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Dan Rodricks

    Dan Rodricks is a former longtime columnist for The Baltimore Sun, and a local radio and television personality who has won several national and regional journalism awards over a reporting, writing and broadcast career spanning five decades. He is the author of three books, including "Father's Day Creek" (Apprentice House 2019).

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    "I met thousands of generous, brilliant, creative, weird and eccentric people. They made me feel welcome. They taught me a lot about the city and region. I quickly started to feel at home."

    Dan Rodricks: In Baltimore, a dream job and a wonderful life. Thank you. | STAFF COMMENTARY

    My sincere thanks go to the hundreds of readers who commented on the column or called to report a problem, or scolded me, or set me straight about some aspect...
    A flyer from the Temperance League in Baltimore in the 1950s applauded Maryland Gov. Theodore R. McKeldin for his refusal to serve alcoholic beverages in the executive mansion in Annapolis.

    Dan Rodricks: A warning about booze in dangerously anti-science times | STAFF COMMENTARY

    "I think the Surgeon General’s office is trying to do what was done for tobacco in 1965."
    Tyson Koska's Crack The Sky collection includes the progressive rock band’s albums from the 1970s. Rolling Stone named the band's first album the debut album of the year in 1975. A half-century later, the band still performs shows and has a loyal following.

    Dan Rodricks: How Baltimore, like no other city, embraced Crack The Sky 50 years ago | STAFF COMMENTARY

    “We started to walk on stage and got a standing ovation before one note."
    A quotation from the late Thurgood Marshall, Baltimore native and Supreme Court justice, can be found on the steps of Baltimore's Western District police station.

    Dan Rodricks: 15 memorable quotes and bon mots | STAFF COMMENTARY

    And now, before I forget them all, more quotes and bon mots from my personal collection: “I’m not an actor, I’m a movie star.”  Peter O’Toole, as Alan Swann, in...
    Cathy Raggio, at age 3, with her parents, Dorothy and Gwilym Owen, in a polio ward in Pittsburgh in the early 1950s.

    Dan Rodricks: Given RFK Jr.’s nomination as health secretary, a memoir of polio and the vaccine that saved millions | STAFF COMMENTARY

    It's nuts to have anti-vaxxers anywhere near public health policy
    The Swallow at the Hollow, York Road and Northern Parkway in Baltimore, is a great place to hang out and talk baseball or lacrosse with customers and bartenders.

    Dan Rodricks: A totally optional, merely suggested month-by-month to-do list for 2025 | STAFF COMMENTARY

    For the new year, a list of 12 things you'd like to do -- one per month.
    In June 1978, President Jimmy Carter attended ceremonies at his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, with, from left, First Lady Rosalynn Carter, Sen. Charles Mathias of Maryland, and Adm. Kinnard McKee, the academy’s superintendent.

    Dan Rodricks: Appreciating Jimmy Carter, honorable president and decent man | STAFF COMMENTARY

    Despite the bruises he incurred during the rough patch of history that marked his administration, Jimmy Carter will be remembered as a man who served the nation honorably.
    Someone tied a nearly new, blue plaid scarf around a drain pipe from the Orleans Street Viaduct, along Fallsway in Baltimore.

    Dan Rodricks: One scarf, two kinds of people and 10 things nobody asked about | STAFF COMMENTARY

    Nobody asked me, but . . . my last column of 2024.
    Members of the Jourdan family – Bella, Ethan, their mother Ericka, and Kailey Jourdan hand a Christmas stocking and other gift items to Shelley Grant outside Our Daily Bread on the Fallsway in Baltimore.

    Dan Rodricks: The kindness of strangers on the way to Christmas | STAFF COMMENTARY

    A Baltimore County police officer goes the extra mile for a woman who ran out of gas.
    Student dancers of the Baltimore School for the Arts perform “The Nutcracker” with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in a holiday concert for school children.

    Dan Rodricks: The best hour of the waning year | STAFF COMMENTARY

    I found some unexpected emotion rising in my chest — a feeling of pride in these young dancers from the BSA, in the symphony behind them, in the hall named...