Articles by Sandra Olivetti Martin

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/29/11

Writing a Story Is Like Remodeling a Kitchen

They don’t call it craft because it’s fast

Astronomy tells us summer left us only last Friday, September 23. But the seasonal gears of creatures change sooner, following the light. Like farmers making hay under September’s Harvest Moon, we humans feel this is the month to get something done. So every September brings me a new crop of writers. Enthusiasm whisks them in, for you have to be under the power of some heavy confidence to call or write an editor. I love their bright ideas and...

Article - Green Living; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/29/11

Sharing the Load

We’ll all have to do our part in managing our Total Maximum Daily Load if we’re going to piece together a healthier Bay

It won’t happen without you. The actions of federal, state and local governments are just the beginning of revitalizing the Bay. We are also counting on the partnership of millions of people who live in this region to join in protecting the waters that support their health, their environment and their economy. So said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson this summer, speaking in her new role as this year’s president of the Chesapeake Bay Executive...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/22/11

The Geography of Community

Farewell to one neighbor; bon voyage to another

For most of my earlier years, the neighborhoods where I lived were grids, and connections followed straight lines, side to side and front to back. Sometimes I was lucky and the next- or nearly next-door neighbors were people of shared interests beyond the chance of proximity. That’s how husband Bill and I developed dear friendships with the Kirkpatricks, next door but one, and the Ladleys, next door but two, in Holland Point, where we spent our first years in Chesapeake Country. ...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/15/11

The New Old Stein

Phoenix-like, a local landmark ravaged by fire has risen in time to celebrate Oktoberfest

On the second Friday of the Old Stein’s new lease on life, the liter glasses — each bearing the logo of one of the resurrected German bierstube’s 10 taps — stand ranged and polished on the shelves of a new-old, laborious refurbished bar, ready to be filled, raised and joined. But it’s not yet time to shout zum Wohl! Carpenters Scott Griffiths and Jeff Mattero pace the brand-new Honduran mahogany floor. Wainscoting —...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/15/11

So Long, Summer

Autumn’s Won My Heart Away

Summer on the Chesapeake is not a perfect season, but I sure hate to see it go. Summer 2011 showed us its terrible temper in plenty of ways: weeks in the stew pot, torrential rains, gale-force winds or none at all, stink bugs on the peaches, mosquitoes on me. But such moods don’t overshadow my love for the thrill of a breeze, the exuberance of the leaves, the moment to seize. For summer does not stay. The pool where I swim opens only one more day, inviting humans in...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/8/11

Ten Years Under the Shadow of the World Trade Center...

Editor’s note: For all each of us remembers about the day we now mark as 9/11, we have forgotten one thing: The utter shock of surprise. Disbelief has dissipated like dusty explosive smoke. Ever since those four moments of impact, we have had knowledge instead of innocence. We are like Adam and Eve driven from the garden. Ten years after, the words I wrote on the morning of September 12, 2001, are the closest I can come to before. I offer them to you to read and...

Article - Creature Feature; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/8/11

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Mosquitoes Are...

Itching is the least of their nasty woes

Downed trees, dented houses and absent power are the larger consequence of Irene, Lee and their ilk. But the smaller consequences can also get under your skin. And keep you itching. Mosquitoes are biting. Many kinds of mosquitoes. The extraordinary amount of rain from the two storms is just what the eggs of opportunistic female fresh-floodwater mosquitoes have been waiting for to hatch. Other kinds of mosquitoes are always with us....

Article - Features; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/8/11

Country Fairs Three Ways

CalvART Country Fairs show gets you ready for county fairs

At world fairs, you could see it all. At state fairs, you could see most everything under the sun. At county fairs, you could see quite a bit. Still can. The Maryland State Fair has just ended, ushering in the county fair season: Anne Arundel’s County Fair runs September 14 thru 18, followed by Calvert County’s Fair September 28 thru October 2. To get psyched for both fairs, all this month you can see country fairs...

Article - Features; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/8/11

Between 9/11 and here

Carolyn Surrick’s 125 lunch hours at Walter Reed made music into poetry

He ends up here For surgery Or therapy, or prosthetics And time goes really slowly. Again. –Day One (last stanza) Until Walter Reed Army Medical Center ended its 102-year mission on August 27, it was one sure place to measure the long shadow cast from September 11, 2011. The poems gathered in Between War to Here are one small measure of that shadow...

Article - Creature Feature; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 9/1/11

This Week’s Creature Feature ... In Calvert Citizens...

$2.4 million federal grant resolves the conflict

The little Puritan tiger beetle has it way better than many other bugs in the news. Stinkbugs and emerald ash borers: We’re dead-set on eliminating those alien destroyers. But the Puritan tiger beetle was here long before us, and to keep it here we go to great lengths. And great expense. Last week, a $2.4 million federal grant, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, came to the...