Making Connections!

Dear Washington Grove Friends and Neighbors,

A pedestrian/bicycle connection to the Shopping Center at Crabbs Branch Way and Shady Grove Road has been in the works for Washington Grove, since at least 1994. A Washington Grove Town Council resolution from that year designated the newly annexed plot at the end of Brown St. as a future connection point for a path that would provide a route from the town border to the metro without the need to walk or bike along the heavily trafficked Oakmont Rd. or Shady Grove Rd.

As a long-time bicycle commuter, I was hopeful that the connection would soon be realized when my wife, Barbara Raimondo, and I moved into Washington Grove in July of 1999 with our young children. 

Alas, the path did not come to pass quickly. For many years, I biked in rush hour traffic down Oakmont, along Shady Grove Rd. and 355 to reach the Metro. Eventually, after a few too many close calls with cars and many flat tires caused by the glass and nails on those roads, I stopped biking to Metro and began driving like many other people in the county, sacrificing the health and environmental benefits that bike commuting afforded both me and the planet. 

This year, there were two important developments toward the realization of this decades long vision. 

1. The Washington Grove Town Council voted in March at an open meeting to recommend to the County that the end of Brown St. be the site of the connection point for the path that the County would build to Crabbs Branch Way. 

2. The Montgomery County Planning Commission voted in April to move forward and fund the same connection point approved by our Town Council. 

However, some of our neighbors and friends in town felt that more study was needed and that not everyone had had the opportunity to make their views heard and understood. Barbara who had been elected to the Town Council after the March vote, thought that those who wanted to explore alternatives to a connection at the end of Brown St. deserved a further bite at the apple and supported the idea of a Task Force to examine all options in detail and to give everyone in town an opportunity to present evidence.

Barbara made a motion at the June 30, 2021 Special Town Council Meeting for the Mayor to appoint a Task Force to study the matter and to write a report that would be presented to the entire community at a town meeting. The motion further called for the Town Council to take a new vote after the town meeting on what to recommend to the County. The idea was well received and the Town Council voted unanimously for this course of action.  

If you attended almost every meeting of the task force as I did, then you know that the process was thorough, transparent, and fair. There were weekly meetings between July 19 and November 15, including two where town residents could present information and evidence. 

Over the past four months, the Task Force:  

• conducted 18 meetings open to public view, including two open to Town questions and comments. Residents were also invited to submit written evidence throughout the process.

• received at least 55 comments and documents from Town residents; 

• made more than 35 contacts with external specialists including MC DoT; 

• conducted six pathway walks for interested residents through the Conservation (Upper) Meadow and Piedmont (Lower) Meadow; 

• reached out to multiple bicycling groups in this area for their insights; 

• analyzed nearly 100 documents from academic, government, and other sources related to pathway design and safety; and

• created a public database of its documents accessible to all.

If you have not yet had the opportunity to do so, I encourage you to read the report and make your own assessment of their diligence. You can find it here on the Town Website. If you only wish to read the highlights, I’ve reproduced them here.

The main two alternatives to the end of Brown St. that were examined were:

1. An entry point at Railroad St. and Ridge Rd. through the land that is owned by Robert’s Oxygen and continuing through a corridor near the county salt barns. 

2. Across the County’s Conservation Meadow Park. 

Although the Task Force was only asked to report findings, not recommendations, the evidence reveals that indeed the only viable option for a connection point is the bottom of Brown St. Here’s why:

Two of the examined options cross the Conservation Meadow which is a Montgomery County park. The County has indicated that it will not consider a paved path across the meadow nor, frankly, should we view such an option with favor after having worked so hard to preserve our beautiful meadow. 

The other option the ‘Railroad St./Salt Barn’ option, would direct walkers and cyclist through an extremely dangerous intersection at Ridge and Railroad St. where cars and the No. 61 bus pass in large numbers on a narrow curving street throughout the day. Of all the options, Railroad St. would be the least safe that could be built. In addition, this option would require the county to purchase or seize private land from Roberts Oxygen. 

The Brown St. connection point was determined by both our Task Force and Montgomery County to be the best for the environment and sensitive areas, the most direct, and it happens to be the only point that the County has funded and appears willing to build. In fact, as the Task Force Report suggests, if the Brown St. connection point is rejected by the town the connection will likely never happen because the other options are so problematic. 

