It occurs to me that, when a young person -- son or daughter, niece or nephew -- moves into a new house or apartment, they might not take with them one of those old photographs of long-gone ancestors your parents passed along or left behind. This might not seem like an extraordinary idea. No doubt, … Continue reading Holiday gift: Framed photos of ancestors
Among Maryland’s great citizens: Will Schwarz
I would nominate Will Schwarz for Marylander of the Year, and not because he's a friend of mine -- and producer of my 1990's TV show and director of my play, "Baltimore, You Have No Idea." But because of what he did to enlighten his fellow Marylanders and stir our collective conscience. Will, who had … Continue reading Among Maryland’s great citizens: Will Schwarz
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
Dan Rodricks 