By Meg Mullery Coping with the Care of a Deceased Pet The call came from a panicked husband on business travel. His distraught wife and four young kids discovered the beloved family dog deceased on the kitchen floor. The husband called the vet for help and was guided to In Memoriam Pet Services. In less than 2 hours, the grieving family was receiving comfort and counsel from an employee of In Memoriam Pet Services. He stayed with the family to ensure they were coping with the situation and then lovingly removed the pet from the home. The cremated remains were returned two days later in a beautiful urn with a paw print imbedded in clay. Meet Larry Brissing, the founder of In Memoriam Pet Services. A typical workday for Larry and his six employees puts them in the roles of grief counsellor, emergency responder, funeral director, parish priest, and bartender at the neighborhood pub. Growing up in the beautiful Hudson Valley area of New York state in a family of pet and nature lovers, he gravitated to wildlife management and environmental services studies. After working in these areas for almost a decade, he discovered the insurance restoration industry. Larry was the “go to” guy when major catastrophes like a fire destroyed the family home and, with it, the fabric of the family. Larry’s empathetic nature, coupled with a quiet efficiency and can-do attitude, helped families rebuild their lives and reweave the family unit. Larry’s decision to move to scenic Virginia was fortuitous. He met his wife and then kids arrived on the scene. Following the death of the family dog, Larry became aware of the dearth of appropriate facilities and complementary services that would ease the process of losing what people regard as a best friend and member of the…
By F. Lennox Campello Artmosphere I’m one of those dwindling number of people who had a significant existence before Al Gore invented the Internet; was right there at the inception of it; bought Amazon at $5 a share (technically my wife did – I bought Commodore); and have developed right along the spectacular “spread” of cyberspace as a way to reach places where the written word had never reached before. And in spite of all that, I am always surprised by things and facts that people pick up on, discover, and reflect back to me when appropriate. Last month I wrote about “Queer Glass” and in that piece had one of the DMV’s best-known artists, and perhaps the leading and earliest artist associated with this “new” term (new to me at least), Tim Tate, guest-write a piece which he had earlier authored for the Washington Glass School. After that piece, I received a few emails, including one from a museum curator, pointing me to other artists who are also doing what is now being called “Queer Glass.” I also got an interesting email from a local writer, who often writes about art for a well-known online publication. He pointed me to an interesting event which had developed a while back in Wikipedia. Apparently, right in the middle of Pride month, some editors at that Internet site decided that the term was not a “real” art term and deleted the article from the online site. I do not know Wikipedia that well, and or how “articles” or facts are vetted, and thus I do not have an informed opinion why “Queer Glass” was deleted as an art term, but it doesn’t leave a good optic… especially during Pride month. Enough said about that. But it got me to think about how…
By Michael McLeod TOM WILSON, MASTER SHEPHERD Tom Wilson raises Katahdin sheep near Gordonsville, Virginia. Home is an antebellum plantation house built in 1857 surrounded by 1200-acres of lush pastures, ponds, barns, and kennels. Wilson is a third-generation shepherd who was born to an already large family on the Scottish border with England. Known as Border Country, the area is the birth place of the top herding dog breed in the world, the Border Collie. Tom has been a shepherd since he was old enough to toddle to the pasture; he’s never had a different job. When experienced people do something well most want to know just how good they are. For shepherds and their dogs that means sheepdog trials. Tom won his first sheepdog competition when he was 20, but says it was a long dry spell before he won again. By the time he was 30, he had superb “stock-sense,” meaning that he could sense what the sheep were going to do before they did it. That skill let him command his dog, often hundreds of yards away, to correct the sheep’s path. He was one of the best sheepdog trainers and handlers in the British Isles, and was often in the winner’s circle at ISDS herding trials (see side bar). In 1983, Tom was invited to the United States to put on a herding clinic in White Post, VA. It wasn’t his first trip here but must have been his most important: it was at that event that he met his future wife, Florence Robinson, a clinic participant. When asked if it was love-at-first-sight, Wilson quipped, “It was for her. She showed up at a couple more US clinics then she came over to visit a couple of times. After that, I moved to Virginia.” Was that…
