Commentary

Allow me to make 20 extremely random suggestions: 1. If you catch the aroma of Blacksauce Kitchen at a Baltimore farmers market, get in line and order the breakfast sandwich, specifically the biscuit with short ribs, egg and shallot jam. 2. In Baltimore County, take the trail along the Gunpowder River up to Prettyboy Reservoir, where you can feel the cool mist of the bottom-water release from the dam.

Last month in Denver, an estimated 10,000 scientists, clinicians, CEOs and entrepreneurs convened for the Psychedelic Science 2023 conference — the most visible symbol yet of the “psychedelic renaissance.” Scientific research is demonstrating the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) to treat a range of mental health conditions, including addiction, major depressive disorder, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

A debate has arisen over the use of project labor agreements (PLAs) on the construction of six new schools in Prince George’s County. But PLAs, which require union construction crews, are not the solution for Prince George’s County. PLAs are government mandates that exist exclusively as a method for public officials to steer tax dollars to organized labor.

Duke Ellington arrived at The Famous Ballroom in Baltimore on a Sunday afternoon in the spring of 1972 in a limousine with Babs Gonzales, one of the vocalists for his band. The rest of the musicians, traveling by bus, had not yet arrived for their performance hosted by the Left Bank Jazz Society, recalled John Fowler, a founding member of the organization.

I write about my own life a lot. I just never wanted to be this particular story. I had just sent a Zoom invitation to Rolanda D. Chambers of Owings Mills’ Golden Voyage Travel on Thursday for an interview about how changes in weather have made booking trips so uncertain in the last year. As I was double-checking the email, I got an alert from Amtrak informing me that my long-anticipated train ride on the Adirondack line from New York to Montreal, which my son and I had been learning French for, was canceled.

The word “promise” has many definitions. One indicates commitment, a “promise” to follow a course of action. Another anticipates excellence, something that shows great “promise.” When our city, county, community, state and federal partners gathered to announce the relaunch of the Baltimore Red Line, we celebrated both meanings of that word. The Red Line is a promise to connect East Baltimore to West Baltimore — and beyond — through affordable public transit, and it’s a promise to unleash the full potential of the residents of the city and the county.

“The Tempest” begins with a storm. That’s all Shakespeare provides, just a few stage directions: “Enter Mariners wet.” And some yelling. For Sally Boyett and her team at the Classic Theatre of Maryland, that is enough. “We’ve got an elaborate soundscape that has dialogue and sound effects in it,” she said. “We’ve got lightning effects, a lot of emotion and flash, color and moving lights. We’ve got atmospherics, which is haze and ground fog.”

During the past year, bank failures have been headline news. But largely unnoticed is an epidemic of personal check fraud. I know because a PNC Bank check of mine for thousands of dollars payable to the Internal Revenue Service was stolen, washed with a common chemical (like nail polish remover), made payable to somebody else in the same amount and cashed. Thus, my new skill set: how a check gets washed and how to prevent it.