Baltimoreans have garnered a reputation for greeting one another by tagging “hon” to their speech. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, this small piece of local dialect took center stage in a series of rancorous public debates over the identity associated with Baltimore culture. Each time, controversy followed leading to consequences ranging from protests and boycotts to formal legislative action. “Hon” brought into focus Baltimore’s past and future by symbolizing lingering divisions of race, class, gender, and belonging in the midst of campaigns to unify and modernize the city. While some decried “hon” and “the Hon” as embarrassing, others hailed the word and the related image of a down-to-earth, blue-collar woman as emblematic of the authentic Baltimorean. This book tells the story of the battles that flared over the attempts to use “hon” to construct a citywide local tradition and their consequences for the future of local culture in the United States.

Frustrated over his failure to sell antiques in Betterton, a small town on the Chesapeake Bay, Mark Hopkins, a handsome, rich and bright 27-year old former SEAL, decides to become a private art dealer and buys a farm outside Rock Hall, near the Eastern Neck Island Wildlife Refuge. Two weeks later he discovers an important impressionist painting in an antiques store in Baltimore, which he buys for $10,000 and sells for $329,000. His joy, however is short-lived when his father dies unexpectedly, forcing him to take over operation of his family's steel mill in Baltimore. After the funeral, his death is ruled "by suspicious means." A subsequent murder resolves everything, with at least two gorgeous women always competing for his love. The characters are strong, with a storyline that reads like a movie script.

Why does a rich, handsome, ambitious and talented 26-year old former SEAL settle in a small town on the Chesapeake Bay, and unknowingly carry a rare dagger around his waist? Want to know more about antiques, auctions, starting your own business, planning for the future? What are your chances of finding something worth $75,000 every Wednesday at a country auction? What happens when a murder results from a rare dagger from Baghdad, worth over a million dollars? Why is it that a homicide brings out the worst and the best in people? Why is it that a possible murderer on the loose is easier to explain, but difficult to comprehend fully, in a small town where everyone knows the suspects involved? Is the suspected foul play a crime of passion, revenge, theft, or just malice aforethought? $ Betterton has a storyline that will have you yearning for more. Author Joseph Szymanski takes the reader on a racer-dip of suspense and uncertainty in a cliff hanger that will take your breath away! ANSWERS INSIDE!

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post book critic and columnist goes on the road--in a travel book as unabashed and insightful as the author himself. Deciding to clarify the image of his home ground firsthand, Yardley set out on a trek of discovery in the car of his dreams, beginning in his adopted hometown of Baltimore and stopping at many evocative places.