The Times of Our Life
For Nuclear Neighbors, Anti-Radiation Pills Prescribed
Since Sept. 11, Marylanders have redefined risk. Now, Maryland agrees to make potassium iodide pills available as protection for thyroid cancer for the 80,000 people who live in the shadow of Calvert Cliffs.
Bill Lambrecht • Dock No. 3, Jan. 17
Redistricting: If the Shoe Pinches, Wear It
Like cruel new shoes, legislative redistricting pinches at the edges: the toes and heels of districts. At the January meeting of the 33rd District Democratic Club in Crofton, we heard both ouches and speculation on how to wear this new shoe — however it fits.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 4, Jan. 24
For Polar Plungers, Just Another Day at the Beach
Sunscreen might have been appropriate as a record 1,860 people turned up at Sandy Point State Park last Sunday on a very un-January-like day to raise $401,000, beating last year’s record of $315,000 and bringing the total raised for Special Olympics Maryland to more than $1 million.
J. Alex Knoll • Dock No. 5, Jan. 31
Miller: ‘Owens Won’t Miss Me in Anne Arundel’
In one of the shifts of fortunes in the new Court of Appeals-drawn legislative map, Senate President Mike Miller’s district has been altered to exclude any portion of Anne Arundel County.
County Executive Janet Owens has responded to the remapped departure of her nemesis politely, but with the look of the cat that swallowed the canary.
Miller doesn’t expect a going-away gift.
Dock No. 26, June 27
Still Looking for Love: Chris Sees a Shrink
I’ve worked hard to find love in the past two years, chronicling my efforts in stories. In five Valentine’s dates arranged for my Valentine Day 2000, I’d been set up by friends, gone out with a woman I worked with and tried to rekindle an old flame. Each time, I swung and missed.
Which is why I’m knocking at the door of alternative therapist Vance Larson. Larson’s not exactly a shrink; he specializes in “re-occurring pattern therapy.”
Christopher Heagy • No. 6, Feb. 7
For WRYR, An Electronic ‘Barn-Raising’
In Anne Arundel County, President’s Day this year just might be called Radio Free Maryland Day.
On that holiday weekend, some 150 engineers, lawyers, musicians and radio experts from far and wide will gather at the West River Methodist Camp for workshops and on-air testing at the area’s new radio station. Community radio WRYR, which will occupy 97.5 on the FM dial, is the brainchild of South Arundel Citizens for Responsible Development, known as SACReD …
Bill Lambrecht • Dock No. 6, Feb. 7
How Dry We Are
We’re in the middle of what’s being call the worst drought in 70 years. Stream levels are at all time lows, wells are drying up and the Bay is getting saltier. Farmers are figuring loss. Bay scientists are fretful, fearing oxygen-eating algae and disease-ravaged oysters.
Davene Grosfeld • Dock No. 11, March 14
Maryland Tobacco Is Going, Going — Gone
Farmers worry inside and outside the warehouses where the centuries-old ritual of tobacco auctions are staged each year during March. The auctions begun March 19 at the state’s five tobacco warehouses will trade less than four million pounds in 2002, a sharp drop in sales over even those of 2001.
Inside, prices are low. Outside, farmers who’ve signed onto Maryland’s tobacco buyout worry that, with declining cigarette revenues, the promise of payment might not be made good.
Russ Barnes with Francis R. Gouin • Dock No 13, March 28
You’ll See Everybody But the Fox at the Marlborough Hunt Races at Roedown Farm
While some 5,000 spectators enjoy April sun and country air, the Marlborough Hunt Club relay team will be riding to defend their title in the 28th annual running of the Marlborough Hunt Races at Roedown Farm. It’s the last event on the card, concluding an afternoon of races across flat fields and over hurdles by both grown-up and junior jockeys.
Hunting is behind the races at Roedown, but race day is not just for hunters. The Roedown Races have become a Southern Maryland tradition.
Nancy Hoffmann • Photos by Phil Hoffmann • No. 14, April 4
The Return of Mr. Maryland: Louie Goldstein Unveiled
Hundreds of people gathered to unveil the statue of a man they knew either on a first name basis, as Louie, or as Mr. Maryland. The politician nearly everybody loved couldn’t be there himself, having died at 85 in 1998 …
Brent Seabrook • Dock No 14, April 4
GreenScape 2002: Come on Out and Bring Your Trowel
Kicking off Annapolis’s spring 2002 GreenScaping, Mayor Ellen Moyer has been seen on West Street planting trees. It is not her first experience with a shovel on that boulevard. As First Lady Moyer, she planted saplings there 30 years ago. On this 11th anniversary of GreenScape, 2650 plants and 94 trees will start 68 new gardens.
Martha Blume • Dock No. 15, April 11
Taking Out The Trash
For 14 years, the Alice Ferguson Foundation has coordinated an annual cleanup that has removed 715 tons of trash from the Potomac River’s watershed.
This year they concentrated tires, removing over 2,300 of them. The April 6 haul also included 45 shopping carts, 40 deer carcasses, 19 bicycles, 13 mattresses, 12 stoves, six lawn mowers, five refrigerators, three wallets, one moped, one handgun, one bag of Barbies and the front end of a mobile home. Altogether, 4,000 volunteers removed 117 tons of garbage — nearly 60 pounds per volunteer — from 122 cleanup sites along 400 miles.
Brent Seabrook • Dock No 16, April 18
From April’s Ill Wind, a Second Chance
The “monster” tornado that devastated LaPlata in Charles County hopped across the Patuxent River to hit the Calvert County property of Eddie and Bridget Bowen about 7:30pm on Sunday, April 28.
The only thing left of the Bowens’ barn was a pit made of hay and sand. The tornado had blown away an equipment shed. All that was left of the house they had built by hand was its foundation.
