Articles by Sandra Olivetti Martin

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Frog Song

Sharpen your ears: They’re out There quacking, snoring, growling and peeping

It’s loud out there in frog land. Wood frogs, one of the season’s earliest risers, already have a new generation of tadpoles swimming in vernal pools. That’s the March 11 report of Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary volunteer Mark Priest posted on the Sanctuary’s webpage sightings link, jugbay.org/wildlife_sightings. Follow the link to see Priest’s short video of half-inch-long wrigglers. Those tadpoles are the...

Article - Creature Feature; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 3/15/12

Cooking Up Quite a Reputation

James Barrett of Westin Annapolis is up for Maryland Chef of the Year What does it take to be Maryland’s Chef of the Year? A concoction like this: The broth is daffodil yellow, screaming of spring, contradicting the misconception that chicken and dumplings is reserved for the cold of winter. Instead of big risen pillows, the dumplings are clever little Italian gnocchi. The geometrical cuts of chicken, moist all the way through, have seared...

Article - People; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 3/8/12

The Circles of Our Lives

Where we share ourselves is where we make ourselves

BGE has been wielding the grim reaper’s scythe in our neighborhood. Not only limbs aspiring to electric lines but whole trees have fallen. The wounds are still fresh. You can read the story of many a tree’s life in the map of concentric rings exposed on the raw stump. The Fairhaven communities will be walking the roads this Saturday on their annual litter pick-up. Those activist neighbors are one of my near circles. Like a...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 3/8/12

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Swan Song

Tundra swans prepare for their annual flight north

Chesapeake Country waterways are swan lakes from November to March, as migratory tundra swans weighing as much as 20 pounds move in. Some 18,000 of the big birds make Maryland their home. Dabblers, they tip bottom-up to feed on Bay grasses and small clams. They like winter wheat, barley and rye, too, and some of the swans will feed in fields. These are their last days with us, as the elegant birds fatten and gather to begin their flight back north....

Article - Creature Feature; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 3/8/12

Looking for a Bayfront Vacation Rental?

Cove Point Lighthouse to open for overnight accommodations

Flappers and molls, zoot-suiters and swells resurrected the Roaring ’20s at Calvert Marine Museum’s Bugeye Ball. Over 200 museum supporters styled and gambled, drank, danced and devoured the cuisine of Ken Upton’s Creative Kitchen Annapolis. Their good time means you and your family can book a weekend this summer at the Cove Point Lighthouse Inn, pretending you’re the family of keepers who kept the light shining for 184 years, starting with James...

Article - Places; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 3/8/12

Standing Tall for Civil Rights

Delegate Bob Costa and his deciding vote for the Civil Marriage Protection Act ... A Bay Weekly Conversation

At first glance, it seems unlikely that a truck-loving, firefighting Republican from rural Anne Arundel County would give the Civil Marriage Protection Act its victory vote, moving same-sex marriage through the House of Delegates and a step closer to law in Maryland. Del. Bob Costa goes by the email handle truckkie and drives one of Anne Arundel County’s biggest fire trucks out of the Lothian fire station. Costa, 53, is one of eight Republicans in...

Article - Bay Weekly Interviews; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 3/1/12

Readers Reply

Your say on taxes and the money problem

Where’s the money going to come from? If you say no new taxes, what are you willing to give up? To those questions, posed in my Editor’s Letter of February 23, readers had lots to say. Here are your replies, edited for succinctness. Don’t Forget the Teachers Steve Fletcher, Severna Park When you talk about police officers and firefighters scraping by while risking their lives, please include teachers. Whenever I write...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 3/1/12

Ballet Theatre of Maryland’s Double Feature

Scary forces fight for souls, all in elegant bodies

A tonic to warm up the blood would do good in these heavy days of Pisces, where we’re stuck till the first day of spring. You’ll find it at Ballet Theatre of Maryland’s double feature, The Firebird and The Scarlet Letter, this weekend only at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. Don’t do ballet? Dianna Cuatto, artistic director since 2003 of Maryland’s only professional ballet company, gives you reason to stretch out of your comfort zone....

Article - Performing Arts; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 2/23/12

Where’s the Money Going to Come From?

If you say no new taxes, what are you willing to give up?

Where’s the money coming from? If you haven’t asked that question this week, you’re in the 99 percent. And here come Uncle Sam and Uncle Peter, reminding us that tax day is just around the corner. Taxes are a chilling thought, whether you’re the kind of tea partier who curves your little finger or the kind who wants to burn the boat, cargo and all. If you’d like to pay more taxes, you...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 2/23/12

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Just What Kind of...

There’s a dark side to surgically implanted medical devices

“Watchdogs Want More Oversight of Artificial Knees and Hips.” So read the February 21 headline from Maryland News Connection, a startup statewide news service, leading us to wonder what kind of watchdogs they were talking about. We should have taken the story seriously, but we couldn’t get beyond the headline. In truth, this is serious business. Americans undergo nearly a million knee and hip replacements each year,...

Article - Creature Feature; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 2/23/12