For better or for worse my daily commutes into DC are likely behind me. Today, however, I have another reason to want the connection. I often find myself walking through the scrub brush from the end of Brown St. to the shopping center to pick up a few things at the Giant. It’s less than 1,000 feet from the end of Brown until you emerge on Crabbs Branch. I am thrilled that I can walk to the store without getting in my car but I also understand that not everyone is willing to navigate the bramble, ticks, and occasional downed trees to do so. Also, as I advance into my 60s, I understand that a day may come when I am no longer sure enough of foot to manage a herd path through the woods. However, I hope that I will be able to walk along a smooth bit of asphalt for many years to come, even when I may no longer be able to drive (glaucoma runs in my family). In short, a walking path to the grocery store may enable Barbara and me to remain in our home longer and to remain in our beloved town as long as possible as we age. 

In addition, I also know that such a connection will be great for the future of our community and for the earth. Younger residents may bike or walk to metro benefiting their health, saving money on parking, and decreasing use of polluting fuels. 

Many will choose to walk to the store sometimes instead of driving and the path will provide yet another opportunity for recreation for people with children in strollers, people in wheelchairs and others who are not able walk on an unpaved path or would prefer to travel on a pathway where cars are not permitted. 

The December 4 Town Meeting will be among the final opportunities to weigh in on this important benefit to our town.

It is my hope that if you have made it this far, you join the meeting and let the Council hear your voice in favor of the Brown St. connection point. Even if we don’t see eye to eye on the matter, I still hope that you will join the meeting and speak your mind, because that is what democracy is all about. If you’d like to comment below, please do. I only ask that you keep comments respectful of everyone.

The path connection will offer residents of Washington Grove access to the metro and shopping center in a car free way that will be far safer and more enjoyable than the routes available today. It is an investment in both the future of our town and this pale blue dot we all call home.

I look forward to celebrating with you soon at the ribbon cutting!

With Friendship and Love of Our Community,

Dennis M. Kirschbaum

Center St.

Mask Mandate

About two weeks ago officials here lifted the county-wide rule requiring masks to be worn indoors in public places. The sign at the grocery store saying that masks were required disappeared right away. Most people were still wearing them, however.

Then this week, the sign was back but now it says, masks are ‘encouraged.’ At the country-controlled liquor store, the sign on the door says that if you are vaccinated, masks are not required. There is no checking of vaccination cards, of course.

At the federally run post office there are two signs, one on each of the double doors at the entrance. One sign said that masks are required and the other said that masks are encouraged.

Traveling by air last week, I noted that masks were required in the airport though many people I saw were not wearing them. Also there were only announcements. No signs. So if you were deaf, I guess you wouldn’t know. Anyway there was no visible enforcement.

On the airplane, masks are required and there were all kinds of threats of being thrown off the plane if you didn’t wear one. But I saw many people not bothering to cover their noses and some had the thing simply draped across their chins. No one got thrown off the plane.

Two weeks ago visiting Kentucky, I saw few masks, however, in Cincinnati just 90 minutes away but light years more left politically, there were more. Here in the DC suburbs, I see many people wearing masks while walking alone outdoors or alone in their cars and virtually everyone is wearing one indoors even when not required.

I am not pointing out all this because I have any opinion at this point about what anyone should be doing. (Personally, I wear a mask if required by law or if a business owner wants me to in their place of business. If not, I don’t). Rather I am observing how ridiculous the whole thing has become. There will be people who will never leave their homes again without a mask and there will be those who will sooner be thrown off a plane than wear one. Masks have become a personal statement like what kind of jeans you wear or a famous blue raincoat.

My synagogue board recently adopted a policy that said that if you are not up-to-date on ALL CDC recommended shots, you shouldn’t come to services or enter the building. Yes, shingles, HPV and, tetanus, too. I’ll be honest, I am not sure when I last had my Yellow Fever shot (I think it was 1986). After a huge backlash of ridicule and incredulity, the board ‘delayed’ the implementation of this policy and said that you just had to have a Covid vaccine, which of course is what they should have done in the first place. Again, there is no actually checking that you actually have one so the effect either way is nil.

At one synagogue I recently visited, you had to show a vaccination card or be denied entry, and everyone including the cantor leading services had to wear a mask. At my shul everyone except the service leader has to wear one. After services, everyone exits the building and crowds on the entrance steps, masks off, and talking in each other’s faces. But the after services lunch has not resumed. I don’t know if it ever will.

Hotels, touting contactless visits, no longer clean your rooms during your stay. Of course, there are no known instances of anyone getting COVID because their hotel room was cleaned. The hotel saves a ton of money on cleaning staff and tries to make you think it is for your benefit.

