Carnival of Maryland #19

Welcome to The Carnival of Maryland #19.

This carnival is a bi-weekly collection of posts from bloggers who share one thing: we all live in the Old Line State. So here's a collection of our posts from the last two weeks, along with a few photos of my little corner of the state from the same time frame - it should be late autumn now, but fall's just barely begun! Enjoy the photos, enjoy the posts - there's bound to be something here you'll like.

	National Politics Brian Gill presents An Almost Worthless Debate posted at Annapolis Politics.
	State Politics Wade Crodhil presents MOM's Disapproval Rating Soars,But He Just Keeps Screwing Us Anyway posted at Politics, Hon.. GOPinionPlus presents Who listens to local talk radio: an open letter to WBAL Baltimore posted at GOPinionPlus. Michael Swartz presents A collision course posted at monoblogue. "I think this oughta stir up the pot."
	Local Politics Cheryl Snyder Taragin presents Maryland Special Session - O'Malley Plays to the Choir posted at The Spewker. Tongue in cheek play about the Special Session at the Maryland General Assembly. Pillage Idiot presents Rockville's bike bridge to nowhere posted at Pillage Idiot. Soccer Dad presents I hope i can still drive when i'm half that age posted at Soccer Dad.
	Human Interest Paul Foer presents Halloween Excesses and Dentists' Candy Buy-Backs posted at Capital Punishment. The Ridger presents At least the paramedics are right here posted at The Greenbelt. It boggles the mind sometimes, what people will do.
	Arts and Music Kevin Dayhoff presents 20071101 Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge posted at Kevin Dayhoff - Soundtrack. It was forty years ago in the late summer of 1967 that we first learned from “Mama” that the nice young preacher, Brother Taylor “said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge. And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge.” I first heard the song, “Ode to Billy Joe,” by Bobbie Gentry that summer on WCAO on the AM dial of the car radio. It was also in this time period that I became firmly hooked on the existential - “Southern Gothic” genre of storytelling.
	Nature The Ridger presents Two days, two skies posted at The Greenbelt. What a difference a day makes ... two very different dawns Jeremy Bruno presents A Short History of the Eastern Hemlock (and part 2) at The Voltage Gate. About 16,000 years ago, glaciation from the last ice age finally began to retreat after millennia of occupation. As the glaciers melted and filled scrapes in the landscape with fresh water, the animals and plants followed, once only able to live in the temperate climes of southern North America. The eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadenis) was one of these pioneers...