Michelangelo was 17 when he finished his first sculpture. Courtney Johnson, the youngest artist showing her work this month at BayWoods of Annapolis, is eight — and her photo is nationally recognized. Beat that artistic legend. “I paint to show people that everything has some kind of beauty in it,” said 18-year-old Colby Slade, the oldest artist in the BayWoods show and an art class regular at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.  Art is one...

“What on earth does Magothy mean?” asked a guest as we walked down to the river by my Pasadena home. “It’s the name of the river,” I explained. “But what is it? Is it a person? Or a special word?” persisted my curious guest. It was a mystery. I spent 27 years living along the banks of the Magothy River, and not once had I questioned the origin of the name. It was just the river. Well that’s not good enough anymore. My first source was, of course...

Born on the seventh of December, the latest addition to the National Zoo has already caused a fuss among the zookeepers. The giant anteater pup was found lying outside his mother’s cage with a dangerously low body temperature. The month-old cub was rushed to the vet, then given the all-clear to go back to his mom. “We’re not sure what happened,” says animal keeper Leigh Pitsko. “But he pulled through like a trooper.” He’s also learned his lesson. This...

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted –Aesop The truck driver approached the tollbooths on the Bay Bridge, laboring to maneuver his big five-axle rig into an open lane. Heavy traffic made it a tough job. An elderly couple approaching the toll lanes behind him saw his predicament and slowed, waving the trucker into their lane, directly in front of them. Catherine Noone, toll collection manager at the Bay Bridge toll plaza, has seen many people pay it forward —...