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Articles by Diana Beechener

In the war against the vacuum, Lothian’s Juanky is declared top dog

The  war between pets and vacuum cleaners is long-standing and seemingly inexplicable. Maybe it’s the noise. Maybe it’s the aggressive suction coupled with a rolling machine. Maybe pets just don’t like clean carpets. Eureka Vacuums, however, sought an armistice between their cleaners and your furry friends, inviting pet owners around the country to enter Fido’s Fight or Flight contest with videos of their pets reactions to the vacuum. The contest promoted Eureka...

A Bah-ston robbah tries to go straight in this engaging and pulpy crime tale

  In the first five minutes of The Town, a group of precision criminals, donning skeleton masks, knock over a bank. Everything is going smoothly until someone triggers the silent alarm. The slick crew devolves quickly into violence and kidnapping as they make a sloppy getaway with the loot and terrified bank manager Claire (Rebecca Hall: Please Give). After releasing the woman and laundering their money, the crew meet in the neighborhood of Charlestown for a job evaluation. Crew leader...

The Chesapeake Green Living Festival producers hope their event leaves you seeing green

  Save the Bay. Everyone wants to do it. But every year, Maryland seems to miss the mark. Amidst overwhelming reports on oil spills and global warming, rain barrels and natural landscaping can seem small beans. Yet they’re effective weapons in the war on environmental pollutants. As Jim Barthold and Elvia Thompson see it, people have been too busy thinking globally to act locally. To help Anne Arundel Countians find a greener way of life, Barthold and Thompson organized this weekend...

Calvert Marine Museum’s snakehead settles into life in solitary confinement

  Two years ago, the Calvert Marine Museum put a new inmate in the tank, a snakehead fish, as the showpiece of the museum’s invasive species exhibit. “It was a good example because there was a lot of press on it a few years back,” says Ken Kaumeyer, the museum’s curator of estuarine biology. Though the fish hasn’t attempted a jailbreak, Kaumeyer isn’t ready to declare it a model prisoner. Originally, the snakehead was to be part of a larger exhibit,...

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a person in a chicken suit

  Chesapeake Bay is full of crap — literally. An EPA study found that 17 percent of nitrogen pollution and 26 percent of pollution in the Bay comes from animal manure. Environment Maryland wants you to hold the biggest polluters responsible — even if motivating you takes dressing up like a chicken to do it. To educate you about the damage your chicken dinner can cause, the people at Environment Maryland meet you at the point of contact: grocery stores. “We wanted to make...

Musicians Carolyn Surrick, Ginger Hildebrand
and Sue Richards perform to soothe wounded warriors

  Before we go inside, viola da gamba player Carolyn Surrick touches my arm. With serious eyes and concern in her voice, she lays out the facts: Most of the people I’m about to see have been injured horribly. On some, the scars will be invisible; on others, all too visible.  Her message is implicit: Don’t freak out. She tells me this not for my benefit but for the benefit of her audience, the residents of Walter Reed’s Mologne House, where she and sister Ensemble...

Grants from Maryland Heritage Areas Authority
makes two groups flush (with cash)

  It’s surprising the difference a bathroom makes. As Maryland Heritage Areas Authority divided its $2,617,146 of grant money between 55 projects, at least two projects in Anne Arundel and Calvert County got cash for bathroom upgrades.  At Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, executive director Linnell Bowen has long hoped to update the old Annapolis high school’s facilities. “We have the volume of people,” she said, “and we need to keep up.” The...

Acting team Anna and Alan Ostroff find a Fantastick way to express their love

  The curtain goes up on a real life love story in Infinity Theatre Company’s production of The Fantasticks. The play, which tells the tale of two lovers overcoming familial obstacles, opens at the Children’s Theatre of Annapolis this Friday. The production is the first for fledgling Infinity Theatre Company, whose founders Anna and Alan Ostroff found love and creative fulfillment on stage. “We both have been in love with the show since we can remember,” explains...

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...

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...