Village Green/Town²

  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 ...

My daughter, an attractive professional woman in her thirties, bought a car yesterday. A used car, but a very nice one. We almost didn’t get to hear her tell about it because it seems that the financing guy was determined to hold her hostage.  She would not budge.  Recalling her experience, she remarked that the sales associate was wonderful and that she was completely satisfied with that part of the deal. As to the money part? “I don’t think it was personal,” she said. “ I think he did to me what he does to every attractive woman who walks in there.” The pride I felt - - not just for my daughter but for every woman who has been jerked around in a car dealership - - was immense. It was exhilarating. They tried to saddle her with an enormous monthly car payment which was nothing like the figure that had been floated over the phone.  She got out the piece of paper where she had written it. She also got out her calculator and went through all the numbers, step by step. She s...

  Some things just go better together. Good food and drink, for instance - - like a latte and a scone from Trifecto Bar, or a fancy dog and an ice cold milkshake from the Nomadic Glizzy. (Okay, maybe not for breakfast.) Something just go better together. Like Clarksville Commons, the retail and community space that’s been bringing folks together since 2017, and the Common Kitchen, the culinary incubator for up-and-coming food entrepreneurs since 2018. Better together.  Like brothers Elias and William Castillo who work side by side at the Common Kitchen. Elias, owner of Trifecto Bar, has been there from the beginning. William fulfilled his long time dream by opening the Nomadic Glizzy in January of 2025. Some pictures from their official Grand Opening: Leigha Steele, Common Kitchen manager, County Executive Calvin Ball* Elias Castillo, Trifecto Bar Ribbon cutting for the Nomadic Glizzy, William Castilllo  (Calvin Ball looks on) Just this month everything changed. William w...

  My time is not my own right now but I cannot miss the opportunity today to honor Rob White, whose passing I learned of last evening. Rob was a musician, a teacher, and retired from the Howard County Schools as what was then called Music Supervisor/Instructional Facilitator for Music. There’s a lot I could tell you about him. And I probably will on another day. But the Rob White I remember most is the musician with the heart of a teacher who was brave at a time when it was very hard to be brave.  Howard County Music Changing? , Village Green/Town² February 19, 2014 This post, which garnered well over 5,000 views, was the result of Mr. White’s honesty. He shared what was happening to music instruction as a result of the Model Schools Initiative instituted under a former superintendent of schools. The information I learned in a meeting of Howard County Parents for School Music was exactly what you would imagine that a parent music advocacy group would be interested in. But beca...

  Men are not okay.  Let’s start with the man who didn’t just disagree with me on the Couny Executive’s Facebook page but actually wrote out in detail the opinion he wanted me to post instead. Are you out of your mind? What kind of hubris is this to think I want someone else’s opinion to replace my own? That I would care that he doesn’t give me permission to have my own opinion? Men are not okay. Like the police office who engaged in a high speed chase in an unmarked car in the middle of the night which led to the death of a seventeen year old county resident. What kind of thinking can justify using these tactics over a traffic violation? How in any possible way does the punishment fit the alleged crime? Men are not okay. This is the kicker. The man who was in police custody and somehow managed to get released and to kill his estranged wife within hours. 1. The man himself. 2. The (very likely) men who released him. 3. The men who make the laws that lead to occurrences like th...

  When I learned of the passing of the Rev. Jesse Jackson a vague memory rose to the surface. I reached out to my sister and brother in law who live in Indiana. She is a special education teacher and advocate, musician, and filmmaker/videographer. He is a Methodist minister (also a musician.) To my sister: Am I hallucinating that you were a big fan of Jesse Jackson especially because of his vision of the Rainbow Coalition?       We voted for him when he ran the first time. That's what I thought.       We went to hear him speak when we were living in Dayton. It was a great experience! Thank you, I've been thinking about writing about him and I thought you had a direct connection.       No more direct connection than that! G. and I saw him at a nice restaurant in Chicago one time. He was waiting for a table just as we were. Thank you! To my brother in law, a retired Methodist minister: Do you all have any memories as Jesse Jackson supporte...

  Friends, I have been trying to act as though everything is going along normally over here but, it isn’t. Someone near and dear to me took a bad fall last Friday night and suffered a pretty serious break to their humerus. A trip to the orthopedist today will let us know how bad. What this means is that I am now living away from home and sleeping on a pull out couch - - one ear always on alert for the sound of the little bell sitting on a bedside table across the hall. This makes blogging a challenge. I am not complaining. Honestly, I am scared out of my mind but I am not complaining. True to form, I’m going to respond to this challenge by putting you to work.  I’m looking for helpful information about home care, what Medicare will pay for, how to organize friendly, helpful neighbors in a way that respects them but is, first and foremost, helpful to the patient. Is there a Maryland help hotline for people like me who are new to being caregivers? And, just to make you laugh, ...

