Dan Rodricks

In 1954, the number of TV stations in the United States more than doubled, advertising revenue surpassed radio revenue for the first time, and Swanson introduced the TV dinner. NBC telecast the Tournament of Roses Parade for the first time in color. ABC broadcast the Army-McCarthy hearings live. And on CBS, the crusading Edward R. … Continue reading My Favorite Year: 40 years on, still my favorite movie

My weekend column is about the Catholic Church, the Maryland Attorney General’s report about clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and the latest meeting of the U.S. bishops. The first letter I received from a reader missed my point about the priesthood being the same – that essentially no fundamental change has occurred … Continue reading ‘They still think we’re all a bunch of superstitious peasants’

One of the delights in life is to be surprised by something that has become familiar or even old hat, or to discover something grand you missed the first few times around. Somewhere along the way, I am sure I heard the fourth and final movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. I am sure it was … Continue reading Worth a listen: The fourth of Beethoven’s 5th

In my Sun column today, 11 people, including the Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, give their reasons for thanksgiving. Here are a couple more Thanksgiving reflections I picked up just after deadline: Anthony Santander, Orioles outfielder and slugger: “I'm thankful for the excellent season we had as a team. I think that it's a really good … Continue reading Extra thanks: From an Orioles outfielder

I am just going to wing this because I don’t have the recipe, but I know how to make it. It’s a great stuffing, a traditional New England recipe adopted by a Portuguese immigrant named Justina Gomes Rodrigues (the little lady in the photo, my paternal grandmother) and made to her Madeiran tastes. Ingredients:One pound … Continue reading How to make Portuguese stuffing for Thanksgiving

Thanks to one and all who purchased tickets for the Dec. 2 and 3 performances of my "one-man play with a cast of seven (or eight)" at the Meyerhoff Auditorium of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Reminder: Seating is general admission. The email confirmation of your purchase serves as your ticket. Ushers will have your … Continue reading Sold out: Baltimore, You Have No Idea

Neil Grauer, author, journalist and cartoonist, is well known for his Johns Hopkins Blue Jay. He’s drawn it thousands of times over more than a half-century, since his time as an undergrad at Homewood. (Photographer Jim Burger took the photo atop this post and wrote a profile of Neil for the City Paper in 2014.) … Continue reading Getting in toon for Maryland’s next governor

After Saturday's public hearing, Ken Rosenstiel wrote this report: The meeting went well and it started with Elisabeth Lardner of Lardner/Klein Landscape Architects announcing that they decided three weeks ago that there would not be any bikes in the park and that got the biggest round of applause. The rest was fairly boilerplate; new Nature … Continue reading Updated: Oregon Ridge, no bikes in the master plan

If you caught Jordan Klepper’s most recent report on election deniers on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” you’d think half the country had lost its mind, or, at the very least, had never had a class in American government, had never developed the ability to think critically, had never grown up. Klepper travels among … Continue reading On Americans who support election deniers, doubters and other dopey politicians on the right

The 2022 election isn’t really about ideology. It's not about whether the nation should spend trillions on fixing infrastructure or addressing climate change. It’s not about forgiving student loan debt or closing our southern border with Mexico or even abortion rights. The latter is clearly on the minds of many voters. But something much bigger … Continue reading Do level-headed Americans still outnumber those who’ve lost their minds? We shall soon see.

Whenever I get into this subject, I'm sure it always sounds self-serving — the importance of local journalism and the American public’s support of it. But let’s give credit where it’s due. As I worked on my Friday Sun column, I had a question: How did majestic old St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in East … Continue reading Local journalism fills in the blanks

I believe my fascination with World War I has come to an end. I watched the new adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet On The Western Front” on Netflix and realized, during a hand-to-hand combat scene when un soldat français takes a shovel to the face, that I can no longer stomach visions of the “war … Continue reading Goodbye to all that

I would like one person who lives in Maryland’s 1st District to tell me one thing Rep. Andy Harris has done that was beneficial to that person or that district in the 12 years Harris has been in Congress. (We already know about the Salisbury post office renaming, that doesn’t count.) Go ahead. Let’s hear … Continue reading Andy Harris supporters: Why this guy?

