Loco Blogs Out of Touch?

The Sun has launched a new mobile version of its digital content called touch. The software automatically detects the mobile device being used and presents the optimal format for that device. It’s clean and simple but the content differs slightly from their desktop version. Notably, there are no links to loco blogs, at least not so far.

I hope this is only temporary. The Sun always has been blog friendly with its daily digest of links to select posts and its annual Mobbie awards for loco bloggers. As a result the Baltimore media giant has become the top referral site for To2C, accounting for over 1,000 visits a month. I suspect this may also be true for other loco blogs they frequently highlight as well, such as HowChow, HoCo Rising and Well and Wise. I'll bet a good deal of traffic goes the other way too from loco blog posts with links to stories in The Sun.

The number of readers accessing digital content from mobile devices has been steadily increasing with the proliferation of smart phones and tablets. Out of 10,000 visits to To2C in the last 30 days, 1,100 were from mobile devices, one thousand of which were made using an iPad.

Brian the Blogger

It’s been awhile since I've picked on school board member Brian Meshkin. Lest anyone misconstrue this as being due to his threats of legal action, the fact is I've just been waiting for the right opportunity.

My wait is over. Recently Brian joined the HoCo Blogs community with his blog “Big Ideas,” which, written in the third person, describes its mission as reporting “on activities before the Board of Education of Howard County and other civic issues.”

“Anyone who knows Brian understands that Brian believes that Big Ideas can make the world a better place.”

Wordbones thinks that is nobly stated.

The difference with Brian's blog is that, unlike the majority of the other members of the HoCo Blogs community, he does not allow comments to his big idea blog posts. I find this a bit curious for someone who professes to believe in ideas. Not allowing readers to comment gives the impression that Brian only believes in big ideas that he puts forward. That seems to be rather small thinking for a big ideas blog.

On the other hand, commenter’s can be a bit irascible at times, particularly when they disagree with you. Dialogue about ideas isn't always pretty. Still, I believe that nasty comments are the exception rather than the norm and you can always delete any that go too far.

I guess I’m not really all that surprised though. In the past Brian has demonstrated that he doesn't like his notions to be challenged. For example, after commenting on a To2C post  about his business ventures he wrote that he’d be “happy to come on your show” to talk about it and then backed out the day before the podcast.

Then again, he didn't exactly show up at the HoCo Blogs party either.

A Gathering of Writers

Last night, as I circulated around the HoCo Blogs party, it occurred to me that this would best be described as a writer’s party. The term “blog” is often viewed with somewhat less cachet than “writer,” as if blogging were some lower form of written expression.

I don’t believe that it is.  After talking with at least eight different blog authors I realized that the common thread is a joy of writing. A few even readily admitted that they would write their blog even if nobody read it. That’s what writers do.

That’s not say that they don’t welcome readers. That’s what separates writing a blog from keeping a journal. People write blogs because they feel the urge to share their thoughts and observations with the world. The blog is the conduit and when something written in a blog compels a reader to comment, it makes the experience all the more satisfying.

 Comments are like currency for those who write blogs, even though it is understood that only a small percentage of readers will post comments. According to this article by Paul Grabowicz from the UC Berkley Graduate School of Journalism, “a very small percentage of readers usually will comment on any given news story or blog posting, and most comments will be made by a relative handful of frequent posters who may not be representative of general readership.”

“This has been referred to as the 90-9-1 rule, which means 90 percent of people won't post any comments, 9 percent will post infrequently, and 1 percent will account for the vast majority of the postings.”

That one percent was well represented last night too. I spoke with someone who comments regularly on HoCo Rising and another who comments regularly here. Both individuals were well versed in local affairs and genuinely invested in the community. One I knew quite well, the other I met for the first time.

These gatherings of writers are unique to HoCo. I know of no other community where local blog authors come together regularly to socialize. It’s just one more thing I love about this place.

Upping Her Game

Tomorrow night loco celebrity status will be measured by the amount of tips given to six loco luminaries. Tom Coale, Mickey Gomez, Paul Skalny, Vicki Goodman, Dick Story and Pam Klahr will serve as celebrity bartenders for the HoCo library’s black tie fundraiser, Sparkles and Spurs. They will use charm and wit to see who among them can cajole the most tips to benefit the library.

