Exiled on Main Street

Caplan’s , a fixture in the Ellicott City antiques business community is closing up shop on Main Street after 23 years. According to this story by Kim Lemmonds in Ellicott City Patch, “the store will be closing in late January.”

On the surface this closing could be seen as another setback to the retail health of the historic district. Just before Christmas, The Good Life Market announced that it too would be closing by the end of this month after six years. In both cases the owners of these stores were heavily involved in promoting Ellicott City.

That’s where the similarity ends though. The Good Life Market is closing up shop for good. Caplan’s is simply moving out of their Main Street location because they could not work out favorable lease renewal terms with their landlord.

In March of 2004, the 8,700 square foot former department store was sold to a partnership that includes Don Reuwer, Bruce Taylor and Jared Spahn. The new owners plan to renovate the property which includes a vacant parcel of land behind the store. According to this story by Jackie Powder in The Sun, “the businessmen hope to build apartments on a vacant lot behind it that extends to St. Paul Street.”

The departure of Caplan’s will allow that redevelopment program to move forward in earnest and the net result will actually benefit the old mill town.

Al Jazeera in EC

Today, while I was in downtown Ellicott City, I spotted a camera crew filming on Main Street. My curiosity got the best of me so I crossed over and asked what they were doing. There were two guys, a casually dressed camera guy and a reporter type sporting a dark wool overcoat with a red scarf.

“We’ve come out to Main Street to see what people outside of the centers of power think about the incoming Congress and the specter of impending budget cuts,” the guy in the overcoat told me. He had a British accent. He then asked if he could ask me a few questions on camera.

“Who are you with?” I wondered.

“We’re actually with AJE, it’s associated with Reuters,” he answered. He seemed a bit reticent about disclosing much.

“Do you have a card?”

“No actually I don’t,” he replied. He told me his name was John, or was it Jon?

Anyway…

I was up to having having a little fun so I told him he could go ahead and interview me on camera.

“What do people on Main Street think of the specter of government spending cuts from the new Congress?”

I joked that I had only been elected as the official spokesperson for Main Street America last night so I really hadn’t had a chance to get a consensus from my peeps yet. I then went on to say that, in general, everyone thinks that government should be cut, except of course those tax breaks and programs that they rely on.

When we finished I again asked where they were from. Jon (or John) told me that they work out of DC.

“What was the name of the company again?” I asked.

“AJE” he said.

Back at the office I checked out AJE on Google.  

There goes any chance I ever had of getting a security clearance.

Yeah, I Bought One Too

It’s funny how the prospect of winning $355 million motivates people to buy a lottery ticket more than the prospect of winning $20 million. Tonight’s estimated $355 million jackpot in the multi state Mega Millions lottery has people standing in line across the country. The odds of winning are about 176 million to one. Though otherwise rational people know this is ridiculous, they still buy a ticket.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tonight, in the 7-11 on Montgomery Road in Ellicott City, they were doing a brisk business in Mega Million ticket sales but at least there was no line at 7:30 PM. A woman who came in behind me openly acknowledged the folly of it all as she handed the clerk a dollar. “The odds are ridiculous,” she said a bit embarrassed.

Yes they are.

I look at this way. Tonight, before the winning number is drawn, everyone who purchased a ticket will fantasize, if only for a moment, what they would do if they won. Basically it’s a buck for a dream.

Almost Stuffed

When Dave Bittner asked us if we would do a promotional video for Winter Restaurant Weeks, Paul and I jumped at the opportunity. As I understood it, we would basically visit three restaurants in one day eating free food and talking with the owners while Dave recorded the whole thing on video. I’m so in!

Our first stop around eleven this morning was Café de Paris in Columbia. Erik Rochard was preparing a complete sampling of the prixe fix menu he was planning. While we waited for the food to come out of the kitchen he uncorked a dry little Cote du Rhone. It was five o’clock somewhere.

Soon enough the table was covered with food; escargots in a puff pastry, black angus carpaccio, lamb rolled in sausage, a veal chop with mashed potatoes and vegetables, fresh pate with dill pickles and a basket of warm bread. A veritable feast lay before my eyes.

