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Takoma Park author recycles old advice for modern times

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

In 1890, a Victorian-era writer warned against prolonged engagements, especially when the two parties were frequently in each other’s company.

Whether or not that was good counsel for young adults in the Victorian suburb is arguable, although a Takoma Park author thinks there might be some relevance to the advice columns of days gone by. Abigail Grotke, aka Miss Abigail, recently published a collection of her advice columns that seek to use the wisdom of earlier times to address today’s issues.

‘‘Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating and Marriage: Classic Advice for Contemporary Dilemmas,” is admittedly tongue-in-cheek, said Grotke, who based her work on advice books she has collected for nearly two decades. ‘‘I started collecting them when I was in college and I picked up my first advice book, ‘The Art of Dating.’ It was from 1967, and I count that as a classic. My college roommate and I would read through it and laugh hysterically.”

As Grotke’s collection grew, she and her friends started an online magazine in 1998, answering readers’ letters using advice from books published as far back as the 1820s. Certainly today’s young bride could use a few pointers from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.’s ‘‘A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed: Health Hints for the Home,” published in 1898.

‘‘There was a lot of clothing advice from the really early days — somebody might ask, ‘What should I wear to the prom?’ and there would be something from whatever era telling you what to wear that’s flattering,” she said.

The book is available at online retailers like amazon.com and should soon start appearing in the larger book stores around the area.

Columbia Union College to host Career and Internship Fair

The Center for Learning Resources at Columbia Union College will host its annual Career and Internship Fair noon to 4 p.m. March 23 in the auditorium⁄chapel of Morrison Hall on the campus, 7600 Flower Ave. in Takoma Park. The fair will include recruiters from a number of local employers.

To prepare job seekers for the fair, the college is hosting two special events, including resume workshops 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. today and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday in the Center for Learning Resources office in Wilkinson Hall.

A career fair preparation seminar also will take place 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Tuesday where participants can get advice on how to dress and make the right impression with employers.

For more information, call 301-891-4106.

Takoma Park book groupto start ‘Housekeeping’

The Friends Reading Group, sponsored by the Friends of the Takoma Park Maryland Library, will meet next month to discuss Marilynne Robinson’s ‘‘Housekeeping,” and copies of the book are now on hand for checkout.

The book tells the story of two sisters who grow up in the care of their grandmother, then their two aunts and finally the eccentric sister of their dead mother.

The group will meet 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. April 5 in the Community Center, 7500 Maple Ave., to discuss the book, which is available at the library, 101 Philadelphia Ave. For more information, visit www.ftpml.org or call 301-891-7259.

Free gardening programnext week

The Takoma Horticulture Club will host a free program next week with two garden designers based in Takoma Park.

Jenny Reed and Lauren Wheeler of Natural Resources Inc. will present ‘‘Solving Water Problem in the Landscape” 7:30 p.m. March 22 at the Heffner Community Center, 31 Oswego Ave. For more information, contact Susan Harris at 301-270-5481 or harristakoma@erols.com.

Local business owner wins community service award

Ronald Mitchell, owner of the Park Ritchie salon on Maple Avenue for the last 32 years, received a community service award last month from the Montgomery County alumni chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Mitchell, a Silver Spring resident, said the award was presented in conjunction with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and was in recognition of business owners who mentor young people, showing them how to be entrepreneurs.

Folk festival planning begins, including T-shirt design contest

The Takoma Park Folk Festival will hold its first organizational meeting of the year 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Azalea Room of the Community Center, 7500 Maple Ave.

The festival depends on volunteer resources for every aspect of planning the 29th-annual event, scheduled Sept. 10. Community residents, especially those new to the Takoma Park area, are invited to learn about opportunities to work on the festival and meet their neighbors.

In addition, organizers are seeking entries for the Folk Festival T-shirt design contest. Both professional and amateur artists are welcome to enter by submitting a design that embodies the best aspects of Takoma Park and the festival.

The winner will receive $100 and a free T-shirt. Entries are due May 1. Rules, an entry form and information about volunteer opportunities are available on the festival’s Web site, www.tpff.org. For more information, visit the Web site or call 301-589-0202.