Last year, when it was my chance to be measured against other loco standouts behind the bar, Mickey Gomez won the night. That got her invited back for another stint this year.

She is a very formidable competitor. Last night, on her blog “Life & How to Live It”, she wrote an open letter to one of my favorite humorists, Dave Barry. In the letter she tells a tale of a canine caper that reduced her autographed copy of his book “Insane City” to shreds.

“On Thursday I brought the book home. I took it out of my bag – worried about it getting crushed or torn there – and placed it in the middle of the dining room table. The large dining room table. My husband and I went to dinner and returned less than ninety minutes later to find the book laying open on the floor. The cover had been removed and – how shall I put this? – artfully redesigned by Shiloh, Mischief Dog. He even ate part of it.”

It’s a very funny read.

The best part though is that instead of appealing to the author for another signed copy of his book, she asks for a donation to the library.

“If you happen upon this message and are so inclined, I’d like to ask you to consider helping to promote our local libraries. They are top-notch, but – as with all libraries – there are programs that need support in order to continue. I’ll be raising money this weekend as a Celebrity Bartender during Evening in the Stacks, their annual fundraiser that supports two exceptional programs: A+ Partners in Education and Project Literacy.”

Nicely done.

A Brit in Clarksville

I can’t recall exactly how I first stumbled across Claire McGill's blog, ukdesperatehousewifeusa, but I’m pretty sure it wasn't the result of using a search term like “undressed housewife.” According to Claire, those words or some similar iteration, are the most frequent keywords used to find her blog. She shares this insight with us, not with anger or revulsion, but with a certain sense of amusement. That same sense is reflected in her writings, which she describes as “a little bit adventure, little bit stream of consciousness, little bit Bill Bryson.”

In her blog she writes about her observations of American culture from the prospective of a thirty something mother of a five year old, transplanted from Britain to Clarksville about two years ago when her husband accepted a job here. Instead of pining for home she’s embraced the move as an adventure.

George Bernard Shaw once wrote that Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language. Claire points out that it is more than just language that sets us apart. Restrooms, fire hydrants, and football are but of a few of the topics we covered in the podcast.

We had such a good time with her that we are already talking about having her back later in the year. I should also note that Claire is co-sponsoring the HoCo blogs party with Marshmallow Man on February 26^th at Union Jacks pub in Columbia. The event is free and open to the public but registration in advance is encouraged. You can find out more here.

In news stories we talked about the Inner Arbor Plan, the apprehension of the suspected Mall flasher, Lisbon firefighters, HoCo’s bond rating, the accreditation of the Tai Sophia Institute and the move to push back the school start time for HoCo high schools.

You can find the 84^th episode of “and then there’s that…” here.

Communication Breakdown

Paul Skalny made an observation at lunch today that older folks (my people) tend to use letters to the editor to publicly share their thoughts and opinions while younger folks (his people) use social media such as Facebook and blogs.

Of course there are no absolutes. There are plenty of older voices on Facebook and the blogs…including yours truly.

That being said, I think in general terms he’s right, particularly if you consider this letter to editor in Explore Howard, the online successor the Columbia Flier. Cy Paumier, a former planner for The Rouse Company in the late 60’s and early 70’s tells the community that the plan he worked on for Symphony Woods “was approved by the Columbia Association and the Howard County Planning Board in July of 2012.”

CA has now scrapped his plan in favor of a plan devised by Michael McCall, another planner who was influenced by Jim Rouse.

Over in the social media world, Tom Coale, who serves on the Columbia Association Board of Directors representing the Village of Dorsey’s Search, shared his own view of what was actually approved, writing on his blog this morning that “the Paumier Plan, as conceived in the public, is not what was accepted by the Planning Board.  The revised Plan would require meandering paths and better connectivity with Merriweather Post pavilion.  The Planning Board also expressed a lack of excitement or draw by the Paumier Plan, which is a conceptual defect that cannot be cured by redirected paths.”

I wonder which published view is reaching the larger audience.