And then Dave started recording and reality came home to roost. The whole point of this exercise is to promote the upcoming restaurant weeks so we needed to be talking, not eating. No sooner had we finished recording, than Amanda Hof, was prodding us along to get to our next stop, Aida Bistro and Wine Bar across town.  Amanda is the Special Events & Project Manager for Howard County Tourism & Promotion, the main sponsor of HoCo restaurant weeks. We were already running behind. I was able to snarf some of the lamb sausage things and a little carpaccio but we left a table full of food and half filled wine glasses behind as we packed up and got on the road.

The lamb sausage thing was outstanding. I made a mental note to come back with Mama Wordbones for that.

We arrived at Aida in the thick of their lunch rush so we decided to set up in the bar this time. Joe Barbera told us that he hadn’t yet decided on his menu for the two week HoCo loco culinary event but he did tell us that it would be three “savory courses“ instead of the more traditional appetizer, entrée, desert prixe fix menu. To give us an example he bought out a flatbread with veal and a macadamia encrusted rockfish with risotto.

Once again we were recording and talking before eating. This was torture.

While we were yaking it up with Joe, Amanda received a call from our third planned stop, Venegas Prime Filet in Maple Lawn. Apparently they were having some sort of problem in their kitchen and they had to cancel.

It was really just as well as far I was concerned. This allowed us to actually eat more of the food and learn about Joe’s wine taps. Aida Bistro and Wine Bar is one of only a few places in the country that have this state of the art “wine on tap” system that offers a choice of twenty wines by the glass. As it says on their website, this system “eliminates the problem most restaurants face from serving old & tired wine by the glass. Wines are enjoyed just as if you were at the winery tasting it from the barrel.”

Joe poured us a nice Pinot Noir. It was yummy. It may still have been five o’clock somewhere but now I needed a coffee.

I expect it will be another week or so before Dave works his video voodoo and finishes the shoot. Coming soon!

Phone Face

I first recognized the look when I was sitting at the bar in Pure Wine Café last week: head tilted down, eyes lowered, luminescent glow from a smartphone on the face. As I scanned the rest of bar I noticed that this look wasn’t just confined to the guy sitting by himself, it also graced the faces of people otherwise engaged in conversation. I saw the same phenomenon at Iron Bridge Wine Company over the weekend. Even couples do it. Phone face is everywhere.

In his Faster Forward column in The Washington Post, Rob Pegoraro called the growth of smartphones “the most exciting, fastest-moving part of the electronics industry.”

The irony is that these devices are more about connecting to social networks than they are about placing a call. We don’t hold these phones to our ears so much as we glance down at them and tap away while they glow back at us in approval.

Of course the phones are simply our conduit for Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and other social networking sites that connect us now. There is a symbiotic relationship between the two.

“You can't write the story of any of these sites without noting how smartphones have allowed their users to connect from so many places.”

It’s really noticeable in places with dim lighting when phone face is more pronounced.

I can hear it already, “If you think I’m going to kiss you with that phone face you’ve got another thing coming.”

Staying Put

Last Thursday, just before lunch, there was a malfunction in the fire suppression system in the Columbia Associations data room that required the building to evacuated. When I first spotted the emergency equipment in front of the building I mistakenly thought that the cause was related to Clyde’s or more specifically, The Tomato Palace. Back in the mid nineties I had an office on the top floor of this building and more than once we were evacuated because of a fire in the exhaust vent of the wood burning stove in that restaurant.

The unfortunate thing about last Thursdays event is that it occurred right before noon and effectively shut down the lunch business for both restaurants, and this time it wasn't even their fault. I ran into Paul Kraft, the manager of Clyde’s, as he was standing outside apologizing to patrons as they showed up for lunch.

“You’re closed?”

“Yes mam, the fire department has ordered the evacuation of the building.”

“But I’m meeting my clients here for lunch. This was the place they suggested.”

“Sorry mam.”

Paul also told me that Clyde’s had begun a long needed major renovation. He said that the restaurant was getting ready to sign a five year extension to their lease that clears the way for that work to begin in earnest. I suppose that means that the forty year old building will not be coming down anytime soon to create the “fountain square” part of the Town Center redevelopment program.

