We welcome your opinions and letters — with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, P.O. Box 358, Deale, MD 20751 • E-mail them to us at [email protected].
Linebaugh Won the Battle for Parole
Dear Bay Weekly:
I thoroughly enjoyed Sonia Linebaugh’s story Battling for Parole [Vol. XII, No. 18: April 29], particularly as it related some of the history of the area. I was at the meeting she attended, and I suggested that the history might be helpful to a developer who hopes to make a real place out of Parole Plaza. Compliments on Linebaugh’s good work in researching and developing this article.
—Walter Jacobs, Annapolis
Cicada Advice from Maryland Department of Agriculture
Dear Bay Weekly:
Well, it’s that time again. The cicadas are coming! That’s the good news. The better news is that there is no reason to panic. They don’t bite, sting, kill your tomato plants or eat your bulbs. They will, however, be everywhere in Central Maryland. Try not to let your kids or dogs, cats, birds and other pets eat too many. Cover the pond and skim the pool daily. Pick up lawn objects that would prevent their emergence from the ground, starting in mid-May. Don’t use pesticides on them. Pesticides are unnecessary and ineffective against the sheer numbers of cicadas that are expected.
Maryland Department of Agriculture entomologist and veteran of cicada emergences in 1970 and 1987, Gaye Williams, has put together a great resource to learn more about periodical cicadas. The more you know, the more you can appreciate and prepare for them. Log onto www.mda.state.md.us to find out what to expect during their brief visit, ways to cope with their presence and to report your own cicada sightings to scientists.
Homeowners with other questions can contact the Maryland Home and Garden Information Center at 800-342-2507.
Enjoy. You won’t get another chance like this until 2021.
— Lewis R. Riley: Secretary, Maryland Department of Agriculture
Re Last Week’s Letters: Bill Burlison Ought to Know Better
Dear Bay Weekly:
Anne Arundel County Councilman Bill Burlison needs to bone up on the Constitution. Does he realize what he proposes [Letters, Vol. XII, No. 20: May 13] is unconstitutional? It is ridiculous to assert that a portion of the Constitution of this country should be declared unconstitutional by the courts. It flies in the face of all reasonable logic.
It is very disturbing that a man with such a limited and subversive grasp of the Constitution would be elected to an office where he is sworn to protect the same document.
—Mary Ann Lincoln, Severna Park