Russ Barnes • Dock No. 19, May 9
In North Beach, Springfest Is Hog Heaven
North Beach brags that it’s cleaned up its future without abandoning its past.
So it was by invitation that with the coming of May a legion of its past 2,500 strong roared into town to mingle with thousands more reveling in the warm sun and blue sky ordered special for the town’s annual Springfest.
Celebrating was fine with them, but it wasn’t all that was on their minds. They came for a blessing
Maggie Thomas • Dock No. 20, May 16
On the Road: The Oranging of Maryland
If you think you’ve been seeing more orange in Maryland license plates, you’re right.
Though you might have to tailgate to discover they’re Maryland tags — let alone to read their slogan — the plates with the folksy farm art illustration and the phrase “Our Farms — Our Future,” have been going places in the nine months since they hit the road.
The 37,736 Ag Tags sold as of April 27 mean close to half a million dollars for the Maryland Agriculture Educational Foundation, which receives $10 for every tag sold.
Amy Mulligan • Dock No. 20, May 16
Sneaking Up on Clear Water: Bernie Wades Again
On the second Sunday in June at Broome’s Island, Sen. Bernie Fowler and company once again held hands and walked, white sneakers and all, into the Patuxent River. The former senator and Patuxent River enthusiast started the tradition in 1988 by putting on overalls and white sneakers and wading into the same river where he could, as a young man, go chest-deep in and still see his feet.
Katie McLaughlin and Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 24, June 13
Appreciation: The Wye Oak
The felling of the Wye Oak last week gave us another lesson in loss. The 60-mph wind that slammed into the 460-year-old white oak tree reminded us that even our most powerful and important symbols won’t last forever.
Gary Pendleton • Dock No. 24, June 13
In Clones, Our Wye Oak Lives
There are now 29 Wye oaks growing in Maryland soil, with two more growing in George Washington’s forest at Mount Vernon. With luck, several hundreds more will be added to the list next spring when the newly grafted plants initiate growth.
Francis R. Gouin • Dock No. 25, June 20
What to Do with 30-plus Tons of 460-Year-Old Wood
The 460-year old Wye Oak will live on in many forms. Within three months of the beloved tree’s June 6 knockdown, 520 inspired citizens have responded to the Wye Oak Advisory Committee’s call for innovative ideas on how to use the tree’s remains.
Flo Ormond • Dock No. 35, Aug. 29
Annapolis City Dock Gets a New Chapter to an Old Story
For 10 years, Leonard Blackshear struggled to do what some thought could never be done: Erect a memorial to an African American slave in the capital of a southern state.
Blackshear prevailed, Over two and a half years, Alex Haley has become a familiar presence on Annapolis City Dock, 45 miles south of the Mason-Dixon line. With his trio of listening kids, Alex is such a friendly statue that it’s easy to forget that he sits in our midst to memorialize the spot where his forefather Kunta Kinte was sold into slavery.
Now it will be easier to remember. On June 12, the final elements of the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial — a wall of plaques quoting Haley’s Roots and a compass rose pointing back to Atlantic shores –— were dedicated in downtown Annapolis. The wall’s dedication reads, “to those nameless Africans, brought to the New World against their will, who struggled against terrible odds to maintain family, culture, identity, and above all, hope.”
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 24, June 13
Get Ready for Barrels of Rain
Get ready for rain. You’ll need an umbrella and a rain barrel or two. The umbrella will help to keep you dry. The rainbarrel will help to keep your lawn and garden wet. Attached directly to your downspout, rain barrels trap the water running off your roof and let you put it to use around your home.
Sonia Linebaugh • Dock No. 25, June 20
Fear the Turtle Funds Terrapin Survival
The Fear the Turtle merchandising campaign at the University of Maryland has turned into Save the Turtle.
The university will donate 1.5 percent of the royalties from the campaign to the Department of Natural Resources to support terrapin conservation and stewardship.
Katie McLaughlin • Dock No. 28, July 11
Inspissation ~ A Meditation on Maryland Summer
It is 104 degrees, with 80 percent humidity. Maryland’s is a climate made for clothes so scanty as to be indecent in any other, where clothes cling with perspiration that can’t be cooled by hand-held fans. Summer in Maryland offers a pure example of democracy in action. All of us are washed in the mingling of perspiration, anointed with sweat.
April Falcon Doss; Illustration by Lali • No. 27, July 3
Slim Pickings ~ Will Maryland Crab Houses Slide into History?
“It’s not a pretty picture,” says Jack Brooks, owner of J.M. Clayton Company, the oldest working crab house on the Eastern Shore, founded in Cambridge in 1890. What’s worrying him is whether there’s future — outside museums — for the industry that’s both his heritage and a mainstay of Maryland’s economy.
M.L. Faunce • No. 30, July 25
Rain Gardens in Dry Times: Every Drop Counts
Corinne Reed-Miller fretted a month last spring before digging in and finding that a rain garden is not much different, or harder, than any garden — though it’s a little lower. Now her Admiral Heights garden flourishes despite the drought, slurping up every drop of rain plus filtering pollutants before they can reach either groundwater or the Bay
Sonia Linebaugh • No. 32, Aug. 8
Wired: My Short Life in Television
A month after I was ‘discovered’ boxing in my gym, my phone rang. It was the casting company for The Wire’s wondered if I wanted to be on HBO.
Shot entirely in the Baltimore area, The Wire takes a Hollywood look at the war on drugs from the law’s side and dealer’s side.
“You’re going to be playing a prisoner,” the casting associate said. “Report to the set at 10 in the morning.”
I couldn’t wait to go to jail.