Prior to Greg Hamms sudden firing, there had been speculation that Clyde’s might relocate to the ground floor of the former Rouse Company headquarters building. One of the potential redevelopment scenarios for that building shows a space for a large restaurant with outdoor seating on the plaza side of the building. That may still be the plan but I'd have to say that its now unlikely Clyde’s would be the tenant.

The Ins and Outs

Though I usually consider myself to be fairly well read and informed, I never fail to be humbled by The List, an annual compendium of ins and outs published in The Washington Post. For as long as I can remember, the Post has published The List on New Years Day and each year I eagerly look forward to seeing, if perhaps this year, I’ll get at least half of them.

No such luck. Once again I failed to measure up. This time I only “got” about 12 out of the 67. In some cases I got what was out but the new “in” left me scratching my white head.

Until yesterday I can honestly say I’d never heard of alcoholic whipped cream.

My Buddy Alan

Back in 1972, as I was finishing my junior year at Wilde Lake High School, Alan Jones transferred in from Sherwood High School in MoCo. His parents had purchased a townhouse in Tidesfall in Bryant Woods.

It didn’t take long for us to become fast friends. Alan had an interest in student government and at that time I was running the student government. Before long we were also doing the morning announcements together, promoting ourselves as Radio Free Wilde Lake.

We’ve stayed in touch over the years and by some funny twist of fate we now live within a mile of each other. That of course makes it easier to still hang out sometimes.

One of Alan’s favorite sayings, when there is really nothing left to say, is “and then there’s that…”

That’s where we stole the name of the podcast from. Alan has expressed outrage over this blatant theft of what he considers to be one of his trademarks. This particular outrage usually manifests itself when we’re otherwise enjoying a bottle of wine together.

When we were unable to get David Anderson for our New Years Eve podcast, we decided to invite Alan. We figured we owed him at least that. Not surprisingly, we had a great time.

You can listen to the latest episode of “and then there’s that…” here.

Good Morning 2011

In his facebook status update three days ago, County Councilperson Calvin Ball quoted Edith Lovejoy Pierce in his status update, “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.”

This little quote was Edith’s moment in time. Do a Google search on her and this is what comes up most frequently.

Anyway…

I commented to Calvin that the trick was nailing that first sentence. Any writer understands the importance of that first sentence (It was a dark and stormy night…) in capturing a reader’s attention. Ever since I read Edith’s words I’ve rolled that thought around in my head and played with the metaphor. Can I capture in one sentence, the hopes and aspirations for the coming year?

Probably not. That’s a tall order and I’m not that good of a writer. Instead, last night, as I sipped a glass of wine and cranked up Michael Franti’s tune “Hey Hey Hey” I discovered the words I was looking for:

“Hey, hey, hey, no matter how life is today
There’s just one thing that I got to say
I won’t let another moment slip away”

And just like that, there they were, the first words for my book of 2011, I won't let another moment slip away.

Happy New Year Everyone!

"I Like Cultural Music"

The charger on Peanuts phone has been behaving badly so today we paid a visit to the Verizon store in Snowden Square. Surprisingly, we didn’t have to wait long before a guy named Chris waited on us. Chris did a quick check and determined that indeed, the charger was toast. I asked if we could buy a replacement. The short answer was yes but it turns out he didn’t have any in stock.

I wasn’t surprised, Peanut has my old phone, the one I hated. That phone is now almost two years old which is a long time in mobile phone technology. Chris did say he could order me a charger.

“How much is it?”

“I don’t know, let me see if I can find one first.”

Chris worked away at his computer and his landline phone until he located one in the Verizon kiosk at the BJ’s store in the same shopping center.

“They have two,” he told me.

“How much is it?”

“I don’t know, probably around twenty bucks.”

We crossed over to the BJ’s store. This time our Verizon guy was Nathaniel Houston. We ended up liking Nathaniel a lot better than Chris. He quickly retrieved one of the two aforementioned chargers.

“How much is it?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

I told Nathaniel that I thought it was odd that I was having so much trouble getting a price on this item. He explained that the actual price for me was dependent on whether I was eligible for any discounts. I wasn’t. The charger was thirty one bucks.

