The end of shock
Apologies to my good friends at Tuesday lunch, but there's no "shock" in the arrest of the Gilman graduate accused of killing a CEO. I'll concede there's something unique about it -- the apparent targeting of a corporate executive in what looks like some kind of deranged payback murder -- but none who've been paying … Continue reading The end of shock
A fulfillment of the last bill JFK signed
The last bill President John F. Kennedy signed into law was the Community Mental Health Act of 1963, also known as the Mental Retardation and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963. The hope was that people who did not belong in psychiatric hospitals -- asylums, essentially -- could be mainstreamed, returned to their … Continue reading A fulfillment of the last bill JFK signed
A fine, old Baltimore gazebo salvaged from a long-gone Catholic psychiatric hospital
On Saturday, I was shown the way to the Linden Avenue Gazebo, in a charming block of Bolton Hill that had been closed to traffic some 50 years ago. There are few gazebos in Baltimore, so I wondered if it was original to Bolton Hill — there are several parks in this historic community — … Continue reading A fine, old Baltimore gazebo salvaged from a long-gone Catholic psychiatric hospital
The perfect vessel for your cranberry log
Food historians tell us that jellied cranberry sauce, holding the shape of the can it came in, first became available in 1941, a gift to the nation from Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. of Hanson, Mass. So it figures that, within the next decade, someone would invent the Cranberry Set: a silver-plated dish on glass, with … Continue reading The perfect vessel for your cranberry log
The origins of the Christmas story in ‘Baltimore, You Have No Idea’
A long time ago, when I read The Boston Globe every day, there was a reporter-turned-columnist named Jeremiah V. Murphy. He was an engaging writer. I remember a specific column he wrote about divorced fathers separated from their kids during the holidays. The sentiments expressed in the column were deeply empathetic, and the whole idea … Continue reading The origins of the Christmas story in ‘Baltimore, You Have No Idea’
Robert Frost and Climate Change: ‘Who do we think we are?’
After discovering a Robert Frost poem from 1921, "On a Tree Fallen Across A Road," it struck me that the poet probably never heard much about climate change. Respecting or fearing the tempest is as old as the human race. But nature forever altered and angered by an industrialized human race -- what we call … Continue reading Robert Frost and Climate Change: ‘Who do we think we are?’
A tragic disregard for the next generation
So, it looks like Robert Bly, author of “The Sibling Society,” was right about where the country had landed in the 1990s — an adolescent society in which there are no real grownups, and where, in classic adolescent behavior, a majority of of-age adults care little about the little ones coming up behind them. Bly feared that America … Continue reading A tragic disregard for the next generation
Why Congressional Republicans do not deserve your vote
Here we have the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Trump stooge, saying that, if Republicans get control of Congress again, they will try to repeal the CHIPS and Science Act, a widely-popular law pushed by the Biden administration to give the nation’s chip manufacturing and semiconductor industries a boost. It’s one of the … Continue reading Why Congressional Republicans do not deserve your vote
Remembering Elijah: “We are so much better than this!”
In my column in today's Baltimore Sun, I invoked the late Baltimore congressman, Elijah Cummings, and what he so often said: "We are better than this!" I hear his voice during this election, time and again, and especially after reading reports about Trump's rally over the weekend at Madison Square Garden -- the vile remarks … Continue reading Remembering Elijah: “We are so much better than this!”
Dan Rodricks 