Matthew Pugh • No. 40, Oct. 3
Where No Bus Has Gone Before
City buses are a rare sight in Annapolis and extraordinary in Anne Arundel County.
That will change in January, when two buses begin roving 30 miles up and down Route 2, from Arnold in the north to Edgewater in the south.
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 45, Nov. 7
Peace Walks Again
People have never lacked reasons to walk for peace. Continuing the tradition, a community of Southern Marylanders gather on three autumn Sundays in Solomons’ Glascock Field for a half-hour of reflection sponsored by the Patuxent Friends Meeting.
“No doubt a small number of peaceful people can make a difference. What we focus on expands,” said organizer Tracey Eno.
Sarah Williams • Dock No. 45, Nov. 7
Even the Kitchen Sink Can Be Recycled
Nowadays, almost anything can be recycled. Bottles, cans, you name it. But what would happen if you tried to recycle something on a much larger scale? A car? A playground? What about a house?
A house?
It can be done. Believe it or not, you can donate almost every part of a building, from carpets to pipes, to the Loading Dock, which will reuse it to build low-income housing.
Sarah Williams • Dock No. 47, Nov. 21
Going, Going — Gone Until Next Year: St. Mary’s County’s Auction of Amish Quilts
In a drafty machine shed off a St. Mary’s County road where horse-drawn buggies share the lanes with automobiles, bidders competed Nov. 23 to pay hundreds of dollars for the handiwork of local Amish artisans. More than quilts were sold, but quilts were the order of the day, and prices for the finest work in the warmest bidding rose above $1,000.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 48, Nov. 27
In Anne Arundel Smallpox Strategy, First-Responders Go First
Its been three decades since smallpox vaccination ended in Chesapeake Country and with it the fear of the disfiguring, highly contagious and often fatal disease.
But beginning early next year, a select group of 18 Anne Arundel County health professionals and about 100 hospital workers will roll up their sleeves for smallpox vaccinations as part of anti-terrorist planning that will lead to much wider immunization in 2004.
Bill Lambrecht • Dock No. 51, Dec. 19
to the top
Election 2002
Election Year ~ Primary Colors: One Week on the Campaign Trail
Up and down Chesapeake Country, candidates are out courting. They want nothing more than to lay a hand lightly on your arm, look into your eyes and tell you they’re the man — or woman — for you.
Sandra Martin with Brent Seabrook and researcher Cynthia Owens • No. 29, July 18
For Green Council Candidate George Law, It’s One Door at a Time
“I’ve been turned down very few times,” says hardware store-owner George Law of knocking on doors in Northern Anne Arundel County’s District 2 to get the 350 to 400 valid signatures a third-party candidate needs to win a place on the ballot. He claims 90 percent of the people he approaches sign his petition.
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 31, Aug. 1
County Candidates Put Out Their Wood
Once politicians have spent an August day planting signs, nobody can say they’ve never done an honest day’s work. And that’s what they’re all doing now that we’re in legal sign season, 45 days before September’s primary election.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 32, Aug. 8
Look Who You’ve Elected!
For a few more days the signs stand, proclaiming the ghosts of failed hope as brightly as victory’s triumph. But as the count of absentee ballots winds up Maryland’s primary election, few races will change. Losers will carry their signs to landfills or garages, and soon, we’ll take for granted the count we tallied so expectantly the suspenseful night of September 10.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 38, Sept. 19
How Republican Is Anne Arundel’s 33rd?
A civil war ravages Anne Arundel’s 33rd legislative district, where Sen. Bobby Neall’s defection to the Democrats threatens to divide district Republicans.
Toppling Bobby Neall from his pedestal won’t be easy. District Republicans speak of him with the sort of reverent acrimony Bostonians reserve for Babe Ruth.
There are 6,000 unaffiliated voters in the 33rd district — just enough to swing the election in Neall’s favor. But if the district’s conservative political climate holds, Neall could topple.
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 42, Oct. 17
Bay Weekly Election Interview ~ Anne Arundel County Executive: Janet Owens
“I don’t see Anne Arundel County being able to continue buying farm land or purchasing easements or development rights. The legislature has already put limits this year on Open Space. Earlier, they were talking about abolishing those programs. That could have an impact on all our parks and recreation.”
No. 42, Oct. 17
Bay Weekly Election Interview ~ Maryland Governor-Elect Bob Ehrlich
For many years, the Maryland GOP has been hamstrung by candidates who would rather be right than win elections. In Ehrlich, Maryland elected an appealing Republican who can spout economic theory as easily as pronouncing the president’s visit “cool,” and a rising star who can talk moderation even if it remains unclear if he’s willing to embrace it.
No. 43, Oct. 24
Election 2002: Maryland Made Its Bed with GOP Sheets
Like the nation, Election Night ‘02 in Chesapeake Country reflected an America that defines itself as a hair more Republican than Democrat. A sprinkling of races in both Anne Arundel and Calvert counties balanced so precariously that absentee ballots will tip the scales. In many more, victory added up a vote at a time. In the rainy late hours of Nov. 5, you could feel the weight of every vote.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 45, Nov. 7
A Wild Ride Rolls On in Calvert Elections
It’s official — sort of.
The votes cast in the General Election November 5 have been counted and certified. But as Yogi says, it isn’t over till it’s over.
Votes were added on three days, and for Calvert County Board of Commissioners candidate Grace Mary Brady, every one of those days was a roller coaster ride.
From winner by 52 votes, she went to loser by first 13 and then 36 votes. Now she’s called for Calvert County’s first-ever recount.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 47, Nov. 21
In Calvert Recount, Clark — by 16 Votes
At 4:05pm on November 25, Calvert’s election supervisor Gail Hatfield read the final count: Grace Mary Brady had 10,980 and Jerry Clark 10,996. Clark had won the election by 16 votes.
