Dan Rodricks

Being a fan and supporter of opera, I pass along this release from Maryland Opera: Maryland Opera’s sixth season opens with “L’Amour, Toujours l’Amour” featuring fully staged scenes and acts from Roméo et Juliette, Werther, and Faust on Saturday, November 11 at 7:00 p.m. at the Church of the Redeemer on Charles Street in North … Continue reading Love Opera? Miss the Baltimore Opera? Here’s what Maryland Opera offers this season

You never know around here, you just never know what's going to turn up. Just last week, in a column about the things that make Baltimoreans happy, I wrote this: "We want that certain spontaneous wackiness that almost always happens when you open yourself to Baltimore and start conversations with amiable, quirky strangers." Maybe not … Continue reading Baltimore: Encounters with amiable, quirky strangers

Some years ago, my family went hiking through what's known as the GrandCanyon of Pennsylvania, Pine Creek Gorge, about 200 miles north of Baltimore. Iwanted to fish in Pine Creek and so I put on my waders, stepped into the streamand walked over rocks until I was in water above my waist, about four feet … Continue reading Birth waters of the Chesapeake Bay

Here’s some of what my readers had to say about Brooks Robinson after his death last week at age 86. We start off with two accounts of the same game, one from near the end of Brooks’ career. Irwin Weiss: It’s fair to say that Brooks was a terrific fielder, and a pretty good hitter, … Continue reading Readers share Brooks Robinson stories

I call this beautiful New Hampshire waterway Wasted River, and while that might seem like a harsh name, I think it’s appropriate. The Swift River in the village of Tamworth should be a prime habitat for trout, and it should be a destination fishery for fly anglers. But it’s not, and thus a wasted opportunity. … Continue reading Why I call it the Wasted River

I recently visited this beaver pond (above) in the Sandwich Range of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. A friend, Tom Gamper, and I hiked to the high end of this meadow to see the source of the pond and found two other dams, creating a series of ponds on the way to the one … Continue reading Admiring the Beaver Ponds of New Hampshire

In her book, "My Life In France," Julia Child said her favorite dish was roast chicken, or poulet rôti. "What a deceptively simple dish," she wrote. "I had come to believe that one can judge the quality of a cook by his or her roast chicken. Above all, it should taste like chicken: it should … Continue reading Window shopping: Rotisserie chicken in France

I would like to invite you and your family and friends to the second run of my play, Baltimore, You Have No Idea. Frankly, I had no idea the play would sell out all three performances and be so well received. Many people told me they tried but failed to get a ticket last year. … Continue reading Tickets now on sale for my two plays: The second run of “Baltimore, You Have No Idea,” and the premier run of “Baltimore Docket.”

What made the omelette at the Cafe L'Arsenal in Paris so good was the show that came with it — not the quality of the eggs so much as the quality of the atmosphere enchanted by a magical woman who seemed to do everything. If, like many other establishments around the world, the Cafe L’Arsenal … Continue reading The omelette was good, the show better.

Historians believe the first humans settled in northwestern France, the region known as Brittany, 35,000 years ago, and let's not even try to grasp that amount of time. It's impossible. Imagining 1,000 years is just as impossible. Even 500 years, 400 years. Surviving stone buildings and icons -- cathedrals, churches, maybe a bridge or farmhouse, … Continue reading A visit to Brittany: Breizh, the very old world