Wednesday, January 31, 2007

could briggs chaney get a nordstrom?

like this, but it's a bankOkay, not a Nordstrom department store (or even a Nordstrom Roack), but Commerce Bank, which calls itself the Nordstrom of banks, will be opening a new branch next to Briggs Chaney Plaza. In a nod to its idol, the new Commerce Bank will have a pianist in the lobby and overly helpful staff that follow you around the check-writing table.

MEANWHILE: Ike Leggett's been out of public office in the County for a few years, but surely he didn't think all those portables out behind our schools were there for show.
"One thing that surprised me was the lack for resources for fundamental things like books, or seats at schools." - Ike Leggett
Or maybe he did, as East County residents had to spell it out for him at a Town Hall Meeting at Northwood High last week. It's a shame that the Burtonsvillian wasn't aware of what Kemp Mill resident Beryn Randall called "some neglect of this part of the county." Ike and I are going to have a good chat next month.

WHERE'S OUR GREAT GATSBY? That trashy new movie Blood and Chocolate was apparently based on a book, and that book was written by a former Aspen Hill librarian. Between that and the beach-novel Rockville Pike (set near F. Scott Fitzgerald's grave in Rockville), Montgomery County's created a pretty miserable literary canon. Whoops: I forgot Goof and Other Stories, written by Kensington resident (and my creative writing professor at Maryland) Sean Enright. Okay, so maybe he'll redeem us.

Montgomery County needs its own Great Gatsby. I wonder who'll write it? (I'm up for it.)

UPDATE: Sligo also mentions Nora Roberts (romance novels, or if she's writing as J.D. Robb, futuristic detective novels) and George Pelecanos (crime novels). That doesn't add much to the Canon. I don't mean to be a literary elitist, but they don't inspire me either way.

4 comments:

Sligo said...

No mention of Nora Roberts (originally from Silver Spring) and George Pelecanos (East Silver Spring resident)?

perrik said...

And don't forget mystery writer Martha Grimes, who taught at Montgomery College!

Anonymous said...

Why the "teaser" with Nordstrom? This bank doesn't publicly call itself that. You run a good blog...please promise you won't resort again to teasers just to get eyeballs on your story. We have enough of that already with Fox News, WTOP and every other media outlet with the exception of the Washington Post.

Dan Reed said...

I apologize if I misled you, but I figure that the idea of a Nordstrom opening on Briggs Chaney Road was too ridiculous for anyone to take seriously.