Author brings history to life with tours
Normally at this time of year, author and historian Garrett Peck of Arlington, Virginia, would be leading his popular walking tours throughout the greater Washington area, and having a drink with the participants afterward. Now, due to the pandemic, he’s had to go virtual. Peck, 52, established his walking tour business in 2006, exploring Prohibition-related sites in Washington, D.C. A ... READ MORE
An antidote to pandemic’s stress
Be it a world steeped in pandemic drama or a frayed social order, the show must go on for devotees of the Howard County Conservancy at Mount Pleasant in Woodstock. Nestled on a gentle, 232-acre rise, the land was originally owned by a family who farmed it for three centuries. They set aside the property for students and adults in order to enrich their environmental consciousness, said Meg... READ MORE
Let’s put on a concert in the barn!
Imagine being able to listen to your favorite classical musicians, while sipping wine and enjoying light fare, all without having to dress up, fight for parking, or maneuver around hundreds of other people. In a barn located in the spacious farm country of Phoenix, Maryland, 22 miles from Baltimore, Steinway Series at Silo Hill has room for around 100 guests. Since 2016, it has hosted... READ MORE
Are you itching to get rid of mosquitoes?
Has your tomato plant produced blossoms but no fruit? If so, that may be because a neighbor engaged a mosquito control service. The principal active ingredient in the insecticides used by these services — pyrethrum, permethrin, resmethrin, or d-phenothrin — does not differentiate between mosquitoes and beneficial insects, such as the bumblebees needed to pollinate your tomato... READ MORE
Recommended reads from local authors
For many of us, the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have afforded more time to enjoy quieter pastimes like reading. Social distancing has provided extra hours and space to discover new authors, reread old favorites and escape to another time and place. Local author Kathleen Reid, who wrote A Page Out of Life, Paris Match and, more recently, Sunrise in Florence, has... READ MORE
When your best doctor friends retire
In the wider world, it has been a month of protests, disease and turmoil. In my world, it has been a month of retirements. In the space of one week, for a variety of reasons, three men born in the 1940s, who have been taking care of me and my family in one way or another for ages, announced that they no longer would. First, one of my (too many) doctors folded his practice, so he... READ MORE
Novels that focus on mature protagonists
The Bibliophile This summer, follow the adventures of characters our own age as the plots twist and turn to their denouement. Akin: A Novel, by Emma Donoghue, 352 pages, Back Bay Books paperback, 2020 Retired chemistry professor Noah Selvaggio is looking forward to spending his 80th birthday on a short visit to his hometown Nice, France. The widower lives alone in an apartment ... READ MORE
Amateur sleuths uncover buried history
They find a tiny bead here, a fish bone there, a piece of a chamber pot, a rusty hinge. The volunteers, many of them retirees, are working side-by-side with professional archaeologists to unearth centuries-old artifacts that reveal threads of history buried in the dirt. At two former Maryland and Virginia plantations, archaeological research initially focused on the lives of... READ MORE
Moonshine and more for second act
Peter Ahlf spent 25 years as a rocket scientist at NASA and a private firm, helping design the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station, planning flight missions and more. But it wasn’t until he retired that he started making a kind of rocket fuel. Today, he crafts an award-winning absinthe, a green, anise-flavored spirit. Ahlf makes 400 bottles a month of the... READ MORE
Shakespeare group adapts to the times
All went well during the regular 2019-2020 season of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, which included stage productions in its downtown Baltimore theater of Measure for Measure and Hamlet as well as A Christmas Carol. But this summer, the theater hit a glitch, otherwise known as the pandemic. Normally, the company’s educator program includes both an extensive matinee series, camps, ... READ MORE
Arts 2024
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