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Senior Nation: Using Posture Power by Susan Covey

December 3, 2021 by Susan Covey Leave a Comment

Even in poor lighting or at a distance when all the details are fuzzy, you probably could recognize your friends simply by the way they stand or walk. Posture is quite possibly the most unconscious expression of ourselves. However, posture is so much more than how we sit, stand and walk; it includes all of our movements from dancing, shopping, getting dressed or playing an instrument. Posture is not only interactive but reactive, responding to our feelings and perceptions of ourselves; to the way we want to present ourselves; to how others respond to us; and to the physical and emotional environments in which we find ourselves.

Posture can be clinically defined as ‘a state of skeletal and muscular balance and alignment that protects the body’s supporting structures from progressive deformity and injury’. (Freeman, S.) Many of us realize the impact of good posture on appearance, but fewer may realize that good posture is vital to overall health and well-being.

GOOD POSTURE not only impacts the musculoskeletal system, but also breathing – giving the diaphragm and lungs more room to expand; digestion – keeping the internal organs in their natural position; concentration; cognition – more oxygen to the brain; energy levels; and confidence. Even more significant to many of us, good moving posture – where the body is balanced over its base of support, plays a critical role in fall prevention.

POOR POSTURE on the other hand contributes to pain, discomfort, muscle imbalance, shallow breathing, limited energy flow and diminished functioning of our internal organs. It can also cause stress on ligaments and joints which over time will ultimately lead to low-back pain, muscle knots, headaches, plantar fasciitis, bone spurs osteoporosis and respiratory problems. Sitting in a slumped posture weakens the core muscles preventing maximal chest expansion which limits breathing capacity. Poor posture also changes the position of internal organs causing faulty digestion/constipation. Moving in poor posture, where the body is not balanced over its base of support, is what increases the chance of a fall and poor posture also “affects cognitive health because the brain uses 20% of the body’s oxygen and a misaligned spine negatively impacts the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain”. (Ratey, J.J.)

A few keys exercises to improve your posture:

Place interlaced fingers at the base of your skull, elbows out, then push the skull into your hands (visualize your ears moving back over your shoulders) Hold for a few seconds.
Roll your shoulders up and backwards squeezing your shoulder blades together ten times.
Arms at your sides, squeeze your shoulder blades together behind your back, hold and release. Then hold your arms out in front at shoulder height and squeeze shoulder blades together as you bend your elbows pulling your arms and shoulders back. Squeeze and release ten times.

Susan S. Covey is the Director of Health and Fitness at Acts Bayleigh Chase, Easton

Mid-Shore Food: A Chat with Banning’s Food Pioneer Steve Mangasarian

November 19, 2021 by The Spy 1 Comment

It’s hard for Steve Mangasarian to forget the early days of high cuisine on the Eastern Shore. After years of training with some of the top chefs in the New York City area and a few years in Vermont bringing a new brand of American food to the rural communities along the Connecticut River, a mixture of a love of sailing and dislike of snow, Mangasarian relocated to Easton to replicate his haute cuisine mission in Talbot County.

With fine dining restricted to places like 208 Talbot in St. Michaels and the Tidewater Inn in Easton, the opening of Columbia on Washington Street was the birth of a new era for the Mid-Shore. Rather than having to cross the Bay Bridge, diners could discover how our extraordinary local ingredients could be used to produce an exceptional dining experience.

After years of success and high praise from customers as well as accolades from critic forums like Zagats, Steve retired with plans to leave the kitchen pursuing other passions, but that plan didn’t last long. Within a year, he was back with the management of the beloved Hill’s Drug Store sandwich shoppe and the opening of Breakfast in Easton, the popular, cash-only morning grill. And eventually, he and his partner decided to open Banning’s Tavern to recapture the fun and comfort of a traditional English pub.

The Spy talked to Steve about his remarkable culinary history in Talbot County as well as the challenges he and his fellow restaurateurs are experiencing as he slowly brings Banning’s back to life after suffering through the pains of the COVID pandemic.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about Banning’s Tavern please go here. For Breakfast in Easton please go here.

