Articles by All

Article - Places; by Bay Weekly staff - 9/9/10

The American Chestnut Land Trust’s Annual Auction...

On September 26, celebrate all things local, starting with community farming on ACLT land.

“This year kicked off our CSA,” says spokesperson Joy Woppert. Named Double Oak Farm, the garden was planted on farmland that had been fallow for years. The other local milestone ACLT is celebrating is the planned Prince Frederick Overlook Trail. The new seven-and-half-mile trail will connect an existing trail to Prince Frederick’s Main Street. Capping off the busy year is Locally Yours. Calvert caterer Dream Weaver will be filling bellies with menu items made using...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin - 9/2/10

Not even 2nd Star Can Freshen Jake’s Women

This 1992 Neil Simon comedy was a snoozer in the 1996 film adaptation, and it remains drowsy in this productions.

Jake’s Women, 2nd Star Productions’ fall season opener, presents an attractive setting for some fine local talent. But despite a valiant effort on the company’s part, this 1992 Neil Simon comedy fails to grab the audience by the collar and draw them back for more. It was a snoozer in the 1996 film adaptation, even with an all-star cast headed by Alan Alda, and it remains drowsy in this production. José de la Mar is excellent in the lead role as an emotionally distant writer...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 9/2/10

Keep Your Roses Blooming

Bet you didn’t know these tricks

If you examine a rose plant carefully, you will notice that it has compound leaves, meaning that there are either three or five leaflets to each leaf. The three-leaflet leaves appear near the top and bottom of each stem, and the five-leaflet leaves appear in the middle of the stems. In the axel of each leaf is a vegetative bud; however, the buds are more robust and pronounced in the axels of the five-leaflet leaves than in the three-leaflet leaves. You can control the growth of roses by pruning...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 9/2/10

The Bay at Its Best

Top-water fishing’s all about how you play the lure

The quiet waterscape flowing around us was only dimly illuminated by the first blush of a calm and breaking day as my son and I made our casts. Drifting slowly in our skiff on the fresh start of a gentle ebb, we were moving about 100 feet out and parallel to a long, weathered bulkhead, footed by heavy, barnacled stone piled along its base. Fish Are Biting Rockfish, Spanish mackerel and bluefish are making life interesting for anglers enjoying our nearly perfect weather the past week or so....

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 9/2/10

Summer’s Waning Lights

Less daytime and a waning moon leave plenty to see

With summer on the wane, the sun sets around 7:30 at week’s end, shedding more than a minute of evening sunlight each night. In the morning it’s more of the same, as the sun rises at 6:37 Saturday and almost a minute later each morning. The setting sun reveals three bright objects in its wake: Venus and Mars, and the first-magnitude star Spica, all within five degrees of one another, the field of view of most binoculars. Look to the west immediately after sunset. While closest to...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Mark Burns - 9/2/10

The Last Exorcism

An exorcist heads to the sticks to wrestle evil and his own crisis of faith in this smart and trim chiller.

Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian: TV’s Big Love) is palling around with a couple documentarians to film his confessional. The fast-talking evangelical minister from Baton Rouge is a sleight-of-hand exorcist standing on shaky faith, and he means to expose his own con by documenting one of his so-called exorcisms. But when he follows a handwritten plea to the Sweetzer farm in backwoods Louisiana, he discovers innocent child Nell (Ashley Bell: Stay Cool) is afflicted with something his placebo...

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...

Article - Correspondence; by Frank Shults - 9/2/10

Wounded Warriors Honored

It’s a long way from the war in the Middle East to the Patuxent River. But that is where a number of our brave and wounded veterans found themselves on August 7. On that day, the U.S. Power Squadrons of Northern Virginia, Rockville and the Patuxent River hosted a Wounded Warrior Cruise for veterans who are recovering from their wounds at the Walter Reed and Fort Belvoir medical facilities. A group of 42, including veterans, their families and friends, joined us for a day of cruising and...

Article - Correspondence; by Margaret and Tom Tearman - 9/2/10

Puppy Love

Dear Bay Weekly: Lola loved Pet Tales for the Dog Days of Summer (Aug. 26), even though as the dog of two staffers she was banned from the photo competition. She carried the issue around with her for about 30 minutes — until it finally fell apart in her mouth. –Margaret and Tom Tearman, Huntingtown

Article - Correspondence; by Carole Purves - 9/2/10

Transplant Time Begins

Dear Bay Gardener: I enjoyed your article (Aug. 19) about pruning blueberries. I have been growing blueberries since the early 1980s and have done very limited pruning. My five bearing bushes gave me 40 quarts this summer. We had to move the bushes earlier this month (had them professionally moved) because we are putting an addition on our house. Although this is not the proper time of year to transplant bushes, they appear to be doing well. I would love to watch you prune your berries in March...