COVID Is Not “Just a Cold”

Posted on January 5, 2022January 6, 2022 by Jenny

You’ve probably noticed that I didn’t write as frequently in 2021. While I’m still active on Twitter, blog posts take more time and energy for researching, gathering data and links, and crafting the right words (and just the right amount of snark). For nearly a year, though, my energy has been sapped - by long COVID. My husband and I, who have worked in-person for the duration of the pandemic, became ill with COVID in late February 2021. We had different sets of symptoms, but thankfully, it ...

Let’s Keep Our Eye On the Ball

Posted on September 26, 2021September 26, 2021 by Jenny

Yesterday, my heart felt warm and fuzzy as I read a post in a local Howard County Facebook group thanking the Hammond High School marching band for supporting the Wilde Lake High School marching band at the football game at the Lake this past Friday night. The HaHS band members cheered in support and joined the WLHS band in the stands to enjoy the game together. It was a classy and wonderful display of sportsmanship and support for a fellow HoCo school. Thank you, Hammond, for demonstrating kin...

Power Plays and Penalty Kills

Posted on February 7, 2021February 7, 2021 by Jenny

Everyone in my household plays ice hockey, except me. I spend a good bit of time cheering on the menfolk with frozen toes and chattering teeth, and I enjoy it. In my relatively short career as a hockey mom, I've come to find that there's a lot about American youth sports that annoys me. It hasn't always been clear exactly what it is about it that irks me so much, but I realized recently that some of the same inequities and constructs I dislike about American K-12 education exist in youth s...

Again: Do You See It?

Posted on January 11, 2021January 10, 2021 by Jenny

This is a follow-up to yesterday's post about the parallels between the national and local political climates. In one of the penultimate scenes from Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker tells Obi-Wan Kenobi, "If you're not with me, then you're my enemy." Obi-Wan replies, "Only a Sith deals in absolutes." Without getting into a philosophical debate about the fact that Obi-Wan's statement is itself an absolute, the takeaway from this exchange is that Obi-Wan recog...

Do You See It?

Posted on January 9, 2021January 9, 2021 by Jenny

There's been some wild stuff going on lately, amirite? We've seen lawsuits filed to suppress legally cast votes. We've seen accusations of voter fraud. We've seen vandalism and property damage. We've seen people using intimidation tactics against policymakers. We've seen people throwing around words like "enemy" to label people with political differences. No, I'm not talking about the insurrection by Trump supporters at the Capitol on Wednesday. I'm talking about Howard County. Tw...