Articles by Aries Matheos

It’s a Good Time to Be a Squirrel

Mast year creates a bounty of acorns, which should lead to a bounty of bushy tails next year

Which came first, the acorn or the squirrel? Whichever you prefer, both will be doing exceptionally well this year as acorns fill the forest floor and squirrels’ stomachs. For both species, 2010 is a mast year. “The term mast year refers to a year with an abundant mast crop, mast being the generic term for the fruits of forest trees,” explains Kenneth Jolly of Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Forest Service. These years mostly depend on climatic variations...

Article - Creature Feature; by Aries Matheos; 10/21/10

Sir Barchan of the Joust

For the honorable knights of the Maryland Renaissance Festival, every charge is aimed for the win — knocking the other rider off his horse

“A piece of armor may fly into the crowd. If this happens, please do not be harmed,” says Sir Barchan of Dinglebury, who comes armed with a sense of humor and over 90 pounds of 14-gauge stainless steel to introduce his fellow jousters. As champion of the Maryland Renaissance Festival’s home field, Rebel Grove, the 60-year-old knight loves this contact sport. The self-taught champion leads the Ren Fest knights into battle against the new era. With no high-tech gadgets,...

Article - People; by Aries Matheos; 10/14/10

Sailboat Show Sideline

There’s a lot of life in those old sails yet

The Haughwouth sisters’ parents had passed away, and the boat was long gone, but when their childhood sail resurfaced, Penny and Pixie couldn’t bear throwing it away. Instead they turned it into two jackets. Then they turned it into a business, Sea Fever Gear. Sailors don’t have many options for worn-out sails other than throwing them away. “So many hold onto them,” says Haughwouth, “because they carry an emotional tie. Who owned it before? Where has it been...

Article - News; by Aries Matheos; 10/7/10

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

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 Aries Matheos; 9/23/10

Fire Weather

September’s low humidity feels good, but it can spark fires

Was the Sunday shower of .66 inches of rain enough to extinguish the “critical fire weather conditions” blanketing over half of Maryland? The rain “wasn’t enough to alleviate the drought conditions,” according to Monte Mitchell, the State Fire Supervisor with the Maryland Fire Service. “Until we start getting in a regular pattern of rainfall,” drought — and with it the danger of wildfires — is here to stay. Forty percent of Maryland...

Article - News; by Aries Matheos; 9/16/10