazarick. I’m strongly recommending a piece by Howard County’s own Lisa Markovitz, who is asking a question I think more people should be asking:  Why did a Columbia community center become a campaign issue? Here is is. Go rea...

  Three Things I Wish I Could Do Today: Howard County Government is again inviting the community for a flag raising to celebrate the beginning of Pride Month. I was there last year and it was a much-needed reminder to me of what good people are doing in community. This evening at the Main Library branch: Scribble is holding a hangout - - all art styles, all levels - - in the Maxine White Warfield Room from 6-8 pm. One of these days I’m going to be able to make one of their events. Third thing: hanging out with my spouse, a rarity these days. But summer is coming soon, right? If you are a teacher: hang in there! Speaking of which: Have a great Monday.  Village Green/Town² Comments

  Let me bring you up to date. There’s even more disingenuous campaigning going on right now and I want you to think about what it really means. I’m jumping in because I feel uniquely qualified to comment, by virtue of personal experience. I’ve been seeing negative campaigning based on where candidates’ children go to school.  Some years back I had a sudden and ongoing problem with people who claimed I didn’t have the right to express my own opinions on this blog because of where one of my children went to school. Eventually they went after both children. And my spouse. What would you do? What would you think?  Choices you make for your own children are personal, mostly because they concern the privacy of a minor. No one has the right to ask you to betray that child in order to justify family choices.  Here’s the thing: this didn’t really have anything to do with where my kid went to school. It was solely because these folks didn’t like what I was writing and they we...

It’s going to be Spring-like rather than summery today. (I’m cool with that!) The big plus is that it will be sunny throughout, in case you are thinking of enjoying an outdoor event. The big HoCoLocal ‘happening’ today is in Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods.  The Asian American & Pacific Islander Festival will be from 12 - 4 pm.  Learn more about what will be going on in the Park this afternoon at the FB  event link.  I’m seeing two Farmers Markets: Clarkville Commons and Old Ellicott City. Farmers Market Old Ellicott City If you follow the footy you might want to head over to Sonoma’s at noon for the Champions League Final . The outdoor movie showing at The Wine Bin in Old Ellicott City is “Back to the Future.” Of note but not actually in Columbia/HoCo: The Patuxent Jazz Band has a concert at 3 PM but be aware that it’s at UMBC. Tickets appear to be free although you will be encouraged to make a donation.  Puerto Rico in Maryland Festival at the Sandy...

  Nostalgia. That’s what’s on the menu. Retro Restaurant Revival Craze , Today, May 19, 2026 From a Yum! Brands press release: Across 155 Pizza Hut restaurants in the U.S., guests are rediscovering iconic features from the brand’s earlier years, including red cups, checkered tablecloths, cozy vinyl booths, Tiffany-style lamps, classic arcade games and even the unmistakable red roof design. I don’t have a ton of nostalgia for Pizza Hut, but this advert from Wyndham Hotels set off all kinds of emotional bells and whistles in my psyche. Retro Modern Recharge, Howard Johnson by Wyndham The color palette! The memories! Have they brought back the authentic restaurant experience? (probably not.)  Nostalgia has been on my mind since this turned up on the Doodl app. Draw something you feel nostalgic about. Here was my response. Here is my Cecil the Sea Serpent talking plush toy. You had to pull a string the hear him talk. I kept him until very recently, believe it or not. Cecil had los...

  Back to the drawing board. Sticking this here for context: Sally Brown:Let Them Drown , Village Green/Town², 10/27/2025 The story of The Source is this: There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in. - - the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu Let me draw a picture for you. This is why young people in our community are “falling in.” This is the center of the circle. If you don’t address this, nothing is solved. This is why more police at the Mall or more SROs in schools will never be the solution, because they don’t address what’s in the center of the circle. Addressing unmet needs must be proactive as well as reactive. If people are starving, for example, more police and more arrests will not solve the problem that people are stealing bread because they are starving. Look at how this plays out: Unmet needs negatively impact physical, cognitive, and emotional development. That, in turn, impacts...

  Once upon a time, if those stories I’ve read are true, ice cream was an event. You made it, you ate it. It was a big deal. Refrigeration, then freezers - - then home access to the same - - changed the ice cream experience. Folks could now purchase and eat ice cream year round.  When I was little all home ice cream was to be scooped into individual servings and eaten at the kitchen table. Bowl, spoon, napkin. Ice cream cones were a summertime treat. Now it’s not uncommon to enjoy the flavor of your choice right from a pint container while sitting on the couch watch tv/binge watching shows via streaming, etc.  I treated myself to a mint chocolate chip cone from Baskin Robbins this week. When the clerk asked what kind of cone I wanted, I said, “A soft cone.” “We have cake cones or sugar cones.” I guess my cone terminology is off. It was soft cones vs hard cones in Connecticut. My mother always called soft cones “wastebasket cones” but that was a Mom idiosyncrasy, I think....

  I woke up this morning to the news that a local Democratic Central Committee slate has scheduled a meeting on the Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha. There are only two major Muslim religious holidays. They happen every year. Anyone who is regularly scheduling meetings in our community should already have them marked out on their calendar. Acting in ignorance when you are a member of a party that claims to be inclusive of all is not acceptable. Inflexibility in the face of input when you have made such an error is appalling. This is not an innocent mistake or a scheduling conflict. It’s a choice. ***** Yesterday was interesting. I thought I’d be doing a lot more comment section intervention than I ended up needing to do. This is largely because the support for Erika Strauss Chavarria and Columbia Community Care is both broad and deep in the community. For this I am grateful. My daily life right now is not conducive to blog policing. I will be writing a follow-up post. I’ll need a da...

  What makes good journalism? What makes a local blog valuable? What makes a social media post trustworthy? Sources. High quality sources, reliable sources, and a variety of sources that provide perspective and depth. Here is the one source at the heart of a story about The Source. Here she is: active in the community, and not hard to find. Erika Strauss Chavarria, founder and Executive Director of  Columbia Community Care.  Now I’m going to tell you something that will blow your mind: The Sun didn’t interview her for their original article.* The Merriweather Post didn’t reach out to her, either. Why would anyone write a piece about the most aspirational project of Columbia Community Care and not want to talk to the founder and director? Did they think she’s not intelligent enough to know what’s going on with her own project? Did they assume she’s dishonest? A scammer? Did they just decide that she was…irrelevant? Who does that? Could it possibly be someone who has alrea...