Dan Rodricks

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

“Disgraceful” is a kinder word than the one that more aptly applies to many things that have occurred in America during the last five years. “Disgusting” is more apt. Example: Michael Fanone, one of the police officers attacked by the Trump mob on Jan. 6, testified last week that the disrespect shown to him and … Continue reading Trump’s emotional toll on America

I said my piece about the Bishops, Joe Biden and the Eucharist a few weeks ago. That they would withhold communion from the most religious President since Jimmy Carter because he respects the law and a woman’s right to an abortion — and is, therefore, unworthy of the Eucharist, in the eyes of some bishops … Continue reading ‘Jesus fed everybody who showed up.’

I thought the photograph of the Baltimore Bloody Mary, by artist Mark Adams, might get your attention. As I report in my Sunday Sun column, available at baltimoresun.com, Mark got a little carried away with cocktails during the pandemic. The Baltimore Blood Mary, while fun, is hardly representative of just how far Adams went with … Continue reading The Baltimore Bloody Mary

You can call her a right-wing QAnon nut. You can call her election last year to the House of Representatives a tragedy. And even some Republicans might distance themselves from her. But yesterday, with their infantile mask protest in the Capitol, Republicans pretty much fell in line behind the awful Marjorie Taylor Green. They embraced … Continue reading Republicans fall in line behind Marjorie Taylor Greene