Baltimore Bound
Blue Rose Trilogy, Munching in Maryland, Jenny Reynolds, Chet Lemon, Slightly Stumped
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. This issue includes memorable moments in Maryland, a suspense trilogy, fantastic food from our motoring to Maryland, a singer/songwriter who moved from Boston to Austin, a champion Tiger, and two trimmed trees. I hope you like the picks and pics.
Barb and I visited Roger and his family in Maryland over the weekend. On Saturday we visited the campus of Loyola Blakefield in Baltimore, where Roger will be teaching and coaching starting in August. On Mother’s Day, Kieran and I went to Roger’s baseball game while Cristi, Sommer, and Barb went to the nail salon. We all met up afterward for a lovely outdoor brunch.
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Fave Five 136: Baltimore Bound
Blue Rose Trilogy (Koko, Mystery, The Throat), Munching in Maryland (Phowheels, Mike & Barry’s, Mamma Lucia, Woodmoor, Nautilus, Grove, Mountain View), Boston to Austin (Jenny Reynolds), Chicago to Detroit (Chet Lemon), and Slightly Stumped.
Fave Five List: Five Favorite Maryland Moments
We were able to pack a lot into our four-day visit to our East Coast family. Here are five highlights.
Taking Sommer and Kieran to Smithsonian's National Zoo where we saw a tiger take a swim.
Visiting the beautiful Baltimore campus of Loyola Blakefield and playing PIG in the gym where Roger will be the head coach.
Watching Roger play first base, left field, and right field; pitch two innings; and hit a long single to right in the Ponce De Leon Baseball League. Kieran had fun eating sunflower seeds while not paying any attention to the game.
Enjoying a magnificent Mother’s Day brunch al fresco.
Polishing off all of the leftovers from our visit while dining on the poolside patio. This was followed by the dads defeating the moms, 10-9, in a spirited game of euchre on our last night.
Book Best Bets
Blue Rose Trilogy: Koko, Mystery, and The Throat by Peter Straub
I read these suspense novels many years ago, and I still recall how thrilling they were.
From Amazon: Koko: Only four men knew what it meant. Now they must stop it. They were Vietnam vets—a doctor, a lawyer, a working stiff, and a writer. Very different from each other, they are nonetheless linked by a shared history and a devastating secret. Now, they have been reunited and are about to embark on a quest that will take them from Washington, DC, to the graveyards and fleshpots of the Far East to the human jungle of New York, searching for someone from the past who has risen from the darkness to kill and kill and kill.
Mystery: Tom Pasmore, ten years old, survives a near fatal accident. During his long recovery, he becomes obsessed with an unsolved murder and finds he has clues to solving it that he shouldn’t. Lamont von Heilitz has spent his life solving mysteries, until he wanted to know nothing more of the terror of life and the horror of death. When a new murder disrupts their world of wealth, power, and pleasure, the two must form an unlikely partnership to find the killer.
The Throat: Tim Underhill, now an acclaimed novelist, travels back to his hometown of Millhaven, Illinois after he gets a call from John Ransom, an old army buddy. Ransom believes there’s a copycat killer on the loose, mimicking the Blue Rose murders from decades earlier—he thinks his wife could be a potential victim. Underhill seeks out his old friend Tom Pasmore, an aging hermit who has attained minor celebrity as an expert sleuth, to help him investigate. They quickly discover that Millhaven is a town plagued by horrifying secrets and there is a twisted killer on the loose who is far more dangerous than they ever imagined. Expertly tying together the events of Koko and Mystery, The Throat proves Peter Straub to be the master of the suspense novel.
From Wikipedia: Peter Francis Straub (born March 2, 1943 in Milwaukee; died September 4, 2022 in New York) was an American novelist and poet. He had success with several horror and supernatural fiction novels, among them Julia (1975), Ghost Story (1979) and The Talisman (1984), the latter co-written with Stephen King. He explored the mystery genre with the Blue Rose trilogy, consisting of Koko (1988), Mystery (1990) and The Throat (1993). He fused the supernatural with crime fiction in Lost Boy, Lost Girl (2003) and the related In the Night Room (2004). For the Library of America, he edited the volume H. P. Lovecraft: Tales and the anthology American Fantastic Tales. Straub received such literary honors as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award. According to his New York Times obituary, Straub "brought a poet's sensibility to stories about ghosts, demons and other things that go bump in the night."
Restaurant Recommendations
Munching in Maryland
As usual, we enjoyed trying new places and returning to old favorites. Here are the highlights.
Phowheels 15707 Old Columbia Pike, Burtonsville, MD 20866
This was a hip new spot that started out as a food truck. The banh mi and pho were good, but surprisingly, the fusion of Vietnamese stew and Mexican birria was the winner.
Bo-khirria roti tacos w/ broth: 3 roti tacos, filled with our braised "bo kho", Vietnamese beef stew, mozzarella cheese, onions, scallion & cilantro. "Bo Kho" beef stew for dipping on side.
We love this out-of-the-way spot for breakfast and lunch. The great food, low prices, and friendly staff will keep us coming back.
Steak & Cheese on a toasted sub with everything
Mamma Lucia 4734 Cherry Hill Road, College Park, MD 20740
On Friday Roger ordered pizza delivery, and the New York-style pies hit the spot.
Large pizza: half tomatoes and pepper rings, half cheese
Woodmoor Pastry Shop 10127 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, Maryland 20901
Near the end of a five-mile walk with Roger and his dog, Jalen, we stopped here to refuel. The baked goods here are first-rate.
