Features

    Under the Dome

    Under the Dome

    When we moved into to an old post office next door to St. Michael Ukrain­ian Ortho­dox Church on East­ern Avenue, the church build­ing was only a con­crete slab and a steel skele­ton.
    My old­est son, a baby at the time, slept soundly through the con­struc­tion noise out­side his bed­room win­dow. We watched the build­ing grow over […]

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    The Death of Philip Berrigan: The Lost Chapter

    The Death of Philip Berrigan: The Lost Chapter

    I die with the con­vic­tion, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the Earth; to mine for them, man­u­fac­ture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human fam­ily, and the Earth itself …” — Philip Berri­gan, 2002.
    It took me five years to write A People’s His­tory of […]

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    Encountering the Poe Toaster

    Encountering the Poe Toaster

    Early in the pre-dawn morn­ing of Jan­u­ary 19, 2009, my son, Phillip, and I saw the Poe Toaster, the per­son who leaves cognac and three roses at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe.
    Not only saw him, but we talked with him. And had our pic­ture taken with him.
    But we didn’t know it at the time. Only […]

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    The Sweet Life of Duff Goldman

    The Sweet Life of Duff Goldman

    As view­ers of Food Net­works’ Ace of Cakes know, pro­duc­ing the con­fec­tions of Charm City Cakes is likely to involve power tools and a blow torch. Detroit native Jef­frey Adam “Duff” Gold­man, 35, who grad­u­ated from Uni­ver­sity of Mary­land Bal­ti­more County and the Culi­nary Insti­tute of Amer­ica, leads a cre­ative group mak­ing cakes that strain […]

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    The Gwynns Falls Trail

    The Gwynns Falls Trail

    Although I’ve been aware of the Gwynns Falls Trail for some time, only recently have I begun explor­ing its con­tours in earnest. Trav­el­ing its 15-mile length is rewarded by a tour through Baltimore’s hid­den nat­ural resources and the cra­dle of the city’s indus­trial ori­gins.
    From the trail­head in his­toric Franklin­town, on the city’s west side, the […]

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    A Lot to be Desired

    A Lot to be Desired

    Before you judge me, consider:

    I’m not break­ing any law
    I’m pro­vid­ing a ser­vice to peo­ple in need
    It’s green
    Frankly, we could use the money

    When I read about the Glen Burnie fam­ily that stored their 83-year-old grandmother’s dead body in a freezer, my first response was shock. And then neces­sity met opportunity.

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    Flying Fish

    Flying Fish

    Crav­ing a taste of Bal­ti­more but con­founded by the cruel fate of geog­ra­phy? Thanks to the mir­a­cle of overnight ship­ping, your taste buds could be in for a treat.

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Crabtown Observed
Eats
Ralphie on the Road
Wojo's World

Crabtown Observed #6 Crabtown Observed #6

Footlong Franks Goes Too Soon: The poetic stuntman David “Footlong” Franks was found dead in his Fells Point apartment the second ...

Ralphie Regrets the Error, Leaves Los Angeles Ralphie Regrets the Error, Leaves Los Angeles

Bless me father for I have sinned: I am an unreliable narrator. Last week’s debut column about crisscrossing the United States ...

Ralphie on the Road Ralphie on the Road

Editor’s Note: In 2008, while scrambling between Baltimore and Los Angeles for work with stops in Tennessee for pleasure and the ...

The Death of Philip Berrigan: The Lost Chapter The Death of Philip Berrigan: The Lost Chapter

"I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the Earth; to ...

Crabtown Observed #5 Crabtown Observed #5

November 20, 2009 / 8:25 p.m. to 11:47 p.m. 1st Mariner Arena / Baltimore & Howard Streets I prefer to call it ...

The Dizz The Dizz

The Dizz, located at 300 W. 30th Street, has been named Baltimore’s best neighborhood bar by the City Paper. For ...

Crabtown Observed #4 Crabtown Observed #4

Hard times in the city, in a hard town by the sea Ain't nowhere to run to, there ain't nothin' here ...

Stranger in a Minivan, Come on Down! Stranger in a Minivan, Come on Down!

I love our home. Being located at the end of an extended driveway gives us a lot of privacy. It’s ...

Places

The Evolution of the Inner Harbor The Evolution of the Inner Harbor

Inspired by an impres­sive col­lec­tion of post­cards and images at kilduffs.org, I decided to begin another project that’s been on my mind a while — cre­at­ing a visual his­tory of the Inner Har­bor.
As an adopted Bal­ti­morean, like many peo­ple the Inner Har­bor was one of my first intro­duc­tions to the city. In my mem­ory, the […]

Three Creepy Places to Visit Three Creepy Places to Visit

Get into the spirit of Hal­loween by vis­it­ing places that appeal to the mor­bidly curi­ous. We know where you can walk through a spooky cat­a­combs, view minia­ture mod­els of death scenes, and see an actual human corpse as you learn about body-snatching.

Quirks

Happy New Year Woo Happy New Year Woo

New Year’s Eve of ’01–02 was the first spent with the woman who is now my wife. We went to Fed­eral Hill to watch the fire­works.
It was bit­ter cold. We hud­dled together for warmth. A bot­tle of cham­pagne was tucked inside my jacket.
We kissed at mid­night. The fire­works, as usual, were spec­tac­u­lar.
A lone voice is […]

Encountering the Poe Toaster Encountering the Poe Toaster

Early in the pre-dawn morn­ing of Jan­u­ary 19, 2009, my son, Phillip, and I saw the Poe Toaster, the per­son who leaves cognac and three roses at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe.
Not only saw him, but we talked with him. And had our pic­ture taken with him.
But we didn’t know it at the time. Only […]

Neighborhoods

Under the Dome Under the Dome

When we moved into to an old post office next door to St. Michael Ukrain­ian Ortho­dox Church on East­ern Avenue, the church build­ing was only a con­crete slab and a steel skele­ton.
My old­est son, a baby at the time, slept soundly through the con­struc­tion noise out­side his bed­room win­dow. We watched the build­ing grow over […]

Running for Your Life Running for Your Life

The Bal­ti­more Sun thought­fully pro­vided a help­ful map to show where par­tic­i­pants in today’s Bal­ti­more Marathon are most likely to be robbed or shot. Click for a full-size image.
 

History

The Evolution of the Inner Harbor The Evolution of the Inner Harbor

Inspired by an impres­sive col­lec­tion of post­cards and images at kilduffs.org, I decided to begin another project that’s been on my mind a while — cre­at­ing a visual his­tory of the Inner Har­bor.
As an adopted Bal­ti­morean, like many peo­ple the Inner Har­bor was one of my first intro­duc­tions to the city. In my mem­ory, the […]

Encountering the Poe Toaster Encountering the Poe Toaster

Early in the pre-dawn morn­ing of Jan­u­ary 19, 2009, my son, Phillip, and I saw the Poe Toaster, the per­son who leaves cognac and three roses at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe.
Not only saw him, but we talked with him. And had our pic­ture taken with him.
But we didn’t know it at the time. Only […]