I just couldn’t see spending thirty one bucks for a charger for a phone I’ll likely replace in another year or so. I asked Nathaniel to work with me on this. He did and we got Peanut a new phone for thirteen bucks. Of course it includes a contract extension, but that wasn’t a big deal to me.

Peanut was very pleased with this turn of events. On the way back to the car she told me that she never liked that other phone either. This was the first phone she actually got to pick out. It’s metallic blue.

Driving home she scrolled through the available ringtones. She played one called Easter Island. It was sort of a reggae tune.

“I like cultural music,” she said.

Me too.

Babs is Fed Up

Having failed to stop the Columbia Town Center redevelopment plans, Columbia’s self proclaimed first mother, Barbara Russell is now “fed up.” In this letter to the editor in The Columbia Flier she takes issue the members of the county council, particularly her Oakland Mills neighbor Dr. Calvin Ball who insinuate “that any citizens who don't totally support every single developer proposal concerning downtown Columbia "... have been against redevelopment from the beginning.”

Uh, I believe Barbara actually has been against redevelopment since the beginning. Of course she would counter that she isn’t against redevelopment, she’s just against this redevelopment…from the beginning.

The battle has taken it’s toll on Babs though. She is now throwing up her hands and advocating for a casino in Town Center.

“I am so enthusiastic about the possibility of a casino that I am thinking about starting a support group. I think a support group is needed because there are so many other Columbia groups supporting the environment and such and they probably would oppose a casino. I am thinking of calling the group "Columbia Today."

I suppose that having failed using scare tactics to swing public opinion, she’s now decided to try sarcasm.

Good luck with that Babs.

Some Geek Talk

Instead of clearing up the mess all over my home office desk, I’m playing around with Google Analytics. One of the things that grabbed my attention tonight were the stats on visitors web browsers. The dominance of Internet Explorer as the browser of choice has ended, on this blog at least. Easily a year ago, IE commanded at 60% of the browser traffic to Tales of Two Cities. Today, though IE (34.56%) is still the number one browser in use, that dominance has been sliced in half.

The combined numbers of Firefox (29.17%) and Safari (20.44%) are actually higher.

The sleeper in this browser battle is Chrome (14.39%). Right now it’s the fourth most popular browser here. A year ago it was in the low single digits. It also happens to be my browser of choice.I believe it is a good deal faster than IE.

No doubt the debut this spring of Google laptops will only further bolster those Chrome numbers. In that computer the browser is the operating system. 

Desktop Phone Demise

I experienced one of those technology shift moments today. You know, the kind of feeling you get when you suddenly realize you've been using one technology less and another, newer technology more.

The relative quiet in our office this week perhaps contributed to my heightened awareness of things. The phones are pretty quiet and that is unusual in our office. The phone has been the main tool on my desk for as long as I have been working. It's my Swiss army knife. Sure, we use our computers a good deal but actual deals are made on the phone, talking to somebody.

That much is still true. What’s changed is the actual phone. Up until recently, when I was seated at my desk, the ubiquitous black office desktop phone has ruled the roost. The desktop phone was my default phone for work.

That is no longer the case. I’m not sure when the trend actually started but it probably goes back to arrival of phones that were truly mobile, un-tethered from cars. Before long my mobile phone found a space on my desk right next to my desk phone. The new technology had made its beachhead.

Little did I know that almost two years ago, The Gartner Group predicted that by 2011 “although most users will still also have a desktop phone, mobile phones will become more prevalent and replace desktop voice hardware to become the primary device." 

Today, the bulk of the calls I’ve received while sitting at my desk, have been on my Droid X. I also noticed that I make more outgoing calls with this phone because it’s easier.

It looks like The Gartner Group may be on to something here.

Most Read Stories

I don’t think anyone would argue that Explore Howard is the most widely read HoCo loco news media. That’s what makes their list of the top ten stories of 2010 all the more interesting. In this story by Charles Schelle in the Columbia Flier we get a glimpse of what HoCo locos have really been paying attention to.

Is it Columbia Town Center redevelopment?

Not in the top ten.

Is it anything about Liz Bobo?

Not in the top ten.

Okay then, how about the HoCo elections in general; surely this was big news in 2010?

