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, 1629 Forest Drive, Annapolis, MD 21403 •E-mail them to [email protected]. or submit your letters on-line by clicking here.

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Muddledness Loves Company

Dear Bay Weekly:

I thoroughly enjoyed the articles by Dick Wilson and Diana Beechener regarding how we are losing our minds [Jan. 7]. I thought I was the only one with MBDS (Muddled Brain Disorder Syndrome), but I feel better knowing that Wilson has the same affliction. Beechener’s comments about MyFace, or SpacePlace, or whatever, hit home. I don’t use any of them since I have no idea what they are. And I certainly don’t tweet, although my wife tells me that I toot more often than not. I’m not sure what she means by that, and I’m not asking.

–Allen Delaney, Prince Frederick

Editor’s note: Contributing humorist Delaney could not go unheard from on such a subject.

Department of Clarifications

Salt Water Angler Alert

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has given us clarification to pass along to reader Doug McDaniels who questioned the scope of its new Marine Recreational Angler Registry, reported in Dennis Doyle’s Sporting Life column of Jan. 7.

If you fall into any of these three categories of fisher, you’re now required to register either online (NOAA’s Marine Recreational Information Program) or by phone (888-674-7411 between 4am and midnight EST daily). Register by phone and you’ll talk to a real person.

1. If you fish farther than three miles from shore in ocean waters;

2. If you fish in any Bay or river, including the Chesapeake and, for example, the Potomac;

3. If you catch any anadromous species, meaning fish like striped bass (rockfish), bluefish or perch that spend part of their life in the ocean but migrate to fresh water to breed and spawn.

The purpose of the new registry is to improve the accuracy of recreational catch estimates to, the registry website reports, “ensure the long-term future of saltwater fishing. The registry will serve as a national phone book of anglers, allowing NOAA to quickly and easily reach current fishermen to learn about their most recent fishing activities. That information is a crucial part of our ability to estimate the health of fish stocks and to check that protections put in place to preserve fisheries will be fair, effective and based on sound science.”

There is no charge to register in 2010; however beginning in 2011, $10 to $15 will be charged.

Department of Corrections

The Bay Gardener lectures at Homestead Gardens are both on Saturday: Jan. 23: Composting; Jan. 30: Pruning. The day of the week was incorrect in last week’s Bay Gardener column.

Our last issue of 2009 erred in describing festivities at Brick House in Shady Side. Owner Pete Litchfield reports that Brick House’s New Year’s Even Ball Drop was free, and so are all events at his neighborhood restaurant and pub. There is never a cover charge at Brick House, 1534 Cedarhurst Rd., Shady Side, 410-867-3400.

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