Barbi Shield • Dock No. 48, Nov. 27
‘There You Are Ladies and Gentlemen, Your New County Council’
New was the operative word in Circuit Court Clerk Robert Duckworth’s introduction of the Anne Arundel County Council he’d just sworn in to the citizens packing council chambers on December’s first business day.
Election Day’s shake-up cast out two council members, awarding the tall, well-cushioned seats of power in the Arundel Center to Edward Middlebrooks in District 2 and Ronald Dillon Jr. in District 3. In District 7, change had come in a more ominous form. Retiring councilman John Klocko’s death in an auto accident Oct. 5 meant his memory presided over the election of friend and neighbor Ed Reilly, the third newcomer sworn in today.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 49, Dec. 5
Calvert’s New Commissioners Eat Cookies
On the crisp December day Calvert County’s five newly elected county commissioners were sworn in with song and color, it was easy to slip back in time to Calvert County’s backwater days of oysters and tobacco, both in abundance.
From such Norman Rockwell idylls, the time traveler had better hurry back. For 21st century Calvert County is the fastest growing county in Maryland and the 41st fastest in the nation. Its five commissioners — Republicans Jerry Clark, David Hale, Linda Kelley, Susan Shaw and Democrat Wilson Parran — were elected to husband a budget of $155 million.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 51, Dec. 19
to the top
People
Fighting Terrorism with Premonition
To the war on terrorism, Prince Frederick physicist, psi-researcher and author Dale Graff wants to add another resource.
Psychics.
Mark Burns • Dock No. 2, Jan. 10
In Annapolis, It’s an Actor’s Life for Former Mayor Dean Johnson
In Colonial Players’ January production of The Trip to Bountiful, Johnson is making his first public appearance since exiting the stage a month earlier in favor of Mayor Ellen Moyer. He’s playing the role of a small town bus station clerk.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 3, Jan. 17
Pass It on Down: For Janice Hayes-Williams, History Is Among Us
“I want people to know there was an African American presence here,” says Janice Hayes-Williams, whose love for community history has evolved into a second career as an interpretive historian. “I want black males and other young people to see who took care of this community and pass it on down.”
Her play, Trustee, is a work of love and self-discovery, not only for Hayes-Williams but also for the actors who play the parts and all who helped and watched the drama unfold.
Martha Blume • No. 7, Feb. 14
Rockabilly Bill Kirchen: Our Man on Twang Climbs the Mountain
For the past 40 years, Bill Kirchen, formerly of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, has brought twang — a mix of country-bluegrass-rock-swamp-blues and probably a lot of other names — to hundreds of towns across the country and numerous cities throughout Europe.
Kirchen’s band, Too Much Fun, has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental with “Poultry in Motion” from the new album, Tied to the Wheel.
Pat Piper • No. 8, Feb. 21
Bay Weekly Interview: Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer
Her story has the drama of a fairy tale.
She’s a community activist who’s dream has come true. She’s the first lady who’s stepped out of the shadows to try her own hand at the game. From passionate advocate, she’s suddenly CEO of one of her county’s largest corporations: the City of Annapolis.
Three months into her job as mayor of Annapolis, 66-year-old Ellen Moyer invited Bay Weekly into her office to talk about how the fairy tale is playing in the real world …
Sandra Martin • No. 8, Feb. 28
Marion Coomes: Thomas Point Park’s Lone Ranger
For 16 years, Coomes has been caretaker of the 44-wooded acre spit of parkland at the mouth of the South River. The park is bounded by Fishing Creek and the South River and, at its jutting tip, looks out at the most photographed lighthouse on Chesapeake Bay.
But Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, the last screwpile lighthouse left on its original site in the Bay, isn’t the focus of area residents’ attention. It’s the job Coomes has done, in the words of park volunteer Bill Creath, “to transform the park into a delightful area.”
M.L. Faunce • Bay Life No. 18, May 2
A Mother’s Journal … As I would have written it if I had the time
Sure, my days as a mother have had all the usual: first step, schools, emergency room visits, dates, boyfriends, girlfriends, broken hearts, college, jobs and so on.
But the moments that define my motherhood are a little different … The presentation of my son, born in Guam, to his grandparents in Pennsylvania. The escaping hamster. The mourned goose. My daughter’s life on a Norwegian sheep farm above the Arctic Circle.
Sonia Linebaugh • No. 19, May 9
For Marlin Fitzwater, Franklin Pierce College Builds a Journalism School
Way up north in New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce College, a $4.5 million, state-of-the-art journalism building has been named for Marlin Fitzwater, who settled down on Parkers Creek in Deale with his wife Melinda after a 10-year stint as press secretary to presidents Ronald Reagan and the elder George Bush.
The principal speaker at the dedication was America’s 41st president …
Tom Abercrombie • Dock No. 23, June 6
Reluctant Heroes Fish Our Waters
“All too often, we overlook heroism in our midst,” said Chesapeake Beach Town Council president Bruce Wahl.
Then Wahl commanded the heroes forward, and up they came, bashfully, envying the pair from their number who’d stayed away. Together on the dais, Harry Tayloe and Greg Buckmaster and crewman Bobby Buckmaster endured the adulation, the fine words, the applause, the camera flashes.
Fate had put them where the work of heroes needed to be done, and they had acquiesced, saving six lives in daring rescues May 28 and June 2 — when two lives were lost.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 30, July 25
Bay Weekly Interview: Mother Nature’s Man in Maryland, DNR’s Chuck Fox
Stewardship of natural resources means more than assuring a plentiful stock for hunters and fishermen. Today, says Fox, “the people of Maryland have a much broader appreciation for the outdoors. People want high-quality parks that they can recreate in. They want to feel safe when they’re in parks. They want to have communities that have an open-space character.”