Nope, not in the top ten either.

It turns out that true crime stories is what HoCo locos really like. Number one is the story of a mother-son murder suicide in Hickory Ridge. Number two was the story of the assault of a female jogger in Jessup.

At least seven out eight of the top time were related to crime in HoCo. A notable exception was number eight, the story of the passing of Ken Hovet, longtime HoCo teacher and coach. 

The open question is whether the tenth most popular story actually qualifies as a crime story...yet

The End of Cash

Just before Christmas I stopped by the Apple Store in The Mall to buy a keyboard cover for CG’s Mac Book. Though the store was fairly busy (...is everybody but me buying an iPad?) I was quickly helped by an Apple guy who led me right to the product, and then completed the transaction using his iPhone.

“Would you like a printed receipt or would you prefer I email it to you,” he asked.

I opted for the email.

By the time I walked back out of the store I received the email on my phone.

Unfortunately, the keyboard cover I bought home was black and the one CG preferred was pink. No problem. The next day I went back to the Apple store and the return was just as quick and seamless, and once again the entire transaction was handled using an iPhone.

The future of retailing is upon us.

In the December 10^th issue of The Kiplinger Letter, the editors predict that by 2020, the “use of cash is likely to be a rarity.”

In our area I suspect that this will occur sooner rather than later.

The End of the Good Life

The Good Life Market in Ellicott City is closing. After six years of breathing new life in their little corner of Ellicott City, Randy and Steve are selling everything and closing up shop. Their closing will be felt in the tight knit retail community in the historic district. The Good Life Market was an anchor of the Second Sunday Markets and it’s closing casts a shadow over the viability of future Second Sundays.

I understand that these guys will be leaving Ellicott City altogether, reportedly heading to Portugal. I also understand that Monah, their Bernese mountain dog will remain in the old mill town with friends.

Edifice Complex

Ken Ulman wants the county to buy a big building in Columbia, continuing a county tradition of taking advantage of a buyers market for commercial real estate.  If Ken has his way the county would purchase 8930 Stanford Boulevard for about $26 million. According to this story by Larry Carson in The Sun, this real estate move “is reminiscent of the county's 1992 fire-sale purchase of the Gateway office building in Columbia during the severe recession underway then, and that building, now in need of renovations, plays a role in this purchase, Ulman said. During the initial five years after the Ascend One purchase, Ulman said, the county could decide whether to sell or renovate the Gateway building.”

In 1992 the county purchased 6751 Columbia Gateway Drive for $3,720,000, a little less than $40 per square foot. The building was new, completed in 1990 but having never been occupied. The developer, Peter Issel lost it in the last big real estate meltdown. In today’s, market, even though it is need of renovation, the building could easily sell for $150.00 per square foot.

The 8930 Stanford Boulevard building was also built in the early 90’s, 1991 to be exact. It was originally constructed for a company that built simulators for nuclear power plants. The building had these large open spaces, two stories high, where they could set up and test simulators. After they vacated, AscendOne Corporation bought the property for $17 million in 1998 and proceeded to transform it into a more traditional office building. With the declining fortunes of the mortgage industry, AscendOne no longer requires a building of this size. They have only occupied half of the building for the at least the past four years. The county has leased the other half for the past two years.

The $26 million sale price works out to $163.00 per square foot. While that doesn't really qualify to be called “fire-sale” it is still a pretty good deal for taxpayers. The county would not be able to build a building for less than $200.00 per square foot.

It’s also a good building for government services. It has two large floors that provide maximum efficiency in laying out workspaces. It has loading docks. It is centrally located.

To sweeten the deal, Ken wants AscendOne to remain a tenant, for at least for a couple of years, paying a market rent to the county.

‘Under the deal Ulman wants, Ascend One would pay the county $1.1 million a year, instead of the county paying Ascend One $1.6 million in rent. That combination would more than make up for the annual purchase cost through the first few years, Ulman said.”

It’s a smart move.

Wine Whine

My HoCo blogging brethren have been weighing in on the latest developments in the direct shipment of wine issue lately. 53 Beers on Tap wrote that the “Maryland Wineries Association LOVES this report, giving it a 9.5 out of 10.”