The Eastern Shore Gets a Preview of Floods to Come by J.E. Dean

November 3, 2021 by J.E. Dean 1 Comment

The news reports were ominous—high tides on parts of the Eastern Shore would be four feet over normal. Not good. And there isn’t much to do about it other than moving whatever looks as though it could float away or be destroyed by water to a safe location if you are lucky enough to have one.

The two high tides of the “weather event” occurred while I was out of town. I monitored the news closely and activated a few security cameras to see if my yard was now a lake. I was relieved not to find someone’s boat in my backyard. All seemed well, but there is no substitute for looking at things directly.

On Saturday morning, I returned home from DC. From bridges, I could see that water levels were high, but the roads on my route, 50, 322, and Oxford Road, were clear. No water and, more importantly, no signs that there had been flooding.

After getting home, I loaded my goldendoodle into my car to see what was going on in the town of Oxford. The worst of the flooding was now more than 12 hours ago. How bad could it be?

The answer to that is that there were signs of flooding everywhere. A family was canoeing near the tennis courts. Several roads were closed with cones. From a distance, you could see that parts of some streets remained under water. You also could see evidence of “high water marks” on several buildings. The water, I learned, had been at least two or three feet higher than what I was seeing.

The flooding was nothing like 2012, when Hurricane Sandy left much of Oxford underwater, but was a reminder that Oxford, like most of the Eastern Shore, is vulnerable to flooding. As I looked at the minor flooding this year, I thought, “What will we be seeing ten years from now?”

I took my dog to the Strand. The beach was underwater. Several people were walking the strand, not only enjoying the pleasant weather, but also curious about what had happened. From talking to a couple of them, I sensed they were relieved. “We dodged a bullet,” one of them said.

Interested in documenting evidence of the flooding, I shot a few photograph. In reviewing them for this story, I found them sorely lacking in the sensationalism one expects in any article that references climate change. By themselves, the photographs are not especially alarming. But taken together with this year’s bizarre weather nationally–“bomb cyclones,” massive fires in Oregon and California, and an unusually high number of hurricanes—suggest that more trouble is on the way. Viewed from this perspective, our recent flooding is another prelude to “a big one,” a weather event devastating our region.

That thought is depressing; hopefully I’m wrong. But, if you believe the weather scientists, our vulnerability to flooding and hurricanes is increasing. We should be worried, but many of us are not, at least not enough to take action. Some continue to question the scientists. Others, even some that accept Climate Change as serious risk, doubt anything can be done about it.

What will it take for voters to agree that climate change is an existential threat? That is the question that comes to mind as I read in The Spy and elsewhere about new real estate developments on the Eastern Shore that, if some scientists are to be believed, will be subject to regular flooding in as little as 20 or 30 years.

It’s not clear what the Eastern Shore and dozens of other places in the U.S. that face the threat of routine flooding and “super storms” can do to prepare. Building new sand dunes in Oxford to stem erosion of the shore is not a solution. It’s a Band-Aid—a welcome Band-Aid—but only a fool would suggest it is anything other than a Band-Aid.

The tougher question for Eastern Shore counties, the State of Maryland, and, yes, the Federal government, is whether its time to stem development in areas that face the greatest vulnerability from flooding and worsening extreme weather. Until the trend towards worsening, life-threatening weather has been stemmed, development in vulnerable areas is foolhardy. When that new development gets destroyed or damaged in the next storm, who is going to pay the bills to compensate for the damage?

Is it appropriate to view the recent flooding as a wake-up call? I would argue yes, although for anyone regularly reading about this year’s weather, it was the 100th wake-up call. Will we respond to it? And if we do, how do we find the national resolve to respond in a meaningful way?

If you have not watched the Spy’s short video documenting some of the flooding in Oxford, you can watch it here.

J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant writing on politics, government, birds, and occasionally, golden doodles.

Possibilities by Angela Rieck

October 7, 2021 by Angela Rieck Leave a Comment

Weddings are back! COVID-19 postponed weddings and scheduled weddings are everywhere. Who doesn’t love a wedding? They are such happy occasions because they are filled with love.