Courage

Talking about mental illness is never easy, especially when you are talking about yourself. Once you openly acknowledge a mental affliction you will henceforth be viewed by everyone through that filter. That’s why I found this post by Alice on her blog HoCoHouseHon, to be nothing short of courageous.

And enlightening. Alice shares how she has learned to live with her own illness in a starkly forthright manner by simply stating “I am mentally ill.”

“I'm a real person. Some of you know me only through this blog, though most others I think are friends and family members. And being a real person, disregarding any online persona, I have to face the every day life of being a young woman with a chemical imbalance which makes me cry like Van Gogh and smile like the Mona Lisa. It makes me play the piano with the wet cough of Chopin; it makes me immobile, sometimes, with perfectionism and fear. These are my mornings and evenings, my afternoon teas, the way I fall asleep and the way I wake up at 7:23 craving a cup of coffee.”

That is just a small taste what she shares. Read it yourself and I think you’ll agree, Alice is one brave blogger. In this simple post entitled "Shame" she helps open up the often suppressed dialogue of coping, understanding and dealing with mental illness.

Thank you Alice.

It’s Dookie Time

Once again it is time to open up a can of sarcasm on the HoCo loco world of blogging with the sixth annual Dookie awards. The Dookies, named after Hayduke not the other thing, are a time to plant tongues firmly in cheeks and have a little fun with our blogging brethren and blog readers. So, without further diddling and unnecessary verbosity, I hereby open the 2012 Dookie nominations.

Baltimore may have Dan Rodricks but in HoCo blogging we have Tom Coale. Almost every morning, the HoCo Rising blog greets us with deep navel gazing on societies ills. In return, his loyal stable of commenter’s waste no time in pointing out what he gets wrong. For his efforts to educate the electorate, we nominate HoCo Rising for the Rodricks Rant Dookie.

The Royal Dookie Academy recognizes the symbiotic relationship of Twitter and blogs and no one has done more to tweet HoCo loco blogs than Jesse Newburn. In her zeal to tie the two media platforms even tighter together Jesse has developed list of loco hashtags a mile long covering every possible subject from HoCoMartnis to HoCoNature. Count us among those that find this proliferation of #hoco’s to resemble a plate of corned beef hash, a little of everything, but very little meat. For that reason we nominate Jesse for the Corned Beef Hash Dookie. We'd write a tweet about this but we're afraid the hashtags alone would use up all 140 characters.

Expanding beyond the simple written word, Bill Woodcock has added video to his HoCo blogging repertoire. In his initial installments we see Bill peering down at us while sitting in what appears to be his living room complete with a cracked mirror and a disabled smoke alarm in the background. Bill is so close to the camera that you can almost see his nasal hairs. That’s too close for us and brings to mind the Seinfeld episode with the close talker. The Dookie academy nominates Bill Woodcock for the Close Talker Dookie.

Nobody likes school redistricting. No matter where the lines are drawn, there is bound to be a group of people who cry foul. Taking sides and calling out those who manufacture facts is a no win situation but this did not deter Lisa Schlossnagle. In her blog, Lisa B, Mrs. S, Lisa wrote 15 posts covering every aspect of this touchy subject. We haven’t seen coverage this deep on a single loco hot topic since Frank Hecker scrutinized councilmantic redistricting last year. Scholarly work such as this warrants recognition so we nominate Lisa B., Mrs. S for the Frank Hecker Dissertation Dookie.

And finally, let us recognize those who comment on blogs. Comments make blogs more interesting and sometimes downright fun like when certain elected officials jump in. This year there were several standouts including the self proclaimed avenger of statists, Bill Bissenas. After much debate and several beers, the academy felt that this years honor for best blog commenter should go to Chris Oxenham. We choose to honor Chris with the nomination for the Chattering Class Dookie this year because he recently became engaged and we suspect marriage may soon mellow out his vitriol.

As always, remember that Dookie nominations are open to all. If you have someone in the HoCo blogosphere that you feel has earned a Dookie of your own construct, please jump in.

So Long Sarah

One of the benefits of writing a loco blog is meeting other writers with an interest in loco issues. That was certainly true almost three years ago when I met Sarah Hussain. Sarah was the new girl in a local blogosphere dominated by men and, being a writer, she wrote about that too.

I immediately liked her.

