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
March into the battle against crabgrass
As the weather warms, outdoor warriors prepare for battle: us vs. weeds. Spring lawn care for cool-season fescue lawns does not typically include seeding or fertilizing. However, spring is the right time to prevent and control the gardener’s arch nemesis: stealthy crabgrass. It’s important to understand your adversary. Crabgrass is a warm-season summer annual grass that germinates ... READ MORE
Families need to show love, acceptance
Alexis Bentz is a senior at Wootton High School in Rockville, Maryland. She has been writing this intergenerational column for the Beacon since middle school. online pharmacy buy bactrim no prescription with best prices today in the USA The structure of the typical family has changed drastically in the last 100 years. In the early and mid-1900s, the traditional family consisted of a ... READ MORE
Enjoy belly laughs at Hitchcock parody
Try this recipe: Take 3 parts Alfred Hitchcock thriller, stir in 1 part Monty Python and mix well. Half-bake at a high temperature for 1 hour 45 minutes. Yields: Patrick Barlow’s theatrical spoof, The 39 Steps, now onstage at Hanover Tavern. Serves: 150 hysterically laughing theater patrons. The play is a parody of the 1935 Hitchcock movie of that name, a murder mystery, which in turn... READ MORE