Credit Karena Dixon Photography

A few weeks ago, we got to be a part of my nephew’s wedding. In addition to the usual hiccups, they encountered an unexpected one. My grand-niece, the youngest flower girl, couldn’t decide if she wanted to be a flower girl or a shark.

Fortunately, as you can see from the picture; she chose to be a flower girl.

And that is one of the great gifts of childhood…the belief that everything is possible. A child can believe it is equally possible to be a flower girl or a shark.

When my daughter was her age, she wanted to become a jumping house painter. She could combine the things that she loved doing most—helping us paint the house and jumping.

But as children get older, they learn that their options are more limited. Transfiguration is only possible in the movies. It might be difficult to make a living as a jumping house painter.

These learnings are an important part of growing up. But children also learn about other limitations that are not acceptable.

Because of the color of their skin, their socio-economic status, their religion, their gender, their ethnicity, or their sexual preferences; they see roadblocks instead of opportunities.

When I was young, I was told that women could only be teachers, nurses, or mommies. Our generation dedicated itself to breaking this barrier. We have not fully succeeded; there is still a wage gap, and we haven’t attained the position of leader of the free world, but we have come close.

It has been a long journey. After I earned my doctorate, I had many job offers and I was able to set conditions. One was that my husband had to be offered a job as well. Bell Laboratories was happy to oblige, but I was surprised to discover that my husband was offered a higher salary. As they explained to me, he would be the primary breadwinner; so, he was entitled to a larger salary (try to understand that circular logic).

We have come a long way.

Our generation has made great strides with sexual orientation as well. When I joined the workforce, gay and lesbians were not allowed to be teachers, clergy, adopt children, and many had to hide their orientation. Now they are afforded most of the privileges that heterosexuals enjoy.

We have made progress on race; but we had a long way to go, and racism is still sadly present. (If you need any proof, stroll around the Talbot County Courthouse grounds.)

Socioeconomic status remains a persistent barrier. Children living in poverty are rarely able to see past their current circumstances. They see only limited opportunities, and a learned helplessness philosophy can take hold. There is also work to do on ethnicity, religion, and transgender. But we continue to make strides through the courts and awareness.

So, I am hoping that when this little girl grows up; all barriers will be down. And she can be anything that she wants to be.

Just probably not a shark.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

Spy Report: Beverly and Richard Tilghman Accept Horn Point’s Chesapeake Champion Award

October 1, 2021 by Spy Agent 8 -- 00 Section Leave a Comment

The weather gods must have known that the greater conservation movement of the Eastern Shore was gathering on Friday night to honor Beverly and Richard Tilghman as the Horn Point Lab’s Chesapeake Champions for 2021.

With clear skies, no humidity, and 70-degree weather, over two hundred scientists, environmentalists, and patrons of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science gathered at the Tidewater Inn courtyard on Thursday to pay tribute to the Tilghmans and their legacy of land and water conservation over the years.

And in keeping with the Tilghmans ongoing support of Horn Point Lab students and their research, several of those grad students were able to highlight their work at the Dorchester campus. Those reports were both moving and encouraging as these young leaders outlined what their projects contributed to the health of the Chesapeake Bay and beyond.

But eventually, it was the Tilghmans turn to address the crowd, and our assigned spy was able to capture Richard’s remarks at the end of a very joyful moment for the Mid-Shore.

This video is approximately three minutes in length.

Talbot Begins Process for Confederate Monument’s Removal; Easton Panel OK Will Be First Step

September 22, 2021 by John Griep Leave a Comment

Following the Sept. 14 vote for its relocation, Talbot County officials are beginning initial steps to remove the Confederate monument from the courthouse green.

The administrative process includes seeking approval from the town’s historic district commission for the monument’s removal and likely will require a bid process for its removal and relocation.

As that process continues, those who have been working to keep the monument at its current location are seeking out possible Talbot County sites for its relocation.

The county currently is preparing an application to Easton’s Historic District Commission, Talbot County Council Vice President Pete Lesher said he was told by staffers.

An application would need to be submitted by Monday for the monument’s removal to make the commission’s Oct. 11 agenda, Lesher said Wednesday in an email. If the application is heard Oct. 11, the commission could take action at its Oct. 25 meeting.

