When the Spy announced its new weekly podcast with Messrs. Foxwell and Mitchell focusing on all things Annapolis, Agent 86 didn’t want to be left out.  He decided to focus his lens on the capital city to see what all the fuss was about.  His surveillance video is attached.

I found a photograph of my mom, my two middle children, and me at the peak of Diamond Head on Oahu. That hike is roughly one and a half miles round trip. There are any water bottles or snacks in sight. My eldest was taking the picture with my Kodak Instamatic camera. It was 1982.

My mom wore a flowing muumuu, carried her Louis Vuitton bag, and held a cigarette with her usual flair. I was wearing purple and white striped Dolphin running shorts and a matching purple Merona sweatshirt. We were both wearing leather strapped sandals.

In that moment, at the top of Diamond Head, we were the very definition of Hawaiian fashion—1980s style. My Mom fully embraced the muu muu, saying that it was the most comfortable dress she had ever worn. We had quickly made a stop at Liberty House (Honolulu’s premier department store) on the way from the airport to get my Mom “geared up”.

While living in Coronado, California, my aunt, my mom, and my grandmother came for a month-long visit. I was pregnant with my third child, and they had come to help.

Mom had impeccable taste in clothing, except when it came to her casual wear, particularly her shoes. She brought along a pair of white, beaded Minnetonka moccasins and some unfortunate-looking slide sandals, both purchased at K-Mart for less than ten dollars a pair.

My aunt and grandmother arrived at the San Diego airport impeccably dressed in Chanel suits and Ferragamo flats. At dinner that evening, the main topic of conversation became my mom’s questionable footwear.

Despite their teasing, my mom defended her shoes fiercely, insisting they were the most comfortable things she had ever worn. By the end of the meal, after trying them on, both my aunt and grandmother had decided they needed the exact same two pairs.

Our shopping expedition to K-Mart was a bust, so we headed to Saks Fifth Avenue in La Jolla, a family favorite. My grandmother had seen a Mouton coat at the Saks in New York City that she thought would be perfect for the chilly San Diego evenings.

As we wandered through the store, we passed the shoe department and there they were. Both the Minnetonka moccasins and the infamous slide sandals, proudly displayed… at a much higher price than what my mom had paid at K-Mart.

For the rest of the month, I walked around Southern California with three elegantly dressed older women, each wearing the same shoes. One of them, my mom, was especially smug. Her “comfy shoes” had turned out to be fashion-forward after all.

Kate Emery General is a retired chef/restaurant owner who was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. Kate loves her grandchildren, knitting, and watercolor painting. Kate and her husband, Matt are longtime residents of Cambridge’s West End where they enjoy swimming and bicycling. 

The Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland, recently had an amazing Bugatti: Reaching for Perfection Exhibition that ran from December 6, 2024, to April 13, 2025. This undated Bugatti Convertible photo was recently discovered in the Talbot Historical Society’s H. Robins Hollyday Collection. Can you help us identify these two men who were enjoying a breezy ride!

Contact: Cathy Hill [email protected] to share your old photos and purchase our collections photos. Comment, Like our page and join the Talbot Historical Society!

Wind chimes are a type of percussion instrument made from suspended tubes, rods, bells, or other objects crafted from metal or wood. Their origins trace back to 1100 BC, when an ancient Chinese emperor cast the first bells, known as Fenglings. At the time, only members of the royal family and honored dignitaries were permitted to enjoy the heavenly luxury of musical entertainment through chimes and bells. Even today, there’s a mystical quality to wind chimes—an unspoken magic in their ability to capture the wind, harness its energy, and transform it into something meaningful.

The morning I checked on my father-in-law and discovered that he had passed away peacefully in his sleep was both heartbreaking and strangely serene. My husband, Matt, was in the shower when I gave him the news. In the hour that followed, as we waited for the Hospice nurse and the funeral home to arrive, we quietly prayed and said our final goodbyes to John.

Feeling the need to step away from the heaviness of the house, we decided to spend the day at the beach, bringing our two dogs along for comfort and company. We had a quiet, delicious lunch at Blacksmith Restaurant with a bottle of wine to toast John. After dining alfresco, we then wandered through the charming streets of Berlin. Along the way, we stopped at an antique shop where we were drawn to a set of bamboo wind chimes displayed in the window.

