Editorial

It’s Been Good Talking to You

Like our out-and-about grandfather, this year’s Best of the Bay has had us “out among ’em.” We’ve found in past years with Best of the Bay that it’s not always easy to infer why you readers have chosen one place or another as Best. So this year we’ve asked our winners themselves to tell us what it is they do to please their customers, many of whom must be also be you Bay Weekly readers who responded with your Best of the Bay ballot.

Of course, interviewing is part of the day’s work for every journalist; for most of us it’s the part we like best. But just how fine it is to be “out among ’em” is one of those discoveries that’s fresh each time you return to it.

The satisfaction comes from sharing another person’s point of view. No matter how much you’ve been around, it’s your own eyes you’re seeing the world through. So it’s startling to see — or in this case, hear — from another’s perspective. It’s refreshing to discover new angles and dimensions you never imagined.

Take, for example, Calvert Marine Museum. The Solomons museum is a favorite place of ours, and one we’ve written about more than once. Their Waterside Music Festivals are special events on our calendar every year. But director Doug Alves — who spends as much time there as we do at our computers — reopened our eyes.

“I think the setting sets us apart. It’s outdoors. You’ve got the lighthouse in the background and the Bay and the Patuxent River. Many times the concert ends and there’s the full moon over the lighthouse or the museum,” Alves explained to general manager J. Alex Knoll, who returned to his reporting roots for this issue. “And Solomons is a natural place, so it’s a lot nicer than being in a stadium.”

What a fine way to explain why readers voted Calvert Marine Museum’s Waterside Festival the Best Concert on the Bay.

Bar and restaurant owners were the toughest to talk to, simply because they are the most difficult to get hold of, as they’re tending to business. We know how busy they are; it’s a life we’ve lived, and we’re busy, too. Who isn’t? Still, it’s an opportunity missed, and we think you’ll also miss hearing what the people who prosper or fail by your custom have to say for themselves.

To all the rest of the people whose imagination and hard work makes Chesapeake Country such a good place to live, we say It’s been good talking to you!