“The HDC application is the appropriate first action ,” Lesher wrote. “No steps have been taken on the physical removal until we get through this initial action.”

Lesher said he wasn’t yet aware of a bid process for the monument’s removal, but said “the county has rules for the disbursement of funds, and I am sure this project falls within them.”

Asked about the possibility an appropriate site for the monument could be located in Talbot County, he said “No one has proposed to me an alternative site.

“It seems that a publicly accessible site that is associated with the Talbot Boys named on the monument — such as the Cross Keys battlefield — would be hard to equal,” Lesher wrote.

“Others searched for over a year to find a site, without success,” he said. “I give (Councilman Frank) Divilio great credit for finding and securing such a suitable and appropriate site.”

Since the Sept. 14 vote, David Montgomery, president of Preserve Talbot History, has said several Talbot County sites have been offered for the statue’s new location.

In a Wednesday afternoon email, Montgomery said the group has not had any “formal discussions with Council members about possible sites.

“We are still doing our homework and hope to have something solid to discuss soon,” he wrote.

Montgomery added that several site characteristics have been discussed. Those are:

• Physical feasibility, that the site be accessible to moving equipment and provide a stable base.

• Public access, now or in the future, so that the educational purpose can continue.

• Security, so that random or political vandalism can be discouraged.

Divilio, who previously had joined a 3-2 council majority in voting against the monument’s removal, introduced an administrative resolution during the Sept. 14 council meeting to move it to the Cross Keys Battlefield in Harrisonburg, Va., “a private park, under the custody, care, and control of Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation….”

The resolution requires the monument’s removal and relocation to be paid by private funds.

Although the foundation had agreed to take the monument, its executive director sent a letter shortly before the Sept. 14 meeting noting the foundation’s monuments policy supports keeping a monument at its original location, with relocation within the county the next best option.

However, the letter also reiterated the foundation’s willingness to accept the monument and become its permanent steward “if and when it is evident that the monument will not and can not remain safely” in Talbot County.

Divilio was joined by Lesher and Councilman Corey Pack in voting Sept. 14 for the resolution. Pack had sought the monument’s removal from the courthouse grounds last year, but his measure was only supported by Lesher.

As a result of the Sept. 14 vote, the federal lawsuit seeking the monument’s removal from the courthouse green is on hold.

After years of debate, protests, letters, emails, public comment, several votes against removal, and the lawsuit, a majority of the Talbot County Council voted Sept. 14 to relocate the monument to a battlefield site in Virginia.

Three days later, a federal judge granted a motion for a limited stay, putting the case on hold for 30 days and requiring a joint status report by the end of that period.

An attorney for Talbot County sought the stay in a Sept. 16 consent motion, noting “Removal of the statue is the central issue in this litigation.

“Because the statue is a historic structure within the meaning of local preservation laws, some additional administrative steps are required before removal is effected, including a public hearing before the local commission charged with certifying that removal is appropriate under the related local regulations,” Kevin Karpinski, the county’s attorney in the case, wrote in the motion.

Karpinski said the attorneys for the organizations and individuals who had filed the lawsuit had “graciously consented to this request for a stay.

“The County respectfully submits a temporary stay is in order to: 1) permit the parties to determine whether a compromised solution is a possibility in light of this recent development and pending developments in the administrative process; and, 2) to avoid unnecessary consumption of the Court resources,” he wrote.

Mid-Shore Arts: The Work of Daniel Robbins

September 3, 2021 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

After Plein Air Easton 2021 this summer, there was a good bit of talk on the street about the art and artists that were awarded with best of show recognition. That wasn’t too surprising but what was to the Spy was the universal praise for the work of Daniel Robbins, who took the Artists Choice Award and was the winner of the quick draw competition. And given all this positive noise on Danny’s work, we decided to stop by his studio in Virginia for a quick check-in before his work goes on display at Studio B this weekend.

Almost unlike every other artist the Spy has profiled over the years, Danny had a clear sense of his artistic calling by the age of four. From those early days, his parents caught on that their son was destined for an art career, and were willing to support his attendance at Virginia’s high school programs for the arts. That lead to an arts degree at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where he would eventually become an adjunct professor in the art department.

