Why April showers bring May flowers: What science has recently taught us
Five hundred years ago, English poet Thomas Tusser published this now-famous couplet: “Swéete April showers/Doo spring Maie flowers.” As home gardeners, we recognize the importance of water for plant growth. But is April rain the sole reason that flowers bloom in spring? In the metro Richmond area, the average rainfall in the month of April is 3.2 inches. We know that water... READ MORE
Country singer, songwriter Karen Collins
Karen Collins loved singing along to records as a kid. Growing up a coal miner’s daughter in southwest Virginia, she struggled for years to get an instrument until her mom saved up enough S&H stamps to buy a guitar with Green Stamps. Decades later, she has recorded five albums and leads three bands, including her own Karen Collins and the Backroads Band. Now living in Takoma... READ MORE
African American stories in the spotlight
The Bibliophile D.C. Emancipation Day is celebrated on April 16, when, in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the act that ended slavery in the District. These recent books reflect on different aspects of the black experience: Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir, by Kwame Onwuachi with Joshua David Stein, 288 pages, Vintage paperback, 2020 Award-winning chef Kwame... READ MORE
Laughing at old age on the golf course
Roto-Rooter has a great business model. Systems do need to be cleaned out now and then. Writers do, too (including the guy typing this). After long hours poring over a keyboard, they need a break, a re-set, a Roto-Rootering. Which is how I found myself in Arizona for two days, watching older guys play professional golf. No deadlines. No editors. No worrying over narrative arc and ... READ MORE
Budding poets find inspiration in nature
Marsha Owens taught high school English for half of her nearly 40-year career in education, but she didn’t flex her own writing muscles intensely until she retired. “I no longer had an excuse not to write,” said Owens, now 74. Owens launched her passion for writing by joining James River Writers, an organization for writers of all ages and abilities in central Virginia. Because... READ MORE
Writer Isabel Allende still believes in love
Over the last year, Isabel Allende has been coping with loss and grief after the passing of her mother, a stepfather whom she “adored,” and an ex-husband. But not everything was bad, she said: “On the other hand, I also got married last year.” At 77, the Chilean author still believes in love. “I am not afraid of it,” she said, laughing when talking about her third... READ MORE
Slapstick Shakespeare parodies the Bard
“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.” Whether it was 20th-century actor Peter O’Toole, 18th-century thespian Edmund Kean, or a host of others who may have said it, this quip refers to the challenge of making audiences laugh. It could also be a reference to the amount of physical energy expelled, given the many pratfalls, quick changes and assorted wild goings-on required for any... READ MORE
Baltimore adoptee now college president
For Marian Elizabeth Wilson Davis, being the mother of a college president is more than she envisioned when she adopted a 3-year-old boy in 1972. In the early 1970s, Davis and her husband, Belford, were in the midst of contemplating parenthood after learning that Marian could not conceive. The Davises eventually adopted young Roger Wilson Davis, who grew up in Baltimore. Last... READ MORE
New alarms warn park-goers of lightning
If you’re in a park in Howard County this summer and thunder rumbles, you may hear a low, baritone siren and see a strobe light flashing. Such lightning sirens with strobe lights will be placed in regional parks throughout Howard County by early summer, according to John Marshall, the county’s park bureau chief. The eight regional parks with new lightning alarm systems are... READ MORE
Reaching and passing 100, a day at a time
A cross-country plane ride is usually an excuse to secede from the world. Naps. Crossword puzzles. Novels that are so bad that you find the nearest trash can once you land. But on a recent flight from California, I chanced upon a newspaper story that enthralled me. It was about a woman who had just celebrated her 110th birthday. She thus belongs to a very exclusive club called... READ MORE
Arts 2024
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