Articles by Sandra Olivetti Martin

The Fate of Naptown barBAYq Is In Your Hands

Your job: Party hearty

About now, the men and women of Parole Rotary must be regretting their dedication to good works. True, doing good is even more intrinsic than weekly meetings to Rotary, with its motto of Service Before Self and its logo wheel that keeps turning because some 1.2 million members worldwide keep pushing. But by now, the Parole Rotarians have figured out that staging a signature festival, particularly inaugurating one, is a lot of trouble. Not more trouble...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 5/12/11

10 Reasons to Make it a Date

The Parole Rotary Foundation’s inaugural Naptown barBAYq contest and festival is sure to wet your appetite

Anticipation is such an alluring spice that I can smell it already. By the very early hours of Saturday, May 14, you’ll smell it too. The smokey scent of the Parole Rotary Foundation’s inaugural Naptown barBAYq contest and festival will curl into Arnold, Edgewater, Crownsville, beckoning you to the grounds of the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Here’s why you — and all you others beyond the reach of that...

Article - Food and Drink; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 5/5/11

Oh Mother!

Splendid though our stories are of Mother’s influence, I bet you can top them

Margaret Tearman’s bright idea for Bay Weekly’s annual Mother’s Day story has kept me chuckling since its light popped on in her brain months ago. In the instant of illumination, she wrote her Mother Made Me essay, and that was all it took to sell me on the idea. The Bay Weekly family of writers reacted the same way. Within minutes after I sent out the call for stories on that theme, I had five early reservations and one completed story. ...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 5/5/11

William Donald Schaefer, 1921-2011

I’m sorry to see you go

Like newspapers — I mean the print variety — politicians are news one day and fish wrap the next. That was not the case with William Donald Schaefer. On a Maryland scale, Schaefer was God in his heavens. We might not think of him everyday, but if we ignored him too long, the thunder would roar — and lightning might strike. So I got in the habit of reckoning his existence. When he was out of office between 1995 and 1999, I could feel his...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 4/28/11

41st Earth Day and Bay Weekly’s 18th Birthday

We stand with our feet in the water and our hands dirty from digging in the earth.

If you’re a mechanic, you open a garage. If you’re a cook, you open a restaurant. If you’re a horsewoman, you open a stable. If you’re newspaper people, you open a newspaper. You do what you know. That’s why we — husband Bill Lambrecht, son J. Alex Knoll and I — opened New Bay Times, on 1993’s chill, rainy Earth Day. Back then, the decision wasn’t so apparent. Bill — whose hardworking parents...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 4/21/11

The Carnivore’s Conundrum

Locally grown and ethically treated livestock brings meat you can trust to your table

Growing your own veggies is one thing; raising your own livestock is entirely another. That’s the lesson of my friends’ rabbits. Back when Earth Day was a bright new idea, green pioneers Janice and Phil turned their mildly urban garage into a high-rise rabbit warren. Chemical-intensive factory farming had scared the health-minded couple away from grocery meat. Home-raised rabbit seemed the sustainable solution. ...

Article - Green Living; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 4/21/11

It’s Easy to Be Green — Two Days a Year

Policy’s fashion color of the year is pale green

Earth Day is a lot like of St. Patrick’s Day. We dress up in green both days, and we throw parties and maybe march in a parade. But the next morning, the green washes off. In both Washington, D.C., and in Annapolis, the advance of the 41st Earth Day didn’t incline lawmakers to green enthusiasm. In Maryland, tight money pushed environmental causes to the rear. In Washington, tight money was the excuse for policy-directed...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 4/14/11

When It Comes to Memories, Everyone’s a Writer

Plus triumphs in words and deeds

Eighty degrees on April 4! With sweat on our brows, women in sleeveless dresses and men in shorts, summer insinuated itself into early spring — and into our hearts and minds. Midafternoon, editorial production stopped on this week’s issue. (Only the next day’s cold snap brought us back to the here and now and this paper into your hands.) We fast-forwarded in time to Memorial Day’s issue six weeks hence. Two whole months away, the calendar says. But...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 4/7/11

Bay Weekly’s 2011 Spring Home and Garden Guide

Approved by Mother Nature

Mother Nature may be sending us a message that our continued enjoyment of her earthly garden is contingent on our good behavior. When the message of climate change is written in the language of melting ice caps and glaciers, some among us scoff and say Not us! We didn’t do it. So she repeats her message in clearer terms. Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis. Including a half dozen or so nuclear reactors adds italics to...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 3/31/11

Good Dogs and Bad Dogs

Often bad dogs make the better stories; this week, good dogs have their day

Who can resist a dog story? My favorites star villainous dogs, like Muggs, the hero of James Thurber’s story The Dog that Bit People.* Nipper, Bay Weekly’s collections manager, would like to bite people and sometimes sneaks in a nibble. He’s a Jack Russell terrorist — as proofreader Dick Wilson calls him — and most anybody who has had a dog of that breed has a collection of bad dog stories. For better and...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 3/24/11