Category: Dan Rodricks

In doing some research on the Progressive Era — in part, the subject of my Wednesday column in The Baltimore Sun — I tripped into a fascinating corner of Maryland history and the record of a long-gone governor from Conowingo named Austin Crothers. He was a man of contradictions in an age of ambiguity, a … Continue reading History lesson: The contradictions of Maryland and its Governor in the Progressive Era

The pandemic cancelled Little Italy’s Madonnari Arts Festival again. The next one is scheduled for September 2022. Still, art is happening in the old neighborhood. During the hiatus, the organizers of the festival invited Mexican street artist Carlos Alberto Garcia-Hernandez to create a permanent 3D mural on the wall of the Hospital Support Services building … Continue reading A wow-inducing new mural for Little Italy

What we are facing, my fellow Americans, is not simply a difference of opinion. You all know what a difference of opinion looks and sounds like. What we are facing is not mere disagreement about how much the nation should spend on defense or whether undocumented immigrants should be given a path to citizenship. What … Continue reading America is facing something much bigger than a difference of opinion

From Sunday's column in The Baltimore Sun: Nobody asked me, but few things seem more anachronistic — that is, belonging to a time gone by — than a fishing tournament where someone wins thousands of dollars for killing a massive and beautiful blue marlin. This year’s victim at Ocean City weighed 1,135 pounds, and the Florida … Continue reading American grotesque: Blue marlin killing for money

From The Baltimore Sun, published Sept. 12, 2001 We organize the tools in our garage and line up the shoes in our closets. We trim the hedge and water the lawn. We shop in malls. We jog. We walk the dog. We sip dark-roast coffee. We drive reliable cars with full tanks of gas. We … Continue reading Shaken faith: What I wrote on 9/11

Somebody keeps a baseball field looking perfect. There are no bases and no baselines, nor is the pitcher’s rubber evident. It’s September, after all, and unless someone has a fall season in mind, I imagine this place, north of Towson and Baltimore, will just stay that way, empty but inviting. Somebody keeps it looking perfect, … Continue reading Somebody keeps a baseball field

Allow me to elaborate on something I report in my Sun column today: The significance of a project underway in Maryland to move hundreds of thousands of eels upstream of the Conowingo hyrdoelectric dam on the Susquehanna River. If Democrats and Republicans could work as well together as Anguilla rostrata and Elliptio complanata do, we'd … Continue reading A beautiful symbiosis: Eels and mussels

Submitted for your approval: a recipe for a modest but delicious worker's lunch, made with fresh ingredients from the late-summer garden: The Peppers and Eggs Sandwich is the official sandwich of Labor Day USA. Get four or five sweet green peppers from the farmers' market — cubanelles, if they're available, but bell peppers will do. … Continue reading How to make the official sandwich of Labor Day

Reporters seldom become friends with the people we cover or profile. We might respect them, especially when we seek them out for expertise. We might find their enterprise important or exciting. We might become acquaintances, but I would say friendships between journalists and the people we write about are rare.  It’s more likely that we … Continue reading Matthew, we hardly knew ye

A reminder that, while Labor Day was never identified with a particular food item -- in the way Thanksgiving demands roasted turkey, St. Patrick's Day requires corned beef and cabbage, or the Fourth of July comes ringed in hot dogs -- the peppers-and-eggs sandwich has been the official sandwich of the first Monday in September … Continue reading The peppers-and-eggs sandwich is the official meal of Labor Day