Features (All)

Article - Features; by Aries Matheos - 9/29/10

Muddy Creek Artists Guild Pops Up Again

See them this season in Galesville, October 1 thru 3

With no gallery to call their own, the Muddy Creek Artists Guild makes its followers wonder where they are going to pop up next. Surprise “keeps the Guild’s shows fresh,” says Elizabeth Ramirez, chair of the upcoming October show. The Where’s-Waldo approach for the two-year-old Guild’s three annual shows creates “a sense of urgency” that “people have to take advantage of while it’s happening,” says Bea Poulin, photographer and Guild...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 9/24/10

This Week’s Creature Feature - Two Years into a Life...

Calvert Marine Museum’s snakehead settles into life in solitary confinement

Two years ago, the Calvert Marine Museum put a new inmate in the tank, a snakehead fish, as the showpiece of the museum’s invasive species exhibit. “It was a good example because there was a lot of press on it a few years back,” says Ken Kaumeyer, the museum’s curator of estuarine biology. Though the fish hasn’t attempted a jailbreak, Kaumeyer isn’t ready to declare it a model prisoner. Originally, the snakehead was to be part of a larger exhibit,...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 9/23/10

Sucked into Battle

In the war against the vacuum, Lothian’s Juanky is declared top dog

The war between pets and vacuum cleaners is long-standing and seemingly inexplicable. Maybe it’s the noise. Maybe it’s the aggressive suction coupled with a rolling machine. Maybe pets just don’t like clean carpets. Eureka Vacuums, however, sought an armistice between their cleaners and your furry friends, inviting pet owners around the country to enter Fido’s Fight or Flight contest with videos of their pets reactions to the vacuum. The contest promoted Eureka...

Article - News; by Katie Dodd - 9/23/10

Bonfire of the Politcal Vanities

Discarding the remnants of the race to the polls

Maryland’s September primaries are over, the polls have closed, and — for the most part — the results have been determined. For most winners, the looming general election — where the stakes are all or nothing — leave little time to celebrate. For the losers, there’s plenty of time to rue and wish Maryland had enacted late, rather than early, voting. Plenty of time to pick up — and pack up? — all the signs that proclaimed their hopes and...

Article - News; by Aries Matheos - 9/23/10

Ooh-La-La!

á la mode lingerie wins in European Flair

More pressurized than a mammogram. More daunting than a marathon. Able to break women shoppers in a single trip. That’s my definition of buying a bra. So when my first assignment sent me to cover an award-winning brassiere shop, I felt like the new kid in first grade. Worse, this was a lingerie shop. I imagined the lewd should-be-unmentionables sold in Boardwalk sex shops in Ocean City. If lingerie translates from the French in other ways, I hadn’t learned them yet. Until I...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 9/23/10

Amazing Maize Mazes

Making these marvels is just as much a puzzle as finding your way through them

Well-trod paths lead to dusty dead-ends. Back to the last turn. Go right instead of left, left instead of right. Until, finally, light at the end of the corn row. High fives all around. A corn maze has been successfully navigated. A sure sign of fall, these tricky trails through acres of dried cornstalks are a growing business as agri-tourism blossoms. It’s next to impossible to see on foot, but the maze-trekker has just walked the outline of a giant pirate ship. Or a soldier. Or a...

Article - News; by Sandra Lee Anderson - 9/23/10

Playing the Shell Game

There’s plenty of fun to go around

Growing oysters is about the future of our children — and about the child in us. Watching the squigglies living among the oysters is fascinating fun for all ages. Len Zuza, of Southern Maryland Oyster Conservations Society,left, lifts out an oyster cage for the students. Growing oysters is also about the adult in people of all ages, responsibly working to restore our Bay. So it’s useful to know if our efforts come to anything — beyond the playfulness of...

Article - Creature Feature; by Diana Beechener - 9/16/10

Elephants Join the Sexual Revolution

The Humane Society International successfully tests elephant contraception

In African game reserves, elephants were eating themselves out of house and home. So the Humane Society International found a way to control the growing elephant population in South African reserves without resorting to cruel practices: elephant contraception. “In a lot of places in Africa, elephants are confined by fences or barriers,” explains Humane Society International’s director of wildlife Theresa Telecky. “If the population isn’t controlled in some way, the...

Article - News; by Diana Beechener - 9/16/10

Vote Early, Vote Often

For Pride of Baltimore II, every vote counts

The Pride of Baltimore company’s Pride II historic tall ship is sailing into the world of grants. The clipper ship is attempting to beat out 1,000 other candidates for a $50,000 grant from Pepsi. Pride II wants the money for boating-safety courses to teach under-served students in American port cities. The grant will fund supplies and travel. To pay for all that good work, Pride II needs your vote. Vote once a day every day thru September 30 for the boat safety program to help the ship...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 9/16/10

Help Calvert Honor Eating Local, from Farm to Table

You have until Sept. 20 to nominate three for awards

Calvert County is taking local to a higher level with its new annual Sustainable Agricultural Awards Program. Emphasizing the once-rural-county’s continuing pride in its agricultural heritage — and to preserve that heritage — the Calvert County Board Commissioners seeks nominations for three new awards. Two will recognize businesses that make it their priority to support local producers; one will recognize a local farmer who makes good on the promise of sustainable farming...