Dan Rodricks

In the process of reporting for my Wednesday column in The Baltimore Sun, I learned about (and made a donation to) the Maryland Market Money program, designed to reward food stamp recipients for choosing to buy healthy, locally grown food at farmers markets.My column is about Andy Harris, the state’s generally awful Republican in Congress, … Continue reading Incentivizing food stamp recipients to make healthy choices

I wrote about crimes against postal carriers in my Sunday column, under the headline, "Attention, bad guys, leave our postal carriers alone," because, as Rep. Kweisi Mfume says, for most of the baby boomer lifetime, robbing the mailman has not been a thing. There are certain people you just don't mess with, and the crime … Continue reading A special bond with our postal carrier

I remember certain things from 1973 -- my first car (a red Ford Galaxy); the Knicks upsetting the Celtics in the NBA playoffs; my first job on a newspaper (a summer internship with The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass.), the Senate Watergate hearings, and Secretariat winning the Triple Crown in horse racing. I watched the … Continue reading Unforgettable: Secretariat and the reason why

The Baltimore Sun, whose pages have chronicled Maryland life and its institution for generations, whose reporters covered every government and conflict and glory of the city since before the Civil War, celebrates its 186th anniversary today. Much of what follows is a previously published history of the newspaper. Ever since Vol. 1, No. 1 rolled … Continue reading “Light For All,” 186 years later

This is how my Sunday column begins: If you gathered a million American mothers and asked them what the country needed, I bet this would be the consensus: More doctors, nurses and caregivers; better pay for teachers and social workers; affordable health care for everyone, including a holistic system for treating people with mental illness; … Continue reading America needs Big Mother Love

Trump, the candidate, should never be allowed on live television again. As his behavior last night on CNN made clear — if it wasn’t clear already — he can barely utter a complete sentence without telling a lie, exaggerating or uttering an insult. The interviewer might try to stop him, correct him and expose him, … Continue reading Trump should never be given access to live TV

I don’t know if this occurs to anyone else — I have not conducted a poll on the issue — but the incessant use of guns by Americans to kill Americans must be having an effect on all Americans. You’ve either become numb to the whole thing or you’ve quietly descended into a state of … Continue reading This gravely wounded, bleeding giant

At my high school reunion last year, a classmate I knew as Tom showed up as Vivienne and, while there was some surprise in that, we accepted this new reality and moved on. We told stories and laughed and danced to songs from the 70s. I don’t know where my classmates and I came to … Continue reading “First, inflict harm” — the motto of the Republican campaign against transgender citizens

For at least two decades and probably a lot longer, Baltimore City, owner of the Loch Raven Reservoir in Baltimore County, had a policy of closing off a section of roadway through the reservoir so that men, women and children on foot and on bikes and babies in strollers could take a hike in that … Continue reading Mayor Scott, tell them to close the gates at Loch Raven again

A quick follow to my column in Friday's Baltimore Sun about the dangers created by the presence of a gun in the home or just about anywhere . . . . Just for the sake of the argument — or because I hate to think that anything within our control is hopeless — I compare … Continue reading Cigarettes are bad for your health. So are guns.