As it turned out, the wind chimes were from Southeast Asia, fitting, as it was the same region John had flown missions into during the Vietnam War. Of course, we brought them home. They now hang in one of John’s favorite rooms: our kitchen. He used to love sitting at the island with a glass of wine, chatting with Matt while he cooked dinner.

The wind chimes, suspended at just the right level, ring softly many times a day. Each gentle sound brings us a comforting reminder of John—and of the quiet, sacred memory of his last day on this earth.

Considered sacred objects believed to attract kind spirits, wind chimes have maintained their enchanted status throughout history. They are often thought to ward off negative energy, purify the atmosphere, and enhance the flow of positivity within a space. With each gentle sound, wind chimes are said to offer protection, balance, and a sense of peace, bridging the seen and unseen in subtle, soothing ways.

With spring in full bloom, we often find ourselves opening windows to welcome the cool, refreshing air. The gentle tinkle of wind chimes dancing in the breeze is believed to invite positive energy into the home. For centuries, these enchanting sounds have soothed our spirits, dispersing negativity and creating a sense of calm—whether we’re relaxing on the porch or enjoying a quiet moment in the garden. I’ve always loved the peaceful melody of wind chimes outside my window; it’s a small, beautiful reminder to pause and breathe. Their calming presence and energetic benefits make them more than decor—they’re a comforting companion to the rhythm of everyday life.

The healing effects of wind chimes have been recognized for a long time. Their soothing background noise from the natural breeze can help relieve stress, anxiety, and mental tiredness. The harmonious sounds can aid breathing, quiet racing thoughts, and promote relaxation. The soothing sound waves of a wind chime are great for settling down at the end of the day or before bed.

Whether bamboo or wooden wind chimes, their sound vibration and the number of their rods have a purpose. According to wind chimes Feng shui, the five rod metal wind chimes are incredibly optimistic. This wind chime benefits the five elements of nature, earth, metal, fire, wood, and water. Such wind chimes help establish synchronization between people and the elements of nature, thereby suppressing all negative energies and bad luck. The sweeter the sound a wind chime produces, the more significant the good luck it brings to the inhabitants.

Wind chimes should be hung indoors where energy is stagnant, and therefore, needs an energy cleanse. Inside bedrooms, they should be placed near the windows from which a gentle breeze blows throughout the day, producing enchanting chiming sounds that usher in positivity and peace. Bamboo wind chimes are popular bedroom choices, their soothing effects help fight insomnia and stress.

Wind chimes are more than just an attractive piece of home decor. “Chi” in the word chime stands for positive energy as per Feng Shui. After seeing them in friends’ homes, I bought my first Capiz shell wind chime while living in Hawaii. With louvered windows and the trade winds blowing, the Capiz shells made such a magical sound. Many people believe that Capiz shells are symbols of good luck and prosperity. It is also thought that Capiz shells bring balance between the physical and spiritual worlds.

Tones have a healing effect on our bodies, calm our minds, and awaken our spirits. The resonance and vibration of sound releases stress and emotional blockages in the body. Sound connects us with our environment, nature is never silent. Sound stimulation can nurture behavioral changes and emotions. Positive sound can ease the feeling of loneliness and isolation. The gentle sound of wind chimes can greatly help to create positive energy. Wind chimes can correct negative, harsh, or dulling sounds in the environment such as the sound of traffic.

Wind chimes help enhance the mind/body/spirit connection bringing us a sense of peace and well being.

Kate Emery General is a retired chef/restaurant owner who was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. Kate loves her grandchildren, knitting, and watercolor painting. Kate and her husband, Matt are longtime residents of Cambridge’s West End where they enjoy swimming and bicycling. 

This is just a sample of the wisdom that author and canine therapy pioneer Meg Daley Olmert will be sharing in a conversation with Craig Fuller at the Avalon on April 30th at 6 pm.  In short, Meg makes the point that people should not take their dogs for granted if they truly want to get the full benefit of these special creatures.

Make a plan to hear more about her work on how dogs are changing the lives of not only your average dog owner, but also how canine therapy is having dramatic results in treating men and women suffering from PTSD. And for the first time at the Avalon, it will be welcoming dogs (the well-behaved kind) and their owners in the main theatre, where there will be room for everyone.

Tickets are $25, and they can be purchased here or by calling the Avalon at 410.822.7299. Proceeds of the event will support the Spy and Avalon with their public affairs programming. Meg will be selling and signing her book after the event.