My wife is on our local Town Council which is still meeting on Zoom along with all the town committees. Most of my friends who are still working are remote, but some are going into their offices or classrooms every day. There are conferences that are being held and conferences that are being canceled. Some people are getting on airplanes; others won’t leave their homes or even their cars to grab a latte. Some restaurants are still takeout only others are packed beyond the capacity of their servers.

In short, as my former boss Aryeh would say, “Everyone is making Shabbes for themselves”

And the supply chain issues! This week at the grocery store there were no white or yellow corn tortilla chips. Only blue!

Welcome to the pale blue dot: the human world as baffling as ever. Take off your raincoat (but maybe not your mask) and join the party.

Fountains of Ink

I have a fascination with technology. “Yes”, you are nodding and rolling your eyes, “I know, Apple, Apple, Apple.” That is true. At work I was once voted “Most likely to run into a burning building to save his iPhone.” But today, I want to write about another kind of technology that I love: vintage technology, specifically, fountain pens.  

Although fountain pens had existed for more than a hundred years before, the modern fountain pen was created by Lewis Waterman around 1884. Prior to that, writing involved dipping a nib into a bottle of ink and then re-dipping every few lines as it ran out. Mr. Waterman’s pen allowed the pen to carry around its own supply of ink. This innovation meant that you could carry your pen around without having to bring a bottle of ink with you wherever you went. Also, you could write without pausing to dip. A fountain pen might only need to be filled every few days depending on how much writing you did. 

Fountain pens were expensive though, so for many, including school kids, it was still dip pens for a long time. Once fountain pens really took hold, they ruled the writing scene through the 1930s, 40s, and 50s until the cheap disposable ballpoint pen appeared in the 1960s and the fountain pen went the way of Blackberry in the wake of iPhone. 

My own fountain pen story began when I was about 12 years old and in 7th grade. My friend Schuyler had a translucent blue plastic Scheaffer fountain pen. The ink supply was a disposable cartridge that you threw away when empty. The pens were cheap – about $1.75 as I recall. Likely, they made their money on the refills. It was so cool! I knew I had to have one of these pens. Fortunately, such an item could be had at the local department store, Korvette’s and was well within the range of my humble allowance savings. (The following year I started delivering newspapers, and started earning the fortune needed to keep me in ink cartridges.) 

Throughout college and into early working life, I used a cheap Sheaffer fountain pen for my everyday writing. I loved the way the nib felt on the paper laying down a wet line of lovely blue-black ink and the sturdy steel nibs lasted for years. The way the writing looked reminded me of old postcards or letters or the high school autograph books that zipped closed that my mom kept in a box in her closet. The pages of those books were filled with the very innocent limericks and sayings of public-school kids of the 1950s.

My first major advance came in college when a political science professor, Dr. Schmickle showed me how he refilled his own pen’s cartridges from a bottle of ink with a hypodermic syringe saving money. A pack of five cartridges might cost a dollar for five weeks of writing but a $3 bottle of ink would easily last a year. Dr. S got me my own needle from his wife who was a nurse and I was on my way to injecting a modest ink habit of a few dollars a year (isn’t this how it always starts?)

Then as a wedding gift, my wife bought me my first ‘nice’ pen. A slim matte black Sheaffer Targa with a 14k gold nib. Gold nibs are prized by fountain pen lovers because the way they glide over the paper and because they are more flexible and, let’s face it, they are pretty and shiny. In 1991 as fountain pens were becoming the rage (and a status symbol) I fell in love with a modern recreation of the classic Parker Duofold and when I became the executive director of the organization I had worked for since 1987, I bought one as a gift to myself. It used a converter, a little cartridge like device with a piston inside allowing it to be used to fill the pen from a bottle over and over with no need for a syringe. I kept this pen filled with Waterman Blue-Black ink which had a chemical smell that reminded me of the white paste we used in Kindergarten. Sadly, they reformulated the ink around 10 years ago and now it has no smell at all. The Duofold somehow retains a lingering scent of this ink it held for so many years. 

Over the years, I have acquired other pens, given some away, bought more, given more away. And a few years ago I went on an insane ink buying spree accumulating inks in every hue and in a variety of beautiful glass bottles. I keep a small journal to record which ink is in which pen so that I can remember what is in which.

If you have read this far, perhaps you are thinking you might like to try a fountain pen? Or try one again? Here are the reasons you might be thinking you should not and why those reasons are (mostly) bogus. 

Fountain Pens Leak!