Melissa Hendricks • No 37, Sept. 12
Taking Toll of 23 Million Cars
Imagine being trapped in a booth for hours on end. All alone, while touching hundreds of hands.
Our 43-member Chesapeake Bay Bridge toll collection staff may be trapped, but a steady stream of clumsy motorists keeps them company as they collect an average of $83,000 per day.
Rebecca McClay • Dock No. 37, Sept. 12
Michael Collier: Maryland’s Poet Laureate
Poet laureates don’t necessarily sing their songs for presidents and governors. But that’s who hires them, and the honor of the thing is considerable, making up for the pay, which is nonexistent.
Michael Collier is Maryland’s seventh laureate.
Patrick E. McNabb • Dock No. 39, Sept. 26
At Maryland Hall, Barbara Owen’s Fountain of Youth
Fifty women dance their ways back to youth every Wednesday as they slip into leotards, straighten their backs and point their toes. They are students in six sections of 67-year-old Barbara Owen’s 40-and-above weekly ballet classes at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis.
Rebecca McClay • Dock No. 42, Oct. 17
Mel Wilkins, Gardening Angel
Chesapeake Children’s Museum director Debbie Wood calls Mel Wilkins her “gardening angel.”
Perhaps the only thing exceeding the size of Mel Wilkins’ heart is the size of his vision.
Martha Blume • Dock No. 43, Oct. 24
Eye on the Ball: Photographer Phil Hoffmann Makes a Job of What You Do for Fun
Phil Hoffmann — Baltimore Ravens’ team photographer and director of photography for the Naval Academy Athletic Association — spends his working hours photographing all kinds of sporting events from football to basketball to cross-country to gymnastics. It sure seems like every sports fan’s dream job. But is it all fun and games?
Nancy Hoffmann • No. 45, Nov. 7
Maryland’s Senior Ms ~ Lonnie Stein
Lonnie Stein prepares for this pageant like thousands of other contestants do: thoroughly. Her song and dance routine is rehearsed to perfection. Her gown is flawless. Question-and-answer sessions are practiced in painstaking detail. So what makes Lonnie Stein different from any regular Miss America contestant?
About five decades.
Maryland’s Ms Senior America, Stein is now preparing for her debut on the big stage when she competes in the Ms. Senior America pageant this weekend.
Sarah Williams • Dock No. 46, Nov. 14
Maryland’s Black Bear Response Team Smarter Than the Average Bear
Maryland has a Black Bear Response Team because — like most every other part of the North American continent — we have bears. From the lush forests of Mexico and Florida all the way up to the frozen tundra of Alaska, some 750,000 black bears make their dens. Now the team that has kept Marylanders safe from bears ‘round the clock for five years has just been named Employee of the Year by the Maryland Wildlife Advisory Commission.
Sarah Williams • Dock No. 46, Nov. 14
Thanks, Neighbors, Profiles in Thanks-Giving
We open the doors to this season of thanks and optimism by introducing some of the people in our neighborhood whose presence enriches us here and now. We’ve included the young as well as the old. The ordinary as well as the extraordinary. The humble as well as the famous.
• Marion Warren, 82, through whose eyes we see Chesapeake Country … by Steve Carr
• Walter Johnson, 77, Lombardee Beach’s exemplar of how not to quit … by April Falcon Doss
• Thanksgiving at the Inn, with SMILE … by Ellen Berger Clark
• Janie, 78, and Arthur White, volunteers who help bring you Bay Weekly … by Sandra Martin
• Joyce Whitney Pfanschmidt, 65, the force behind Bayside Boys & Girls Club … by Dick Wilson
• Madeline Eckel, 14, Summit School’s friend to the creatures of Chesapeake Country … by Stacy Allen, No. 48, Nov. 27
Too Much of a Good Thing, Says Annapolis Symphony Releasing Conductor Dunner
The Leslie Dunner era of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra came to an abrupt halt November 26, when the orchestra’s board of directors announced it would not renew Dunner’s contract after this season ends in May.
Dunner preferred exposing his audience to the work of contemporary composers, but Annapolitans proved too conservative for such an eclectic approach. Board president Bud Billups said comments from concert-goers indicated “the program was going too far afield.”
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 49, Dec. 5
The Bell Rings For You and Your Dough
Standing by a red kettle in a red apron, Annapolitan Singh Dhillon is as familiar as a pine wreath in front of the Parole Giant supermarket. The final touch is the bell he rings to draw the attention of shoppers to his cause — the Salvation Army.
Dhillon, who volunteers for the Civitan service club, has rung a Salvation Army bell the past eight years. He’ll stand by the kettle a total of 12 hours during the holiday season, two hours at a time.
Thirty minutes into his shift, he estimates that 50 contributors have stepped up to the kettle.
Sonia Linebaugh • Dock No. 49, Dec. 5
to the top
Farewells
Meg Mitchell
The waters of her beloved College Creek were sunstruck when hundreds of her family, friends and former students crammed into The Hodson Boathouse on the campus of St. John’s College to celebrate the life and memorialize the death of Meg Mitchell, who was taken by a sudden stroke on January 9, 2002.
We knew Meg as a writer who reflected many selves in the clear pool of her words.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 3, Jan. 17
Vernon Gingell
Chesapeake Country’s longest serving citizens are moving away, leaving no forwarding address.
This is a truth that’s hitting close to home with the death July 2 of elder statesman Vernon Ragan Gingell.
Vern pulled back time’s curtains and we saw through his eyes times and places where, without his magic, we could never have gone.