This video is approximately one minute in length.

Last week, my students participated in activities and discussions about safety, at home, in school, and the community. From reviewing how to safely cross the street to understanding what to do in an emergency, the children gained valuable knowledge to help them stay safe and confident in various situations. This program is designed by the Talbot County Health Department and is an important and effective tool for helping children face serious situations.

This year, the program went a step farther than the usual “stranger danger” warnings. A new addition focused on internet safety, including the impact of online games, cellphones, and social media. Students learned about the importance of protecting personal information, recognizing unsafe online behavior, and knowing what to do if something makes them feel uncomfortable.

As part of the safety lesson, students were asked to raise their hands if they know a “trusted person’s” phone number. One child out of twenty six knew that important phone number. Forty years ago, memorizing important phone numbers was a rite of passage and a requirement for kindergarten readiness. I can still recite the phone number from my childhood home, it has stuck with me all these years.

By 1994, my two eldest children had began driving and my husband and I thought having a cell phone would be valuable. It was a Motorola “Brick” flip phone. Making phone calls was its only capability. The phone number that belonged to that original phone was transferred to subsequent phones until just recently and every family member had that number memorized.

There is something so comforting about the memory of landline phones. The familiar ring throughout the house, the long, coiled cord stretched around corners, and the way conversations felt more intentional. If you missed a call there wasn’t any caller ID, just a bit of mystery.

Back then, children were actually taught phone etiquette, as if answering a call was a sacred duty. The polite response went something like, “General residence, this is Jenny speaking,” delivered with all the formality of a receptionist at a law firm. The phone was strictly off-limits during dinner, heaven help the kid who dared to reach for it between bites of meatloaf. If the phone rang after 10:00 p.m., everyone froze. It could only mean one thing: an emergency. No one let it go to voicemail (which didn’t exist yet anyway), you always answered, heart pounding, prepared for anything.

It was an exciting day when our clunky old rotary phones were finally replaced with a sleek, futuristic push-button model. No more spinning that dial like we were cracking a safe just to call Grandma. No more misdialing on the last digit and having to start all over again. The push-button phone felt like something out of Star Trek, you just pressed the numbers and boom, connection! We strutted around like we were living in the space age. It was progress, one satisfying beep at a time.

Years later, we called it progress when we finally ditched our last landline phone. We convinced ourselves that we didn’t need it anymore now that we had a new family mobile plan. Everyone had their own cellphone and the old landline, the kitchen phone, once the heart of our household communication, was unceremoniously unplugged and tossed aside like a relic from another era.

According to CNN Business, In recent years, there’s been a quiet but growing trend of people returning to landline phones, drawn by their reliability and simplicity in a fast-paced digital world. As cell phones become increasingly cluttered with apps, notifications, and constant connectivity, many are seeking the calm and clarity of a dedicated phone line. Landlines offer a kind of peace—no updates, no distractions, just a steady dial tone and the joy of undisturbed conversation. For some, it’s a nostalgic return to the days when phone calls had a sense of presence and intention. For others, especially in rural areas or during emergencies, it’s about practicality, landlines still work when cell towers go down or power cuts out. Whether for nostalgia, security, or the desire to unplug, the humble landline is making a quiet comeback, especially in Gen Z homes who are drawn to landlines for their vintage aesthetic.

There is a certain love for a landline phone, a deep, unspoken affection for its steady presence, its familiar ring, and the way it connected us not just to voices, but to moments, memories, and the comforting rhythm of home.

Kate Emery General is a retired chef/restaurant owner who was born and raised in Casper, Wyoming. Kate loves her grandchildren, knitting, and watercolor painting. Kate and her husband, Matt are longtime residents of Cambridge’s West End where they enjoy swimming and bicycling. 

The large, orangish and red jellyfish floating around the surface of our creeks and rivers are another remnant of the cold winter quickly becoming a memory.

Lion’s Mane jellyfish typically inhabit colder waters of the North Atlantic but, drifting with currents associated with colder than usual temperatures, they can make it into the brackish waters of the Chesapeake.

According to articles posted by the Chesapeake Bay Program and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Lion’s Mane jellyfish are the largest jellyfish on the planet. A winter jellyfish, they can grow in the wide ocean of the North Atlantic as large as, and even larger, than blue whales.  The size of their crowns has been measured up to six feet wide with tentacles greater than 100 feet long.

