Articles by Sandra Olivetti Martin

Predicting the Next President: The Keys to the White...

Allan Lichtman has unlocked the secret to counting the vote

Can’t stand to wait another week to know who’s going to be president? Ask Allan Lichtman. “My 13 questions will tell you who will claim the popular vote,” says the American University political professor, a Marylander who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2006. His keys have called it right in every election since the middle of the 19th century, when the popular vote was first counted. Of course...

Article - Books; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 11/1/12

Calling All Would-Be Directors

Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre needs you

Bay Weekly theater reviewers, take notice. You’ve got your chance — you and everybody else who’s ever said I could do better after seeing a community theater production. Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre needs directors for all three of the musicals it will stage in the summer of 2012, its 47th season. “Community theater is an ever-evolving group of people, so we’re constantly looking for more people to...

Article - Performing Arts; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 11/1/12

You Don’t Want Sandy in Your Well

If your wellhead was submerged, you’ll need a hose, bleach and bottled water

If you draw your water from a well, Hurricane Sandy may have brought you another chore. Drilled wells are subject to saltwater and surface water contamination if the wellhead is submerged. If water puddle around your wellhead or saltwater drowned it, you’ll have to purge your well before your water is good to drink. Start with a caution. Your well operates on electricity, so shock is possible. It’s a job you can do yourself, but you may prefer...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 11/1/12

Sandy Was No Treat for Chesapeake Bay

But storms’ worst tricks give us reason for hope

Sandy was forecast to bring the kind of days Noah knew, with wind, rain and water overwhelming land and livers. Coastal New Jersey and New York sampled a day of floods of biblical proportion. Thank God it wasn’t 40 days. Chesapeake Country got off easy. Winemaker John Autrey of Huntingtown called Sandy “a wimpy storm.” Scientific sampling is reaching the same conclusion. “Less flooding and flow of nutrients than...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 11/1/12

Life After Politics

Former Governor Parris Glendening discusses Smart Growth, long hair and tweeners in stretch limousines

How is life different after politics? I used to get a haircut every two weeks because I was so often on camera, which exaggerated the slightest curl. Now I get one every five or six weeks. One of the percs of not being in office. Have you had to bite your tongue to avoid criticizing your successors, Robert Ehrlich and Martin O’Malley? I get along with — more than get along with, we’re friends — Gov. O’Malley, but I’m...

Article - Bay Weekly Interviews; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 10/25/12

On Halloween, the Living and Dead Take to the Streets

Complete streets, shared space and peopleways improve their mingling

On Halloween, when the living and the dead come out to play, you can never tell who you’ll bump into. Which makes this the best week I can think of to talk about complete streets. That’s a byword I learned when I bumped into former Maryland governor Parris Glendening in Zü Coffee in the Bay Forest shopping center. We’d both driven, though we could, in other circumstances, have propelled ourselves, as Zü is a little more than a mile...

Article - Letter from the Editor; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 10/25/12

You Can’t Escape the War of 1812

Grants and historians revive this old conflict

At two centuries distant, the War of 1812 is unlikely to sweep away your sons, sink your boat, burn your barn or your nation’s capital. It will, however, invade your consciousness. It’s inevitable. With $1.5 million in Star-Spangled Banner bicentennial grants, war memorials will be popping up all over Chesapeake Country. Twenty-two projects in 14 counties (and two statewide) will use the matching grants to enroll the War of 1812 in our memories. ...

Article - History & Lore; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 10/18/12

October Skirmishes at Herring Creek

If you can’t wait to know more about 1812, you’ll have your chance at month’s end, when skirmishes at Herring Creek are commemorated. At the end of October 198 years ago, the British sailed into Herring Bay and invaded Town Point and Tracys Landing. Up to 300 soldiers destroyed farms and burned a tobacco warehouse. A scouting party advanced to the West River Methodist Church, likely on what is now Muddy Creek Road near Swamp Circle Road. On October 31, the...

Article - History & Lore; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 10/18/12

Get Your Free Lunch

Spa Creek Conservancy treats to get your business

Water running off your roof, downspouts and parking lots into the roadways and storm drains is bad for the Bay. So bad that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranks urban runoff and storm-sewer discharges as Public Enemy Number Two for America’s estuaries. Stormwater runoff could be bad for your business, too. In economically sound and environmentally attractive areas like Annapolis, customers make buying decisions on quality-of-life issues....

Article - Green Living; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 10/18/12

Calvert Marine Museum’s Mixed News

Open this winter as remodeling is postponed

There’s lots to love at Calvert Marine Museum. “The lighthouse. The otters. The crabs or seahorses: Kids love them. Fossils or outboard motors or a familiar boat,” muses deputy director Sherrod Sturrock. “Everybody loves and gets excited about different things.” So the museum’s decision to stay open January and February of 2013 is less likely to disappoint you than it is the 65-person staff, whose plan...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 10/18/12