In 1967, the Australian government classified the land’s native Aboriginal tribes as “Flora and Fauna.” To help the indigenous people, the government took to inspecting Aboriginal settlements, looking for fair-skinned children. Such children were taken from their tribe and families and sent to a special school, where they were taught to pass as white and to abandon their culture.     Because of these laws, the Cummeraganja Songbirds, an aboriginal country act,...

Can an estranged grandmother, mother and daughter find grace in time to rebuild their family? This is the question Compass Rose Theater poses in their promotion for Lee Blessing’s Eleemosynary, an award-winning play that takes its name from an obscure word in a spelling bee dictionary. Appearing now through Mother’s Day, this study in maternal dysfunction should be required viewing for everyone but childless orphans. For if nurture trumps nature and we are what our parents made us,...

Chesapeake Country has so many denizens, and each has a story. Those stories flood into Bay Weekly. Nowadays most come to us by email, though personal visit, phone, fax, the postal service still add to the flow. Writers with open eyes and noses for news alert us to still more. Our advertising team adds to the volume, bringing us news of the many businesses of Chesapeake Country.     They all come across my desk, on the way to making each week’s paper. Sitting in that...

Calvert Marine Museum’s most popular residents, river otters Bubbles and Squeak, are throwing parties to subsidize their enriched lifestyle.     The parties invite up to six guests over for breakfast. Bubbles and Squeak eat while guests look on and learn from estuarine biologist David Moyer. During breakfast, the otters paint, and after the party-goers collectively choose an authentic otter artwork that is clear-coated, named and authenticated.     The...