I wasn't alone either. In very short period of time, Sarah cast a wide net because she didn't just write about stuff from a bystander’s perspective. She jumped into the loco scene with both feet, serving on the HoCo General Plan Task Force and the Owen Brown Village Master Plan Committee. She also joined the HoCo League of Women Voters and together with her husband Chris, created a series of You Tube videos on the candidates for the school board for the league.

In her own corner of Columbia she also organized a block party and was one of the first town home owners to participate in the Columbia Association rain garden program.

In other words, Sarah and Chris were the kind of neighbors that make great neighborhoods even better.

She even helped changed some loco perceptions of bloggers when she participated in the wine summit with Doug Miller from Explore Howard.

Now they are leaving. As Sarah explains Chris got a “great job offer in California and we are moving at the end of the month. We've liked our time here, and we hope to be back. But for now, it's goodbye East Coast, Maryland, and Howard County.”

The left coasts' gain is the east coasts loss.

The Dookies Are Coming

The High Council of the Royal Dookie Academy met yesterday to begin the process of anointing accolades for the Sixth Annual Dookie Awards for HoCo loco bloggers.

The council found a target rich environment in the blogosphere this year and will reveal their judgments on December 27^th.

But the Dookies are also an egalitarian affair. All HoCo loco bloggers and blog readers are encouraged to bestow their own honors. So consider this your memo to prepare and help celebrate the year’s best wurst of HoCo blogging next Thursday.

The Afternoon After

I slept in this morning. I was among the last to leave the Isle of Sanity last night and it was well after midnight before I climbed into bed. By design I did not have any appointments scheduled for this morning.

First of all, I want to thank Matt Milani for hosting our nonpartisan election party. All through the evening he bought out special appetizers for the dozen or so attendees and even took the time to share the story of the ghost that inhabits his restaurant. Second of all I’d like to acknowledge Tom Coale, Mickey Gomez, Jesse Newburn and Dave Bittner for keeping the election night tradition going. All four were part of the original group in 2010 at Clyde’s. I also want to thank the folks who joined us for the first time. It seemed like everyone was having a good time and there was more laughter than heated political discussion. It was my kind of election night party.

I would also be remiss if I did not acknowledge the Twitter feeds of Sara Toth (@SaraAToth) , Luke Lavoie (@LukeHoCoTimes) and Andrew Metcalf (@ColumbiaPatch). The old stone walls at The Rumor Mill made the wi-fi signal spotty at best but thanks to Sara, Luke and Andrew we were able to stay on top of the school board race. Local news coverage was alive and well last night.

I was a little disappointed in the school board results. Since the primary I got to know David Gertler pretty well. He is the type of person you want in elective office, smart, insightful and funny. On the other hand, David doesn't possess a “take no prisoners” political instinct and that probably hurt him in this race. I sincerely hope he stays involved in some capacity. He has much to offer to our community.

Now it’s time to get back to reality…

Political Safe Harbor

The problem with election night parties organized by parties is that they are just so dam partisan. That’s a little too jingoistic for my election night tastes. On election night I like to be around people who can appreciate the flaws in all political camps because all political camps have flaws, no matter how good or righteous they proclaim to be. I just don’t relate well with the “my candidate/issue right or wrong” types, particularly on election night.

But I do like being around fellow political wonks on the big night. At my home, by the time eight o'clock rolls around, Mama Wordbones is done with all of it. She is perfectly happy to go to bed as usual without knowing who or what won or who or what was winning. She’s content to wait until the morning news…or later…

Not me.

One of the great rewards I've gotten from six years of blogging about local stuff is meeting other loco political wonks who share my appreciation for bipartisan flaws. In 2010 a group us gathered together at Clyde’s on election night to have our own little “Isle of Sanity” party on election night. With the exception of not having a wi-fi connection, we had a pretty good time and new friendships were formed.  Tom Coale says we started a tradition.

Traditions are important.

So, in case you had not heard already, we are having another Isle of Sanity election night gathering tomorrow night at the Rumor Mill in Ellicott City. They have wi-fi, so it’s already an improvement over two years ago. Everyone is welcome but sharp elbows and closed minds must be checked at the door.

You can RSVP here. 

