Years before there was Whole Foods and 11 farmers markets in Arlington, there was the Arlington food co-op. That volunteer health-food buying project birthed in the mid-1970s became the “Uncommon Market.” It assembled 2,000 members and a colorful cast of dedicated counterculture activists, many of whom played (and continue in) […]

Bold prediction: Last week’s arrival of the autumn solstice will bring spectacular colored leaves. They eventually will turn brown and swirl to the ground. And be chased away by roaring suburban leaf-blowers. Handy modern convenience or threat to our health and tranquility? Arlington joined the brewing national debate this spring […]

One of Arlington’s premier land-owning families, the Marceys, trace their roots to the days of log cabins. The clan is getting a fresh coat of history paint. Descendent Cal Marcey, 80, contacted me from his home adjacent to family land near Mount Olivet Church to show a draft family chronology, […]

Back-to-school rituals and football season for many hit hard this week. The gridiron game, however, has evolved since my playing days. Three area high schools this year canceled seasons due to low turnout, a University of Maryland player died this spring and both the NFL and NCAA have new rules […]

Currently, you can’t visit Arlington’s namesake attraction (statutorily called Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, and long known to those with a southern bent as the Lee Mansion). Tours are paused because the National Park Service in June began renovating the site of the beige-columned historic home overlooking the river […]

“Summer’s almost gone,” sang the late Jim Morrison of the Doors (a former Arlington resident). To stretch our time in the warm outdoors, my wife and I recently took a Sunday morning stroll by the South Four Mile Run Drive Community Garden. It should come as no surprise that what […]

Remnants of old-time racial hostility, it appears, have persisted among certain staff at Arlington’s Army Navy Country Club. I heard it from an anguished former golf course employee who showed me evidence of race-based mockery, including the tiresome use of bananas for insults. His story, backed by photos and workplace […]

I joined the several dozen who braved Arlington’s monsoon June 24 and journeyed to the raggedy outskirts of Crystal City. There, separated from the drenched audience by a moat of mud, dignitaries shoveled the first dirt to begin building the disputatious $60 million Long Bridge Aquatics and Fitness Center. Hints […]