Articles by Sandra Olivetti Martin

Love is in the Water

Oyster babies abound

Chesapeake Bay oysters were amorous last summer, and the seed they sent forth willy-nilly into the water has set into abundant spat. Natural Resources researches examining the intimate lives of 53 key oyster bars last fall found spat — or oyster babies — about five times higher than the 25-year median. Instead of 16, spat count per bushel was nearly 80, the overall highest since 1997. Oyster babies were most plentiful in saltier waters of the...

Article - Creature Feature; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 2/17/11

Creatures Lead the Way

Last week belonged to the groundhog; this week belongs to lovebirds.

How’s your movie watching going? Minus Superbowl, of course, movies and a fire have warmed creatures in our burrow most nights since last week’s Groundhog Movie Review. But every since reading last week’s Sky Watch, All Hail the Returning Sun, I’ve seen evidence of the quickening — and with it signs of spring. February 5’s cross-quarter day is tickling me with hope. It’s hard to be gloomy when sunlight is flooding our hemisphere, promising us an hour...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 2/10/11

Movie Madness Strikes Again

Need an excuse to den up this time of year? Read on.

We’ve been watching a lot of movies lately. So many that the search is on for explanations. Really excuses. Is it the chicken or the egg? Are we watching movies to prepare for this week’s ever-popular Groundhog’s Movie Review? Or is the mood of the times the compelling force behind both behaviors? If that’s the case, we watch movies for the same reason that we run our annual Groundhog Movie Review on the first Thursday of February: It’s the season for burrowing for...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 2/3/11

Out of the Ashes

After a New Year’s Eve fire ravaged The Old Stein Inn, owner Mike Selinger looks to rebuild his dream

“No more tears,” says 41-year-old Mike Selinger on the 12th day since flames ravaged his family restaurant, The Old Stein Inn in Mayo. The predawn fire on the last day of 2010 shook his world, stole his livelihood and made him find words to explain to his parents what happened to the restaurant they founded 28 and left in his hands 15 years ago. Day by day, it’s getting better. He has reassured his German-born parents, Karl and Ursula Selinger, who now live in Mexico....

Article - Features; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 1/27/11

This Week’s Creature Feature

Coyote Call

Fifty feet away, just where open land tumbled into kudzu, a large, shaggy, mottled, gray canine was devouring the carcass of some small animal. Certainly not a fox, which are the size of cats or lapdogs. Nor a wolf. Wolves are not resident in Maryland, according to Harry Spiker, Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ man on big furbearing mammals. Likely it was a coyote. In Fairhaven. “We’ve got coyotes statewide,” Spiker told me. “They’re good at not...

Article - Creature Feature; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 1/27/11

Where There's Smoke ... There's Barbecue

Parole Rotary promises to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted with its Naptown barBAYq contest and festival

This spring, the worlds of competitive cooking and barbecue culture will collide in Annapolis, as the capital city unveils its first-ever barbecue contest. Parole Rotary’s 2011 Naptown BarBAYq, planned for May 13 and 14 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, is a first-time event with big hopes. If it works, it will be a grand success on many scores, including bankrolling charities of Parole Rotary’s choosing. Visiting a Colorado Rotary chapter’s own barbecue contest,...

Article - Features; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 1/27/11

Bay Weekly’s Annual Dining Guide

Explore, enjoy — and taste your way to new knowledge

In the business of newspapering, learning something new is an everyday job. Thus arose the editors’ traditional prod to slacking reporters: It’s a newspaper, not an old paper. But even editors get stuck in ruts, so my New Year’s resolution is to get out and see the world, starting with Chesapeake Country. That’s what I told Nancy Collery, of Main Street Gallery in Prince Frederick. Nancy and I were two of three-dozen people enjoying a bounteous and delicious...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 1/27/11

Another Year of Thinking Sustainably

Bay Weekly loves a success story — no matter how small — especially if it’s yours

How are your resolutions coming? Are you on the road to being healthier, wealthier and wiser in 2011? We’re talking about sustainability in the human sense here. Our own sustainability. It’s not only the Bay we need to sustain in health and productivity. Small as each of us humans is, we count too in the big picture of Earth’s sensitively calibrated and mysteriously linked ecosystems. So we’re included in Bay Weekly’s theme of sustainable living. Good thing, since...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 1/20/11

It’s Been a Very Good Year

So far, every issue of 2011 has moved you

It’s been a good year. True, 2011 is less than two weeks old. But I believe in counting my blessings while they’re fresh. (Apparently, I also believe in musical clichés, as I’ve used two in 21 words. Eddie Fisher crooned Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep) into my teenage consciousness, where it stuck. Frank Sinatra did the same with A Very Good Year. Both are thick with syrup. So is the Ray Charles and Willie Nelson [!] Very Good Year version on my iPod, but I can’t...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 1/13/11

Thank God It’s 2011

With the year comes new hope. Grab it now before it ages.

“You Catholics think you can do anything and then go confess,” said my Lutheran-reared husband as we watched the connivances in The Crime of Padre Amaro, a Mexican-made Academy Award finalist of a couple years back. If you think I have anything more to say about religion or movies, guess again. Except to say that the New Year brings us all a bit of the kind of relief confession grants Catholics. I’d be going too far to imagine it’s the grace of God that washed over...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 1/6/11