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Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 12/16/10

A Ticket to Outer Space

Gifts to bring the heavens into focus

While the day of commercial space flight has yet to dawn, a few choice astronomy-related gifts are enough to open up the heavens for anyone on your gift list. Who knows? You could be giving someone the start of a lifelong hobby or even a career. A telescope is a grand gesture. For around $100, the Orion SpaceProbe 3 Altazimuth Reflector is a great starter scope. For under $300, the motorized, Meade ETX-80BB telescope tracks objects once programmed and comes with an interactive LCD screen that...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 12/16/10

Special Gifts for the Outdoors Man or Woman

A few ideas sure to please

Buying a special holiday present for an avid angler, hunter, canoeist or kayaker is fraught with difficulty. Most dedicated sportsmen and women already have the gear they need. Those who don’t have definite ideas of what they want — but it is almost impossible to divine just what. However, there are a few things this holiday season that can be counted on to give special joy to just about anyone who’s outdoor obsessed. A Nifty Flashlight Flashlights are a great gift. I...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Mark Burns - 12/16/10

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn...

A moralistic adventure shines through evil fog in this allegorical fantasy.

Edmund and Lucy (Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley: the prior two Narnia movies) are feeling pretty miserable. While the rest of the Pevensie family is off in America, these two are hunkered down with insufferable cousin Eustace (Will Poulter: Son of Rambow) — a know-it-all, curmudgeonly, 10-year-old — in wartime Oxford. The twerp’s about to get it when a painting floods the room and the three kids surface in Narnia before the bow of the royal ship Dawn Treader. Plucked...

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 - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 12/9/10

’Tis the Season ...

That timely phrase keeps us happy as Chesapeake oysters

Chesapeake Bay oysters, at the peak of their season, contribute to our seasonal well-being by starring in many of our favorite traditional recipes: oyster dressing; its succulent who-needs-the-bird cousin, oysters au gratin; oysters on the half shell; oysters Rockefeller. To enjoy favorite dishes new and old, we need oysters. Of course we now know that oysters have even more important work to do than feeding us contentment. So important, that Maryland and Virginia have made restoring the...

Article - Correspondence; by Larry Lesko - 12/9/10

More on Open Spaces

Dear Bay Weekly: Right on, Steve Carr [Nov. 24]! I love those little urban and suburban patches of nature. They remind us that nature lives on and is incredibly resilient. When I go back to Pittsburgh, I am amazed by all the wildlife that has made comebacks from the industrial wastelands. There are now pileated woodpeckers in the woods around my mom’s house. I never saw them anywhere around there when I was growing up. There are hawks everywhere, even on the light posts along the parkways...

Article - Correspondence; by Pauline Koch - 12/9/10

Puzzled Over Puzzle Answers

Dear Bay Weekly: I pick up Bay Weekly every week, usually at Gary’s Grill, and I love the sudoku puzzle. I try the crossword, too, but I’m better at the sudoku. You haven’t run the answers to the sudoku the past couple weeks. And why don’t you have the answers to the puzzles in that week’s paper instead of the next week? A week is a long time to wait. –Pauline Koch, Severna Park Editor’s reply: Many papers run the answers to their puzzles in the...

Article - Correspondence; by Dave Linthicum - 12/9/10

November 18’s Double Scoop of Reading

Dear Bay Weekly: Had to write with kudos on the Season’s Bounty: 41,000 words … Wow! I of course enjoyed Ellen Moyer’s trail article in the same issue, Go Outside and Play [http://bayweekly.com/articles/good-living/article/go-outside-and-play]. –Dave Linthicum, Jug Bay Editor’s note: Linthicum is a trail enthusiast and mapper. You read about his recreational map of the Patuxent River in A Passion for the Patuxent in Bay Weekly’s June 24 issue: http://...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 12/9/10

Choose a Safe Christmas Tree

Not all Christmas trees are created equal

Not all evergreen trees are equally fire resistant. The Douglas fir is the most fire resistant tree, while the popular Fraser fir is the most combustible. Freshness has nothing to do with it. Douglas fir is a low-resin tree while Fraser fir is a high-resin tree. Assuring that your Christmas tree is a fire-safe tree begins with selecting the right tree. The State of Maryland fire marshal has declared that the most fire-resistant species are Douglas fir, Colorado spruce and Scots pine. This...