It’s February 17th and a local business is shouting: SUMMER IS PRACTICALLY HERE!!! I look out the window. I disagree. But the business is Maslow’s Loom and they are selling summer camp experiences for school children. I think what they mean to say is, if you haven’t already planned all your kid’s summer camps already, you’re in trouble. Many folks try to get all that squared away in January. It’s February, for Heaven’s sake. Time is running out!  I remember realizing that I would never get to be at home in the summer with my first child. It was a bitter moment. I was divorced. I had to work. Luckily I worked at the school summer camp so we got to be closer together than most. But there was absolutely no choice, no agency in how we spent our summers. On the other hand, my mother was saddled with three children in the summers back in the day as my father headed off to work. No one asked *her* what she’d rather do. I remember an endless string of days filled with outdoor play, running...

I promised myself that, if I got my piece on the Talbott Springs Pool written and posted, I would treat myself to some local pizza from a place I had never tried before. And I did. Last Thursday’s lunch from Pupatella I was driving home from a friend’s house and had the idea. I stopped at the Giant Palace 9 parking lot, perused the menu at nearby Pupatella on my phone, and placed an order. By the time I drove down 108 to the restaurant, my order was just about ready. Wowza. Pupatella has 11 locations in Maryland, D.C., and Virginia. They specialize in authentic Neapolitan pizza. “It’s chewier,” the woman at the restaurant hastened to inform me when I came in to get my order. (I wonder if this means that some folks don’t understand differing styles of pizza and expect it to be something else.) The service was friendly and welcoming and I would definitely feel positive about coming back another day to eat-in. (At an uncrowded time, of course.) I wasn’t there long enough to take in how ...

  The top ten Columbia/HoCo things that make my heart skip a beat: Driving through Oakland Mills in the Spring and Fall when everything is alive with color Concerts at the Chrysalis The library, especially the East Columbia Branch Views of the Lakefront  Pumpkin season at Clark’s Elioak Farm The Farmer’s Market at Clarksville Commons Watching kids sled down the hill in front of our house Ordinary people turning out to support their neighbors  Freetown Farm School communities that help kids thrive Some honorable mentions:  The Holiday Inn in Jessup that rescued us with an allergy-asthma friendly room this summer when I felt like life just couldn’t get worse. Tribos Peri Peri in Ellicott City for being the place where we are always welcomed and appreciated. Folks who provide me with opportunities to learn something new about my community. How about you  - -  what’s on your list? Whatever you decide to do today, I hope you have a little bit of community love t...

 Love hearts. That’s what they are called on an episode of my favorite BBC panel show, “QI.” American research scientist Janelle Shane programmed a similar neural network to read existing slogans on Love Hearts sweets, and the program suggested new slogans: "Loving horn", "Buns, buns, buns" and "All hail the chicken".  We would call them “conversation hearts.” They’re made of sugar, cornstarch, and sentiment, I guess. They are as hard as cement and have no particular flavor. Rather like their sister sweets, Necco Wafers. Now made by Spangler, they’re marketed under the brand name “Sweethearts.” Each year they try to update their sayings a bit to remain relevant to popular culture trends.  To my knowledge, real people make these word choices and not neural networks preloaded with specially curated content. I’m not quite sure how this all works because I think that most of these candies are purchased for kids. How will sentiments like their new theme, “Lo...

Once upon a time, when I was a newly elected member of the Oakland Mills Village Board, I attended a big to-do at a downtown hotel which gathered together all the newly elected members of all the village boards along with Columbia Association leadership and the elected CA board members. A festive orientation, of sorts. There were probably refreshments. I don’t remember.  We were seated at round tables in a large banquet room. It was possible that I knew only one or two people in the entire room. The gentleman across from me smiled and said,  “I’m Billy Smith, the CA Rep from X Village and you’re not going to like me because I want to get rid of your pool!” That’s one heck of a way to introduce yourself to a new village board member, Billy Smith.* So begins my story of the trials and tribulations of the Talbott Springs Pool, one of the neighborhood pools being considered for closure by the Columbia Association. For as long as I have understood what Columbia is, and what the Co...

  It was not until I saw a local request on Facebook that I learned that heart-shaped pizza was a thing. Live and learn.  This put me in mind of a recent discussion on the Columbia Reddit: Why is pizza here so bad?   r/ColumbiaMD Don’t worry - - the thread itself is not a litany of discontent. Well, not entirely. If you have strong opinions about pizza or are just looking for a new place to try, this thread will come through for you. Imagine that reading a food review were more like eating a bowl of popcorn. It’s long but you just keep wanting to read a little bit more.  At the moment I am working on a post about the CA proposal to replace some neighborhood pools with splashpads and it is breaking my brain.  If I manage to get it up tomorrow I think I will reward myself with pizza. Do you have any opinions on pizza or pools? Let me know. Village Green/Town² Comments