A guy stopped me on an MTA bus in South Baltimore a few years ago and said he recognized and appreciated my homage to Jimmy Cannon, a sports columnist back in the day and a favorite of his dad's in one of the New York City papers. His father had read Cannon in the Post, … Continue reading Just so you know: A word about today’s Sun column

Ben Civiletti, who died on Sunday at his home near Baltimore, served as U.S. Attorney General when the abuses of Watergate were still fresh and the Department of Justice badly needed reforms. It is worth noting that one of the men at Civiletti’s right hand during that period of recovery from Watergate was the present … Continue reading Ben Civiletti, Merrick Garland and the push for independence at DOJ, then and now

With yesterday’s vote by the January 6 House committee to subpoena his testimony, Donald Trump gains yet another opportunity to remain on the national stage. Once upon a time, former presidents disappeared into the golden sunset of horse rides and fishing trips, planning their libraries and playing with grandchildren. Trump remains a criminal suspect, a … Continue reading Trump subpoenaed and diminished, but the damage done

Over five decades as a columnist, I have accumulated a lot of stuff because people have given me a lot of stuff. A man in Friendsville, western Maryland, gave me a wooden coat rack for giving him a ride on a winter day. When I returned from covering the 40th anniversary memorials for the D-Day … Continue reading Mystery photo: People give me stuff like this

The Baltimore Orioles of 2022 won 31 more games than did the Baltimore Orioles of 2021, and the franchise had its first winning season since . . . well, it's been a while. They last made the playoffs in 2016, and they had a great season in 2014, an overall good run during the Buck … Continue reading Thank you, Orioles. That was pretty good.

Directed by Will Schwarz with original music by Mat Lane. Longtime journalist Dan Rodricks tells stories from his more than four decades as an award-winning Baltimore Sun columnist and radio and television host. A theatrical memoire, the play allows Rodricks to bring to life from the wings some of the many people he has encountered … Continue reading Tickets now on sale: A One-Man Play with a Cast of Seven

In my column in Wednesday’s Sun, I reported that Mark Graber, a distinguished professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and constitutional expert, helped make the case for the disqualification of a New Mexico official who took part in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Graber testified that the words and actions … Continue reading A Baltimore justice and a Maryland enslaver played a part in the legal history of insurrection

The quote in the headline of this post appears in my weekend column in The Baltimore Sun. It is how Heather Mizeur, the Democratic candidate for Maryland’s 1st District congressional seat, characterizes the record of her Republican opponent, Andy Harris. The post office mentioned is in Salisbury, and Mizeur is correct: It was a bill … Continue reading “For 12 years, we’ve paid him $2 million in taxpayer salaries and he’s passed one law, to rename a post office.”

Eleven months ago, I declared Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson as one of the few earthly beings with duende. Defined by the playwright and poet Federico Garcia Lorca, duende means star power, charisma, a kind of ghostly spirit that gets into the blood of artists — dancers, singers, writers of verse — and takes over. It … Continue reading Duende works both ways — this time against the Baltimore Ravens

Republicans of the #MAGA Cult were amused and downright giddy after Florida’s horrible governor tried to out-Trump Trump by flying 50 unsuspecting immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard to “own the libs.” It was a cruel act, and yet the #MAGA thinks the Ron DeSantis Airlift made a damning point about the Biden administration’s immigration and border … Continue reading Republicans again back immigrant cruelty even as the U.S. faces a severe worker shortage

