If you’re not convinced that Hampden can sustain another coffee shop, don’t mention your concern to Susan Weis-Bohlen, owner of breathe books. She’s been energetically raising funds to launch a cafe in the bookstore’s converted house, on the Avenue, that will spill out onto the wraparound porch when the weather is warm. “Book sales are down,” Weis-Bohlen says. “We have to adapt to the new reality,” which includes expanding into new areas of business.
The place aims to fill a niche, eschewing white flour and white sugar in its menu of vegan, gluten-free, and Ayurvedic-influenced treats prepared by Renee and Don Gorman, once of the health-foody Puffins in Pikesville and, more recently, fixtures at the Waverly farmers market. Weis-Bohlen also hired Joanne Goshen, of the defunct Louie’s Bookstore Cafe, as cafe manager. “Louie’s has been in my head the whole time,” Weis-Bohlen says. “When Joanne sent her resume, I thought, This is unreal.”
When the Volstead Act was set down in 1919, the Martick family began selling moonshine from its tiny grocery store on West Mulberry Street. At one point, Harry Martick was sent to a Pennsylvania prison for selling liquor to a federal agent. The legendary Martick’s operated post-prohibition as a legitimate bar, frequented by artists and writers, and, beginning in the 1970s, as a fine dining institution helmed by Harry’s son Morris. Sometime soon, the spot will reopen, taking on a new persona while remaining saturated in its storied past. The newest incarnation will be a speakeasy, with small tables, sofas, and classic cocktails inside, a discreet entrance with no signage and a bell for entry―designed to encourage an aura of exclusivity―on the outside.The partners are Morris’ octogenarian brother Alex and nephew Steve Shockett, both attorneys who share office space, along with Brooks Bennett, who has been involved in restaurant projects in Harford County, Towson, and Baltimore City. “This is not a reproduction,” says Shockett. “We’ve got the original tile floors and tin ceiling. It’ll be the real deal.”
But all the rest is there - same suspension system, same 17-inch alloys, same auto with its very good gear Logic Control and hill-start assist, same audio with its controls and Bluetooth integrated into the steering wheel, same climate-control air conditioning, and the same level of safety specification which has given it a five-star crash rating.
It drives well, too. Naturally, power is down when compared to the AWD CRV, because the engine is smaller in capacity. But performance is still sound thanks to the capability of Honda's 2.0-litre i-VTEC engine, which offers 114 kW of power and 190 Nm of torque.
Body size and interior dimensions are identical to the AWD Sport model. That means this SUV is smaller in size, but bigger on the inside. The vehicle's length is 30mm shorter and height is 30mm lower when compared to the previous- generation model, but thanks to advances in materials and good design, the interior headroom remains the same and shoulder width has gone up by 75mm.
The only real change is that the rear seats are now 40mm lower than before. But the hip points of those seats remain higher than those at the front, which means rear seat visibility is still good.
Honda tells us the 2012 CRV's body and glass have been completely redesigned in the interests of improved visibility - and it is good - and what I like are the location and feel of the steering wheel plus the highish positioning of the transmission.
New in this model is a central LED screen that displays information ranging from average speed, to kilometres to empty. It also displays audio and Bluetooth hands-free information, the controls for which are mounted on the steering wheel.
One reason people buy SUV-style vehicles is to enjoy more rear load space, and this new CRV has had this area increased from 524 litres to a very good 589 litres. And, thanks to Honda's Magic Seat system, the rear seats now have the ability to lay completely flat, which can increase maximum cargo space to 1669 litres. That's a massive amount of space.
The S also has Honda's Econ operating mode which, at the push of a button, alters the CRV's electronic throttle so it doesn't respond as much to accelerator pedal input. It also has the Eco Assist feature which changes the colour of panels either side of the rev counter to encourage efficient driving - white for inefficient, green for efficient.
All this allowed me to achieve an average fuel consumption better than the stated 7.7 L/100 km, which is very good for any SUV-shaped petrol vehicle, even if it is front-driven.
Having already spent quite an amount of time behind the wheel of the new CRV Sport, I did find that at times the smaller- engined S version was slightly lacking in grunt. But I also found it to be quieter and with a better ride. So overall that's a nice balance of what you get, and what you don't, when compared to its CRV sibling that retails for $9000 more.
Even if that means inviting controversy. In GTA III, the player could make use of the services of a prostitute to bolster his health - and then kill her afterwards to get his money back. There was an immediate chorus of disapproval from concerned groups, but Rockstar refused to engage them after pointing out that its games are for adults, not children. The company had a point - last year, a report from Bond University in Queensland found that the average age of gamers in Australia is 32.