Upcoming city meetingsin Takoma Park

The Commission on Landlord-Tenant Affairs is tentatively scheduled to meet 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Community Center Auditorium, 7500 Maple Ave. Also scheduled to meet Tuesday are the Arts and Humanities Commission at 7:30 p.m. in the Atrium Room and the Safe Roadways Committee at 7 p.m. in the Council Conference Room.

The Public Safety Citizens Advisory Committee will meet 6:30 p.m. March 22 in the Atrium Room.

Environmental activistto speak about Katrina

Takoma Park Presbyterian Church will host two upcoming discussions with Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and author of ‘‘Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast.” Tidwell will talk about global warming and the moral implications surrounding Hurricane Katrina 9:30 a.m. Sunday and March 26 at the church, 310 Tulip Ave.

For more information about Tidwell’s organization, visit www.chesapeakeclimate.org.

‘Talkin’ Trash’ in and around Sligo Creek

The Friends of Sligo Creek will host ‘‘Talkin’ Trash,” a public discussion about the region’s litter problems and the specific efforts underway to combat litter in the creek, 7:15 p.m. Tuesday at the Long Branch Community Center, 8700 Piney Branch Road.

Guest speakers include naturalist Wende Pearson, Potomac Watershed cleanup coordinator for the Alice Ferguson Foundation, and John Galli from the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments’ Department of Environmental Programs. For more information or directions, contact Ann Hoffnar at 301-585-8891 or ann.hoffnar@starpower.net.

What’s happening in Long Branch and Takoma Park? Send information to People and Places c⁄o Sean Sands at The Takoma Park Gazette, 8650 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring MD 20910. Or you can e-mail items to ssands@gazette.net, fax items to 301-562-3262, or call me at 301-562-3268. Please send information at least one week in advance.

Why we love (or hate) Wal-Mart

Montgomery College’s Paul Peck Institute for American Culture and Civic Engagement will host a Jefferson Cafe on American’s love⁄hate attitude toward Wal-Mart April 5 on the Takoma Park⁄Silver Spring campus.

Jefferson Cafes use the Socratic method, where one participant’s question leads to another, rather than the group trying to provide an answer for each question. In advance of the discussion, Cafe participants will have a short reading taken from John Semmens’ ‘‘Wal-Mart is Good for the Economy,” plus another reading. Gerald Schneider, former chief executive of the Audubon Society, will facilitate the discussion.

The 90-minute discussion will start 3 p.m. in the Bliss Room of The Commons, 7600 Takoma Ave. in Takoma Park. Participants can meet each other informally beforehand at 2:30 p.m. with refreshments. Pre-registration is required because the events are limited to about 15 participants and typically fill up quickly.

For more information or to register for the free event, call Paul Peck Institute Director Francine Jamin at 301-650-1385.

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Film festival seeking director

The Takoma Park Film Festival is seeking a director to oversee the fifth-annual event, which will take place later this year.

The director will work as the chief operating officer for the festival, responsible for fund-raising, marketing, administration and coordination of activities. The City Council has designated $2,000 for the festival director.

A committee made up of representatives from the Film Festival Committee, the Friends of the Takoma Park Maryland Library and the city’s Arts and Humanities Commission will appoint a director following the April 7 deadline for applications. Application instructions are available on the film festival’s Web site, www.takomaparkfilmfestival.org.

Books, CDs, tapes on sale at Long Branch Library

The Long Branch Library will sell used books, CDs, videos and tapes 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the library, 8800 Garland Ave. All proceeds will fund library programs and the purchase of library materials. For more information, call 240-777-0910.

Media festival accepting entries

Student and staff entries from public and private schools in Montgomery County are being accepted for the annual Montgomery County Schools Media Festival.

Deadline for entries is March 24, and entrants are asked to register online at www.mcsmf.org before sending materials. For more information, contact festival coordinator Michael Warner at 301-670-2214 or festivalcoordinator@yahoo.com.