Danita Boonchaisri, an aptly titled communications specialist with Calvert County, was once a student of mine. So our encounters, regardless of subject, are surrounded by a halo of memories. Insubstantial as ghosts, these memories are felt rather than seen. Would they reappear if we nudged them?     “Do you remember if Sue Lee was in your class?” I asked as we ended a call on a story for this week’s paper. The woman I named had just appeared, by the magic of...

Fire hydrants are the latest foray into public art at Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center in Solomons. Also the most practical, satisfying the Calvert County Commissioners’ desire for fresh paint on county hydrants.     You, by yourself or with a team, are invited “to submit designs and compete for the privilege — and fun — of painting a fire hydrant in the Solomons-Dowell community,” says Garden director Stacey Hann-Ruff.   ...

Card companies are into their third century of making Valentine’s Day big business, and they’ll help us exchange millions of Valentines this year. But commercial mobilization doesn’t make February 14 a Hallmark holiday. It’s neither by accident nor artifice that we celebrate Valentines’ Day.     The urge is way stronger than paper or binary codes creating pretty pictures on a computer screen.     The holiday devoted to love is a fact...

Dale Thomas, proprietor of Nice & Fleazy Antiques in North Beach for 42 years, is in the early stages of planning his exit from the densely packed store that’s a must-stop on every antiquer’s list.     “I have made it quite public for a long time that I think this would make a perfect center for performing arts,” says Thomas.     “But as for anything immediate, it is not.”     Thomas gives two reasons that...