Regulars (Bay Reflections)

Article - Bay Reflections; by Allen Delaney - 3/24/11

Bend Over and Say Zzzzzz

March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

As my doctor read through my records during my yearly physical, he exhaled a worrisome Hmmmmmmm. That’s never good when you’re visiting a doctor. “Let’s see,” he said. “According to your chart you turned the big Five-Oh this year.” To me, it sounded more like the big Five-Uh-oh. Rubbing his hands together, he peered like a crazed scientist from a bad 1950s sci-fi movie. “When would you...

Article - Bay Reflections; by Leo Newberg - 9/16/10

A Pirate’s Protest

These beautiful days can set you free

I have spent my life much like the proverbial pirate looking at 40, wondering why I never quite fit into today’s society, when the truth of the matter has always been that I am far healthier and happier because I never bothered to change. Too often I find that there is a sad disconnect between people’s daily lives and the world in which they live. This is not a matter of religion or spirituality or a higher power or anything remotely hard to believe in or have faith in. This is not...

Article - Bay Reflections; by Ariel Martinez Brumbaugh - 6/17/10

Bay Reflections

My Father and the Slugs

My father was a patient man who had no enemies. But I recall a summer when a monster was set free. His prize-winning tomato plants, he tended day and night, invited slugs, such slimy beasts, who knew they’d taste just right. And in the morning Dad would rise to find his plants in shreds he’d curse and stamp his feet with rage and swear upon their heads. He started drowning them in salt to watch their bodies wither. he’d track them by their rainbow trails and catch them in mid-...

Article - Bay Reflections; by Amy Russell - 6/10/10

I’m Learning to Cook, One Box at a Time

Each week’s assortment of vegetables will be a new lesson

Bay Reflections - -by Driving down Solomon’s Island Road, I looked out the window with new appreciation. The traffic of Annapolis behind me, I spent the 20-minute drive pondering the crops that flourished along my route and wondering which of them would be in my box. “Is that corn? I wonder if I’ll get corn.” “Maybe that’s lettuce? I wonder if I’ll get lettuce.” Oh, the mysteries of belonging to Community...

Article - Bay Reflections; by Diana Beechener - 5/20/10

First Date Blues

How the Bay Blues Festival helped me ditch the blues

Some girls view a first date with excitement. I view first dates with dread. What if he’s a poor conversationalist? What if I have nothing to say? What if he collects the skulls of all the women he’s dated? Admittedly, I need to stop watching Silence of the Lambs. I drove to the Navy-Marine Corps Stadium parking lot to meet Jack for our first date, 2009’s Bay Blues Festival, my stomach was churning and I was considering exit strategies. In a blind panic, I called...

Article - Bay Reflections; by Jane C. Elkin - 5/13/10

Back on the Boards

Reviewer turns actor in Mrs. California

It looks a lot easier from the audience.That’s one thing I’ve learned by returning to the stage after years on the reviewing end of community theater. Musical theater and opera were my first loves. Now I am captivated more by non-musicals, because I realize that actors who can’t lean on song and dance to sell their stories are the bravest performers of all. How would I fare, on stage, without my singing voice to pave my way? The opportunity to find out presented itself...

Article - Bay Reflections; by Dotty Holcomb Doherty - 5/6/10

My Mother Taught Me the Three Rs: Reuse, Reduce,...

And she’s still my champion

My mother was a reuser well before it became one of the fashionable three Rs every schoolchild knows today. At 93, she still lives by herself in the house where I grew up in southeastern Massachusetts. My twin sister Patty and I always knew if we needed a box, any size or shape, Mom would have it. Her packrat nature extended to coffee cans, rags, glass jars and plastic containers. Remember Skinny Minny ice milk from the 1960s? She has a collection of tubs in her basement if you need one...