In 1906, The Frederick News printed a whimsical explanation for the ‘bakers dozen.’ A Dutch baker in the 1600’s bickered with an “ugly hag” over whether a dozen was twelve or thirteen, stingily sending the woman away with only twelve New Year’s cakes. His shop became cursed until the baker conceded that a dozen was…
“Every year in the 50s, my mother, my grandmother and I went downtown to do our Christmas shopping,” A. Zoland Leishear fondly recalled in the Baltimore Sun in 1989. The store had been closed all of two months and the nostalgia was stirred. Leishear recalled a picturesque scene of streetcar wire sparks lighting up the…
This is another entry laden with tedious detective work, my unrestrained fanaticism ruining any possibility of ever attracting repeat readers. I’ll try to keep it brief. According to “The American Magazine and Historical Chronicle“, 1987, “famed Baltimore hostess, Mrs. B.C. Howard, compiled the earliest charity cookbook published in Maryland, Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen’(Baltimore,…
“Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. –It is not fair. He has Fame and Profit enough as a Poet, and should notbe taking the bread out of other people’s mouths.– I do not like him,and do not mean to like Waverley if I can help it – but fear I…
photo: Jody Scofield “One of the pre-Revolutionary architectural treasures of St. Mary’s County, Maryland, is Sotterley, built in 1730. George Plater built the home, and upon his death passed it to his son, who later became the governor of Maryland. The grandson of the Governor eventually lost the estate at the gaming table to a…