Thanks for a Year of Stories that Touched the Heart
Dear Bay Weekly:
“The Kitty Who Came for Christmas” [Vol. IX, No. 51: Dec. 20-26] rang several bells for me. When I visited my brother in Florida this Christmas, his orange tabby named Tiger seemed determined to stow away in my car for the return trip to Maryland as companion to me and pesky nemesis to my ancient dachshund.
But more to the point, I found the notion of his story apt: that what one’s elderly parent can sometimes use is a pet “to direct and manage.”
Like editor Sandra Martin’s mother Elsa, my own mother once became heir, not to a kitten, but a feisty parakeet. The idea was my sister-in-law’s after my Dad died. Who could have imagined the joy this tiny chirpy pet would give.
Bill Lambrecht’s purr-suit of a kitten for his mother-in-law was a true Christmas story. And he got home for dinner.
Thanks for a year of stories that touched the heart as well as our common ground here in Bay country.
— M.L. Faunce, Churchton
Chesapeake Choo-choos Missed the Local Train
Dear Bay Weekly:
The article “Chesapeake Choo-choos” [Vol. IX, No. 50: Dec. 13-19] was very nice regarding the train displays in our “Bay” country. One very local work of art was left out of the article, the train display at Tan’s Cycle Shop in North Beach. Tom Crockett, the owner of Tan’s, has created a train garden with engines, track, buildings and figurines that were his toys from childhood. It has three trains, a tunnel, waterfall and lights throughout the display. It was enjoyment for my entire family. What a pity that an attraction right here in Calvert County was omitted from the article.
— Dennis Decker, Chesapeake Beach
Lighten up on Our Ravens
Dear Bay Weekly:
Regarding Bill Burton naming the Baltimore Ravens as one of 2001’s ‘Villains’ [Vol. IX, No. 52: Dec. 27-Jan. 2], I would urge him to lighten up a little (especially in a year when true villains terrified our nation).
The Ravens, with their record-setting defense and their never-die attitude, were one of sports’ best stories of the year. And the city of Baltimore, which for 13 years was used as a pawn by the NFL, couldn’t have been a more perfect championship city.
Although the Ravens’ stadium was expensive, it was funded primarily through lottery money and not tax money, making it far less a pork-barrel project than most publicly funded stadiums.
And why should we continue to mourn for the football fans of Cleveland? Within a month of the Browns’ announced move to Baltimore, Cleveland was guaranteed a new football team with the same name and history; Baltimore never had that luxury after Robert Irsay stole away the Colts in the middle of the night.
I would urge Bill Burton to stop being such a bad sport and to truly appreciate a great season by a great football team, whose great fans truly deserved to celebrate.
Sincerely,
— Pete Ulanowicz, Boca Raton, FL
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