Baltimore21201.Com

Let's All Buy a Brick; Support a Home for Our Little, and Not-So-Little Ones.

A big, 24 year-old mother has given birth to a really big, healthy baby in Baltimore. The mother's name is Felix. The father is, for the time-being, unknown. Yep, it seems that Mother Felix was "sleeping around" prior to coming to Baltimore -- her new-born is, for now, unnamed also.

So what to do to support this unwed mother... I have the answer. Buy a brick. Yes, a brick.

...I first worked on a Zoomerang project for the Baltimore Zoo with some folks from Doner Advertising in 1998 (when Doner was on N Charles Street) and I've admired the Baltimore Zoo ever since. International attention to our zoo has been building with the announcement that Mother Felix was with child... er, calf.

Support for our Baltimore zoo is more important now than ever. And, I know that sometimes it's difficult to write a check to a general fund and not see anything you can hold in your hand.

You can't hold these bricks in your hand; you can walk on them, though. And, they will be engraved with your names and message. How's this for a thought: Buy a separate brick for each of your children. Once the bricks are installed take the kids for a grand field trip to find their names.

Let's make good things happen for the Baltimore Zoo. It will happen just one brick at a time.

By the way, do you know that the Baltimore Zoo operates a Penguin Cam?

Check it out during daylight hours. It couldn't be more fun.

Male Midwives? I Had No Clue!

I wasn't around Baltimore in the 1800s. Still, I had no idea. Apparently I need to head up Charles Street tomorrow for some continuing education from the folks at JHU's Homewood Museum.

They say, "The early 19th century was a pivotal time in maternal care as female midwives gave way to male midwives and obstetrics emerged as a major medical specialty. Cribs, cradles, silver baby bottle nipples, forceps, early medical books, and other period items on display offer a look at practices, traditions, and politics concerning childbirth and childrearing in early Maryland, particularly those of Baltimore families like the Carrolls of Homewood."

The event was organized by students in the Introduction to Material Culture course taught fall 2007 at Homewood as part of the JHU Krieger School’s Museums & Society Program. The course and focus show were made possible by the late Anne Merrick Pinkard.

While I'm considering about all of this, I'm kind of creeped-out thinking of the silver baby bottle nipples. That, somehow, just seems so wrong. It's not like they were serving up mint juleps or anything.