Letter from the Editor

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.

article – Letter from the Editor

– by Sandra Olivetti Martin – 10/25/12

Thanks for Talking Back

I have a lot to say, but you make Bay Weekly a conversation

I’m writing to you. I don’t see your face when I’m writing. I don’t imagine the finished paper in your hands, so it’s always a thrill when I do see you pick up a Bay Weekly. When I catch sight of you reading over breakfast or lunch, you probably catch sight of me, too, trying to steal a glance at what page you’re on while looking inconspicuous.

article – Letter from the Editor

– by Sandra Olivetti Martin – 10/18/12

In Chesapeake Country, a Good Man Is Not So Hard to Find

You meet them in newspapers and boatsheds, street corners and museums

It is a good thing that we live in Chesapeake Country, not Pagford. Muggles muddle into miserable messes in the scenic village of J.K. Rowling’s first novel set outside the world of wizardry. A teen antihero whose only value is trying to live authentically gets into particularly nasty trouble. Maybe living authentically is not one of those things you can achieve by trying. If you trust the lessons of fiction in general or, in particular, Rowling’s Casual Vacancy.

article – Letter from the Editor

– by Sandra Olivetti Martin – 10/11/12

Spotlight on the U.S. Boat Shows

The best show in town reminds us that Chesapeake Country’s marine trades are alive and well

Faceting makes a stone into a gem. Brilliance shines from the cut faces and their interactions. That may be true of places, too. Chesapeake Country is a well-faceted place. The central facet is natural beauty, but the sidelights cut by human imagination and endeavor make this place shine still brighter. With seasonal and calendar changes, new facets catch the light. Week by week, Chesapeake Country turns new facets to fascinate us.

article – Letter from the Editor

– by Sandra Olivetti Martin – 10/4/12

Opportunity Is Our Entitlement

Open the door and pull it in

Do you belong to the opportunity society or the entitlement society? Those are the rhetorical poles of this year’s presidential election, and like magnets, they supposedly push us apart. Put those buzz words in a different order, and we could discover a society entitled to opportunity. That’s a slogan we could all work with. Maybe we already do. Isn’t universal education an entitlement to opportunity?

article – Letter from the Editor

– by – 9/20/12

Plenty to Read, Plenty to Do

We write Bay Weekly for many tastes — especially yours

Bloody Murder is a play that “will slay you,” according to Bay Weekly theater reviewer Jane Elkin. Do you care? Is 2nd Star Productions on your radar? Jane’s opinion matters a lot to 2nd Star and the dozen community and professional theater companies whose plays are routinely reviewed in our pages. Davina Grace Hill, Bay Weekly’s other regular theater reviewer, and Jane damn or sanctify months of effort with their opinions.

article – Letter from the Editor

– by Sandra Olivetti Martin – 9/13/12

The Path to Success

Step one is putting the pieces together

The Labor Day weekend rain mostly skipped Chesapeake Country — at least my part — but tumultuous skies and soggy forecasts dampened a lot of parades. In Annapolis, First Sunday Arts Festival cancelled this month, and the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra moved its Labor Day Pops concert inside Maryland Hall, quashing plans for musical picnics in Quiet Waters Park.

article – Letter from the Editor

– by Sandra Olivetti Martin – 9/6/12

Help Wanted

Without transportation jobs, planning and spending, what will we do when we can’t get there from here?

Bay Weekly reporter Ashley Brotherton missed the news this week. Instead of getting to know crabs in Cambridge, she spent two hours and $4 to go over the Bay Bridge twice. So she also made the news. She and the thousand of other drivers whose routine 4.3-mile trip across Chesapeake Bay turned into — depending on their disposition and opportunity — hours of frustration, windfall time to play with their cell phones or impromptu, make-the-best-of-it block parties.

article – Letter from the Editor

– by Sandra Olivetti Martin – 8/30/12

So Long, Summer

With all fall offers, parting is such sweet sorrow

Anticipation eases the sadness of summer’s leaving. Officially, summer is with us until the autumnal equinox September 22. But the light is already changing, and so are the temperatures. There’s less sweat, more breeze. Lovely weather, isn’t it? we say to one another.

article – Letter from the Editor

– by Sandra Olivetti Martin – 8/23/12

Cat-aloguing Cat-astrophes

Dog Day reflections on feline companionship

This affectionate kitty loves people and rewards you with purrs when you pet him. So says The Capital. That’s a healthy note of skepticism you read in my words. Or perhaps it’s jealousy. For assertions like this one crank up a notch or 10 the friendly competition one newspaper editor feels on reading the pages of another paper.

article – Letter from the Editor

– by Sandra Olivetti Martin – 8/16/12