Features (All)

Article - News; by Eric Smith - 12/23/10

Working Through the Tide

Local volunteers keep Bay cleanup moving in spite of missed deadline

2010 was supposed to be the year we cleaned up the Bay. Its nutrient- and sediment-reduction and dissolved-oxygen and underwater grass-improvement goals: all deadlines we missed. But as 2010 ends, many people are still working for a cleaner Chesapeake. Here’s a year-end review of what two local grant-winning projects are doing to change the way we do things on dry land — because everything we put on land ends up in the Bay. The Spa Creek Conservancy and the Scenic Rivers...

Article - Features; by by Louise Vest; illustrations by Betsy Kehne - 12/23/10

Our Coldest Christmas

Searching for holiday warmth led us to Florida — and back

It was an injury right before Christmas 1977 that sent us looking for warmer weather. My husband’s accident could have been more serious. He was flown to shock trauma in the chopper and was there for a few days’ observation as the docs worried about his head injury. But my chides about him being hard-headed were literally true, and he was soon out of danger. His shoulder, however, was another matter. Editor’s note: Traditions return at holiday time to knit our past and...

Article - Features; by Margaret Tearman - 12/16/10

All Wrapped Up for Christmas

It’s not only what you give but how you wrap it

“It’s all about the presentation,” my mother told me. So she taught me how to wrap a gift. How to center a box on the paper, how to make sure the edges were even and no tape was visible. She used miles of ribbon. She taught me how to tie a proper bow. Those pre-made self-stick bows were, in her opinion, the epitome of laziness. It was meticulous work. On Christmas morning, it took seconds to destroy it all. Who was the genius — or maniac — behind gift wrap? Despite...

Article - Features; by a Bay Weekly exclusive - 12/16/10

Santa’s Best Gifts

Five heartfelt stories on how good neighbors help us summit life’s mountain

Finding the right gift is the preoccupying issue of all us Christmas shoppers. We scratch our heads and fret because we’re searching for what to give people who already have most everything. When your needs are satisfied, you’re a nightmare to shop for. But if your needs are as basic as a good meal or a warm coat or a dry and secure place to sleep — those take a special kind of Santa. Caught between needs of too much and needs of too little, we scratched our heads and...

Article - Good Living; by Aries Matheos - 12/9/10

Lighting Up the Holidays

A little juice goes a long way for these Duffy Electric Boats

Where does the only Earth-friendly, $1-a-fill-up fuel in Annapolis come from? The nearest electrical outlet. As long as the power cord is long enough, Sally Koch, owner of SJ Koch Duffy Electric Boats, can run not only her boats but also as many electrical appliances as captain and crew can operate. Power like that comes in especially handy when the “living room on water” — Koch’s name for her quiet, comfortable fleet — glides through the 28th annual Eastport...

Article - Good Living; by Diana Beechener - 12/9/10

What Are You Doing Next Year?

12 calendars to spruce up the march of time

In the pages of this illustrious paper, I get credited only as staff writer occasionally. For the most part, I’m Bay Weekly’s Calendar Editor. I’m the one who tells you what’s happening in Bay Country every day of every week. It’s my job to rely on calendars, to get the dates right and to plan ahead. I look at a calendar every day. Every. Single. Day. To do my job, you really need a good calendar. John Wayne watches over my desk, a strong black-and-white image to...

Article - People; by Diana Beechener - 12/2/10

Debut of a Dream

December 5, Andrew Greene’s Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra plays Buster Keaton

In his right hand, Andrew Greene lofts a conductor’s baton. In his left, a DVD remote. The 19-year-old University of Maryland civil engineering major lives in the 21st century, but he longs for the 20th. Compressing time, he is conducting the Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra in rehearsal of its original score to Cops, Buster Keaton’s silent 1922 classic. The orchestra is Greene’s tribute to an entertainment form that died away nearly seven decades before he was born. “Back...

Article - Good Living; by Roberta Safer - 12/2/10

Avoid the Christmas Crisis

This Jewish Jeweler sets gifting guys on the right road

No matter what people have told you, it is not just the thought that counts. It really is the gift. It should not be so, but it is. Christmas is beloved by children and by women who get the right gift. But the annual holiday of giving strikes fear in the heart of any man — husband, father or boyfriend — for he must choose gifts. Small matters he may delegate to his secretary — at least if he works in New York or Washington. He can ask his Significant Other to do the...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 11/25/10

Art with a Bite

A soda can alligator takes top honors at the Maryland Department of the Environment’s Rethink Recycling contest

Josh Tichinel’s alligator may not be able to swim the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. But the soda-can reptile is a reminder that we can all help save the Bay through creative repurposing. The Northern Garrett High School student won the Maryland Department of the Environment’s Rethink Recycling art contest. “The contest is important “because it raises awareness about the importance of recycling and reuse,” says department spokesman Jay Apperson, who also notes that...

Article - Features; by Margaret Tearman - 11/25/10

Decorated with Art and Heart

Calvert Hospice grows a forest; behind every tree is a story

Small trees, tall trees — dozens of them, resplendent in holiday light and ornamentation — transform the halls of Huntingtown High School into a forested Christmas wonderland. These trees decked in holiday finery aren’t delivered to the high school in Santa’s sleigh. Instead, they are the work of hundreds of volunteers who labor for weeks, months — some all year — to create a Festival of Trees for the sake of Calvert Hospice. Tree Art “I don...