  Stubborn. Yep, that must be it. Why didn’t I think of that? Crews still working to move stubborn snow 11 days after storm, Snow mounds pile up in neighborhoods amid frigid temps , Jack Watson, WMAR 2 News If you are wondering why all that snow is still in your way, friends, the answer is clear: it’s just stubborn. I’ve seen stubborn used for mules, schoolchildren that aren’t compliant, and, of course, laundry stains. (I grew up in an era where advertisers thought that all women wanted was “to get rid of stubborn stains.”) Snow? Stubborn? It has just as much agency as laundry stains. If you’ve been trying to shovel this stuff, that was your first mistake. You need a tool that eradicates stubbornness.  What would that be exactly? This sentence from the WMAR 2 News piece is both hilarious and cringe-worthy somehow: Tim Gibson broke out the shovel yet again, hoping the sun would do him a solid and get all the snow to liquid. But it does give a hint to our current situation and i...

  Welcome to staring at a blank page Monday.  How was your weekend? High points for me: Watching the world discover on Bluesky that County Executive Calvin Ball is a real human being and not just a game created by cartoonist Bill Watterson. That was delightful. Last night’s half-time show. Reading picture books online courtesy of the Howard County Library, especially this one. Highly recommend.  Water Can Be  by Laura Purdue Salas, Illustrations by Violeta Dabija  I've been so inundated with adverts for Super Bowl related products and events, followed by Valentine’s Day products and events that I am tempted to write a post about local things you can do to NOT celebrate Valentine’s Day this year.  Enough already. This event sounds fun if you’re not allergic. Ever the grammatical nitpicker, I can’t help but point out that cats do not wish to be painted. Image from the Pottery Stop social media  Daniels in Elkridge is again hosting their anti-Valentine’...

  I wouldn’t call it a protest.  You couldn’t exactly characterize it as gang activity.  Loitering, maybe? You may think you want to shop at Ross Dress for Less in the Columbia Crossing shopping center. The Canada geese have other ideas.  Move along, human. We live here now. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that portion of the parking lot filled to capacity. Perhaps we should retrofit it as a bird sanctuary? All that pavement can’t be good for their feet.  ***** The good folks at Comics to Astonish were the victims of the kind of astonishment that nobody wants yesterday. Somehow they still managed to get it all cleaned up, open for business, and even host their usual Friday night gaming group. I’m not a gamer, but I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for this place ever since they posted a lost and found for this sweet little guy in 2021. If you’re into comics or gaming cards (is that proper terminology?) now would be a very good time to visit Comics to Astonish :...

  There’s a new online community which is non competitive, non judgemental, doesn’t ask for money or a ton of personal information. Would you be interested?  I’m not sure I would have been aware of it at all had I not seen Alie Ward (Oligies) post about it on Bluesky. This is your sign to come make a little art every day with us! Doodl is a human-only drawing community built around daily prompts and shared ritual. No Al art. No pressure. Just creativity, together! Join the beta. Hmm… I’ve doodling all my life. (And now I know why .) Yet I’ve always felt terrible at art and struggled in traditional art classes.  During the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns I started keeping an art journal in spite of all that. I had a lot of negative baggage about any kind of visual art and I just decided to put it all to the side and “do art” purely because I wanted to. Not because I was talented or skilled. Because it felt good and made me happy. I’m still doing it. After all this time...

  Normally I'm not in favor of straight news articles being headed by questions. If an answer is unknown then you simply state the facts. I’ve made up a few examples: Committee members weigh choices in upcoming equipment purchase Outcome of design contest questioned by community group Ongoing disagreement at city hall delays construction project When I see a straight news article titled with a question I am inclined to think I am reading a gossip column or an opinion piece. I suspect that, if the reporter had done more research, they might have come up with the answer to the question instead of asking the reader. I mean - - for heaven’s sake - - don’t ask me . I’m here to find out. A question feels more like clickbait. In commentary pieces, a question-title works. I use them on the blog from time to time. (Today, for instance.) To be clear, there’s no law that says you can’t use a question. It’s a time-honored journalistic convention, not a crime. However…in the case of this piece...

  I’m about to step into one of those cultural phenomena that I’m probably unqualified to hold forth on. But, after my amazing debacle in 2024 where I completely failed to miss the meaning of Savage Mills - Bridgerton-themed invitation, I am going to tread more carefully on this one.  I present to you an upcoming event at Elliot’s Craft Kitchen which is billed as a “Girl Dinner.” Image from Elliot’s Craft Kitchen social media Here are the details from the event page: Live Music with Jimi Haha of Jimmies Chicken Shack and an amazing  GIRL DINNER Event by Elliott's Craft Kitchen 8330 Benson Dr, Columbia, MD, United States, Maryland 21045 What to expect: We have an incredible event coming up on Saturday February 7. We have Jimi HaHa from Jimmies Chicken Shack performing live. Don't miss this event which is being paired with an amazing GIRL DINNER! Well, alrighty then. Since we’re using ALL CAPS, what is a GIRL DINNER? This article on Wikihow traces the term to TikTok user ...