Features (All)

Article - News; by Katie Dodd - 9/23/10

Bonfire of the Politcal Vanities

Discarding the remnants of the race to the polls

Maryland’s September primaries are over, the polls have closed, and — for the most part — the results have been determined. For most winners, the looming general election — where the stakes are all or nothing — leave little time to celebrate. For the losers, there’s plenty of time to rue and wish Maryland had enacted late, rather than early, voting. Plenty of time to pick up — and pack up? — all the signs that proclaimed their hopes and...

Article - News; by Aries Matheos - 9/23/10

Ooh-La-La!

á la mode lingerie wins in European Flair

More pressurized than a mammogram. More daunting than a marathon. Able to break women shoppers in a single trip. That’s my definition of buying a bra. So when my first assignment sent me to cover an award-winning brassiere shop, I felt like the new kid in first grade. Worse, this was a lingerie shop. I imagined the lewd should-be-unmentionables sold in Boardwalk sex shops in Ocean City. If lingerie translates from the French in other ways, I hadn’t learned them yet. Until I...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 9/23/10

Amazing Maize Mazes

Making these marvels is just as much a puzzle as finding your way through them

Well-trod paths lead to dusty dead-ends. Back to the last turn. Go right instead of left, left instead of right. Until, finally, light at the end of the corn row. High fives all around. A corn maze has been successfully navigated. A sure sign of fall, these tricky trails through acres of dried cornstalks are a growing business as agri-tourism blossoms. It’s next to impossible to see on foot, but the maze-trekker has just walked the outline of a giant pirate ship. Or a soldier. Or a...

Article - News; by Sandra Lee Anderson - 9/23/10

Playing the Shell Game

There’s plenty of fun to go around

Growing oysters is about the future of our children — and about the child in us. Watching the squigglies living among the oysters is fascinating fun for all ages. Len Zuza, of Southern Maryland Oyster Conservations Society,left, lifts out an oyster cage for the students. Growing oysters is also about the adult in people of all ages, responsibly working to restore our Bay. So it’s useful to know if our efforts come to anything — beyond the playfulness of...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 9/16/10

Elephants Join the Sexual Revolution

The Humane Society International successfully tests elephant contraception

In African game reserves, elephants were eating themselves out of house and home. So the Humane Society International found a way to control the growing elephant population in South African reserves without resorting to cruel practices: elephant contraception. “In a lot of places in Africa, elephants are confined by fences or barriers,” explains Humane Society International’s director of wildlife Theresa Telecky. “If the population isn’t controlled in some way, the...

Article - News; by Diana Beechener - 9/16/10

Vote Early, Vote Often

For Pride of Baltimore II, every vote counts

The Pride of Baltimore company’s Pride II historic tall ship is sailing into the world of grants. The clipper ship is attempting to beat out 1,000 other candidates for a $50,000 grant from Pepsi. Pride II wants the money for boating-safety courses to teach under-served students in American port cities. The grant will fund supplies and travel. To pay for all that good work, Pride II needs your vote. Vote once a day every day thru September 30 for the boat safety program to help the ship...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 9/16/10

Help Calvert Honor Eating Local, from Farm to Table

You have until Sept. 20 to nominate three for awards

Calvert County is taking local to a higher level with its new annual Sustainable Agricultural Awards Program. Emphasizing the once-rural-county’s continuing pride in its agricultural heritage — and to preserve that heritage — the Calvert County Board Commissioners seeks nominations for three new awards. Two will recognize businesses that make it their priority to support local producers; one will recognize a local farmer who makes good on the promise of sustainable farming...

Article - News; by Aries Matheos - 9/16/10

Fire Weather

September’s low humidity feels good, but it can spark fires

Was the Sunday shower of .66 inches of rain enough to extinguish the “critical fire weather conditions” blanketing over half of Maryland? The rain “wasn’t enough to alleviate the drought conditions,” according to Monte Mitchell, the State Fire Supervisor with the Maryland Fire Service. “Until we start getting in a regular pattern of rainfall,” drought — and with it the danger of wildfires — is here to stay. Forty percent of Maryland...

Article - People; by Vicki Marsh - 9/16/10

Better with Age

Senior ShowStoppers dance circles around stereotypes

Sultry women draped in gossamer, adorned with trinkets and coins, shimmy their hips on the main stage. All the women gyrating are over 70; some are in their early 80s. These members of Joanne DeWilde’s belly dancing troupe are just a fraction of the elite entertainment group called The Senior ShowStoppers. Phyllis Laser and husband Larry dance the Tennessee Waltz. The ShowStoppers tour Anne Arundel County with an eclectic performance featuring musicians, singers,...

Article - Features; by Katie Dodd - 9/16/10

Running into Trouble

From start to finish, the Annapolis 10-miler pushed me way past my comfort zone

The humid air carries a buzz of excitement as 4,585 people packed in the early morning shade of Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on August 29 stretch their limbs in anticipation of the impending race. This 10-mile run is the culmination of my weeks of training through another hot, humid Annapolis summer. It’s also the fulfillment of a goal I’ve had for years of watching the race from the sidelines — to be running on the other side of the fence. “It’s an adventure...