Commentary
Ocean City Today June 10, 2022
Page 55
Rt. 90 survey asks obvious question Pardon the cynicism, but the state’s opinion survey of what needs to be done to help Route 90 accommodate the increasing flow of traffic will no doubt reveal that ... something needs to be done to help Route 90 accommodate the increasing flow of traffic. What that something might be is no secret, since Ocean City’s elected officials have been begging for years for a fourlane Route 90 and another bridge or the widening current one. There are no other options, so it would seem that the June 21 virtual public meeting set up by the State Highway Administration to assess the public’s thoughts on the matter is just a required part of the process. This isn’t to belittle the effort, but the real questions regarding improvements to Route 90 are not about what to do, but how to do it and when. Residents who have lived here for a while will recall all the studies, surveys and discussions devoted to the possibility of a new Route 50 bridge. That extended consideration led to ... well, the Cambria Hotel being built on the site where the new bridge was to empty into town. As for the expansion of Route 90, the critical issues will be how to get the most traffic into and out of town at the least cost to the environment and the state’s highway money. Those are complicated questions that only experts can answer. How the public feels about it is still important, since having citizen support for a project makes the realization of it much easier, but it remains that highway engineers, traffic experts and emergency services authorities already know that the current Route 90 isn’t going to meet the needs of this area much longer. And that assumes Ocean City experiences no extreme weather circumstances that necessitate mass evacuations in its busiest months. So, yes, the public should attend the virtual meeting at 6:30 p.m. June 21, at https://mdot-sha-md90-us50-to-md528wo782b11-maryland.hub.arcgis.com. But again, residents should understand that wanting something done is the easy part. Getting it done is another matter.
Ocean City Today 11934 Ocean Gateway, Suite 6, Ocean City, Md. 21842 Phone: 410-723-6397 / Fax: 410-723-6511.
EDITOR ............................................ Stewart Dobson MANAGING EDITOR ................................ Lisa Capitelli STAFF WRITERS .................................... Greg Wehner, ..........................................Jack Chavez, Mallory Panuska ACCOUNT MANAGERS.......... Mary Cooper, Vicki Shrier ..............................................................Amanda Shick CLASSIFIEDS/LEGALS MANAGER .... Nancy MacCubbin SENIOR DESIGNER ................................ Susan Parks GRAPHIC ARTIST .................................... Kelly Brown PUBLISHER........................................ Christine Brown ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT ...................... Gini Tufts Ocean City Today is published weekly by FLAG Publications, Inc. 11934 Ocean Gateway, Suite 6, Ocean City, Md. 21842 Ocean City Today is available by subscription at $150 a year. Visit us on the Web at www.oceancitytoday.com. Copyright 2022
PUBLIC EYE
Dogs: real honesty
I have had dogs for so much of my life that it’s hard to imagine what my existence would be without them. True, tumbleweeds of dog hair would no longer roll across the vast plain of the living room floor, no more would there be fascinating noseprint abstracts on the storm doors, and the intriguing checkerboard of lick marks on the kitchen tile — gone as well. Other than that — oh, I forBy got to mention the creative Stewart drool art, being run out of the Dobson TV room because of air quality concerns and barking at 1 a.m. because, “SOMETHING’S OUTSIDE, I JUST KNOW IT” — life without a dog for me would be a big bowl of nothing at all. I’ve thought about it quite a bit lately, as my faithful companions advance into their elder years. Crazy Eddie, for instance, might be more appropriately referred to as Where-Am-I Eddie, while the formerly feral Special K has found quiet satisfaction as a doorstop and an occasional lawn ornament. From my reflections on this subject, I have concluded that dogs are superior to people in many respects. For one thing, they seldom lie, at least if food is not involved, in which case they will perjure themselves without remorse. “Did you have your early-mid-afternoon-onthe-hour snack?” I’ll ask them because that’s what people do, as if dogs understand the human concept of complete sentences. Their response, if they could talk as we semiexpect them to do, would be, “We haven’t had anything to eat in days. No, make that years. Come to think of it, we don’t even know what a
snack is it’s been so long.” You know they’re lying through their snaggley teeth, because you saw someone else do the snack duty thing about two minutes earlier. Otherwise, dogs are flat-out honest. Say, for instance, you encounter someone you don’t like in a social circumstance. You’re going to act nice anyway because that’s what the situation demands. A dog, on the other hand, doesn’t care if it’s getting a belly rub from the Queen of Denmark on live TV, it will send out the alarm the moment it sees someone it doesn’t like. “Fed Ex guy alert! Fed Ex guy alert!” Not that the Fed Ex guy has done anything to warrant that reaction, although the dog thinks, “I keep chasing that truck away, and it keeps coming back.” Another thing dogs have going for them is that they don’t get hung up on appearances. If you say, “Let’s go out,” a dog will not reply, “My hair’s a mess.” The fact is it could have Greenland-sized tufts sprouting on its head and still say, “OKAY! I’m ready to go, yup, yup, yup, ready, ready, ready.” Even worse, you could be in the middle of a huge lunch crowd at a bayside restaurant that welcomes dogs on its beach, and your dog will assume the question mark position just like that. “Oh sir? Sir! Your dog is ...” “Yeah, I know. But it’s not like I can order him to reverse course once he’s gone past the equator.” Admittedly, that’s not what you would call a wonderful thing, but it is honest, and it is funny ... if you give it 10 years or so. But that’s how dogs are — fun, faithful and entertaining, even when you pretend, “That’s not my dog, lady. He must have followed me here.”
