Aunt Agatha on Politics: It was a windless, rainless, sunny day, and, poof - out went the power Auntie
It was a lovely sunny Saturday. No wind. No rain. No power!
BGE had struck again, turning off the juice to more than 1,100 Bowie homes after a transformer (probably decades old) popped. Shocking. The temperature was way up there and the air conditioning wasn't doing its thing. Great fun.
Auntie observes that the outage wasn't due to a miscreant tree branch, but rather to BGE's antiquated infrastructure here in Bowieville. Oh, goodness, will it ever end?
At the moment, BGE is denuding the city of trees, though in many cases the tree "trimmers" just tear off branches and leave trees behind that look like giant matchsticks gone wild. Residents are far from amused, according to reports from just about every city official that exists.
Auntie has been paying attention to the deforestation effort. Large crews arrive on the scene, one guy goes up a tree and saws off a branch, another drags the branch to the street while four or so workers stand around and chew the fat. And when they leave a neighborhood, homeowners' eyebrows rise to the sky after they see the mess too often left behind. City Hall then gets nonstop phone calls of complaint.
If you'd like to hear a candid discussion of what some - well, many - term a farce, tune into BCMC on Comcast Channel 77 or Verizon Channel 11 tonight at 7 (and each night other than Sunday through next week) as City Councilwoman Diane Polangin and the former esteemed editor of this paper discuss Bowie's monopoly supplier of electricity.
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Auntie congratulates the new president of the Greater Bowie Chamber of Commerce, PNC's Cathy "Bowie's Banker" Woods, on her replacing the Blade-News' own Toni "Chuckles" Adams as head of the group. Toni's sense of humor will be missed at all those chamber chicken dinners. It kept attendees awake.
Auntie was surprised to note that not one of our nearly invisible state delegates attended the annual gathering of Bowie's business population. Sen. Doug Peters, however, was there, for a while, as were Mayor Gee Fred and City Council members Diane Polangin, Dennis Brady and Todd Turner. They always are.
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The male offspring of the Greatest Living Bowieite, former state Senator For Life Leo The Elder Green, are doing great athletic things these days, Auntie is told.
The GLB himself is still playing sweat-inducing softball, even though the old boy is in his late 70s. Judge Leo the Younger (but getting older) is actually bicycling 15 miles from Bowie to his judicial duties in wild and woolly Hyattsville. Navy SEAL Colin is doing SEAL things, and son Gary is competing in triathlons.
Auntie tires just thinking about it all. What about the Green women? A family source told Auntie they are too intelligent to be involved in such activities.
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South Bowieite Norman Hendrickson, who once graced the Readers' views section with glowing accolades for President Dubya and the Republicans and then appeared to have gone underground, wrote an informative letter to the editor last week about the folkways of foxes, which seem far more visible these days in greater Bowieville.
Auntie thinks letter writer Norman is more convincing when he pens missives about foxes rather than elephants.
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Auntie is pleased to know that all of Bowie's municipal problems will soon be solved. Our beloved city fathers and mothers are supposedly being educated in Ocean City this week during a series of panel discussions designed to bring them up to speed on the woes of local government. Heaven knows some of them could use the lessons.
Cynics might say that the Maryland Municipal League's annual gabfest by the seaside is long on sun, sea, sand and cocktail parties and very short on substance. Auntie doesn't believe that for a minute, of course. Cough.
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City Councilwoman Diane Polangin passed along this comment from a constituent:
"A couple of evenings ago I had an unpleasant encounter with a door-to-door person who was very slick and well-trained. He used a classic hard-sell approach - he wanted to give me something for free so he can sell to my neighbors. It ended with him getting irate at my stupidity for not saying yes. Never mentioned cost or even specifically what it actually was that he was selling. I have seen this routine before, including the irate ending - roofer guys last year. To me, this verges on a con job. We have many seniors who might get taken by this. It preys on people's goodwill."
The councilwoman's response is right on the mark: "Please do not answer the door if you are home alone. As a matter of fact, even if you are not alone; you do not have to answer your door to anyone you do not know. Better safe than sorry. I am sure since the weather is warm there will be many people going door to door trying to sell magazines, siding, windows, etc. They will stop knocking after a minute or so." Quite, right.
Auntie gave up answering the door ages ago. It's much easier than trying to deal with some pushy person trying to sell you something you don't want or eager to discuss the state of your soul.
Councilwoman Geraldine tells Auntie that a constituent dropped off an e-mail she received from the "FBI Anti-Terrorist Crime Division" that states the constituent can withdraw funds from a "Contract/Inheritance Payment" as long as she contacts the "ATM CARD CENTER" and activates her card.
And the approval slip will only cost $300 to be paid directly to the center via "Western Money Transfer or MoneyGram." Right, sure.
Another constituent detailed phone calls he received claiming that his cell phone account had been placed in collection, and the caller actually gave a court case number (it was bogus). All the constituent had to do was give his credit card information to pay the company to resolve the issue.
Obviously, scamming is alive and well in Bowie, so residents had better continue to beware and not believe that Bowieville is exempt from it.
Scary, eh?
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Way to go, ladies! One of the country's largest women's lacrosse events is coming to Bowie next month. All Star Express 2008 will be moved from the Eastern Shore to Bowie and Davidsonville. Over 5,000 players will rotate between the Davidsonville and Bowie lacrosse fields on Mitchellville Road. The organizers have confirmed that on the West Coast many towns try very hard to recruit the tournament. This will bring thousands of people to Bowieville. The parking will be at Blacksox Field, with buses running to and fro.
Bowie should be proud that the organizers find our location suitable. Auntie, a lacrosse fan, certainly is.
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At a recent Public Safety Committee meeting it was noted that many moons ago there were bumper stickers with the slogan "Keep a child alive, drive the Bowie 25" popping up on cars. Although a slogan may help, the city needs to figure out an approach that works rather than a piecemeal attempt at speed bumps to keep drivers obeying the speed limits.
Auntie is appalled to see how fast people, and police officers, are driving on city streets, even in school zones. This is becoming a major problem. Do something, city officials, and now!
