Articles by All

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 3/21/13

Springtime in Maryland

Dress warmly to explore our shared history

With spring and winter still grappling in their annual wrestling match, I’m hoping the gentler season will gain the upper hand with its official arrival at 7:02am March 20. In truth, I’m longing for a nice spell of sunny warmth. For spring is clearly inching into control. Look around and you see the truth: Nature’s palette is brightening with sap greens, lemon yellows and ultramarine violets. Nature’s music is lilting with bird and frog song. ...

Article - The Dish; by Lisa Knoll - 3/21/13

Spring Menu Novelties

Brussels sprouts on pizza … Soft-shell crab on an Old Bay waffle

I admit to food biases. Some foods I have no interest in wasting calories on: sweet potatoes (even the trendy fried version), liver and onions (I get nauseous thinking about it) and fois gras (there’s that liver again). So when I was invited to try two new dishes at California Pizza Kitchen at the Westfield Mall, you’ve gotta give me credit for venturing outside of my comfort zone for two of my least favorite foods: Brussels sprouts and beets. Seasonal and...

Article - Creature Feature; by Michelle Steel - 3/21/13

Peepers Ring in Spring

Tiny frogs seldom seen but often heard

Spring has sprung. Spring peepers are wide awake and calling out loud. These tiny frogs are among the first to call and breed. Only the males sing. They’re calling for mates. Competition’s tough. Females choose a mate by the quality of his call. You can tell a peeper by a prominent dark X mark on its back. That is, if you can find one. They...

Article - History & Lore; by - 3/21/13

Time Is on Your Side

Over just three days, 379 years of Maryland history come to life

On March 25, 1634, voyagers from the ships the Ark and the Dove erected a cross on St. Clement’s Island in the Potomac River and offered prayers for surviving their four-months’ voyage. Thereupon, they took “possession of this Countrey for our Saviour and for our soveraigne Lord the King of England.” The Piscataway Indians who already lived there likely suggested the colonists go elsewhere, and St. Mary’s City became the seat of Lord Baltimore...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 3/14/13

Prune Blueberries Plants

Cut before month’s end so you have plenty of fruit to pick later

If you want your high-bush blueberry plants to produce the giant fruit photographed and described in nursery catalogs, then you have to prune them severely. If the plants are not pruned yearly, before April, you’ll get clusters of small berries that are a chore to pick. Don’t believe the myth that pruning lowers harvest yields. Research has proven time and again that pruning does not affect the yield but does vastly improve quality. You’ll harvest more...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener - 3/14/13

Oz The Great and Powerful

Pay no attention to the misogyny behind the curtain

In drab Kansas, a two-bit magician named Oz (James Franco: Lovelace) bamboozles country folk with black powder flashes and cleverly hidden wires. He dreams of greatness but settles for life as a glorified flimflam man in a traveling circus, seducing gullible farmers’ daughters. When one cuckolded boyfriend turns out to be the circus strongman, Oz makes a dramatic escape via hot air balloon. If you’ve seen the 1939 film this movie draws from, you know what happens...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 3/14/13

Still Looking for Pan-STARRS?

You can still catch this comet

Comet PanSTARRS is still with us for 30 to 45 minutes immediately following sunset. Look for it due west 20 degrees below the crescent moon Thursday, March 14. Shining around second magnitude, PanSTARRS at first appears as a modest star. Binoculars — and with ideal viewing conditions, even the unaided eye — will reveal a wispy tail pointing almost straight up. It appears a little higher above the horizon as it nears its peak on the 24th, edging to the northwest, or right, night by...

Article - Books; by Trudy Mihalcik - 3/14/13

Recycling Jesus, by Peter Abresch

Calvert County author Peter Abresch has a new mystery out just in time to add a touch more intrigue to the election of a new pope. Recycling Jesus, the author’s 10th novel, is a mystery wrapped in the Church’s most venerated relic, the Shroud of Turin. The crime might have gone undetected had not the Shroud’s guard been killed. Retired DEA agent Duncan Crouther is recruited to investigate. He is joined by the well-traveled and good-...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 3/14/13

A Few Thousand Here, A Few Million There

Many cash streams flow into cleaning up the Bay

Stormwater doesn’t stop running, especially in a Chesapeake season Noah could appreciate. Neither does money stop flowing. Thus Maryland’s Board of Public Works — governor Martin O’Malley, comptroller Peter Franchot and treasurer Nancy K. Kopp — still have money to spend. Last week, they spent $16 million of several continually refilling pools, including the Bay Restoration Fund and the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Nonpoint Source Fund...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 3/14/13

No New Nukes at Calvert

UniStar Nuclear is too French for Uncle Sam

Local cheering for a third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs has seemed misplaced. The economics of nuclear power are next to impossible these days with the federal government no longer able to provide loan guarantees and cheap natural gas the happening new energy source. Then there’s Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster two years ago that rekindled safety concerns. But the overriding issue here is that UniStar Nuclear, which...