The Conductor: Tom McHugh and his Mainstay
Tom McHugh took his time becoming the director of a non-profit music hall in Rock Hall. After more than 30 years as a leading academic and professor of education at Vassar and Washington College, he fulfilled a lifelong goal of building a second career in music, his first love. To that end, he created a venue that would bring to the Eastern Shore some of the best musicians in jazz, blues, folk and contemporary music performing today. For decades, Tom has been a force in the region's music scene, from helping to form the original Kent County Marching Band, encouraging Karen ...
Irish Supper for St Patrick
While I think tinted green beer is revolting, I’ve always loved St Patrick’s Day. Mostly because, like my other favorite holidays, it’s celebrated with Food! Glorious food! Corned beef and cabbage with onions and potatoes and carrots enjoyed with a good microbrew, creamy potato-leek soup, Irish soda bread, Irish stew, meat pasties, beef and Guinness pie, colcannon (smashed potatoes and cabbage), Irish coffee. Yum. Yum. Yum. One year, I corned my own beef. Julia Child talked me into it on one of her shows. It’s not hard; like a lot of things, it just takes time. You mix spices and saltpeter ...
Field Guide: The Dead of Winter
March is here. A co-worker told me he spotted an osprey the other day. A few optimistic buds have emerged. Spring isn’t quite here yet, but these signs tell us that warmer days will be here soon. For the deadrise workboat, Twilight, this spring will mark her 100th year on the water. In her current incarnation, she serves as a floating laboratory for Echo Hill Outdoor School, taking students into the waters of the Chester River, Chesapeake Bay, and Still Pond Creek as they explore estuarine ecosystems. Deadrise workboats, unique to the Chesapeake Bay, were designed to navigate shallow waters in order ...
Riding a Gift Horse
The other day I received an anonymous gift in the mail, a beautiful hardcover book. It was a book I would buy for myself, so at first I wondered if I had actually ordered it and then forgotten all about it. (Okay, to be completely honest, I wondered if I had suddenly gone Sybil, and had an extra personality who went online ordering books for me while I showered or slept.) All I had to go on was the return address. I emailed the bookseller asking for information about the order (just in case I had gone multiple-personality) but their replies ...
Early Greens
Most of the yard has reemerged, and I can walk instead of slog to the greenhouse. In a ‘normal’ year – evidently a theoretical concept – I’d have already started a few seeds for the cool-weather stuff. Kale, collards, spinach, chard, mustard greens, lettuces, bok choy. Some, like radish and peas, I’d even be considering putting into the ground now. Instead, it looks to be months before that can happen since the garden is still under a foot of snow. Fasten your seat belts, folks. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. For the next few weeks, we’ll have to count ...
Occurrences
O’Malley War Chest 40 Times Ehrlich’s
ANNAPOLIS – Even in years without elections, Maryland political campaigns keep the cash flowing, spending money on fundraisers, advertising and food....
State Targets Oyster Poachers
ANNAPOLIS – For 20 years Roy Rafter made his living as a waterman, catching fish, crabs and oysters. Now, Rafter spends hours in a dark boat, working...
Last Words on FASTC (Not)
Is there any chance you have an opinion on the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center proposed for Queen Anne’s County and haven’t expressed it?...
Gov Asks Feds for Small Business Aid
WASHINGTON – Gov. Martin O’Malley asked Maryland’s congressional delegation Thursday to devote unused federal money to spur small business...
Plastic Bag Tax Gets Support
ANNAPOLIS – The General Assembly has been reluctant to raise taxes in an election year, but 39 legislators across both chambers are co-sponsoring...
More Snows, Fewer Mallards
The midwinter waterfowl survey showed a significant decline of mallards and diving ducks but a growing number of snow geese in the Chesapeake region, the...
Curiosities
The Conductor: Tom McHugh and his Mainstay
Tom McHugh took his time becoming the director of a non-profit music hall in Rock Hall. After more than 30 years as a leading academic and professor of...