David Tufaro, a Baltimore attorney and developer who once ran as a Republican for mayor, says he doesn’t see or hear hate expressed for the city as I do, a subject I addressed in Sunday’s column. How ironic. While not hateful, Mr. Tufaro’s recent letter to the editor of The Sun certainly qualifies as a … Continue reading About Baltimore: No, Mr. Tufaro, the city is not dying

In the past three weeks, I’ve been to a family reunion and a high school class reunion. We said all the usual things: Great to see you. . . Nice to see you. . .  Happy to see you. . . Are you still managing the Lobster Hut?  . . . Are you still teaching?  … Continue reading Reunions, and the part that goes without saying

The centennial of Crain Highway prompts a celebration in Prince George's County Press notice: “We are excited and proud to bring people together to re-create the photo that was taken 100 years ago,” said Upper Marlboro Town Clerk John Hoatson, who is organizing the Oct. 1 festivities. (The photo session is scheduled for 11 am.) … Continue reading Upper Marlboro wants to draw a crowd to update this 1922 photo

At midday, while hiking along the river, I saw trout rising in a bubble line flowing below a fallen white pine. It is always exciting to see rising trout, but, ambivalent about fishing for trout on a summer day, I did not have my fly rod or waders with me. Still, overcome with temptation, I … Continue reading Air show: A squadron of cedar waxwings caught a lot more than I did

I am a fan of Baltimore Community Lending, a federally certified Community Development Financial Institution that has made loans in parts of Baltimore where the big banks refuse to invest. BCL's involvement in the project described below -- to train and prepare new food growers and other food and beverage entrepreneurs for the post-pandemic world … Continue reading How to run a food or farming business after the pandemic: Free course offered

I hear the voices of children, the summer voices of children. They bounce across the lake from the beach, squealing giggles and dog-paddle splashes, the chatter of a childhood fading away with summer, fading away from us all. In the week leading to Labor Day, we reach the Sunday night of the year, the long … Continue reading Summer’s end: A reverie

I’m sure I fried some brain cells reading through the lawsuits (original and amended) filed as a taxpayer action against the Baltimore City public schools by a West Baltimore couple, Jovani and Shawnda Patterson. I reference the Patterson suit in my column about the political actions of members of the wealthy family that owns the … Continue reading Lawsuit against Baltimore schools a ‘political publicity stunt’

My columns run 900 to 910 words each, so I don’t always have space to get into every detail and angle of a story. Today’s column is an example of that: I have far more information about the death of Jeremy Davidson than I was able to fit into the space allowed, and a question … Continue reading Postmortem: Lingering questions about EMT response to Jeremy Davidson’s medical emergency

The thing about fly fishing in general, and fly fishing for trout specifically, is that you are forced -- if you really want to understand the world in which you wade, and if you really want to catch fish -- to pay attention to what they eat. Trout eat a lot of bugs and, at … Continue reading Metamorphosis: Creatures crawling on rocks

At the end of a recent Saturday outing — for a memorial service for a friend in rural Maryland, then across two counties to visit Basignani Winery — I asked my friend Tom, who did all the driving, if he wanted some money for gas. I was kidding, of course. Chevy Bolt The ride we … Continue reading We drove 140 miles and burned not a drop of gas

This day, August 15, the Feast of the Assumption in the Roman Catholic Church, was the day we took old women in black dresses — or sometimes nice blue-and-white polka dot dresses — to the beach.  This is the day when the BVM went sky. Translation: It’s the day the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother … Continue reading Feast of the Assumption: Sun, surf, girls in bathing suits, old ladies in black dresses

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the whacko Republican from Georgia famous for nothing but incendiary comments, claims Awful Andy Harris of Maryland is among four House members supporting her resolution calling for the impeachment of Attorney General Merrick Garland. Greene said this in tweets yesterday, thanking Harris and the others for joining her absurd effort. She … Continue reading Whacko House member says Andy Harris supports her resolution calling for AG’s impeachment

Today’s Sun column addresses Dan Cox’s “constitutionally stupid” ideas about Trump and the FBI — specifically, Cox’s pledge, if elected governor, to “stand against” federal agents who — um, what? — try to execute a search warrant against a Cox ally? It’s not clear. Obviously, this Republican candidate was so eager to get on the … Continue reading Why not ignore Maryland’s Trump candidates for governor and lieutenant governor?