By Charles Oppman In Search of the Perfect French Fry! Who doesn’t a love a big pile of hot, crispy French fries? I’m not talking about the kind served at fast food joints — although some do serve up fabulous fries — or mom and pop restaurants where the chef either doesn’t know how to properly cook French fries or can’t be bothered to get it right. Great fries aren’t just a matter of slicing potatoes and drowning them in a bath of hot fat for a few minutes. Perfect fries begin with the perfect potato followed up by an essential two-step cooking process. Deep-fry French fries one time and you’ll wind up with a heap of limp, pallid potato sticks, but not proper French fries. The potato is a member of the nightshade family (solanaceae) — which includes egg plant, tomatillos, tomatoes and chayote — and its leaves and flowers are poisonous if eaten in sufficient quantities. Some plants have great medicinal value, especially for arthritis, some are quite poisonous. These health hazards were at least marginally understood in Europe so when the tubers were brought to the Old World they would be used primarily to feed the underprivileged. Their nutritional value was not appreciated. Eventually Europeans embraced the potato and it became widespread as a food source. There seems to be some dispute as to where fries originated. The Belgians lay claim to being the first while the French take credit for inventing these crispy batons of delight. But then, it wouldn’t be the first time in the history of gastronomy the French have taken credit where they oughtn’t to have. For example, take the croissant, but wait, I’m getting off track. That’s another story. Wherever the truth lies, we Americans are quite certain Thomas Jefferson introduced the…
August 2019 Chesapeake and Gucci, Adult, Male Brown Guinea Pigs Summer and the beach, peanut butter and jelly, whatever your favorite pairs are, add Chesapeake and Gucci to the list! These two Guinea Pigs are ready and wheeking to meet their future family, and they can’t wait to show you. Gucci is the self-described goofball who can always be found deep within a fort of hay. Chesapeake is the outgoing half of the team, always hurrying to the front of their enclosure to make new friends, and their next friend might just be you! Adoption profile: https://alexandriaanimals.org/animal-profile/?id=37873 Adoption information: https://alexandriaanimals.org/adoption-information/ Photo thanks to Alison Lane Photography Soxie, Adult, Spayed Female, Black and White (Tuxedo) Domestic Shorthair Miss Soxie is a purrfect mix of sweet and spunky. Ready to play? So is Soxie! She loves her ribbon toys and can’t wait to show off her best pounce. Nap time? Soxie loves to nap, especially in a bed near her favorite people. She’s a balance of black and white and adorable all over! Adoption profile: https://alexandriaanimals.org/animal-profile/?id=35713 Adoption information: https://alexandriaanimals.org/adoption-information/ Photo thanks to Alison Lane Photography Lizzie and Slinky, Senior, Spayed Female and Neutered Male Grey Terriers Slinky and Lizzie aren’t just brother and sister – they’re best friends. They celebrate Best Friend Day every day by helping one another stay on their nap schedule and alerting the other when a friendly face with treats is around. When going for walks, they always walk side-by-side because they’re on their journey through life together! Come by and see this adorable twosome. They’ll inspire you with their friendship! Adoption profile: https://alexandriaanimals.org/animal-profile/?id=36644 Adoption information: https://alexandriaanimals.org/adoption-information/ Photo courtesy of Dirty Paw Photography
By the Gastronomes Shooter Mcgee’s Delectables and Cure-Alls 40 Years Young Shooter Mcgee’s has been a neighborhood go-to restaurant and bar for forty years as of this month. Started by young former D.C. bartenders, Tom Jackson and Mike (Mango) Anderson, they brought their D.C. culture of a good, fun restaurant to the west end of Alexandria. In celebration of their 40 years, I am going to start this piece by repeating the introduction written by our restaurant reviewer from 1997, Rich McNamara. Little has changed over the years… “With a name like McNamara, I know a fair bit about Irish bars. With both parents born and raised in Ireland and having been an Irish citizen myself until the age of thirteen, I think I could be considered a reasonably good authority on Irish culture and heritage. I have spent enough time traveling in Ireland to know that the “sing-alongs” and patriotic anthems that are so common in America’s “Irish Pubs” are rarely found in the Public Houses of the Irish countryside, except on national holidays and in the tourist traps. Irish fare though, can be similar to American bars. They are mainly local joints where good friends gather over food and drink. Whether it’s to watch a sporting event on TV or to revel in their own athletic accomplishments, the patrons of Irish bars are just like their American counterparts in that the pubs are considered a place to share a good time and good people. In this respect, Shooter McGee’s is one of the most “Irish” I’ve found anywhere.” Shooters is a fair distance from Old Town but it’s worth the trip. For residents of the western part of Alexandria, it is their neighborhood hangout. As you enter the restaurant, you will be facing a classic dark wood bar….
