Strange But True | Annapolis December 2009
Home Stars
Anne Arundel County couple Mike and Amy Harris are coming to a television set near
you. Last August, the husband and wife were visited by the film crew of Home & Garden
Television’s (HGTV) House Hunters, a popular program that highlights recent home sales;
profiling home buyer’s interests, house hunting trials, tribulations, and tips, and even a<
home purchase by show’s end. When the Harrises decided it was almost time to buy their<
first home, they moved in with Mike’s mother to begin saving money for a down payment,
which made for a “full house” experience. “We moved in with our two basset
hounds and set up camp in the basement. Mike’s mother Jeanie and brother, Cliff, were
already living there and his sister Whitney returned from college the weekend after we
moved in, so it was a full house. I thought it made for a funny story and applied online,”
says Amy. The couple’s story hit a chord with HGTV producers and taping of the episode
commenced shortly thereafter. “Taping was such a cool experience, but a lot of work! The
first part took four days and we needed to have our schedules free from 9–6 for filming,”
Amy tells us. “We got used to it after awhile and started learning what they were looking
for. For example, if we spent too much time with our backs to the camera we’d have to
re-shoot a whole walk-through!” During their whirlwind experience the couple hopscotched
throughout Anne Arundel County with their Realtor and three-member taping
crew. “Generally we were looking for a few things. A fenced-in yard for our dogs, single
family home, decks and nice living space, and a bathroom connected off the master bedroom,”
notes Amy. Did the couple find their dream starter home or does the search
continue? Find out on HGTV’s House Hunters episode airing December 23rd at 9 p.m. For
information about how your house hunting experience could be considered for the program,
visit
HGTV.com.
Green Lingo
Each month, the Annapolis Green
Drinks happy hour club meets to discuss
the health of the Chesapeake Bay
and environmental stewardship. At
one recent Green Drinks expo event,
several vendors on site, who pitched
green products such as rain barrels
and solar panels, casually joked that
they’ve generally been seeing environmentally
friendly crowds in a different
light: green minded, but also a little
scumi. No, not the thick carpets of
hair-like algae on the water, but rather
people who are Socially Conscious
Unless Money’s Involved (S.C.U.M.I.);
recognizing that being aware and
proactive towards the Earth’s
Inconvenient Truth isn’t cheap. It’s one
thing to make the socially conscious
effort to buy organic food, shop locally, and recycle a plastic water
bottle when all you see are trashcans. It’s cliché, but a little bit of
change does go a long way. It is a whole different ballgame though
when you look into renovating your house with solar power panels
or wind turbines. Many of us want to help the environment as
we see the bay’s health slowly deteriorate, but are barely making
ends meet with the current economic recession. Many LEED and
environmentally friendly products cost more upfront, with energy
cost savings following years later. Last year, The International
Energy Agency put a figure on the amount it will cost to go green:
a whopping $45 trillion. Even with these astronomical figures, the
scumi people of Annapolis are tightening their belts, biting the
bullet, and spending the money anyway. For information about
the next Annapolis Green Drinks event, visit
AnnapolisGreen.com.
-Laura Sargent
Severna Park Inventor Goes for Gold
Ten years ago, Severna Park resident Rachel Taylor was having a
bad hair day. Because she was late for class and couldn’t find a
bobby pin, she put up her unruly locks with a sock-clip she forgot
to throw away. “I just grabbed it, twisted my hair around it, and
then something came into my mind. I knew this was my million
dollar baby,” she says. Her plan was to somehow
develop the sock clip into an attractive hair device
that could hold any kind of hair. “I wanted to see it
everywhere—from Nordstroms to Walmart. Her
bubble was promptly popped when she got to class
and presented her idea to her entrepreneurialminded
business school classmates. “I showed the
clip to my team at graduate school and nobody
“got it,” she recalls. Today, though, anybody can
get it—Taylor won an inventor’s contest this past
May held by the New Jersey-based corporation
Telebrand. By sheer chance, the woman who
helped sell 100,000 million “Topsy Tails” was a
panelist. (The maker of the Topsy Tail, which was
popular in the 1980’s, claimed you could twist your
ponytail into an elegant up-do in minutes.) After
Taylor pitched her idea and demonstrated The
Clever Clip, company president A.J. Khubani asked
the Topsy Tail lady what she thought. After a pregnant
pause, she said “home run.” Ninety minutes
later, on her way back to Severna Park, Taylor got a
phone offer from Telebrand. She signed a contract
a week later. The conglomerate will televise, manufacture, and distribute
The Clever Clip nationally and internationally. “Always
think that you’re going to make it,” she tells anyone with big
dreams. “If you have the attitude you’re not going to make it,
you’re defeating yourself and that’s the truth.”
Lost & Found Towns
Apparently, Anne Arundel County has a mysterious
past that none of us knew about …
until now. From the first through 17th
centuries, the county was home to
Native American civilizations and, later,
early colonial towns. The Lost Towns
Project was founded by Dr. Al Luckenbach
in the early 1990s and is dedicated
to uncovering the county’s roots and
connecting the surrounding communities
to both the indigenous peoples, and towns
that once existed. Recently, a new site was
unearthed at Pig Point, a bluff along the Patuxent
River in southern Anne Arundel County.
Evidence shows the existence of a Native American campsite
dating back to around 1300 A.D., but some of the buildings
could date back as far as 500 A.D, and represent oldest Indian
structures ever found in Anne Arundel County. The excavation is
funded by a grant from the Maryland Historical Trust in cooperation
with the Anne Arundel County Trust for Preservation, and is
being conducted by an archeologist team led by Luckenbach. As
the Lost Towns Project unearths our county’s history, residents
become more educated about life in another historical period. It
sounds like a time machine in the making. So far, the lost towns
include Providence, Herrington, and London Town, which is
home to the Historic London Town and Gardens. More than 50
data recovery excavations
have taken place
over the past several
years. So, the next
time you’re walking
around town on a
crisp evening or digging
your garden on a
Saturday afternoon,
just remember that you
might very well be in
part of a lost town. To
learn more about this
revealing project
that’s growing
by the minute,
visit
LostTowns.com.
-Courtney Jordan
Topsy Tails
House Hunters
Maryland Historical Trust
Mike and Amy Harris
Lost Towns
HGTV
Rachel Taylor
Annapolis Green Drinks
The Clever Clip
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