Features (All)

Article - Places; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 5/19/11

A Bright — Green — New Future for the Smithsonian on...

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater breaks ground on a new high-tech lab

There’s a new Smithsonian going up. Instead of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., this Smithsonian is rising out in the country southeast of Edgewater. It’s so new that rising jumps the gun. The first spadeful of soil was turned only two weeks ago. But two years hence, the Mathias Lab will give the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center a place to work that’s as “high-tech sustainable” as the research scientists are doing there. ...

Article - Bay Weekly Interviews; by a Bay Weekly exclusive - 5/19/11

It’s Not Rocket Science ... Restoring the Bay Is...

A Bay Weekly conversation with Kenneth Reckhow

No less an authoritative body than the National Research Council weighed in this month on progress in restoring Chesapeake Bay. In a hefty report, the council, which is part of the National Academies of Science, delivered a sobering assessment of what would be required to achieve ambitious goals. This was not one of those feel-good reports like those old Environmental Protection Agency assessments patting themselves on the back. The Obama administration may have declared war...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 5/12/11

Give a Kid a Chance

The cause behind the Naptown barBAYq

No one really knows why kids get cancer. But they do, some 14,000 of them a year. Go to Parole Rotary’s Naptown barBAYq May 13 and 14, and you’ll be helping “give a chance of living a nice long life” to the 200 kids cancer sends each year to The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore. Like Tracie Lewis. The fifth-grader at Severna Park’s Folger Mckinsey Elementary School has been a patient at...

Article - People; by Diana Beechener and Amy Russell - 5/12/11

Putting Ink to Paper

Brothers work toward their dream one panel at a time

On the Eastern shore of Maryland, brothers Josh and Mat Shockley are hard at work with vigilantes, vampire hunters and multi-dimensional travelers. The brothers aren’t in charge of a secret government lair; they’re the owners and principal artists of PLB Comics. They’ve been working on their business a few years, but comics have been their life since they could read. “We started reading them around age four, and that’s how we...

Article - People; by Amy Russell and Diana Beechener - 5/12/11

The Comic Crusaders

Three heroes use the power of comics for good

Bam! Pow! Clang! Each year with Free Comic Book Day, three stand against the melee. There’s little violence, but Steve Anderson, Billy Vogt and Bumper Moyer face throngs of fans. It’s their favorite time of year. In Chesapeake Country, fans have three stores they rush to get their comic fix year-round. On May 7, Annapolis’ Capital Comics and Third Eye Comics and Glen Burnie’s Twilight Zone gave away more than 6,000 comics, each...

Article - Features; by a Bay Weekly exclusive - 5/5/11

Mama Knows Best

Bay Weekly’s Mother’s Day homage to home rule

Taking whole wheat birthday cakes to school. Swallowing cod liver oil. Wearing hated clothing and chewing with mouths closed. Sitting up straight, no elbows on the table. Learning to read, learning to play a musical instrument. All those loathsome things our mother made us do. All those desirable things she wouldn’t allow. No Twinkies. No swimming right after lunch. No rock concerts with older friends. No driving after dark....

Article - Creature Feature; by Steve Carr - 4/28/11

This Week’s Creature Feature: Reach the Beach

Turtles, like people, benefited from William Donald Schaefer’s beach-bound determination.

Back in 2001, I joined the Severn River Association in arguing a tidal wetlands case before the Board of Public Works. We were trying to convince the regulators that a living shoreline would be better than a rock revetment on one of the last remaining natural shorelines along the Severn. To make our case, we came armed with school children and turtles. The school children, freshly scrubbed from the Samuel Ogle Science Magnet School, explained the importance of beach habitat...

Article - Green Living; by Matt Driscoll - 4/28/11

Ditching Bottled Water

Opening the tap can save you big bucks while helping the environment, too.

Come close because I have a secret to tell you. It’s not a secret you need to keep. It’s a secret you need to spread. Want me to spill it? Listen up. That water that comes out of your kitchen sink or bathroom faucet, you know the stuff. The same water you use to brush your teeth or wash your dishes. The same water you fill your dogs’ bowls with. Yeah, that water. Well, that water is drinkable. I...

Article - History & Lore; by Margaret Tearman - 4/28/11

Behind Closed Doors

Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage invites you to Scientists’ Cliffs for a day.

Quirky. Eccentric. Eclectic. That’s how people describe Scientists’ Cliffs, the private community on Calvert’s famous cliffs. The twisting dead-end lanes and the collection of cabins lining them have been quietly hidden from public view for the last 74 years. All five entrances to the community are labeled private, discouraging sightseers and adding further mystique to the historic neighborhood. Come May 7, the era of privacy closes, and for that one day,...

Article - Creature Feature; by Margaret Tearman - 4/21/11

This Week’s Creature Feature: Stink Bugs

Leaving our homes, they're heading for our gardens

The much-discussed invasion of the stink bugs — known to entomologists as the brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys) — is expected to cause quite a stink in our gardens. With spring’s warmer weather, the heat-seeking insect is leaving its comfy winter lodgings — our homes and other heated structures — for the great outdoors. Gathering on sunny windows and doors, they’re begging, let me out. Once outside, the...