Various Stuff

To2C regularly receives suggestions and/or requests to write about this or publicize that. Some folks even send in stuff with instructions to “please post this to your blog” as if To2C were some kind of community bulletin board.

It’s not.

That being said I get sent good stuff too like yesterday when David Gertler contacted me about giving an assist to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

“My family and friends are still without power and the relief efforts are painfully slow (over half of LI residents are still without power).  I grew-up in Long Beach and Lido Beach NY (a small barrier island) and Long Beach is still without water and sewer services.  Gasoline is scarce (for generators) and it's hard for people to get around (also, in some areas, cellphone service is out so there is almost no way to reach people).”

It is getting a little desperate in some areas with shortages of gasoline only exacerbating an already bad situation. Donations are being accepted accepted by the American Red Cross and other local charities.

And speaking of desperate... I've also become aware of a new blog in HoCo, ukdesperatehousewifeusa, “a little taste of America through my UK eyes.” She’s a British expat, now living in Clarksville, with a wry sense of humor and an easy writing style.

"It’s a little bit adventure, little bit stream of consciousness, little bit Bill Bryson."

Check her out.

Recently I received a letter from an attorney claiming to represent school board member Brian Meshkin. The letter informed me that he had reviewed my blog and determined, in his opinion, that “many statements and insinuations made by you , and also by some of your correspondents, in the blog are clearly defamatory…” He has demanded I “remove all of the defamatory discussions concerning Mr. Meshkin, “Salugen”, and Proove Biosciences, Inc. from your blog site."

He did not specify which posts he found objectionable but I suspect they may have included this one, this one and this one.

Obviously I disagree. 

Frankenstorm: River Watchers

This morning I drove down to Main Street to see how the old town fared last night. After parking in the Old Mill Bakery Café parking lot I walked across the bridge to check out the river.

It was a popular spot. While I was there a steady stream of folks came by to take pictures and videos of the raging waters. This is what they saw.

Unlike yesterday, the Old Bakery Café was closed. Fortunately I saw on facebook this morning that Bean Hollow was open so I grabbed a cup of coffee before heading back up the hill.

People were taking pictures of the water in Columbia too. Fellow HoCo blogger, Clayton, sent me this picture of the Town Center lakefront from this morning. He also noted that “Clyde's and Lakeside Roastery both were open yesterday morning, but not today.”

Thanks Clayton.

Last night we lost power at 8:34 PM but much to our surprise it came back on at 9:20 PM. I salute the men in the yellow slickers and hardhats who labored through the evening to keep the juices flowing. As was pointed out earlier by Marshmallow Man, the Derecho storm this summer may have actually mitigated the damage from Sandy. That storm did a good job of clearing out much of the rotted limbs and weak trees before Frankenstorm arrived.

At WSw it is calm right now. The lowest pressure recorded during the storm was 28.21 inHg at 11:16 PM last night. Right now it has risen back to 28.95 inHg and is headed back up.

Today, life slowly returns to normal.

Election Forecasting

The almost daily release of polls on the presidential contest provide continual fodder for political debate. Political junkies like me eat this stuff up up and for longtime HoCo blogger Dave Wissing this is high season. The Hedgehog Report has posted the results of five polls already today and his readership is souring. A year go his monthly site visits were just shy of 40,000. This month they've already exceeded 110,000.

This morning, while digging around for post debate data, I discovered Nate Silvers FiveThiryEight Forecast blog in The New York Times. If you enjoy reading Hedgehogs daily poll postings you’ll love Nate's daily breakdowns of Electoral Votes, Chances of Winning, Popular Vote, State by State Probabilities, Electoral Vote Distribution, Tipping Point States, Return on Investment and more.

He covers the Senate races too.

All in all, good stuff.

An Unapologetic Fan

Earlier this week HoCo blogger Duane St. Claire took issue with Raven’s fans behavior during the nationally televised Sunday night game against the Patriots. He wrote that he “couldn't help but think that this isn't something that I would want my kids to experience.”

If his kids weren’t in bed when that chant started late in the fourth quarter then they are likely old enough to have heard much worse in their own schoolyard, or even in the current presidential race.

