Dan Rodricks

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

Wally Vait treated me to a corked bottle of magic yesterday — dark amber honey from his hives near a cornfield. I have sampled it now four times — experienced it, I should say — in the hopes of describing it, but fear human adjectives might demean the flavor. The honey tasters from the Maryland … Continue reading A taste of honey the bees came up with

If you haven't been to the Ikea in White Marsh, outside Baltimore, for a while -- or at all during the pandemic -- you'll be surprised to see solar canopies covering the parking lot there. I devoted a recent Baltimore Sun column to the topic of large companies with large parking lots turning them into … Continue reading Imagine all of those parking lots covered with solar panels, generating renewable energy

Before we go on, attention must be paid: David Zurawik, award-winning media critic of The Baltimore Sun and my colleague and friend, has retired from his position after 32 years at the newspaper. With pithy zest and a unique voice, the Z on TV columnist spent decades smartly chronicling and critiquing the television industry in … Continue reading Retirement for the unretiring Z Man

Fishing the Savage River in western Maryland is not easy — and not just because the brown trout are finicky. The place is a feast for the eyes and senses, so you can easily become distracted by the natural wonders. PHOTO ESSAY: SAVAGE RIVER On this day in late summer, I was struck by all … Continue reading Moss grows and the river flows

Wow, that decade just rolled by! James Hamlin and his Avenue Bakery, on historic Pennsylvania Avenue in West Baltimore, celebrate 10 years this weekend, with a concert on Sunday afternoon. I wrote about the bakery when it opened, and James, who already had become something of a local legend for his pull-apart, cloverleaf dinner rolls … Continue reading The Avenue Bakery: 10 years on a roll

I came across his old red-handled clippers, the one he pruned his fruit trees with, and immediately saw him again, on the grassy, sloping orchard of memories. He was in his 70s then and wore a brown corduroy coat and plaid hunter’s cap. It was autumn — or maybe it was spring, whenever you are … Continue reading In the orchard of memories

An Irish writer named John Waters defines authority as “the capacity to endure unpopularity in the interests of the good.” He adds that a defining quality of fatherhood through the ages has been “a preparedness to be resented.” The two are very much related in the context of American political leadership: Some of the adults … Continue reading Biden and Pelosi lead while Republicans make playground noise