Dan Rodricks

I am a fan of Baltimore Community Lending, a federally certified Community Development Financial Institution that has made loans in parts of Baltimore where the big banks refuse to invest. BCL's involvement in the project described below -- to train and prepare new food growers and other food and beverage entrepreneurs for the post-pandemic world … Continue reading How to run a food or farming business after the pandemic: Free course offered

I hear the voices of children, the summer voices of children. They bounce across the lake from the beach, squealing giggles and dog-paddle splashes, the chatter of a childhood fading away with summer, fading away from us all. In the week leading to Labor Day, we reach the Sunday night of the year, the long … Continue reading Summer’s end: A reverie

Here's your annual 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 … Continue reading The peppers-and-eggs sandwich is the official meal of Labor Day

I’m sure I fried some brain cells reading through the lawsuits (original and amended) filed as a taxpayer action against the Baltimore City public schools by a West Baltimore couple, Jovani and Shawnda Patterson. I reference the Patterson suit in my column about the political actions of members of the wealthy family that owns the … Continue reading Lawsuit against Baltimore schools a ‘political publicity stunt’

My columns run 900 to 910 words each, so I don’t always have space to get into every detail and angle of a story. Today’s column is an example of that: I have far more information about the death of Jeremy Davidson than I was able to fit into the space allowed, and a question … Continue reading Postmortem: Lingering questions about EMT response to Jeremy Davidson’s medical emergency

The thing about fly fishing in general, and fly fishing for trout specifically, is that you are forced -- if you really want to understand the world in which you wade, and if you really want to catch fish -- to pay attention to what they eat. Trout eat a lot of bugs and, at … Continue reading Metamorphosis: Creatures crawling on rocks

At the end of a recent Saturday outing — for a memorial service for a friend in rural Maryland, then across two counties to visit Basignani Winery — I asked my friend Tom, who did all the driving, if he wanted some money for gas. I was kidding, of course. Chevy Bolt The ride we … Continue reading We drove 140 miles and burned not a drop of gas

This day, August 15, the Feast of the Assumption in the Roman Catholic Church, was the day we took old women in black dresses — or sometimes nice blue-and-white polka dot dresses — to the beach.  This is the day when the BVM went sky. Translation: It’s the day the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother … Continue reading Feast of the Assumption: Sun, surf, girls in bathing suits, old ladies in black dresses

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the whacko Republican from Georgia famous for nothing but incendiary comments, claims Awful Andy Harris of Maryland is among four House members supporting her resolution calling for the impeachment of Attorney General Merrick Garland. Greene said this in tweets yesterday, thanking Harris and the others for joining her absurd effort. She … Continue reading Whacko House member says Andy Harris supports her resolution calling for AG’s impeachment

Today’s Sun column addresses Dan Cox’s “constitutionally stupid” ideas about Trump and the FBI — specifically, Cox’s pledge, if elected governor, to “stand against” federal agents who — um, what? — try to execute a search warrant against a Cox ally? It’s not clear. Obviously, this Republican candidate was so eager to get on the … Continue reading Why not ignore Maryland’s Trump candidates for governor and lieutenant governor?