Sandra Martin • Appreciation No. 29, July 18
Jean Smith
You wouldn’t have taken Jean for a storyteller. In her family, holding forth was like a favorite chair; that place belongs to her husband of 57 years, E.B., and no one else sat in it. You had to listen closely to hear her stories …
Sandra Martin, Eric Smith and Sonia Linebaugh • Appreciation No. 31, Aug. 1
Edward Stewart: Artistic Director of the Ballet Theatre of Maryland
Eddie Stewart started the old Ballet Theatre of Annapolis with local dancers and students from Towson. Eventually, his vision, humility and charm attracted dancers from beyond Maryland: Russians, Chinese, Hispanics, Koreans and many more.
Now, as he lay dying, some 20 former and current dancers, holding each other’s hands in a semi-circle around the bed of their unconscious teacher. The end came on July 30, when lung cancer claimed Edward Stewart at 59 years.
Norbert M. DuBois • No. 32, Aug. 8
Two Sailors’ Sad Saga
Sailor Betsy Crozer died August 10. By then, her partner, Tom Olchefske, missing from the sloop they shared since July 2001, had been presumed dead and memorialized.
When she was diagnosed with cancer last year, she never imagined she would outlive her longtime companion.
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 28, July 11 and No. 40, Oct. 3
Anne Arundel Councilman John Klocko
On Saturday, October 5, 45-year-old John Klocko should have been biking brutal Utah mountain trails.
Instead, on a faraway interstate, a young man fell asleep at the wheel, catapulting into Klocko’s rented van. John Klocko — Anne Arundel County councilman, family man, lawyer and mountain biker — died instantly.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 41, Oct. 10
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Places
Tankers to Return to Cove Point
A very different kind of craft could be displacing fishing boats at the Calvert County honey hole popularly called the Gas Docks.
Under a new federal ruling, football field-sized tankers arriving with liquefied natural gas from faraway ports could be again docking at the giant off-shore assemblage of pipes and platforms just south of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant.
Bill Lambrecht & Sandra Martin • Dock No. 1, Jan. 3
New LNG Operation Promises Dirtier Air
New gas heaters and boilers at the Cove Point import station in Calvert County will pump an additional 223 tons of pollutants into the local air every year, according to applications filed by the Williams Cos. Inc. and tentatively approved by the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Bill Lambrecht • Dock No. 27, July 11
Memorial Landmarks ~ Midshipmen Winslow, Pevzner and Pegram
Shielded from Annapolis’ World War II Memorial by a hedge is a circular slab of gray concrete, ringed by three dark little plaques. Each plaque bore a name and a set of dates. On each the ending date was the same: December 1993.
Behind that memorial is a story …
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 21, May 23
Garden Clubs Gild Our Lily
In our towns and Main Streets, garden clubs work like elves to dazzle us with wake-up surprises. The work such clubs do supports the rich quality of life in Chesapeake Country. First, the landscapes and gardens are beautiful. If that’s not enough, the landscapes, gardens and pots these clubs promote, dig, plant, fund and cultivate boost real estate values. They bring in tourism dollars. And they boost the self-esteem of the community.
Russ Barnes, Martha Blume, April Falcon Doss and Sonia Linebaugh: No. 28, July 11
Sk8Boarding ~ Most Places, The Sport Kids Love Is Still a Crime
Skateboarding’s come into the mainstream. Stakeboarders praise it an as individual sport, where you progress on your own instead of competing with other kids. Trouble is, there are still few legitimate places to skate in Chesapeake Country. There are public parks in Dunkirk, Bowie and on Kent Island. But an abandoned basketball court at Sawmill Creek Park in Glen Burnie has been the only skate park inside Anne Arundel. So kids skate wherever they can — until they get kicked out.
Brent Seabrook • No. 33, Aug. 15
Skateboarders Roll into Annapolis’s Truxtun Park
Finally everything is in line for the new Annapolis Skateboard Park’s opening at Truxtun Park Nov. 23 …
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 47, Nov. 21
Poplar Island Rises — But Not Too High
In a century and a half, Poplar Island — in the middle of the Chesapeake, eight miles east of Deale and a mile north of Tilghman Island — had dwindled from 1,000 acres to five.
Now, restoring the island has become Maryland’s biggest public works project. Since 2001, 7,000 cubic yards of silt have been pumped in; some 26,000 more cubic yards of silt will be added over the next decade.
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 39, Sept. 26
There’s No Place Like Home
After more than two years in boxes and bags, Chesapeake Children’s Museum is opening its doors. Opening its doors at the old WYRE radio station at 25 Silopanna Road in Annapolis took lots of volunteer hours and donations and plenty of waiting.
Martha Blume • Dock No. 46, Nov. 14
Noah’s Ark Still Afloat
Noah’s Ark Wildlife Center in Broadneck has helped over 1500 animals — from a Cooper’s hawk to newborn squirrels to a young fox — out of trouble this year alone.
But the survival story of last week was of Noah’s Ark itself. “We owe a huge amount of thank you to everyone, including County Executive Janet Owens and Shirley Murphy,” said Velvet Kitzmiller as Owens cut the red Christmas ribbon at December dedication of the new Noah’s Ark.
Stephanie Chizik • Dock No. 51, Dec. 19
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Creatures
Mute Swans Get a Voice
Are all swans equal?
A swan is a swan according to Judge Harry Edwards. Which is how Dorchester County bird lover Joyce Hill won her case before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Court. The judge ruled that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act includes mute swans, Cygnus olor, the trademark swan with the graceful S-curve of its neck and the striking orange bill.
