Articles by Diana Beechener

Article - Things; by Diana Beechener - 6/10/10

Treat Our Flag Right

It’s Alive, U.S. Code Says

On Monday June 14, our nation celebrates Flag Day, a national holiday that honors the Continental Congress’ adoption of the official American flag. With 13 bars and 50 stars, the American flag is one of the most recognizable symbols of our union. Here’s how to treat it with the care it deserves. • Don’t wear the flag. Resist the temptation to buy apparel imprinted with the American flag. The United States Code forbids the flag to be used as “wearing apparel,...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 5/27/10

Furry Fido can help save the Gulf Coast

Look around your home. Do you see fine feline or canine hairs coating the couch, the floor or your clothes? Before you break out the lint roller, consider that all that excess animal hair in your living room could be floating on the Gulf of Mexico, absorbing harmful oil. Hair — from humans and animals — is woven or stuffed into sponge-like mats and booms that are flung onto the oil spill. The hairy barriers are laid near shores and marshes, helping to protect these fragile...

Article - People; by Diana Beechener - 5/20/10

If Trouble Was Money ...

After nine years, Don Hooker compiles the Bay Blues Festival’s greatest hits and biggest catastrophes

If there ain’t pain, there ain’t the blues. Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival CEO Don Hooker knows this fact intimately. It took a painful lot of work and more than a little suffering on the side for Hooker to turn his charitable idea into a juggernaut fundraiser. Looking back at nine years of festivals, Hooker talks about the logistics, lunacy and love of music that have sustained him and the festival for nearly a decade. Track 1: History Repeating Since founding the...

Article - Bay Reflections; by Diana Beechener - 5/20/10

First Date Blues

How the Bay Blues Festival helped me ditch the blues

Some girls view a first date with excitement. I view first dates with dread. What if he’s a poor conversationalist? What if I have nothing to say? What if he collects the skulls of all the women he’s dated? Admittedly, I need to stop watching Silence of the Lambs. I drove to the Navy-Marine Corps Stadium parking lot to meet Jack for our first date, 2009’s Bay Blues Festival, my stomach was churning and I was considering exit strategies. In a blind panic, I called...

Article - People; by Diana Beechener - 5/13/10

Taking a Roadside Stand

Volunteers hoof it across the country, picking up litter and lecturing on waste

Jeff Chen doesn’t like trashy people. He’s willing to take steps to remedy his dislike. As one of the founders of Picking Up America, Chen is committed to riding our roadways of litter and pointing out American’s wasteful tendencies. “It was an idea I had in 2006 when I was an intern in Yosemite Park,” Chen recalls. “I did a pretty epic hike to the top of Half Dome and on the way noticed some trash. On the way down, [my friend and I] picked up...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 5/13/10

Faces only a mother could love

Their names are Kirby and Cecil, and they don’t have tusks — yet. The newest arrivals to the Maryland Zoo, two male warthog piglets, made their first public debut at seven weeks. Though they were part of the same litter, the warthog twins are easy to tell apart: Kirby is big brother, with a slightly larger build and red hair, while Cecil remains petite and brunette. The twins, with mother Kumari leading the way, explored their new home in the warthog yard. Mother made sure...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 5/6/10

This Week’s Creature Feature: Beauty and Beasts

Anne Arundel Countians ponder their animal magnetism at the first annual Do You Look Like Your Pet Competition

Fifty-five Marylanders visited Quiet Waters Park May 2 in hopes that they would be told they looked like a dog. A cat. Even a rabbit. The people were participating in a new kind of beauty pageant, Anne Arundel County’s first annual Do You Look Like Your Pet? Contest. The brainchild of County Executive John R. Leopold, the contest judged which countians bore remarkable resemblances to their pets. - “I came up with the idea because I thought it would be fun. And it was,”...

Article - Green Living; by Diana Beechener - 4/29/10

The Potomac Gives up Its Trash

There’s a lot of weird stuff in 117.65 tons of waste

Over 7,055 volunteers waded into the murky depths of the Potomac River and its tributaries at the 22nd annual Potomac River Watershed Clean-Up. They emerged with over 117.65 tons of waste and litter. Those numbers are still climbing: The cleanup continues thru May 1. After all these years, there’s still plenty to clean up, according to Potomac River Watershed Cleanup Coordinator Becky Horner of the Alice Ferguson Foundation. The environmental education non-profit, based in Accokeek...