What’s New in Maryland
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Harvest for the Hungry Spring Food Drive March 7-14
The Maryland Food Bank’s Spring Food Drive is here March 7-14.
Put a bag of food out by your residential mailbox during the week of March 7-14 and representatives from the Baltimore Area Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, or U.S. Postal Service will pick it up and take it to the Maryland Food Bank. This service applies to all residences in Maryland, but there are also drop-off locations that include Safeway stores, post offices, and Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage offices.
The food will be given through the Maryland Food Bank to over 900 soup kitchens, shelters, and food pantries across the state.
Soup and Southern Rock in Mt. Airy
Sunday February 22nd – Singer / songwriter Dean Crawford performs at Linganore Winery from 1-4pm.
All natural soups from Chesapeake Gardens will be available for purchase or to sample. Admission is $5 at the door. Photo ID needed for wine tasting.
For information on directions, hours of operation (7 days a week), tours (12pm, 2pm, and 4pm), and other events at Linganore, visit http://www.linganorewines.com/
Photo ID needed for wine tasting.
Maryland Events Friday Nov 7th to Sunday Nov 9th
With last weekend being Halloween, we’re into November already. Here’s some concerts at major venues in Maryland this weekend.
Friday November 7th – Celtic Thunder – First Mariner Arena at 8pm
http://www.baltimorearena.com/event-more-info.shtml?e_id=159
Friday November 7th – Susan Tedeschi with James Hunter – Rams Head Live at 8pm
http://tickets.ramsheadlive.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=264
Friday November 8th – The Raven – The Meyerhoff at 8pm
http://www.bsomusic.org/main.taf?erube_fh=tessitura&tessitura.submit.CalendarPerfLink=1&PerfNo=6632
Saturday November 8th – Doctor Atomic: Adams – Lyric Opera House at 1pm
http://www.lyricoperahouse.com/Schedule-TicketInfo.asp
Saturday November 8th – The Decemberists – Rams Head Live at 8pm
http://tickets.ramsheadlive.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=262
Saturday November 8th – The Raven – The Meyerhoff at 8pm
http://www.bsomusic.org/main.taf?erube_fh=tessitura&tessitura.submit.CalendarPerfLink=1&PerfNo=6723
Sunday November 9th – Silverstein & Chiodos – Rams Head Live at 6:30pm
http://tickets.ramsheadlive.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=74
Check back next week for more weekend concerts and events in Maryland.
Carnival of Maryland November 2nd
Maryland Blogger Alliance members came out in droves for this Carnival, which has 12 posts. Will the upcoming election get the same type of turnout? Actually, the election is coming up close and many Maryland Blogger Alliance members have thoughts to share in various subject categories:
Much of Tuesday will of course be about National Politics. Michael Schwartz from Monoblogue discusses what it’s like to volunteer for the McCain campaign. The Patriot Sharpshooter discusses Dark Clouds / Silver Lining of the recession.
Issues in State Politics on the ballot will come up as well, a popular one being the slots proposal. Pillage Idiot shares a unique proposal involving slots. Soccer Dad will be all no-ing the two constitutional questions on the ballot Tuesday. And Mike Netherland makes a decision on the slots issue based on accountability.
Joyce Dowling of Race Matters in Prince George’s Co., MD & the USA keeps with the election theme but delves into the topic of Crime by discussing the role of racism in the election.
In Local Politics, Patrick from Maryland Conservatarian expresses his disgust at the lack of Maryland women elected to the executive branch.
This weekend doesn’t just bring us closer to the election; it also marks the end of Daylight Saving Time. Now, anyone who wants to see a sunrise will have to get up a little earlier. See a sunrise peaking through some trees without having to rise extra early. And check out this sunrise on Halloween morning, the last one of Daylight Savings Time this year.
On a lighter note, The Greenbelt shows some pictures of squirrels eating and this duck just hanging out.
On an even lighter note, Clark Bjorke posts about Marvin Gaye, connecting his song, “What’s Going On?” to the state of the U.S. today.
This concludes Maryland Blogger Alliance Carnival #45. And for all you bloggers out there who might be interested in contributing in the future, a blog carnival is where bloggers of a certain topic send in a post to a host blog to have their post linked to on a different blog and share what they have written. The blog Carnival of Maryland is held every other Sunday.
MD Colleges Changing Names Continues with Loyola
Is changing college names a new trend? In recent years, three Maryland colleges have changed their names: Western Maryland College to McDaniel College, Villa Julie College to Stevenson University, and now Loyola College to Loyola University.
One trend that does seem to be appearing not just in Maryland, but in other states as well is for colleges to change to universities to represent their expanded offerings.
Maryland Buses Going Hybrid
Maryland will be transitioning its transit buses to hybrids over the next few years. When a bus needs to be replaced, instead of buying a diesel-only bus, a diesel-electric hybrid one will be purchased. Aside from the obvious environmental benefit of using less fuel, hybrid buses are also quieter, which might make for a more pleasant riding experience. The biggest factor may be that they’re more reliable though, going slightly over 6,000 miles before needing to be serviced versus about 3,000 miles for strictly diesel buses.
Right now, 10 of the Maryland Transit Administration’s 653 buses are hybrids. Buses will be replaced at up to 100 per year beginning in 2009.
Verizon Changes to All Digital TV…Some May Need a Digital Converter Box
If you are at home wondering why your tv isn’t working, it might not be your tv per se. It may be because as of today, Verizon has switched to digital broadcasting only for Maryland and Northern Virgina residents. If you have an analog tv and want to keep it, you’ll need a digital-to-analog set-top converter box. These boxes can be bought at places like Sears, Best Buy, and Target.
But don’t toss out your analog tv just yet if you don’t want to buy a digital converter box. Video games, DVD players, and VCRs will still work with your tv. Another option is buying a new tv; it doesn’t have to be high definition. It just needs to have a digital turner, which all tvs bought in the U.S. after March 1, 2007 are supposed to have.
Those with analog tvs that would like to buy the converter can request two coupons at https://www.dtv2009.gov/ from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to help subsidize the cost . The coupons are for $40 each, a great deal considering the cost of a digital converter box is around $50 to $60. With the $40 coupon, consumers can expect to pay around $10 to $20.
The reason for the switch is more efficiency, greater programming options, and more room for emergency communications like police and fire responders.
First Day of Summer
Happy first day of summer! Though it can be a little confusing to know when the first day of summer starts, (is it June 20th? June 21st?), the first day of summer is actually determined by the summer solstice (when the sun is at its northernmost point in the sky) so in 2008, summer starts on June 20th (at 7:59 p.m. to be even more precise) for Marylanders. In Europe, it’s June 21st this year.
The summer solstice is actually the longest day of the year as far as the number of daylight hours goes. For countries in the Southern Hemisphere, the start of summer (longest day of the year) is 6 months away (in December!).
