Dan Rodricks

I had a moment of what you might call Trump Time Madness during an otherwise pleasant conversation with an otherwise congenial and interesting stranger, and it speaks to what I consider one of the nation’s biggest problems -- not enough people following the news of the day in a daily newspaper. I know that sounds … Continue reading Suffering from Trump Time Madness: A conversation with the low-info voter

Have you ever happened upon the dawn of time? Have you ever felt like the world began overnight? Have you ever tried to squint away the rest of humanity and imagine yourself the first person to stand at the edge of the ocean, with all life foaming at your feet? I’ve had moments like that. … Continue reading Bluefish blitz and the birth of the world

Having pushed away from fast-food and chain restaurants a couple of years ago, it took me a few months to get around to sampling an Impossible Whopper at Burger King, and I only did so at the urging of a raving vegetarian friend. I went to a BK in Towson, Maryland. (There are other local … Continue reading Impossible Dream: A Whopper that takes vegetarians back to the cave, assuming they want to go there

Maryland Trout Unlimited: Wednesday, September 18. 7:30 p.m. Join us to hear Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks, author of "Father's Day Creek: Fly Fishing, Fatherhood and The Last Best Place on Earth." Dan will discuss his book and talk about his journey from angler to conservationist, and the emotional and psychological connections to rivers and special places … Continue reading Next speaking engagement is with Trout Unlimited in Towson on Sept. 18

It’s the thing I have never understood about the men and boys who go out to pretty places to fish. Some of them leave their trash along the river banks and trails — piles of beer bottles and fast-food packaging, empty bait containers and discarded fishing line. It happens on trout streams, but you also … Continue reading The one thing about fishing I’ll never understand

I received a great deal of response to my recent column on suburban America’s obsession with big lawns and the need to plant more trees as an answer to the climate crisis. Aside from a few readers who complained that having more trees means more leaves to rake in the fall, the responses ranged from … Continue reading Followup: Yes, some people are giving up lawns to combat climate change

To some people, a ferry crossing sounds like a quaint throwback to an earlier time, before Maryland built the first bridge across the Chesapeake Bay in the 1950s. A second span went up in the 1970s, and now the Governor of Maryland, a road-warrior Republican, has the state's transportation department studying when and where to … Continue reading Electric ferries need to be considered for the Chesapeake Bay

If trout had a 'spirit-home,' it might be the spot behind this rock in the Youghiogheny River in western Maryland. I am quite familiar with it. Among fly anglers who fish this section of the river, it's practically a tourist attraction. No matter the level of the river, nor the season, there always seem to … Continue reading A little story about a fairly big rock

It took me most of an hour to buy two bunches of flowers at the Baltimore Farmers’ Market on Sunday, and not because the line was long but because I kept bumping into people I know and like. Before you think otherwise, I’m not complaining. This is how life in Baltimore is supposed to be. … Continue reading Why they call it Smalltimore