How I met one of the most interesting of men

Back in my early days of blogging, I aimed to have a local blog; hence, the url my blog still has today: hometown-columbia.com. In those early days, I wrote much of local issues as I saw and framed them, and many people — those I knew and those I didn’t — commented and engaged in [...]

Dude chooses civility

Reporting live from the East Branch Library in The Hoco … At a desk, working, was I, when I started to hear bits and pieces of a cel phone conversation. The emotional content of the convo was heating up. The talker was walking down aisles of books near me, pacing as the conversation was getting [...]

How to publish Zynga / Farmville games selectively and ONLY to others playing the same games

If you play Zynga games, such as Farmville, Cafeworld, Mafia Wars, and so, you know the games are social and gifting is part of the game. If you don’t play the games, you probably think that those playing the games are a nutcase. With the insight and vision from @quepol and the I’m-sure-I-can-figure-it-out technical capacity [...]

The Choose Insanity Bug

From my coworker at my j-o-b. Check out his Choose Insanity site.

Choose Insanity.

Choose Insanity in Howard County. Yes, this is the bumper sticker I just saw on a coworker’s desk. Charming. Photo submissions welcome. I work with the originator of the bumper stickers. What else do we have? Embrace Hostility. Choose Senility. Others?

It’s Miss Jessie, please

This past week, at a number of holiday parties with both adults and kids, I was reminded of how irksome I find it when parents introduce me to their children as “Jessie.” Yo. I’m “Miss Jessie” to your child. Period. Parents, it’s not your prerogative. Assume a preference for a higher level of formality, after [...]

Embrace Hostility

There’s a new* blog in town. It’s called Embrace Hostility in Howard County, and you can find it here. Quite a few local bloggers, have written with some inquisition and exploration into the county’s Choose Civility initiative. If nothing else, the initiative brings up the subject. Know what I mean? Having a “Choose Civility in [...]

Stealing Civility

Mike of “Do I Amuse You” has a great post on choosing civility.  Or stealing civility, in his particular case. If you’ve yet to discover his blog, I recommend it for some cynical, humorous and always-logical perspective on Life and Such. Thanks to all the bloggers (and blog readers) who came out to the Hoco [...]

Choose Senility

Is it a lone prankster? A disgruntled group of grumps? A Freedom Movement, here in our li’l patch of historically preserved suburbs? I’m talking here of the micro-vandalism witnessed on my mother’s car. Well, to be more accurate, the vandalism perpetrated on her magnetic Choose Civility bumper sticker, which happens to be on her car. [...]

The fag bomb.

Edgy video. Great message. Thanks @csuspect.

Choose common sense.

I live in a community engaged in a relatively new initiative called Choose Civility. While the newspapers report on the actual county program and activities in and around this initiative, I prefer the tone of blog posts about civility. Here’s one of my favorite bloggers, writing his take on Choosing Civility. Now, his ideas are [...]

Choose Civility on the Kojo Nnamdi Show

Valerie Gross, Hoco Library’s executive director, was one of two guests on today’s Kojo Nnamdi Show. The topic? None other than the Choose Civility initiative. A couple of my blog posts about Choose Civility – What to do when people are rude and Bring back the nod – were mentioned by Ms. Gross. Listen here [...]

Be nice, or what?

Wall Street Journal writer Barry Newman covers Choose Civility in Howard County … and then some. You’ll probably recognize a few bloggers in the article.

Looking back on Choose Civility

I was talking with a friend a couple days ago about the Choose Civility in Howard County initiative. And about my various and sundry blog posts about my experience with the topic. I decided to take a look at what I’ve blogged and tagged as “Choose Civility” in the past year. Here is the result [...]

What to do when people are rude.

I probably should have used Title Case capitalization in that headline, as it is part of a book title. What book? It’s Dr. PM Forni’s, of Choosing Civility fame, second book, and it’s called The Civility Solution: What to Do When People Are Rude. Anyhoo. I saw this book title today and told my friend [...]

Cosmic Justice

I host a lot of parties. Always have. And, of late, I’ve become quite an advocate of The RSVP. You know, répondez s’il vous plaît? Or, in American ) “You comin’? Let me know so I know how much food and drink, props, etc. to get.“ Well, for all my pushing, pulling, advocating and preaching, [...]

F@#%ing Bitch

Yep, that’s what I was just called. But, it’s a great story with a wonderful result. See, I was in between appointments and zipped over to Central Library to do some work. At one of the six-up computer tables, six of us were working quietly. Then one gentleman got a cel phone call, which he [...]

Be hospitable

If you’ve ever endured watching even 15 minutes of TV with me, you’d know that I watch TV just as much for the commercials, trend-spotting and cultural insights as for the programming. And I’m vocal about what I see. It was with just this lens that I watched The Hilton Family’s latest “Be hospitable” commercial. [...]

Thanks for the civility … and the whiskey

I was quoted and photographed for a story that ran November 1st in The Sun; it was titled Thanks for the Civility. It addressed, as you may have surmised, the Choose Civilityin Howard County initiative, among other subjects. Thanks to Wordbones for bringing me a print copy so that I could see the pic. (I [...]

Electronic Bumper Stickers

Do you find yourself supporting the “Choose Civility in Howard County” initiative, but you’re not a fan of bumper stickers? Even when the “sticker” is actually a magnet? Well, there is a modern-day alternative for you: Join the “Choose Civility in Howard County” Facebook group. Here you’ll find links to local blog posts about “choosing [...]