Martha Blume • Dock No. 2, Jan. 10
A New Oyster for This Old Bay
The Asian oyster Crassostrea ariakensis looks good and tastes so much like our native oysters that even experts can’t tell them apart, say the Viriginia scientists who see them as the savior of Chesapeake Bay’s failing oyster economy and ecology. What’s more, they resist the diseases that plague our oysters and they reach maturity in only nine months — not three years. Dare we try them? That’s the question under furious debate this new year.
Sandra Martin • No. 3, Jan. 17
Fraaahnk. Braak ~ Love Birds Are Back
In February, the heron’s world becomes a non-stop party of thousands with the annual great blue heron love tryst. At Nanjemoy Creek Preserve near the shores of the Potomac River in Charles County, around Valentine’s Day as many as 2,000 herons congregate into large squawking flocks at their private resort, er, rookery to mate and raise their young.
Sonia Linebaugh • Dock No. 8, Feb. 21
Where the Birds Were: The Great Backyard Bird Count
The results are in for this year’s Great Backyard Bird Count, sponsored by the Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Backyard Count to involve “citizen scientists” in birding and preserving habitats. Learn more? www.birdsource.org.
Sonia Linebaugh • Dock No. 10, March 7
In the Year of the Terrapin, Tracing Testudo the Terp’s Roots
Never has there been a better time to be a Terrapin. An Orange Bowl appearance in January and continued success in the NCAA basketball tournament this month have made the phrase “Fear the Turtle” the student body mantra. But it begs a key question: What exactly is so ferocious about a terrapin?
Amy Mulligan • Dock No. 12, March 21
The Peaceable Kingdom: Can Humans and Wildlife Live Side by Side in 21st Century Chesapeake Country?
Do you have bats in your belfry? Squirrels at your seed? Deer on your drive? Geese on your grass? Or, for our friends in the western end of the state, bears in your bins?
The birds, bats, bees and bears were here before us. Then our colonial ancestors took arms and eliminated bear, wolves, deer, Canada geese, elk, beavers and many ducks and wading birds from Chesapeake Country.
But in the last decades of the 20th century, many species of wildlife learned to coexist with humans. Today’s question is what to when wildlife comes browsing in the lawn, running onto the porch, knocking on the door — or pounding through it
Martha Blume • No. 16, April 18
Rescuing the Lucky 13th Duckling
“Hey,” I said to my wife. “Look at that duck and all those ducklings.”
If I’d remembered my wife’s story of stopping along Route 50 in Arlington’s rush-hour as a mallard stood in the middle of traffic, mourning its now-roadkill mate, maybe I would have gotten to work 90 minutes earlier.
Alex Knoll • Dock No. 16, April 18
Sirens Sing at Calvert Marine Museum
Sirens and sirenians have set their lures at Calvert Marine Museum.
Sirens, of course, are well-known lurers, the sort whose intoxicating song called ancient mariners from the sea to sure death. Seen from afar, the singers seemed to be mermaids.
So what’s a Sirenian? A merman, perhaps? No, sirenians are the creatures the voyagers were really seeing: sea cows.
Eileen Auth • Dock No. 16, April 18
Whoopers Have Landed: Cranes Come Home
Whooper are the world’s rarest cranes. Now four Maryland-reared birds have proved themselves also the world’s cleverest. Taught to migrate by following an ultralight plane, they reversed the route on their own, landing last month at their summer home in Wisconsin’s Necedah National Wildlife Refuge.
Martha Blume • Dock No. 18, May 2
Classic Rock ~ The Hottest Attraction on the Bay is a Fish
Morone saxatilis have been to the ocean, perhaps as far south as Florida and as far north as the St. Lawrence River. But by the earliest stirring of spring, they’ve finned their way back into the Bay.
As many as two-thirds of the coastal population of 46 million rockfish — known as striped bass everywhere but in Chesapeake Country — are born in our Bay.
When spawning ends, fishermen gear up to go out for rockfish so big that many mount it on their walls to prove they’re telling the truth.
Sandra Martin • No. 21, May 23
It’s Magic! The Cinderella Story of Nancy Alberts’ Horse Next Door
The Maryland horse that almost stole the big race is stabled in Barn 18 over at Laurel.
At Maryland’s own Preakness Stakes, Magic Weisner raced out of obscurity, nearly overtaking the favorite, War Emblem, when he ran out of track. At the Belmont Stakes, Maryland’s Magic will be up against Big Money and Big Media rooting for the first Triple Crown winner in a generation. They, in turn, will be up against his enormous heart and breathtaking speed.
Sandra Martin with Aloysia Hamalainen • No. 22, May 30
Twice Magic: Famed A.A. Horse Not Out of Barn But Out of Danger
Magic Weisner has proved himself twice magic, adding another chapter to his Cinderella story.
This victory was not at the track. This time, death rode the horse Magic beat. As Magic was about to run the the Pennsylvania Derby Sept. 2, he became Maryland’s first race horse diagnosed with West Nile virus …
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 38, Sept. 19
The Eagles Have Risen
Four young bald eagles returned to the wild on Memorial Day, three weeks after they were rescued from a Charles County silt pit where three more had died, mired in quicksand. The too-close encounter with industry had horrified eagle watchers, who’d been rejoicing in gains made by the once-endangered species.
Gov. Parris Glendening helped state wildlife biologists release the awesome birds — three feet tall with wings stretching six feet from tip to tip — from Sandy Point State Park.
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 22, May 30
Horseshoe Crabs Get a Little Help from Some Friends
Round and heavy, the moon crept toward horizon, drawing the Bay up like a blanket. The tide rose on Turkey Point until the waves knocked against the jagged chunks of asphalt piled there to keep the shore from washing away. From those waves tumbled those prehistoric monsters known as horseshoe crabs.
