Features (All)

Article - Creature Feature; by Margaret Tearman - 8/4/11

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Political Animals

Endangered species squeeze through DC's budget war

Off limits to some members of Congress in the contentious budget war that’s been raging in Washington. In a Republican proposal, the Endangered Species Act would have been amended so that no new species — regardless of numbers — could be added to the threatened or endangered list. The bill would, however, allow species to be removed from the list. Republicans argued that the Endangered Species Act costs the government tens of millions of...

Article - News; by Diana Beechener - 8/4/11

Five Loaves and Two Fish

Breakfast Club takes childhood hunger battle to the streets

Nathaniel Quimby spent the summer of second grade worried about his friends. The elementary schooler fretted that a friend who depended on cafeteria meals would go hungry during the break. “He wanted to know where kids got their meals during the summer when schools close,” says Ingrid Quimby, Nathaniel’s mother. “We came up with the idea of the Breakfast Club. With my pastor at Cedar Grove United Methodist Church, we decided to offer breakfast there....

Article - History & Lore; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 8/4/11

Lighting the Way

Celebrate National Lighthouse Day right here on Chesapeake Bay

A couple of hundred years ago, the Congress of the United States of America could get things done. On August 7, 1789, that august body passed an act establishing and supporting lighthouses. Mariners and their families rejoiced. Between 1791 and 1910, the dangerous waters at 74 sites on Chesapeake Bay were illuminated by over 100 cottage, tower and screwpile lighthouses. Moving ice and shifting sands unseated some of those lighthouses...

Article - Creature Feature; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 7/28/11

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Beating the...

Whether mammals sweat or pant, heat gets us all down

You’re not the only species suffering in this summer’s dog days. Farm animals overheat much the same way you do, according to the Maryland Farm Bureau. So Maryland farmers get creative to keep their charges cool. You can’t sweat like a pig because, like dogs and cats, pigs don’t sweat. The species’ natural remedy, mud, not only cools them down but also works like sunscreen. When the temperature climbs...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 7/28/11

Annapolis: Maryland’s Biking Capital

The city’s new Bicycle Master Plan may earn it that title

If Annapolis’ Bicycle Master Plan ever gets off the drawing board and onto the streets, our capital city could be Maryland’s biking capital. The thoughtful plan, introduced last week, is the work of the Toole Design Group whose specialty is moving people, have created bike plans across the country, from Washington, D.C., to Seattle, Washington — including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Winston Salem and Asheville. Envisioned is a cross-city...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 7/28/11

After 20 Years, It’s Time to Get Back Home

Nancy Collery closes Main Street Gallery to reclaim her home

Nancy Collery’s business has occupied more than her time. It has also occupied a good part of her home. Main Street Gallery is her front parlor, den and dining room. Her front door is the gallery’s front door. After 20 years, Nancy wants her house back. So at month’s end, she is closing up shop. “Many moons ago I read an article in Bay Weekly that focused on the question what is enough? Twenty years feels like enough.”...

Article - Good Living; by Margaret Tearman - 7/28/11

One Grand Gala

One family’s crusade to cure cancer puts the fun — and feast — into fund-raising

If you haven’t made an appointment to have your hair done, or if your favorite Tommy Bahama shirt or little black dress needs to go to the laundry, you had better hurry. There’s just one week left before the biggest party of the year: Rod ’n’ Reel’s annual Celebration of Life Gala. On Thursday, August 4, the Gala celebrates 30 years of bringing the community together for good food and good times for the good cause of raising...

Article - Creature Feature; by Margaret Tearman - 7/21/11

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Skeeter Season

After an active spring, the native mosquito populations
are naturally declining. But not the Asian tiger mosquito.

A rainy March and April kept mosquito slappers busy. “We had populations in larger numbers than expected this spring,” says Mike Cantwell, chief of Maryland Department of Agriculture’s Mosquito Control Program. “High rainfall brought out exceptionally large broods of woodland species. But these are single-generation species. Once they’re done, you don’t see them until next year.” At the same time, higher than...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 7/21/11

Chinese Takeout

Water watch for foreign invaders

They are coming by water, but you won’t catch them sailing up the Patuxent like the British in the War of 1812. These invaders are a lot smaller but with the potential to pack a wallop on our shores. You can help stop this enemy before all heck breaks loose. Chinese Mittens Crabs This small East Asian native invaded Europe before making its way across the pond. First found here in 1962 in the Great Lakes, the Chinese mitten crab...

Article - History & Lore; by Margaret Tearman - 7/21/11

Did She — or Didn’t She?

Find out the truth about Abe Lincoln’s mystery advisor at Calvert Historical Society

Make a date July 30 to meet Maryland’s mystery woman. Was Anna Ella Carroll a Civil War heroine, achieving that status, as her champions claim, by advising President Abraham Lincoln? Or is her role in history a myth? Worse, was she a fraud? If there’s one thing historians love more than unraveling mysteries of the past, it’s infecting others with their passion. The Calvert Historical Society doesn...