Articles by All

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 8/5/10

The Wonders of Water

In the water, humans become amphibious. Try for yourself; you can feel the magic.

Wonders happen in water. Capture water in a pool, and creatures can’t resist it. We gather in the liquid, and make magic. Here’s what I mean. Consider that the narrator and title character in the novel Life of Pi, named Piscine for swimming pool in French, devotes pages to second-hand elegies to the early 20th century swimming pools of Paris — despite sanitation far beneath the standards of modern pools. Consider that the Druid Hill and Patterson Park swimming...

Article - Correspondence; by correspondence - 8/5/10

Correspondence

-We welcome your opinions and letters – with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, 1629 Forest Drive, Annapolis, MD 21403 •E-mail them to editor@bayweekly.com. or submit your letters on-line by clicking here.

Author and Reviewer on Same Page Dear Bay Weekly: Thanks to Doug Kamholz for the beautifully written and very insightful July 22 review of my book Wandering Souls: Journeys with the Living and the Dead in Vietnam. He gets it. –Wayne Karlin, Lexington Park - The Wonders of Wind Dear Bay Weekly: I share Mr. Burton’s frustration, in your recent edition, that a windmill or groups of them on a distant hill should be considered unsightly by the governor [July 22 Letter from the...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Frank Gouin - 8/5/10

Local or Organic?

That’s a choice you have to make in buying cherries, peaches, plums and nectarines

Every year, I am asked if the peaches and nectarines that I sell are grown organically. The answer is no. We cannot grow stone fruit crops such as peaches, plums, nectarines and cherries without having to use both insecticides and fungicides. All of these crops are extremely susceptible to brown rot, rusts and insect damage from beetles, curculio, aphids, mites, stink bugs, borers, etc. At present there are no organic or biological controls for the insects that attack these crops. Many...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 8/5/10

Sky Watch - Heavenly Dust

Tiny particles make bright lights

The sun sets a few minutes after 8:00 this week, revealing a triumvirate of bright planets in its wake. Venus, Mars and Saturn continue their weeks-long dance above the western horizon. Over the next week, watch as Mars and Saturn jockey for position just above brilliant Venus. The three planets are their tightest on Saturday, all within five degrees of one another. As these three planets set in the west around 10pm, Jupiter rises in the east. With Venus gone and the waning...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 7/29/10

What’s the Value of Organic?

Depends on how you define it

I am frequently asked if I am an organic gardener, based on my reputation for having been heavily involved in composting and compost utilization research since 1972. My answer is yes and no. The importance of organic matter in soils and the use of compost to improve and maintain soil productivity is not thoroughly appreciated. In my gardening practices, I use a combination of compost and chemical fertilizers and minimize restricted-use pesticides as much as I can. Based on my many years of...

Article - Earth Journal by Gary Pendleton; by Gary Pendleton - 7/29/10

Notes from July's Garden

July 2, North Beach: Red admiral butterflies are abundant in the yard. Some species of butterfly hatch multiple broods during a season. Red admirals have two or more broods in our region. One brood must have just hatched because so many are around. They are one of the widest-spread species on the planet. There is also plenty of Calvert County’s official insect, the zebra swallowtail, flying about. The weather is surprisingly cool, a nice break from the recent heat. But it is going to get...

Article - Correspondence; by Tim Steeley - 7/29/10

Cutting Tree Roots

Dear Bay Gardener: I have two trees in the front yard. I do not know what kind, but they are about eight feet high with trunks about a foot wide. The problem is the roots are growing above ground. One is growing along the driveway toward the house. Can I cut the roots without damaging the trees? –Tim Steeley: steeley@verizon.net A I do not know of any trees that are only eight feet tall with trunks 12 inches in diameter. A tree can survive from having lost 50 percent of its roots....

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 7/29/10

Catch a Fish in Bill Burton’s Honor

The Choptank River piers named for him get you to where the big ones are

As Bay Weekly — which is also the name of the Albin 28 in which husband Bill Lambrecht and I fish and cruise — passed under the Choptank River Bridge and through the extended arms of the Bill Burton Fishing Piers, we saluted the Old Man of the Bay. But salty stories in his honor were interrupted by the shriek of an engine alarm. A clogged fuel filter sent us back to Cambridge. Clearly, Bill Burton wanted to keep us around. Since Bill Burton’s death at 82 last August 10,...

Article - Correspondence; by B. Roberts - 7/29/10

If Only He’d Been a Terp

Dear Bay Weekly: Thanks for Ron Stein’s July 8 exclusive about Nolan Smith [ http://www.bayweekly.com/year10/issue_27/lead_1.html ] , the local basketball star at Duke University. Being a Maryland fan, I admit it was kind of hard reading about the success of someone who could have been a Terp if our recruiting was up to par. But Terps fans have gotten used to that. I really liked how the story began, reliving the final moments of the Duke-Butler NCAA final this year, which was one of...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 7/29/10

Save the Sooks

Female blue crabs need our protection

It’s beginning to look like business as usual with the Chesapeake’s most treasured natural resource, the blue crab. Maryland is on course to resume the destructive harvest of female crabs, sooks, with its first official act upon the arrival of news that the crab population has at last begun to rebound. At the brink of species collapse two years ago, our crab population has shown a 60 percent increase in only two seasons after the first significant reduction of female harvest....