Two were dead by the time two dozen fifth-graders from Edgewater and Mayo elementary schools emerged from the woods …
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 22, May 30
Harry the Heron’s Free Again — with a Little Help from His Friends
The crew of the schooner Woodwind had noticed a blue heron off Horn Point, struggling to keep its head above the water. Annapolis harbor mate John Risteff found the heron a few hundred yards from shore, a fish hook in its foot and its legs wrapped in line.
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 25, June 20
EEEK! Gather the Kids: The GIANT Snakehead May Be on the Way …
Amid frenzied media coverage of the northern snakehead in Crofton, the Bush administration cabinet member that conservationists trust the least, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, announced at a news conference her plan to ban snakehead import into the United States for food or aquariums.
“These fish are like something from a bad horror movie,” Norton said, describing their ability to travel out of water.
Bill Lambrecht • Dock No. 30, July 25
Butterflies Lost and Found
The Baltimore checkerspot is the Maryland state butterfly. It’s a small little bugger with the distinctive black and orange colors of Lord Baltimore’s family crest. Back in the ’50s, when the General Assembly designated the Baltimore Checkerspot as Maryland’s official butterfly, there were lots of Baltimores flitting about the state. Such is not the case today. In fact, you have almost as good a chance of seeing a Baltimore Checkerspot as you do of spotting an Emperor penguin.
Steve Carr • Bay Life No. 41, Oct. 10
A Story of Five Turtles: Four Deaths, One Happy Middle
Four sea turtles stranded this summer died before the National Aquarium in Baltimore’s Marine Animal Rescue Program team could help them. A fifth was luckier. Rescued from a Delaware marina after being hit by a propeller, the teenager was nursed back to health with high-tech medical care, including an MRI at Johns Hopkins — and a diet of romaine lettuce, herring, squid and blue crab. On Nov. 15, she went back to the ocean.
Sandra Martin • Dock No. 46, Nov. 14
Update: More Chapters in a Sea Turtle’s Tale
After five months in the Baltimore Aquarium hospital pool after being critically injured by a boat propeller, the loggerhead is alive and well in the salty waters off the South Carolina coast, where she was released Nov. 15. Because she wears a satellite tag, her every move can be traced.
Sarah Williams • Dock No. 48, Nov. 21
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Boats
From Ocean to Bay, the Volvo Ocean Race is Coming Our Way
The Volvo Ocean Race — the Whitbread Race for its first two decades — has been at sea since September 23, 2001, when the fleet launched from Southampton, United Kingdom on a 32,000-mile trek with no shelter from adversity. From September to June, through all seasons and weather, the boats and crews are pushed to their mechanical and physical limits — and often beyond.
With four legs sailed, ahead are three months of sailing with five legs and 10,050 nautical miles of ocean. The tactical challenges in the miles ahead include the tricky winds, or lack thereof, of Chesapeake Bay — as the boats will find on about April 15.
Debbie Hough • No. 10, March 1
… Has Come Our Way
Seven of the eight boats in the Volvo Ocean Race were designed in Annapolis, but they’ve traveled 31,375 nautical miles to visit us at home. Of the eight, it was Jez Fanstone’s News Corp that sailed past Fort McHenry — and motored into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor — half an hour ahead of everyone else.
Brent Seabrook • No. 17, April 25
… Returns to the Ocean
“After a wet start and a very nice farewell, we settled into our route down the Chesapeake,” News Corp watch captain Matt Humphries reported. “Very close racing, as usual, with thunderstorms breaking out around us, but none in our path yet.”
Brent Seabrook • No. 18, May 2
Dad’s Dreamboat
The summer I was 11, Dad’s dream came true. I got up off the couch to build a speed boat. We ordered plans for a Clark Craft Tuffy, a 13-foot four-seater speed boat. It was designed to hold a monstrous 15-hp outboard. We weren’t even car-driving age, and we were going to captain something that exploded gasoline and turned us into pirates.
Jonathon Wye • No. 24, June 13
Our Skipjacks A National Treasure
The last commercial sailing fleet in the United States has been added to the 2002 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
“In many ways, the skipjacks symbolize the Chesapeake Bay,” said National Trust president Richard Moe — a part-time Calvert Countian — in making the announcement.
M.L. Faunce • Dock No. 28, July 11
The Fates of the Race ~ Stalking the Governor’s Cup
Stalker looked her name — 33 feet of smooth curves and quiet angles. Her reinforced aluminum mast rose 50 feet from her decks. Inside she was all business; there were no bunks nor galley, just a dry sink and a couple of hard cots.
She was a lean, mean racing machine, ready for the contest ahead — the St. Mary’s College Governor’s Cup, an overnight scramble from Annapolis to the mouth of the Potomac, 70 miles away.
A plume of smoke rose from the starting boat, followed by a cannon’s crack. Stalker surged forward, pulling ahead of the pack. A second crack pierced the air, louder and closer. The mainsail sagged as the boom fell to the deck, the line that held it up severed.
“Well, that’s it,” owner Al Holt shrugged. “We’re done. We’re going home.”
Brent Seabrook • Dock No. 32, Aug. 8
Sailors Are Made, Not Born
What’s so good about sailing? The day sail, the overnight, the quiet anchorages, the sunsets, the sunrises, the fishing, the bird watching. And that’s not all.
Bob Bockting • No. 41, Oct. 10
This Old Boat: Cruising to Another Era
John McGuire’s Constellation is an old wooden boat who’s spent her life cruising Chesapeake Bay. Is there a secret in her timbers, mere planks on ribs? Boaters seem to think so. They turn to look at her. They examine her and try to guess her age. Most know she’s a Chris-Craft. They like to touch her and ask permission to come aboard. What is she whispering to them?
Nancy Hoffmann • No. 42, Oct. 17
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