Articles by Sandra Olivetti Martin

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 10/21/10

A Letter on Letters

On one, I ask you to be the judge

Your letters are the high point of my week. Of course praise is ice cream after dinner. Of that I had a full serving in W.R. Kraus’ words from Edgewater: We very much enjoy your paper. Since we moved here in 2004, it has helped us understand the area we live in; manage our garden; and find lots of fun things to do. It also has the added benefit of not making me want to jump off the roof after reading the news! Dessert is good, but I’ve never been one to skip dinner, so I happily dig...

Article - Creature Feature; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 10/14/10

Where Are Your Osprey?

From here to Venezuela

Where have our osprey gone after abandoning Chesapeake Country over the last six weeks? In general, we know that Chesapeake osprey fly from between 2,000 and 4,000 miles. Their journey takes 15 to 50 days, depending on the individual’s flight plans. Transmitter-tagged birds can tell us much more. So we turn to 40-plus-year osprey researcher Rob Bierregaard of the University of North Carolina. He’s been banding birds since 2000 on Martha’s Vineyard and in New York, Rhode Island...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 10/14/10

Fascination: That’s What Bay Weekly Promises Every...

What fascinates us comes to define us

What fascinates you? I’ve built a career of getting people to tell me their answer to that question. Over the years, I’ve learned that people are fascinated by many things, often things you or I might call odd. Like stretch-and-sew sewing. That was the short-term fascination of one dear old friend whose obsessions, I’m glad to say, changed frequently. I’m glad because I’d hate to sum up Sue’s life by saying she hand-made T-shirts. Because what...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 10/7/10

From Clay Street to the Sailboat Show

Telling the stories of a city at work

“Oh my Lord, thank you. I never thought I’d live to see this day,” gushed Mrs. Beatrice P. Smith, 89, of Annapolis, after throwing her arms around former President Jimmy Carter on Pleasant Street, just around the corner from — but out of sight of — downtown Annapolis. October 5 was the kind of day that evokes enthusiasm. The 86-year-old former president and his wife Rosalynn Carter were not only visiting the Clay Street neighborhood. They were also bringing...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/30/10

Diet for a Healthy Bay

U.S. EPA says Stop spoiling the Chesapeake on junk food!

If pollutants were calories, our Chesapeake would be obese, short of breath and diabetic. So it’s good news that the Environmental Protection Agency’s new plan to require other states to follow Maryland’s lead in counting — and limiting — the junk they’re feeding the Chesapeake. In an historic front-page announcement, the EPA flunked the long-awaited plans of four states — Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware and New York — on improving...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/30/10

Pulling Pennies from the Air

A new breed of wind-sellers can lower your utility bill while saving the environment

In wind power, the money is in the marketing. We learned as much long ago from the experiment of William Wrigley Jr., the millionaire whose success you’ve no doubt chewed on more than once. The maker of Juicy Fruit and Doublemint gum, among other chewables, kept a weather eye on opportunity. How he put chewing gum in vending machines at about the turn of the 20th century is a milestone of entrepreneurial capitalism. Gum sans machine was already sold in New York. Would vending...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/23/10

Candidates Need Newspapers

If they want to win

Bay Weekly Primary Primer helped you get to know the candidates crowding this year’s race to the general election. Even more important, it helped you cast your vote. Or would-be vote, if you were locked out of primary voting because of your political independence or residence. That’s what you’ve told me, by letter, phone, email and in person. Even Virginians — many of them weekend boaters who pick up Bay Weekly at the businesses around their marinas —...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/16/10

Oysters and Oystering

The new era begins now

In a decade or two, we might be hearing this conversation: You know, fat oysters like that one you’re eating used to be hunted in the wild, like the buffalo. Really? Like cowboys, Chesapeake watermen rode out on low-rise boats, even in the worst weather in the middle of winter, and scraped oysters from the bottom of Chesapeake Bay. Like tobacco farming, oyster harvesting has been a way of life in most of the Bay’s recorded history. But mark the year 2010 in the history book —...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/9/10

Read It Now

Or weep when you see who you’ve hired

It’s downright terrifying how much control we give away on Election Day. Scarier still is how few of us bother with these decisions. What we’re really doing when we go out to vote is hiring people for a job with vast responsibility over our public and private lives. Everybody we hire to work for us in both county boards and councils and the Maryland General Assembly will be deciding how to spend our money. We give our county hires huge control over how we’ll live: how...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/2/10

Farewell Summer Vacation

It’s back to work we go

A holiday is always welcome, no matter when it falls. But many of them seem to fall as randomly as the leaves that will soon illustrate for us the meaning of deciduous. New Year’s Day, for example. What business does it have falling in the middle of winter, when nothing is new? And if in winter it must be, why not on the equinox, when the new year really does begin with sunlight’s slow enlargement? Christmas, too. Midwinter seems an unlikely time for the birth of the redeemer of...