I open a window in the wee hours and hear crickets. It always makes me melancholy. Another summer winding down. More than half the year gone. The little boy who grew up next door is headed to college in Georgia today, and with that news, the love song of the male crickets — their constant … Continue reading August: The Sunday night of the year

In Sunday’s New York Times, Maureen Dowd makes the argument that President Biden should do something that has not happened since Lyndon Johnson was in the White House: Announce that he will not seek a second term.Swamped by opposition to the Vietnam War, Johnson opted out of running for re-election in 1968. Why should Biden … Continue reading Should Biden be a one-and-done president?

As I reported in Friday’s Sun column, the right-wing extremist Michael Peroutka, now enjoying the support of the Maryland Republican Party as its candidate for Attorney General, has been a prolific essayist for a website called “News With Views,” sponsored by My Pillow. The website touts itself as a place “where reality shatters illusions,” and … Continue reading The ridiculous ravings of the right-wing extremist supported by the Republican Party in Maryland as our next Attorney General

Voters in Kansas resoundingly sent a state abortion ban to defeat on Tuesday, a major victory for the abortion rights movement in one of the country's reliably red states. It was by a decisive margin, too — 59 to 41 percent -- that Kansans opted to keep the right to abortion in the state constitution. … Continue reading Is Alito’s Roe decision backfiring on GOP, as predicted?

This is how a postal worker on Maryland’s Eastern Shore hopes to keep cool while driving around in a USPS mail truck — with a PVC elbow that catches the breeze from the open window and directs it inside the Grumman “long life vehicle” that the service has been using for decades. The LLVs have … Continue reading This serves as U.S. Postal Service air conditioning

It wasn’t until 1974, after his playing days with the Celtics were over, that I truly appreciated Bill Russell’s accomplishments. I knew what a great athlete he was, knew about the 11 championships. If you grew up in the Boston area in the 1960s, the greatest sports team in that sports town was the one … Continue reading Bill Russell played for the Celtics, not Boston

It's hard to believe from his recent voting record -- against the Frederick Douglas Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act (which passed 401-20) and against the assault weapons ban passed by the House on Friday -- but Rep. Andy Harris once cared about crime and criminality. I know: It seems impossible that a Republican lawmaker … Continue reading Andy Harris once cared about criminality

Congratulations to Brian Goodman, general manager, and the Young Victorian Theater Company on its 50 years of staging the operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan in Baltimore. Any time someone keeps anything — particularly a theater company — rolling for a half-century, attention must be paid. And keeping G&S on the summer stage as the decades … Continue reading 50 years of cheers for Baltimore’s Young Vic

Ty Cobb, featured in my Sunday Sun column, served as a special counsel to the Trump White House during the Mueller investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. He left when his job was done, in 2018. He had this observation the other day when we spoke about his former client: "Trump does not … Continue reading Former White House counsel: Trump ‘a severely wounded narcissist’

On Monday night, City Councilman Kristerfer Burnett of the 8th District said if squeegee workers were white, the narrative around their plight would be different. “The response would be different,” he said. While that comment makes headlines today, I thought it important to share the longer prepared statement Burnett made earlier in the day. Burnett … Continue reading A City Councilman challenges the angry narrative about squeegee workers of Baltimore

Today is Veterans Day, formerly Armistice Day, originally meant to commemorate the end of World War I and the sacrifice of Americans who died in that absurd war’s last 18 months. But here’s the thing about 11/11/18: There was a period of time on the final day when, instead of quietly receding into history, The … Continue reading 11/11/18: The horrible, absurd end of the War To End All Wars