Sarah cautions that this issue is far from settled and that we should “stay tuned, I suppose, for further developments”

HoCo Rising sees a glass half full in the Comptroller Peter Franchots recently released report pointing out that “the consumer options have only been marginally expanded.”

I agree with Tom. The Comptroller appears reluctant to encourage any further marginalization of Maryland's three-tier system of liquor distribution. The Comptroller still doesn’t want us to be able to buy alcohol from an out of state retailer. According to this story by Scott Calvert in The Sun, “the report frowned on the idea of letting out-of-state retailers — as opposed to wineries — ship wine directly to consumers.”

“At a news conference in Annapolis, Franchot said, "It's crucial to the passage of this bill that we not open up all of our wonderful Maryland retail establishments to just incredibly aggressive marketing by out-of-state retailers that are undercutting them on price. That is not a good component."

That is just so wrong. Why can’t our retailers use this as an opportunity to build a larger business for themselves?

The hero of Scott Calverts story is Mitch Pressman, owner of Chesapeake Wine Company. Mitch welcomes competition.

"While a lot of retailers are afraid of the competition, I welcome the competition," Pressman said. "More availability creates more interest in wine drinkers."

The 2010 Dookies

It’s that time of year once more, when we take stock of twelve months in the HoCo loco blogosphere with the annual Dookie awards. As the self anointed high priest of the Royal Academy of Dookies, it is my privilege to set the tone and get the proverbial ball rolling. As such this year, I am only offering Dookie nominations, I'll let the readers decide who is worthy enough to take home the feet of clay statuettes.

The nominations for Platinum Dookie are The Strobist and HoCoMoJo. The Strobist was recognized as one of the top blogs in the nation by Time magazine which is no small feat considering that there are well over 130 million blogs in existence. HoCoMoJo pulled off HoCo’s first ever flash mob which quickly became one of the top holiday news stories in the Baltimore area.

New HoCo bloggers are recognized by the Baby Dookie award. The nominees are Sarah Says and HoCo Politico. Sarah Says, which started off as Um Can I Just Say, has elbowed her way into the male dominated community blogging niche with 202 posts since April. Mild mannered River Hill dentist Trevor Greene graduated from guest blogger on HoCo Rising to his own political blog this fall.

And speaking of HoCo Rising, Tom gets a nomination for the Muck Rake Dookie for his excellent expose of Brian Meshkin, who still managed to weasel his way on to the school board despite Toms dismembering of his resume. HoCo Rising also gets a nomination for the Prolific Poster Dookie. He  has racked up 796 posts (and counting) in 2010. I can’t think of anyone who has posted more often.

The nominations for Caustic Commenters Dookie go to the opinion section of Explore Howard, HoCo Rising and Tales of Two Cities (yes I can nominate myself, I am the aforementioned high priest  after all). This Dookie is reserved for those blogs that actually have to delete comments once in awhile.

The Tums Dookie is set aside for those blogs that report on the HoCo loco food scene. My nominee is HowChow if only for his excellent reccommendation of those gas station tacos from the R&R Deli.

The Dookie Dearest nominees are JessieX and Robin Abello. Jessie continues to build the HoCo loco blogger community with her relentless organization of blogtail parties and, with Robin, she has created the top aggregator site for all HoCo loco blogs, hocoblogs.

There are of course many others deserving of mention and other Dookies to fit them. That’s where you the reader come in. Think up a Dookie, name a nominee (or winner) and share it. I promise only to delete those that cross the line from thoughtful sarcasm to low brow school yard taunts.

So load up those tomatoes and let ‘em rip

Yuletide Stroll

Mama Wordbones and I took a walk along the Patapsco this afternoon. It was quiet and grey. Though we walked alongside the Old Main Line for over two hours, nary a train passed us by. We did encounter a few other intrepid souls but they were spaced out over a pretty long walk.

Before heading down the Grist Mill Trail we decided to head up river to check on the Simkins dam removal project. As we passed the old mill on the opposite bank we noticed this extraordinary graffiti mural. This was far from your run of the "mill"graffiti.

Further up the old river has taken on a new form or perhaps I should say its regained its form. With the dam removed, the water level has returned to its natural level.