Modern fountain pens rarely leak. It is not impossible but if handled right they won’t. Don’t bang them around. Carry them in a pocket or bag with the nib facing up. If you bring them on an airplane fill them completely or carry them empty (the change in cabin pressure can cause half empty pens to leak, though I have never had this happen in decades of flying). Having said this if you fill your pen from a bottle you WILL sometimes get ink stains on your fingers. So what? Almost all pen ink is water soluble and washes out of cloth and skin very easily. Many people intentionally choose to mark their skins permanently with ink. What’s a few drops on your fingers that will wash out? 

They cost a lot!

Not so! A very serviceable fountain pen can be purchased for as little as $2.75! That’s less in real terms than my Sheaffer pen was in 1974! If you want to go up to around $30 you can get a great writer with changeable nibs that is sturdy enough to last a lifetime and for under $40 you can get a similar pen with an all metal body. A bottle of ink can be had for under $10 and will last for probably 2-3 years or longer depending on how much you write. Back when I wrote with mostly one color of ink, I’d walk over to Fahrney’s Pens on G Street (later F Street) once a year to buy my bottle of Waterman Blue-Black. It was a nice little ritual and sometimes, I’d come back with more than a bottle of ink. 

I always lose pens. I can’t have nice things. 

I lose stuff all the time but I have never lost a fountain pen. Unlike disposable pens which seems to behave like common property and move ownerless from person to person, a fountain pen will get noticed and if you put it down, people will try to get it back to you. You will also be more likely to keep track of it. When was the last time you lost your phone or your wallet? It happens but it is rare. 

I am left handed. Lefties can’t use fountain pens. 

It is true that left handed people face an additional challenge when using a fountain pen because their hand moves right over the just laid down (and therefore wet) ink potentially smearing it. However, left handed people WERE able to write before the invention of the ballpoint and there are many who use fountain pens successfully and with joy. 

 They are too hard to use.

Well, they are not hard to use like say an electron microscope is hard to use but using a fountain pen requires more thought and a little more skill than using a Bic. They need to be filled from time to time, they need to be cleaned once in a while (not often) and they require a bit of care. They may appeal to the kind of person who likes sharpening their own knives (me), shaving with a brush and razor (me), or maintaining their own car (not me!) but it requires much less skill or time than any of these. 

But what are the positive reasons to try a fountain pen? 

1.  It’s a nice writing experience. I find ballpoint pens and roller balls scratchy and unpleasant to write with. A fountain pen lays down a line of shimmering wet ink. 

2. It is a thing that is made to last in a world of disposable stuff. A pen can be something that helps you express yourself through your writing but also as a kind of piece of personal jewelry. 

3. There are thousands of ink types and colors. Pick one color as your personal brand or change colors each time you fill your pen. 

4. A fountain pen immediately signals you are a person of letters who demands to be taken seriously. 

5. You’ll start finding reasons to write. Daily journal? Sure! Old fashioned correspondence? Why not? Imagine their delight when they receive your handwritten letter or card in beautiful emerald ink hand delivered by the postal service. Mark Zuckerberg is getting nervous! 

6. The periodic reinking can be a chance to pause in your labors and reflect how the human mind and hand can turn pigmented water into coded thoughts and ideas that can change the course of history… or can at least serve to remind you what you need to buy at the grocery store. 

I know that most of you reading this will dismiss the idea of using a fountain pen quicker than the idea of abandoning your computer for a typewriter but for any of you who are intrigued and might want to give it a try, I’d love to help. Feel free to reach out for some advice on getting started or if you want to explore on you own, I highly recommend the online retailer The Goulet Pen Co. Brian and Rachel Goulet started this fountain pen focused business back around 2009 and I have been a customer almost since the beginning. In addition to pens they also sell nice paper and accessories and ink in tiny sample vials so that you can try a color without having to commit to a whole bottle. 

They have incredible customer service and great how-to videos on YouTube for anyone getting started. They are very knowledgeable about everything they sell and it just feels good to patronize them. Yes, you can find most of what they sell on Amazon for less money but just this once ignore your Prime membership and bestow your custom on a small, family run business even if it means waiting a day or two to get your goods and spending a dollar or two more. 

Also, they send you a little Tootsie-pop with each order. 

If you would just like to see what it feels like to write with a fountain pen, the Pilot Varsity provides that experience in a ‘disposable’ pen. But these pens are actually refillable so if you do buy one, don’t throw it away when it is empty. Send it to me and I will refill it for you or send it on to another newbie to try. 

If you currently write with a fountain pen, would like to try it, or need some advice on what to buy, let me know. I’d love to hear from you and as the good folks at Goulet say, “Write on!”