Intrigue and Enchantment By Miriam R. Kramer What’s next, a plague of locusts? Following a record rainfall and flash floods in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, temperatures and high humidity recently combined to create a heat wave up the East Coast with a real feel of about 110°F in DC and Old Town Alexandria. If the weather keeps you from sunbathing or sitting on a beach, keep blasting that air conditioner while a clutch of novels entertains and relaxes you during your vacation days. You can try an airport read, The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian; a tell-all about sisters and family, Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner; or a majestic piece of historical fiction, The Lost Queen by Signe Pike. The Flight Attendant is a fun airplane diversion: a thriller that I gulped on a recent flight along with my complimentary ginger ale and Cheez-Its. Cassie Boyden, a flight attendant with a layover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, wakes up with a horrible hangover next to her previous night’s fling, a first-class passenger whose throat has been slit open. Scrambling to remove all traces of herself and make it to her flight to Paris, she tries to piece together a previous evening featuring copious alcohol and several blackout periods. As she flies first to Paris and then JFK in New York, Cassie attempts to reconstruct her night with Alex, a hedge fund manager with a flair for number crunching and an unusual penchant for Russian novels. She vaguely remembers that a so-called female business colleague of his had stopped by the room with a bottle of Stoli, after which she can recall nothing until the moment she woke up with a first-class headache in Alex’s first-class hotel. The Flight Attendant is an enjoyable thriller in which Russian spies, the FBI,…
By Lani Gering Wag & Brew Sit – Stay – Play This is for all of you dog owners and lovers out there. What could be better than letting your pooch run around in a big play room with other canines under the watchful eye of a reputable pet sitter while you have a cold beer, glass of vino or hot cup of fresh brewed coffee or an espresso? Only thing I can think of is if you could do the same thing at a daycare for your human kids but am also thinking that probably isn’t gonna happen…. Anyway, Wag & Brew (W&B) is the place to do exactly what I just described. Owner, dog lover and avid golf enthusiast (he was attending the British Open when I went to do the R&D for this column), Jeff McDonald brought the Wag & Brew concept to Alexandria a little over a year ago. Billing itself as “a boutique dog care resort inspired to create the best place for pups and people”, W&B has definitely set itself apart from other doggy daycare establishments in the area. While I am not a dog owner, I do have many friends who depend on services such as this as an alternative to having a dog walker so I consulted a few of them – I had to have someone to help compare the benefits. The benefit of a walker is that your pooch gets to stay in their own home but the downside is they are staying alone. At W&B there is always a friend or two to hang with as well as people who LOVE dogs of all sorts. In addition to this, the large play room is climate controlled and full of toys so no worrying about adverse weather conditions. And….last, but…
By Lani Gering You “Otter” See These Guys While we usually rely on our good pal, fellow sailor and fellow writer and SpinSheet editor Molly Winans for information in this column, I just really wanted to get a piece in this section about the otters at the Calvert Marine Museum. I have been enthralled with them since my first meeting with the original “Bubbles” and “Squeak” many years ago. For the past year or so, every time I saw an otter post on my Facebook page I made a mental note to myself “the OTC needs to write about these guys”. Finally, I got in touch with Perry Hampton, Calvert Marine Museum’s Curator of Estuarine Biology, and we made a play date with Chessie-Grace (3 year old female), Calvert (3 year old male) and Chumley (16 year old male). It was actually a lunch date since I was lucky enough to see them during one of their feedings. One of the benefits of writing about these creatures is that you get treated to the behind the scenes areas of their living space. It really is amazing what has to happen to make sure that these three stay happy and healthy. I really wish I had taken a photo of all of the beach towels that they have stacked up for these three to use – it was pretty impressive. Their inside space includes plastic igloos that they can retreat in to and plenty of items to play with as well as a beach towel or two. They are kept to a fairly strict schedule for feedings and are examined regularly by a veterinarian to make sure that they maintain good health. They are free to roam between the outside and the inside enclosures at will but there is no human…
By Bob Tagert Leonardtown, Maryland – “A Most Convenient Place” With all of the heat we have endured this past month we thought we would keep the road trip close to home and take a nice hour-and-a-half drive to Leonardtown, in Southern Maryland. You can take the road most traveled and drive down Route 5 in Maryland or take Indianhead Highway (Rte 210) south and pick out some of the Scenic Maryland back roads to your destination. Leonardtown is the County Seat of St. Mary’s County. Although the town has had a growth spurt in the last decade, the town has managed to hold on to that small town charm year round. With so much to do so close at hand, it is no wonder Leonardtown earned its antebellum moniker, “A most convenient place.” Just a short drive from Alexandria and D.C., wineries, galleries, dining, history and more make Leonardtown a great getaway. In the early 2000’s this little burg undertook a beautification program that included a redesign of the main street and waterfront in town. Widening the street and installing a beautiful landscaped median as well as new sidewalks that lead to the waterfront boardwalk and wetlands preserve at The Wharf have heightened the impact on the senses as you drive down the street. Leonardtown is home to Southern Maryland’s only Arts & Entertainment District. The A&E District celebrated its Arts and Entertainment District Designation on First Friday, September 6, 2013 becoming the first of its kind in Southern Maryland. Celebrated the first Friday of every month in Leonardtown Square from 5 PM – 8 PM, local entertainment is provided as well as merchant specials and refreshments. Experience art inside their galleries and outside in the square. Live demonstrations and Plein Air painting. Just last month the 20th annual…
View More