Dan Rodricks

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’

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

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

I no longer assume we know what we are celebrating on the Fourth of July, or that we're celebrating at all. So I ask the question of myself and others. In 2022, the United States is still great for many of us — life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and all that — but its … Continue reading What are we celebrating this Fourth of July?

A few years ago, I suggested that electric ferries across the Chesapeake Bay could relieve some of the traffic congestion on our bay bridges, avoiding the multibillion-dollar proposal of Gov. Larry “Road Warrior” Hogan to build a third span. Of course, while many readers thought my suggestion was worth exploring – even exciting – Maryland’s … Continue reading Europe moves ahead on electric ferries while we burn expensive gas to get across the Bay

Photo above: A statue of Roger B. Taney, the U.S. Supreme Court Justice who wrote the Dred Scott decision, was removed from the Maryland State House on Aug. 18, 2017. Another Taney statue was removed from a Baltimore public park about the same time. Until Friday, when the Supremes’ decision to overturn Roe v. Wade … Continue reading Among the worst decisions in Supreme Court history.

In the NYT photo above, Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, a former Georgia election worker, is comforted by her mother Ruby Freeman during the fourth hearing held by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. "Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you?" Moss … Continue reading ‘Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you?’

My Sun column for this Friday should have a tagline: “To be continued.” That would have committed me in print to something I already have in mind — to follow the Resurrection Sandtown Project in the coming months and years to see if the people behind it, starting with Rev. Rodney Hudson, can get the … Continue reading Resurrection Sandtown: To Be Continued

I reached back to my New England roots and read some Robert Frost to Wally Vait in his final days. I read “Birches,” probably my favorite Frost poem, and one I thought the naturalist in Wally — and that was really all of him — would appreciate.It starts:When I see birches bend to left and … Continue reading The guide: Wally Vait and the all of it

Allow me to respond to an email I received about my Sunday Sun column on Trump and his supporters. Though the column was pointedly not about President Biden, readers who support Trump naturally tried to make it about the current president. From Michael Ernest, who calls himself “a Trump supporting democrat,” came this: “Joe Biden … Continue reading Responding to a letter from a ‘Trump supporting democrat’

I might have completely lost my mind when I wrote this Sunday’s column on talking to Trump supporters about why they need, finally, to dump him. It probably strikes most of my readers as a futile exercise and an experience they wish to avoid. I write from the blue state of Maryland, where Joe Biden … Continue reading Trump supporters won’t hear it from Fox, so they need to hear it from the rest of us

It has been more than 20 years since the state, at the behest of landowners, stopped stocking Father’s Day Creek with hatchery trout. As I reported in my book, the creek’s wild trout have thrived ever since.The brook trout are likely natives and the brown trout are stream-bred. The brown trout have become bigger, healthier … Continue reading Return to Father’s Day Creek

My column in The Sun today is about a widely respected federal judge, Andre Davis, now retired, and his involvement in getting active judges to reduce the life sentences of men Davis sent to prison during the nation's long war on drugs. But the column also deals with an aspect of federal sentencing law I … Continue reading Bet you never heard of this legal term

“My wife and I have tears in our eyes over the latest mass shooting in America. Every parent in America should be crying for the lost babies and crying out for change. When is enough, enough? How high is the ceiling of depravity and callousness and apathy in our country? How much longer are decent … Continue reading America is hardly recognizable

For the 152d commencement, graduate ceremony, McDaniel College, May 21, 2022 President Jasken, members of the Board of Trustees, faculty and staff, honored guests and graduates, parents and significant others, friends, Professor Smith and any dogs that might be in the audience. . . . I thank McDaniel College for this honor, and I congratulate … Continue reading Commencement address 2022: Make a duty of decency

A poem by Gale Rasin on the anniversary of the lynching of James Taylor, a 23-year-old Black man who was hanged from a maple tree by a white mob in Chestertown, Maryland on May 17, 1892. -o- “Whatever may be said about the provocation, the stigma will rest upon our county for many years.” -- … Continue reading TREES OF THE EASTERN SHORE

Illustrated by Zach Schoettler Story by Dan Rodricks Once upon a time, long ago, the North Branch of the Potomac River was full of life. It was a beautiful river. It flowed through mountain forests, over and past big boulders, and under cliffs. Trout and bass lived in it. And turtles and frogs. Deer drank … Continue reading A story for kids: How Dr. Bob saved a river

Originally published April, 2021. Updated today as we approach the 185th anniversary of The Baltimore Sun. Photo above is poster from 1987 anniversary celebration. The ultimate problem for American newspapers -- besides the level of profits demanded by corporate ownership -- is that not enough people feel a need to read a newspaper. Even digital … Continue reading We still need you to read the newspaper