Letter from the Editor (All)

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 2/28/13

Sandra Olivetti Martin

Here’s to Magic Weisner, Laura Neuman and the power of possibility

The Odd Chance In 2002, a Maryland dark horse named Magic Weisner came within a half-length of stealing the Preakness Stakes from front runner War Emblem. Local small-scale trainer Nancy Alberts believed in Magic, who she named for the vet who saved the magically resilient foal’s life. That horse could run. Cheering with the rest of Maryland, I followed the story to Laurel Racetrack, where I interviewed Alberts and Magic. Odd chance has been again...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 2/21/13

How We Think — And Write — About Race

Reflections on black history and a Polish barber

My Monday morning began with the news that loyal reader Chuck Erskine was mad at me, at Bay Weekly and at cruciverbalist Ben Tausig. Please inform Ben Tausig that the pages of the Bay Weekly are no place for his ethnic bigotry. The clue for 10 down in the crossword puzzle in Vol. xxi, No. 6 [Switching Sides] is an outrage. What purpose is served by using the adjective [Polish] before dude? Would Ben use his own ethnicity in an unnecessary and belittling manner?...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by - 2/14/13

None of the Above

As Anne Arundel replaces a flawed county executive, it’s time to rethink how we hire our top leaders

On a scale starting with your favorite Valentine chocolate and dropping to a shot of syrupy cough medicine, where would you rank county government? Most of us, I fear, don’t place it in a heart-shaped satin box. Certainly not many of us who live in Anne Arundel County, which is one of eight of Maryland’s 23 counties governed by an executive. In the best of times, county government is medicine you’ve got to take. It...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 2/7/13

Movies to Inspire Your Hibernation

With Black History Month, remember that the Civil Rights movement swept America on television

With only 28 days, February has to hurry. Even more so on the Bay Weekly calendar, where our shortest month gets a late start this year. With January packed full of five Thursdays, our first paper of the month comes to you on February 7. So we’re already late for Groundhog’s Day, when Punxsutawney Phil and Chesapeake Chuck pop up to predict spring. Not too late for our annual Groundhog’s Movie Guide, however, as hibernating with a good...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 1/24/13

1,000 Issues and Counting

Looking back by the hundreds that lead to Bay Weekly’s big K

In the culture of Polar Bear Plungers — about whom we write this week — our 1,000th issue puts us in the league of Super Plungers like Michelina Scotto, who return to the Bay’s chilling waters (about 41 degrees this time of year) every hour on the hour 24 times. One thousand issues means we’ve done the same thing often enough to have gotten good at it. If the 10,000-hour rule Malcolm Gladwell offers in his book Outliers is a true measure of mastery,...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 1/17/13

Embrace the New Year’s Spirit

Feeling energized and confident? Good thing. We’ve got work to do.

It seems to be working, and aren’t we glad. The great old stories of rising from darkness into light, all synched to the winter solstice of our northern hemisphere, held the day. The battle of myths was lost by the doomsayers who predicted time’s termination on the ancient Mayan calendar’s last day. Now 12/21/12 joins Y2K in the museum of failed prophecies. In and on earth, we’re all energized and confident, behaving as if we have...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 1/10/13

Which Way the Wind Blows

Forecasting this General Assembly’s environmental future

When your well runs dry — as Michelle Steel’s did, as you’ll read in this week’s feature story — you’re an outlier. In our part of the country, rural living is a luxury. Suddenly you’re paying for that luxury. When you live on county or city water, you’re part of a collective that shares the hidden cost of bringing this precious resource into your home in the country. When your well runs dry, you’re on your own. ...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 1/3/13

It’s a New Year

In 2013, anything is possible

Welcome back to the future! Don’t you love going though the tunnel and coming out on the other side? I find the exhilaration habit-forming. Fortunately, it’s annual. I go into the tunnel of year’s end gleefully, but I leave it dragging my feet against the re-emergence. By Thanksgiving, I’ve got the knack of the fast-aging year that still seems new to me. My three-month-at-a...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 12/20/12

My Wish for the Season of Renewal

It’s time we vow to take better care of one another

Bay Weekly’s 51st issue of the year celebrates family, the warm nest where we are born and nurtured. For this is the season of birth, which we enter each year in hopes of renewal. If it seems to you a little odd — as it does to me — that our cultural feasts of rebirth fall in the darkest time of the year, when in our cold clime is just setting in, there’s good reason. This week’s solstice begins a new year...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin - 12/13/12

What I Want for Christmas

Peace, goodwill and Slack Winery’s Pink Shoals

Read any good Christmas lists lately? Good will and peace on Earth continue to top every list, as we haven’t gotten there yet. Despite the best efforts of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, those eternal aspirations remain elusive. Perhaps our continual striving is the point. Perhaps each round of striving is actually a cycle in an upward spiral. I’ve held onto that hope these many years, ever since my esteemed professor...