To spread Christmas cheer while making a positive impact globally and locally, the women of Davidsonville United Methodist Church teamed with Ten Thousand Villages for the church’s third annual Alternative Christmas Market. The Pennsylvania-based non-profit helps artisans in developing countries sell their crafts world-wide.

     Fighting the bane of single-use plastics, Prince George’s County joins the battle against straws and stirrers.          The county council voted unanimously to approve the council bill banning the sale or distribution of single-use plastic straws and stirrers in all county restaurants and retail establishments. Now it goes to county executive Angela Alsobrooks for approval.

     There’s much to learn from studying oysters from long ago, according to newly published research from two William & Mary professors.          Rowan Lockwood, who chairs the Geology Department, and Roger Mann, a professor in the Department of Fisheries Science, report their findings in a fascinating new paper based on examining oyster reefs from the Pleistocene epoch — which stretched until about 12,000 years ago.

     You’ve got your copy of Season’s Bounty, so which of the hundreds of listings will you pick to attend? I’m offering you some help. This week, we highlight a dozen or so Christmas classics that check my boxes: accessibility, affordability, ambience and amazement. Keep an eye out for our reviews of several holiday theatre productions in upcoming issues.   What: Lights on the Bay

      For the month of December, the City of Annapolis and Annapolis Parking offer three hours of free parking at metered spaces to attract diners and shoppers downtown.          The catch? You’ll need to download and use the ParkMobile app — available on iOS and Android.          Free parking continues seven days a week Nov. 29 to Dec. 31.

     Oysters are a victim in the climate crisis, by most accounts, and ours in Chesapeake Bay waters are feeling it like their bivalve brethren elsewhere.      West Coast oysters are hurting from changing ocean chemistry. In New Orleans’ French Quarter, eateries are scrambling to live up to their reputations as Gulf of Mexico oysters die, smothered by the billions of gallons of Midwestern freshwater rolling down the Mississippi River.

     Calvert County’s mysterious new trail is not hidden, but you need a map or a guide to find and follow its course. Along the trail in plain sight are 17 wooden-framed images each with a design painted in an array of color combinations. Each has its own designation, like, Mariner’s Compass, Sawtooth Star or Farmer’s Daughter. The designs are so different that, despite being mostly fashioned on 8-by-8 or 4-by-4-foot frames, they don’t seem to have a central theme. 

    Microstegium vimineum. It’s a mouthful to say. A more common name for this uninvited guest to the Bay region’s forest floors is Japanese stiltgrass. On the first day of November, a cool crisp fall day, three nature-lovers — including myself — inspected a local infestation of the grass in the Severn Run Natural Environmental Area in Gambrills.

    Imagine a visit to the Annapolis City Dock five years from now.     If now continues unto then, that jewel of our capital city National Historic Landmark District — called “one of the most intact and authentic colonial towns in the entire nation” by Preservation Maryland — will be a parking lot that floods with ever-greater frequency.

      You’ll skip the Styrofoam when you order coffee at the Dunkin’. The multinational chain — which most of us still think of as Dunkin Donuts — announced its commitment to get rid of all expanded polystyrene cups in its global supply chain by mid-2020.          Dunkin’ locations in Annapolis, Arnold, Edgewater, Lothian and Severna Park have already made the switch from foam cups to a new, double-walled, paper cup.