Irish Supper for St Patrick
While I think tinted green beer is revolting, I’ve always loved St Patrick’s Day. Mostly because, like my other favorite holidays, it’s celebrated...
The Prince’s Evening of Reconciliation
The Prince Theatre, known as the Lyceum during much of the 20th Century, has had a painful history of racial segregation. It is remembered — first-hand...
Best Bets
Wednesday, March 10 Women Helping Women Concert: By Women, For Women Location: The Prince Theater, 210 High St. Time: 7 p.m. For more than 45 years, Dr.Maria...
SpyCam: John Andrew McCown 1st Neilsen Award Winner
John Andrew McCown (photo by Trams Hollingsworth) The Chester River Association celebrated the life of Pat Nielsen last Friday night by awarding its first...
Disturbances
False Report of Missing Child
It was a scary time at Worton Park on Monday evening with Kent County sheriff’s deputies, state police, local firemen and emergency rescue squad personnel...
Crash Injures 6 of Centreville Family
A collision of a UPS truck and a van on Clark Corner road Wednesday afternoon injured six members of a Centerville family, at least two of them seriously. Kelley...
End of a Search
A four-month investigation by the Kent County sheriff’s narcotics team led them to the kind of search that no officer enjoys. First, they got a search...
Poultry Go Up in Smoke
The death count from a fire at Kennedyville is estimated at 30,000 – chickens. The victims could be identified only as “hatchlings.” Deputy...
Town Notes
Civil Rights Attorney to Discuss Race & Judicial Judgment March 18
The 2009 confirmation hearings of the first Latina Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, rekindled an intense debate about the role of race in judicial...
African American Council Events Spring Series Announced
Come join us to honor the memory of the African American Civil War veterans from Kent County MD who fought for freedom! Two films, ‘Glory’ and ‘Black...
Hukill Receives Washington College’s 2010 President’s Award
The annual President’s Award, given to an individual for an exemplary record of sustained and acknowledged contribution to the quality of life in...
Eastern Neck Refuge Announces Youth Turkey Hunt
Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in cooperation with the National Wild Turkey Federation will once again conduct a gobbler-only spring youth...
Wind Ensemble Back with Concerts Beginning Next Sunday
On Sunday, March 14, the Eastern Shore Wind Ensemble, with a concert theme of “Cityscapes,” will take its audience on a musical tour of various cities....
Trade & Mercantile
Gabriel Design Opens Doors in Chestertown
Gabriel Design has come to Chestertown. After years of operating in Rock Hall and Galena, owners Joyce and Marty Hale have brought their very popular...
Genther to Step down at Kent County Chamber
Cindy Genther, executive director of the Kent County Chamber of Commerce, has notified the Board of Directors that she will be resigning from her position...
The Feast of Reason Turns off the Lights
The Feast of Reason, which had been one of downtown Chestertown’s top lunch spots for many years, has formally closed. Kathleen Jones, one of the...
Business Wrecked? Call DCA for Towing
A reorganized and revitalized Downtown Chestertown Association is attempting to do what the White House, Congress, the Treasury Department, the Federal...
Opinion
Letter to Editor: Let’s Keep it God’s Country
To the Editor: The topic of the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center (FASTC) has dominated our lives and our household for three months now and rightfully...
Spy Op-Ed: Sykesville Vs Ruthsburg – Similar? by Sherry Adam
As the cold rain falls at 7:45 in the morning and the frigid air blows mercilessly in the Ruthsburg Community center parking lot, we wait for the GSA/Dept...
Still More Snow? Ask Weatherdog
About all anybody talks about these days, except the meatloaf at Lulu’s, yum, and the Beer League going dry, yow, is the weather. It got me recalling...
A Tribute to Coach Athey By Bryan Matthews
Coach Ed Athey embodied Washington College athletics for the entire second half of the 20th century. Coach, with his six-decade mutual love affair with...