And while Robbins has explored many different approaches to his artwork during his lifetime, he talks in his Spy interview about the profound and lasting impact of his daughter’s birth, his wife’s post-birth health challenges, and finally the COVID pandemic over the last four years. During this time, his works with light, and his rediscovered passion for the ocean, which only a native of Virginia Beach could have, made him recast his work in ways he could never have imagined before these significant events impacted him and his family.

This video is approximately two minutes in length. For more information about Daniel Robbins and his new representation at Studio B, please go here.

COVID 19: Assessing Risks for Pregnant Mothers and Children with Choptank’s Dr. Adeline Melvin

August 18, 2021 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

When Choptank Community Health’s Adeline Melvin talks about the impact of COVID-19 on pregnant mothers and children, she has more than her impressive medical credentials to give her credibility on the subject. As a pregnant mother in 2020, she had to go through what many families are debating now; and that is the sometimes torturous decision on whether or not to get the vaccine. She did.

So when Dr. Melvin says she believes the vaccine is safe for children and pregnant mothers, it should reassure hundreds of families that now is the time to get the shot.

That was just one of the topics the Spy chatted with Dr. Melvin at the Choptank’s Denton center as the Mid-Shore comes face to face with the Delta variant. She notes with alarm the increasing signs of its presence on the Eastern Shore, the uptick in patients and the number of new COVID positive results, just at a time when our five counties region was starting to believe we were reaching the finished line with the pandemic.

In. her Spy interview, Dr. Melvin makes a compelling case for following CDC guidelines which recommend that children aged 12 and over and pregnant women take the vaccine, by sharing her own experience after getting the shot herself.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about Choptank Community Health please go here.

Editor note: The data that Dr. Melvin shares in our interview reflects information from August 16. Please click on Caroline County, Dorchester County, Kent County, and Talbot County for the latest numbers.

Mid-Shore Arts: The Art World of Shelton Hawkins

August 2, 2021 by Dave Wheelan Leave a Comment

A few years ago, the one thing that people knew about Easton native Shelton Hawkins was his passion for basketball. Growing up as a star player at his prep school in Virginia and his college in Texas, and then returning to the Mid-Shore to local coach teams at Saints Peter and Paul High School and UM- Eastern Shore, Sheldon has spent a good bit of his adult life known as the “basketball guy.”

And while he has not let up on that passion, Hawkins has made a remarkable journey in using art to connect basketball as well as his other interests.

By day, he makes a somewhat long commute to St. Charles High School in Charles County to teach art, but when he returns to Easton in the evening, and throughout the weekend, he takes refuge in the yet to be restored Carstairs Row houses on Washington Street with several projects in the works.

The first has been his extraordinary use of outdoor basketball courts as a willing canvas for his murals. Starting in Easton at Idlewild Park, Shelton uses the court surface to reflect the community with his joyful application of color. And over time, his work on basketball courts has become an international one, with examples of his work found in New York, Ohio (a LeBron James school) and a commission for a court at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo that sadly bit the dust with the arrival of COVID-19.

The second is the serendipitous use of his favorite basketball sneakers as another unexpected canvas. As Shelton worked on his other projects in his studio, he realized that the accidental application of colors hitting his shoes made an exciting impression.

The third is more historical by preserving the culture and meaning of the now-dated VHS cassette tapes and their movie titles. Shelton uses these symbols of the 1980s and 90s as an appropriate vehicle to celebrate childhood memories and family trips to Blockbuster Video stores.His work on this project will take him to the last remaining Blockbuster in Oregon later this month to document that space for his future work.

Coming in next is Hawkins’s new extension into filmmaking. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter creation in downtown Cambridge, he has just completed an eight-minute mini-documentary that captures its enduring impact on residents well after its popular installation last year. It is appropriately titled “When the Paint Dries” and recently debuted in Dorchester County in July.

And his final project, and his most personal, is his collaboration with his daughter, Parker, aged three. Together they have worked on portraits and other paintings with unique roles. Parker is the first to begin the work, and it is her job to provide the background colors for the images. Dad finishes the work, but in between the beginning and the end, father and daughter can have lengthy discussions about the use of color and subjects in the start of a lifelong partnership.

