Montgomery Community Media

I can hear them arrive in the deep quiet of predawn. Car doors closing. Occasional shouted greetings. Minutes later, the Storm Water Project construction crew brings in the noise, as earth movers, bulldozers, trucks and other thunderous vehicles move into place. The grinding, beeping, pinging and rumbling begins. Take a look and listen for yourself […]

Most pop-up museums are pretty straightforward. They are short-term institutions in temporary spaces. The Smithsonian Asian-Latino Festival 2013 held its final event, a pop-up museum called  “Intersections As American Life,” at the literal intersection of Fenton Street and Ellsworth Drive in downtown Silver Spring. My neighbor Fran Rothstein invited me to pop in with her […]

Ever fallen in love with a tree? Maybe it was the one offering the gracious shade you played under as a child, the strong, sheltering branches you climbed in to hide, or the sweetly forbidden fruit you strained to reach.  You may have carved your initials in a tree or two as a young adult, […]

We’ve all been called crazy, done crazy things or had them done to us. Some of us have even felt crazy. Consider this: Given how we use it, does the word “crazy” accurately describe the off-your-meds, maybe undiagnosed, separated-from-reality, violent and destructive mindset of someone who uses a gun to kill children? Or teens? Or […]

A man steadies the cage and gently guides it away from the chimney top. I catch my breath and pause in the driveway, stopped by the drama unfolding on my neighbor’s roof. Inside the cage is a raccoon as big as my kitchen stove. Forgive the kitchen reference. Seeing the caged animal took me back […]

Put a lot of food on a small plate and it’s supposed to look like more. To me, small plates with big food look like just what they are: Not enough. I had seven more pounds to go before reaching my Weight Watcher’s goal the last time I reported in to you. The road has […]

Gutters cleaned, leaves blown, grass cut, appliances repaired, the exterior and most rooms painted. In the 15 years I’ve lived in this house, I’ve maintained it. Still, from the outside, the house was looking drab.  That is, when you could see it. Until recently, mine was a house hidden on a hill gone wild. The […]

Short ones. Tall ones. Big ones. Small ones. There are a lot of dogs in my neighborhood. If you live in America, you probably have a canine or two as neighbors too.   We Americans share our homes with more than 78 million dogs, according to the American Pet Products Association 2011-2012 National Pet Owners […]

Nickels and dimes never bought enough time.  So, until recently, my friends and I lugged  heavy rolls of quarters, or dove deep into pockets, purses, ashtrays and into the crevices of car seats, hoping to find them — at least until the dawn of the Pay-By-Cell parking meter. At first glance, most of the Pay-By-Cell […]

After a lifetime of being ‘the big girl’ in the room, I’m closing in on a weight-loss goal I never thought I’d see. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes more than 30 percent of all Americans adults as obese. Who’d have thought it possible that I’d weigh less at age 60 than I […]