Articles by Sandra Olivetti Martin

Eat ’Em While You Can

With summer’s bounty upon us, we’re running to keep up

The many stories about food and feast featured in this week’s paper may lead you to think we’ve forgotten our timing and brought you our Thanksgiving feasting issue four months early. We’re not confused; we’re just keeping up with the harvest, which reaches its peak this time of year. Hungry as I’ve been for Maryland tomatoes and corn — two crops unequaled by any import — I’m still amazed at the speed with...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 7/28/11

Annapolis: Maryland’s Biking Capital

The city’s new Bicycle Master Plan may earn it that title

If Annapolis’ Bicycle Master Plan ever gets off the drawing board and onto the streets, our capital city could be Maryland’s biking capital. The thoughtful plan, introduced last week, is the work of the Toole Design Group whose specialty is moving people, have created bike plans across the country, from Washington, D.C., to Seattle, Washington — including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Winston Salem and Asheville. Envisioned is a cross-city...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 7/28/11

This Week’s Creature Feature ... Beating the...

Whether mammals sweat or pant, heat gets us all down

You’re not the only species suffering in this summer’s dog days. Farm animals overheat much the same way you do, according to the Maryland Farm Bureau. So Maryland farmers get creative to keep their charges cool. You can’t sweat like a pig because, like dogs and cats, pigs don’t sweat. The species’ natural remedy, mud, not only cools them down but also works like sunscreen. When the temperature climbs...

Article - Creature Feature; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 7/28/11

How Walk- and Bike-Friendly Are Our Roads?

Not nearly so safe that we can let our guard down

How are the walking and the biking where you live? Annapolis is a town designed for walking, former two-term Annapolis mayor Ellen Moyer tells us in this week’s Capital City, her occasional Bay Weekly column. But, she convincingly argues, it’s got a way to go to be a Walk-Friendly Community. Annapolis wants to be a Bicycle-Friendly Community, too. Achieving first bronze, then silver recognition from the League of American Bicyclists are two of...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 7/21/11

Untangling the Traffic Knot in Annapolis and Beyond

A Bay Weekly conversation with David Humphreys, director of the Annapolis Regional Transportation Management Association

On your seventh circle through the auto hell of Historic Annapolis in fruitless search of a parking place, you take traffic personally. Personally is how you take the blockage on Rt. 50 west, gridlock on the Bay Bridge — and your own personal traffic hell, wherever you find it. David Humphreys, a sailor from Bay Ridge, takes traffic personally, too. His job as director of the Annapolis Regional Transportation Management Association is to transmute the rage we share...

Article - Bay Weekly Interviews; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 7/14/11

Here and Now: Ride the Annapolis Circulator

The Annapolis Circulator, which hit the road July 1 on a six-month trial, can take the hell out of Annapolis city traffic. The four trolleys that together are the Circulator make it possible, perhaps even easy, for you to park and ride throughout historic Annapolis — with Eastport and West Annapolis just over horizon. Here’s how it works: Park at your choice of three Annapolis city garages. Park on the edge of downtown at Gott’s Garage (...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 7/14/11

Old Habits Are Hard to Break

As the Beatles sang, it’s getting better all the time. At least that’s what the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council told us this week in the 28th annual meeting of that august body, whose members are three governors, the mayor of D.C., the administrator of the EPA and assorted top government officials. We’ve heard versions of the same story for so many years, so why should we care this time around? What’s That You Say? Only wonks...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 7/14/11

Independence Day

The celebration of a nation of immigrants

It’s no wonder that fireworks are Independence Day’s signature. The holiday is explosive with emotion. And packed with participation. This week’s 8 Days a Week calendar will tell you that throughout Chesapeake Country, as in all America, in communities large and small we wave flags; march, roll and pedal in parades; bake pies; gather for picnics and barbecues; listen to concerts; eat ice cream; watch baseball; make big bangs and...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 6/30/11

Love the Bay?

Southern High School artists will paint you a wall to proclaim it

When it comes to wearing your heart on your sleeve, Muddy Creek Animal Hospital, in the rural crossroads known as West River, has reached a new high. The artists of Southern High School have splashed a celebration of the Southern Anne Arundel environment — from Bay to wetlands to farm fields — onto the vet clinic’s 25-foot-high exterior wall. The evocative mural realizes a long-held dream for Grant Nisson, whose veterinarian “family practice”...

Article - Green Living; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 6/23/11

The Nature of Books

Your editor’s segue into books about nature

Books leave marks on our lives that may or may not be indelible, the word my grade school nuns taught us to describe the imprint of the sacrament of confirmation. That mark would last so long God would see it on our souls, no matter how little else was left by the time we met up with him. I’ve swum through the words of thousands of books in total immersion; yet most of them disappear from my memory the way water evaporates from my body when I climb from the pool to lie...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 6/23/11