Satisfying newsprint, inky, virtual

Baltimore street corners offer a bonanza of free publications, some better than others. There’s the wryly edited City Paper, in its trademark yellow bin, next to shock-orange containers housing B, a kind of downmarket pitch to young and supposedly vacuous 20-somethings, a 2008 brainstorm of the now-bankrupt Baltimore Sun publishers.
Then, on really good corners, you’ve [...]

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Lent in the Air

‘Tis the season of self-denial, penitence and prayer. Lent lasts 40 days, but this year no one’s expecting it to end on Easter. Nowhere is the austere national mood more apparent than in New York City, hithereto a hedonistic hub of Cristal-popping boomtimes. After NPR’s nonstop resession coverage I was still surprised at the change. [...]

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Bragging Rights

During a 3 day work-meet bender–that is, a marathon of meetings punctuated by overcooked buffet lunches, tepid coffee breaks and bland curry dinners spilled on hideous hotel carpeting–one generously recycles personal anecdotes. Lately, I’ve been fond of rehashing three go-to subjects: mishaps of my cataract-ridden blind dog (fumbling in air for the staircase!), my recent [...]

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Charming City T-shirts

This blue Sharp Shirter t-shirt was, er, a hit at a weekend luau we attended in Bethesda… I was dressed appropriately in a faux lei and flowery shirt (albeit in gloomy black-and-white) but for others, this new acquisition from a booth at Artscape was too tempting to leave in a drawer. Sharp Shirter owner/designer Dan [...]

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