It isn’t like this happens all the time either. Ravens fans are hardly the most rowdy fans in the NFL. A ranking of rowdy fans earlier this year by Bleacher Report put the Baltimore crowd at nine out of fifteen. It takes a lot to provoke us to profanity and after three plus quarters of bad calls by the NFL's replacement officials we were simply pushed over the edge. 

I suspect that all football fans watching all across the nation empathized with the Baltimore fans late Sunday night too. The bad officiating in this game was merely a prelude to the debacle on the Monday night game between the Seahawks and the Packers.

Perhaps this just isn’t Duane’s sport. That’s okay but his criticism of the Baltimore football fan behavior is simply unfair. After all, you’ll never see me complaining about the smell of patchouli at a hootenanny.

Let’s Dance

When I saw this post on HoCo Rising this morning I smiled. Earlier this week Peanut forwarded me the link to the video that inspired the midshipmans spirit dance as her latest Peanuts Picks. I told her I’d put it up on To2C over the weekend.

Gangnam Style has received over 242 million views on You Tube making it a certified internet sensation.

I had never heard of it until this week, once again showing just how out of sync I can be at times.

So, without further words from this old dog, here is the video that got the mids dancing in Annapolis…

Pardon the Interruption

Recent visitors to To2C may have received a warning message from Google about malware on the site. It turns out that the feed from the Well & Wise blog was the culprit. Once I disabled the Well  & Wise feed, the problem went away.

According to the Google report on the Well & Wise site , “Of the 227 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 17 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2012-09-19, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2012-09-19.”

“In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.”

No doubt someone has hacked into this blog and created this mischief. The Well & Wise blog is a joint effort of the Howard County General Hospital and the Howard County library. I notified them of the problem this morning via facebook.

The Heat is On

Wegmans literally has the hots this weekend. As reported earlier by HowChow, the store is hosting a Hatch Chile Event today through Sunday. If you like hot stuff, its worth checking out.

Today, as I stopped in to pick up a few grocery items, I discovered Hatch Chili Peppers when offered a sample of a Hatch pepper cheese spread. It was love at first bite. Hatch peppers are sort of like jalapeño peppers except that the hot part sticks around for awhile instead of the hit and run you get from jalapenos. 

Before I finished shopping I had sampled a Hatch pepper stuffed with Italian sausage, Hatch pepper cornbread, and a Hatch sushi roll. For lunch, I treated myself to some Jambalaya with Hatch peppers at the prepared food bar. Talk about in-store integrated marketing!

Out in front of the store they have a Hatch Chile pepper roasting thing going on. I sampled some of those too. I also spoke briefly with Frank (the guy in white shirt waving) who told me that they had already sold four and half pallets of the peppers, each pepper pallet holding about 50 forty pound boxes of peppers.(Try saying that three times fast.)

You might even say they’re selling like hot cakes!

A Regular Guest

On the podcast this week, we noted that it was the third time that Tom Coale had joined us on the show. It turns out that we miss counted. It was actually the fourth time in the three years that we’ve doing this show that Tom has sat down to chat with Paul and I.

We obviously like having Tom on the show.

The fun thing about Tom is that he enjoys talking about the HoCo loco politico scene as much as we do and he really knows his stuff.

The big loco politico news this week was the announcement that long serving ultra lib Liz Bobo will not be standing for reelection in 2014. Liz has been in elected office in HoCo since 1977, beginning on the county council, then as county executive and finally as a Delegate to the General Assembly since 1995.

Whether you agree with her politics or not, that’s a pretty impressive run.

The big question is who will take her place. Immediately after the announcement, Mary Kay Sigaty’s name was mentioned as the logical successor. Tom disagrees. Tom thinks that Mary Kay will hold on to her council seat through at least the first phase of the downtown Columbia redevelopment. She was the sponsor of the enabling legislation for the redevelopment, a role that put her at odds with her one time sponsor, Liz Bobo.

So who then?

The other names I’ve heard are Clarence Lam, Terri Hill, and even Joan Lancos.

We also spent time discussing the school board race, the redevelopment of Symphony Woods, the bicycle master plan, the Main Street MusicFest and more.

You can listen to the 73^rd episode of “and then there’s that…” here.