Maple Danish
The Nautilus Diner & Restaurant 2047 York Rd, Timonium, MD 21093
After we visited Roger’s new school, we stopped here for dinner. The menu was huge, the crab cakes were good, and we had lots of leftovers for our Sunday dinner.
Our Famous Lump Maryland Crab Cake
The Grove 7747 Tuckerman Lane, Potomac, MD 20854
Finding a good brunch spot with last-minute availability on Mother’s Day is no small feat. This place filled the bill nicely, with good food, attentive service, and a nice outdoor table. Crab cakes again? It’s Maryland, so, of course.
Eggs Benedict: poached eggs, hollandaise, English muffin, crab cake, home fries
Mountain View Diner 1300 W Patrick St, Frederick, MD 21703
On our drive home on Monday, we stopped here for breakfast. The place had rock & roll songs of the 50s and 60s printed on the ceiling beams, with a soundtrack to match. Scrapple was on the menu, and it went well with the pancakes.
Short stack with scrapple
Marvelous Musician
We saw Jenny on a co-bill with Jess Klein at Trinity House Theatre on May 2, 2025. She has a fine voice and writes and sings nicely. Her music has been on network television and independent film, including ABC’s All My Children.
From Wikipedia: Jenny Reynolds is an American folk singer-songwriter. She began her career performing at open mics in the Boston area in the early 1990s, while working as a high-school English teacher. After several years of performing, she quit teaching to pursue music full-time, though she continues to do creative writing workshops with schoolchildren. She moved to Austin, Texas in 2003, and was a Kerrville New Folk Finalist the same year.
Any Kind of Angel
There Is a Road
Never Let Him Go
My Playlist
Sports Star
Chet died on May 8, 2025. He was a fleet centerfielder, a timely hitter, and a wonderful teammate. He was a key member of the 1984 Detroit Tigers World Series Champions. When Roger was a youngster, he attended one of Chet’s baseball camps, and Chet made quite an impression on him.
Chet Lemon, 1984 Detroit Tigers hero, dies at age 70 by Jeff Seidel and Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press
In September 2024, Lemon returned to Detroit for the Tigers' celebration of the 1984 World Series champions. Lemon was a key member of the team known as the "Bless You Boys," hitting .287 with 20 home runs in 141 games to earn an American League All-Star nod and leading the Tigers alongside Alan Trammell and Kirk Gibson. During 2024's celebration, Lemon and Trammell shared a personal moment in a suite at Comerica Park, surrounded by their teammates.
"You know how much you were a part of us," Trammell said to a giddy Lemon. "We wouldn't have won it without you. You know that." It was an emotional reunion. "I’m so thankful for the time we spent together last summer," Trammell said in a statement. "Today is a sad day for us. He will be dearly missed."
"Chet was the kindest of men and always had that great smile on his face," former Tigers catcher Lance Parrish said in a statement. "He was also a fierce competitor on the baseball field and a great teammate. I loved him like a brother.”
"I always believed my job as a pitcher was made easier when Chet was behind me in center," former Tigers pitcher Dan Petry said in a statement. "I’ll never forget his laughter and infectious smile. His athleticism on the field always stood out, but he was an even better teammate and friend."
Lemon added dynamic defense, personality to Tigers' 1984 championship team by Lynn Henning of The Detroit News
Tiger Stadium. Center field. A ball is lofted high into the heavens somewhere within a square mile of Lemon’s post, which was to quarterback the Tigers outfielders and take primary responsibility for anything hit his – or maybe their – way.
He glided nimbly. Got quickly to his target area. He would turn. Snare the ball. Then, completing his choreography, would fling a silky throw to an awaiting infielder. Everything was done with confident grace — and trust from his teammates, manager, and, as many will attest, from his fans.
You can, in fact, be so immersed in recalling Lemon’s defense that a person forgets he was – on balance – quite a hitter. Eight consecutive years, from 1977-84, he was .800-plus in OPS. His career on-base percentage, which was seldom discussed during an era when OBP wasn’t much of a topic, was .355.
Chet Lemon did more off the field than he ever did for the Detroit Tigers by Jeff Seidel
That is Lemon’s legacy: How he spread the love of baseball to hundreds, if not thousands. “Our teams were good and it was fun and he was a big reason why we were good,” Kerry Carpenter said. “It was a blast, and it's part of my development and why I'm here.” Why I’m here. When one person can say that about another — with complete respect in their eyes — that’s the true legacy of a man.
From Wikipedia: Chester Earl Lemon (born February 12, 1955 in Jackson, Mississippi; died May 8, 2025 in Apopka, Florida) was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played sixteen seasons in Major League Baseball, beginning with the Chicago White Sox in 1975, where he played for six years. He was then traded to the Detroit Tigers, where he played the rest of his career from 1982 to 1990.
A native of Jackson, Mississippi, he grew up in Los Angeles. He was drafted in the first round of the 1972 Major League Baseball draft. He was selected as an American League All-Star in 1978, 1979, and 1984 and was the starting center fielder for the 1984 Detroit Tigers team that won the 1984 World Series. Lemon was known as one of the best defensive center fielders in baseball from 1977 to 1987. In 1977, he led the American League with 512 outfield putouts, the fourth highest single-season tally in major league history and the highest tally since 1951. He also totaled over 400 outfield putouts in four other years (1979 and 1983-1985). He led the American League with 44 doubles in 1979 and also led the league in times hit by pitch (HBP) four times, including a career-high 20 HBP in 1983. After his playing career ended, he became a baseball instructor and coach.
1984 World Series Game 3 Catch
Picture Pun
I tried to come up with a caption for this one, but I'm stumped.
Next time let us know!