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about Shelton Hawkins artwork please go here.

Food Friday: Summer Go-To Recipes (Almost All Involve Tomatoes)

July 16, 2021 by Jean Sanders Leave a Comment

This is it, folks. It’s summer. It’s the time of year we think about, and long for, during the dark, cold days of winter. When we shiver in glacial bathrooms, drying off after showering. When we have gelid wet feet after walking the dog. When we turn the kitchen lights on at 4:30 in the afternoon. When we can’t bear to get out of our warm cocoon bed, because it is still dark outside.

Now we get to complain about the sun waking us up in the morning. We whine about the heat index. We mutter opprobriums about having to wear sunscreen every day. We can barely hear the radio in the car because the noisy A/C is blasting out at its highest setting. We are suffering because it’s too hot to sit on the back porch for cocktail hour. We kvetch because the sand is scorching our feet.

Quit your bellyaching. We have been vaxxed. We can talk with our neighbors. We can go to the grocery store, and the farmers’ markets. We can load up on delicious foods that barely need cooking. We are going to enjoy fresh summer produce if it kills us. And in all the extra daylight time we can enjoy, we’ll read beach novels, weed the tomato patch, paint the front porch, go to the drive-in movies and count Persiad meteors. (Don’t forget to check for ticks!)

I had a bowl of watermelon cubes for breakfast this morning; cool, refreshing, nutritious and deelish. Since my breakfast companion was Luke the wonder dog, I used my fingers and kept the silverware in the drawer. That was a perfect summer meal. No cooking, and no cleaning.

I heard – although I have not tried this myself – on the Table Manners podcast that you can toss a couple of frozen bananas into a food processor, and whip them into a frenzy, to make banana ice cream. Jessie Ware was skeptical, but her mother’s dish of frozen bananas (topped with double cream) persuaded her that it works, and it is delicious. I don’t have double cream, but I bet a nice dollop of whipped cream would do the trick for me. Be sure to cut the bananas up before freezing them in an tight container. https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/total-health/food-for-health/recipes/frozen-banana-whip

Table Manners is a charming podcast. I listen to it every week: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/s11-ep-27-emerald-fennell/id1305228910?i=1000528809476

Our friends at Food52 find so a million ways to make a very simple tomato sandwich. Here, in the Spy Test Kitchens, we use Pepperidge Farm white bread, Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, a pinch of black pepper, a shake of Maldon salt and a couple of big, fat slicing tomatoes from the back yard, with a generous handful of potato chips as an elegant side dish. Follow your heart: https://food52.com/recipes/6734-my-best-tomato-sandwich

As irritating as Martha Stewart can be, she has had some very good ideas, which I gleefully pass along as if they were my own. I have prepared these pasta recipes often enough that I have memorized them. I highly recommend them for their ease, their beauty, and the satisfaction of a job well done. They are perfect for meatless Mondays, too. Thanks, Martha!

One-Pan Pasta: https://food52.com/recipes/30147-martha-stewart-s-one-pan-pasta
This genius recipe makes an enormous amount of pasta – I always halve it.

Pasta with a fresh, uncooked sauce: https://www.marthastewart.com/904229/pasta-fresh-tomato-sauce I like to make this ahead of time and keep it in the fridge. It is like having money in the bank – dinner solved. And it is accompanied by a solid wall of garlic that will knock you over when you open the fridge door! Priceless!

I will occasionally turn the oven on in the summer to toast a baguette for garlic bread. And then I will use it in a tasty Panzanella salad. Because in the summer you can never eat too many tomatoes: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/panzanella-12529

In the summer, when I am loathe to cook, I am aware of the middle-class conceit that we must eat three times a day. I can skate by with tomato sandwiches, watermelon, and bananas when I am by myself, but Mr. Sanders likes to sit down to dinner. Usually on the weekends he takes over and prepares something ambitious with many difficult-to-procure ingredients, or something simple on the grill. And for this I am truly grateful. Summer.

“Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.”
-Russell Baker

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