Carnival of Maryland -- 29th edition

Welcome to the biweekly Carnival of Maryland, which is a production of the Maryland Blogger Alliance, an eclectic group of Maryland bloggers. If you're interested in joining us, check our FAQs at that link.

We have a lot of interesting writing for you. I usually try to keep things pretty tightly grouped by topic, but I'm going to be a little looser this time, because I want to start out by featuring two of our newest members.

Our newest member, Donna Whicher, has scientific evidence (her own perusal of travel brochures) that proves the name of her blog -- Chestertown, the Quaintest Town in America. Or as she puts it, The Quaintness-O-Meter Results Are In!

J.C. Nemecek, of On the Red Line, tells us a story of life on the Metro's Red Line in A Metro Moment. Have you ever wondered what would happen if the conductor forgot to open the doors before the train went into the tunnel at Grosvenor on its way to heading back to Washington? Wonder no more. By the way, J.C., I used to spend a lot of time on the subways in New York, and you're probably right that the riders wouldn't have been as polite.

And now, on to our regular programming.....

Nature

We have some great photos for your viewing.

Swamp Thing, who writes River Mud Blog, has some photos of flowers in early spring at Early spring.

The Ridger, at The Greenbelt, who's our resident nature photographer, has two photographic entries for us: Here comes the sun and Some little birds. She writes, "Spring is the sun - spring is also the birds." True, that.

In the non-photo category, we have Audubon Arrivals, a post about book reviews in the current issue of Audubon magazine at Pines Above Snow.

Arts and Music

Clark has a post called Cab Calloway: Mini the Moocher at Clark's Picks. I confess I didn't realize this, but Cab Calloway was raised in Baltimore.

Charlie Dowd, of C. Dowd: Artist and Provocateur, has posted an Easter drawing, Happy Easter, which (if you check his comments section) has received quite a bit of attention.

Personal

On the subject of Easter, Stan Modjesky has a post called Easter Stew at blogger1947. It's a little bit of miscellany, but I was particularly interested in knowing that this is one of the earliest Easters in a long time. In the Jewish calendar, we have a leap month this year, so Easter and Passover are almost a full month apart, something that rarely happens.

Also on the same general subject, Mike Netherland has an unpleasant experience with his assistant pastor's Palm Sunday sermon. Take a look at Jeremiah Wright in Severna Park posted at Mike's Nether Land.

On a different subject, I got a submission from Anthony McCune, now living in Ohio Oregon, who once lived in Baltimore. He sent in an amusing story about getting an extension on his federal taxes during his Baltimore days: Resumania - Installment 1. Anthony, by the way, has another blog that features photos from people's windows. It's called What I See Out My Window, and he's asked that you send him your photos.

Humor

I don't know where else to put this, but anything having to do with fake testicles deserves a place in our Carnival. Click here for a tale from mad anthony, called Scenes from Relay For Life, nuts edition....

Sports

Did you realize that Brooks Robinson and Eddie Murray are selling wine for charity? I didn't, until I read Brooks and Eddie Immortalized On Wine Bottles over at Oriole Post - The World of Baseball and Beyond.

Public Policy

Jeff Quinton discusses whether there really is a war-related ammunition shortage for law enforcement in Baltimore County PD claims war-related ammo shortage at his blog Inside Charm City.

Matt Johnston, of Going to the Mat, writes about the need for scientific research on education to test whether what we're doing actually works. The post is called Debating the Achievement Gap.

Eliot Spitzer

If you've read this far, you're saying to yourself right now, "What????" What's the former governor of my former home state got to do with Maryland?

I don't know either, although one of our submissions takes a crack at it. But what really got me was this: We had three submissions about him this week, and in my own tour of the Alliance, I found two more.

Not to mention my own wisecrack about what kind of dog Eliot Spitzer would be if he were a dog. (My answer: "My guess is a beagle. The beagle is number 9 in the list of least intelligent breeds, and Spitzer was Client 9, although that's obviously a coincidence. What I'm thinking is that beagles are considered to have an 'independent and willful nature.' Which describes Spitzer quite well.")

We'll start with Bruce Robinson at GOPinionPlus, who makes a connection between Spitzer and our own Governor O'Malley: O’Malley and Spitzer: Comeback chances compared.

Bruce also posts about Spitzer's hypocrisy in A fair shake of the stick. On that point, it seems, we have some agreement across the political spectrum, from both Stephanie Dray (Eliot Spitzer: Disappointment of the Decade posted at Jousting for Justice) and David Gerstman (Irony and the nyt posted at Soccer Dad).

Kevin Dayhoff writes about the lessons of the Spitzer incident in New York Governor Eliot “Mr Clean” Spitzer redux, at Kevin Dayhoff - Soundtrack Division of Old Silent Movies. Kevin says, "Governor Spitzer mercifully resigned on March 12 and ended a sensational 48 hours of salacious melodrama of position, power, greed, and human failings. It has probably ended the career that was considered so bright that his name was being bantered about as a 2012 or 2016 presidential candidate. There are many lessons to be learned by this sad, sordid saga."

Politics

First, we have to highlight Cheryl Taragin's interview of Phil Noble (the internet politics guy, for people like me who didn't know) at The Spewker. Cheryl says about her post A Rogue Interview with Phil Noble, Politics Online, "Attending the 2008 Politics Online Conference in Washington, D.C., I managed to snag a rogue interview with one of the political newsmakers of our time."

Now, on the local side of politics, we have The Patriot Sharpshooter lamenting the Washington County Board of Education's budget of $226.9 million ($10,800 a child) in So what if they can't read, write or add?, which he posted at Common Sense.

Two of our Annapolis-based members respectfully disagree about whether a homeowner in the Historic District should be allowed to use fiberglass for porch columns, instead of wood. The yes argument is found in Historic Construction at Annapolis Politics, and the no argument is found in Here's a Real Column for You....First It Was Bags, Now It's Porches at Capital Punishment.

Moving to state politics, Kenny Burns, the force behind Maryland Politics Today, makes the argument for a legislative ban on hand-held cell phone use in And You Thought Common Sense Had Returned?

Michael Swartz of monoblogue reminds us in Does the phrase 'do without' ring a bell? that spending cuts should be considered instead of only tax increases.

Soccer Dad says that the General Assembly has way too much time on its hands, if it's getting involved in all sorts of matters it shouldn't be involved in.

Bruce Robinson is indignant about the way Governor O'Malley has handled the budget and pay raises. He offers Fame & Fortune through Immorality and Corruption at GOPinionPlus.

Chester Peake, at Maryland Chesapeake Blog, writes ICC to be held hostage by EnviroMENTALists?. "A global-warming hearing on the ICC. 'Let's see... thousands of cars idling on (and therefore polluting) existing roads in back-ups, or being swiftly sped on their way, when (once at their destinations in a more reasonable time-frame) they can be turned OFF, thus cutting their greenhouse emissions! Hmmmm... what if they found out that building the road would actually help the environment?'"

As for national politics, I couldn't find a Maryland angle on this, but I found it interesting, anyway, so I pulled this post from The Hedgehog Report, called Could Ralph Nader Hand Election to McCain?

So long until next time. The 30th edition is scheduled for Sunday, April 6, to be hosted at Creating A Jubilee County.

Send in your submissions by using the Blog Carnival form.