They show up in the Chesapeake, when conditions are right, in the late winter and early spring though they’re much smaller here than out in the ocean. Their sting is characterized as moderately painful, but are rarely reported because few people swim in local waters before they warm.

According to local watermen lore, the coloration has to do with their own version of spawning, after which they die and float to the bottom.  There, the spent jellyfish are occasionally brought up on oyster tongs late in the wild harvest season, or like now, on the bottom-lying baits of trotlines just being deployed with the April start of the crabbing season.

Dennis Forney has been a publisher, journalist and columnist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972.  He writes from his home on Grace Creek in Bozman.

In 1979, a group of Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took fifty two Americans hostage. It happened at a time of major upheaval in Iran after the Shah was overthrown and the new Islamic government took over. The hostages were held for 444 days which was a major source of tension between two countries that were once close allies. Despite efforts by President Jimmy Carter, the hostages were finally released in January 1981, just as Ronald Reagan was being sworn in as President.

The 1979 hostage crisis left a profound mark on me; for the first time, I felt a deep, personal anxiety about the state of the world and began to grasp how global events could ripple into my everyday life.

My father, a World War ll Navy veteran, often remarked in discussions about global affairs that he believed that a Third World country would be the catalyst for World War lll. I was a very young Navy wife with three tiny children, living in Coronado, California whose husband was deployed to the Persian Gulf. The Iranian Revolution, the hostage situation, and the oil crisis required increased U.S. military presence. I carried the weight of everyday life alone, as part of the sisterhood of Naval Officers Wives, we were constantly hoping and praying for the safe return of the men and women aboard the ships of the Seventh Fleet.

The fluctuation of gas prices and availability became (and still are) my barometer for the broader condition of the world. It is a fact that political instability in regions rich in oil resources can lead to concern about the security of oil supplies, triggering price increases. I passed my driving test in 1972 in Wyoming, very aware of the impact of gas prices. Wyoming is a significant oil producing state, ranking as the eighth largest crude oil producer in the United States. Living in an oil boom state felt like being swept up in a wave of prosperity. There was a sense of motion-new jobs and a buzz of opportunity in the air. Gas was cheap, 36 cents per gallon and people felt optimistic about the future. The economy seemed to be thriving and there was a great sense of possibility. It was a time when abundance seemed endless, and the energy of growth touched nearly every part of daily life.

To manage shortages during the gas crisis of 1979, California Governor, Jerry Brown implemented an odd-even rationing plan. Drivers with odd numbered plates could only “fill up” on odd numbered days and even numbered plates on even numbered days. What had once been a quick routine task turned into a lengthy ordeal. Fear hung in the air as we waited in endless lines, uncertain if there would be enough fuel to get through the week, or even the day.

I was in charge of writing the USS Ranger’s Officer’s Wives monthly newsletter. I would get first hand, de-classified information from the Captain’s wife about the movements of the ship and its crew. Learning about the six American diplomats that escaped capture and took refuge in the homes of Canadian Embassy officers made me very grateful for our close neighbors to the North. I was grateful that Canada took a huge risk by hiding the Americans in their homes and then granting Canadian passports to the Americans. The six Americans, posing as a Hollywood movie production crew scouting for a suitable filming location in Tehran, managed to flee Iran without a hitch. While the “Canadian Caper” improved Canada’s relations with the United States, it significantly strained Canada-Iran relations. The Canadian embassy staff were quickly evacuated from Iran, and the embassy was closed in 1980, due to fears of Iranian retaliation.

If history has taught us anything, true friends show up in a time of crisis. They don’t hesitate. They step up because it’s the right thing to do. Canada has been that friend to the United States for decades. Canada was the first country to send disaster relief to the U.S. after Hurricane Katrina and Canadian water planes have flown to California to help put out the wildfires.

Lately, I find myself feeling anxious about the state of the world. It seems like everyday brings new challenges; political unrest, economic uncertainty, and environmental crises. The constant barrage of bad news makes it hard to see a clear path forward. It’s as if the world is teetering on the edge. I am an optimistic person so is my f.e.a.r. (false emotion appearing real) just that, false?

I’ll continue to focus on positive thoughts, avoid the news, read great books, garden, walk my dog, ride my bike along the Choptank River, and increase my daily dose of Ashwagandha.