"We were always an easy target," says Houser. "Even when our most violent and antisocial game, Manhunt [where the player has to commit a series of increasingly gruesome murders], came out in 2003, the film Saw 3, which is far more violent, was being lauded as a slasher classic.
"Interacting with a system, as one does in a game, is no better or worse than looking at pictures or reading words in a book. I don't think society is in great shape, but I don't think video games have caused the problems."
In Australia, GTA III was refused an MA15+ classification due to its "sexualised violence"; with no R18+ rating for video games available here, copies were pulled from shelves.
Rockstar also became the specific target of proposed US legislation to limit the actions of video-game characters, with Hillary Clinton calling for a probe on video-game violence. "[Children are] playing a game that encourages them to have sex with prostitutes and then murder them. That's kind of hard to digest," she said in a 2005 speech.
Lawsuits followed, many brought before the courts by Florida attorney and religious crusader Jack Thompson, who claimed he wouldn't be happy until Rockstar was out of business. When GTA: Vice City was released, it immediately became obvious that Rockstar had no intention of tempering the brashness of the series. But it was with the release of GTA: San Andreas two years later that the company would face its most famous - and most expensive - controversy.
Although GTA: San Andreas was awash with gang violence, the game was eventually banned in a number of countries, including Australia, because of a hidden piece of code, accessible to just a handful of particularly technologically adept gamers. Almost a year after its release, a Dutch hacker
released a patch for the PC version of the game which unlocked a piece of code that allowed the player to have sex, albeit dressed, with his in-game girlfriend - and thus gain health - by pressing a series of buttons.
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The lawsuits kept coming, this time with claimants accusing Rockstar of having misrepresented the game's content. The presence of sexualised content on the disc meant the game would need reclassifying. The cost of amending and rebranding GTA: San Andreas, and settling class-action suits, ended up in the tens of millions of dollars.
The new sequel is due out early next year and Houser calls its central protagonist, Trevor, "the most psychopathic in GTA history". He adds: "If people don't like it they are always free to not play it."
The place aims to fill a niche, eschewing white flour and white sugar in its menu of vegan, gluten-free, and Ayurvedic-influenced treats prepared by Renee and Don Gorman, once of the health-foody Puffins in Pikesville and, more recently, fixtures at the Waverly farmers market. Weis-Bohlen also hired Joanne Goshen, of the defunct Louie’s Bookstore Cafe, as cafe manager. “Louie’s has been in my head the whole time,” Weis-Bohlen says. “When Joanne sent her resume, I thought, This is unreal.”
When the Volstead Act was set down in 1919, the Martick family began selling moonshine from its tiny grocery store on West Mulberry Street. At one point, Harry Martick was sent to a Pennsylvania prison for selling liquor to a federal agent. The legendary Martick’s operated post-prohibition as a legitimate bar, frequented by artists and writers, and, beginning in the 1970s, as a fine dining institution helmed by Harry’s son Morris. Sometime soon, the spot will reopen, taking on a new persona while remaining saturated in its storied past. The newest incarnation will be a speakeasy, with small tables, sofas, and classic cocktails inside, a discreet entrance with no signage and a bell for entry―designed to encourage an aura of exclusivity―on the outside.The partners are Morris’ octogenarian brother Alex and nephew Steve Shockett, both attorneys who share office space, along with Brooks Bennett, who has been involved in restaurant projects in Harford County, Towson, and Baltimore City. “This is not a reproduction,” says Shockett. “We’ve got the original tile floors and tin ceiling. It’ll be the real deal.”
But all the rest is there - same suspension system, same 17-inch alloys, same auto with its very good gear Logic Control and hill-start assist, same audio with its controls and Bluetooth integrated into the steering wheel, same climate-control air conditioning, and the same level of safety specification which has given it a five-star crash rating.
It drives well, too. Naturally, power is down when compared to the AWD CRV, because the engine is smaller in capacity. But performance is still sound thanks to the capability of Honda's 2.0-litre i-VTEC engine, which offers 114 kW of power and 190 Nm of torque.
Body size and interior dimensions are identical to the AWD Sport model. That means this SUV is smaller in size, but bigger on the inside. The vehicle's length is 30mm shorter and height is 30mm lower when compared to the previous- generation model, but thanks to advances in materials and good design, the interior headroom remains the same and shoulder width has gone up by 75mm.
The only real change is that the rear seats are now 40mm lower than before. But the hip points of those seats remain higher than those at the front, which means rear seat visibility is still good.
Honda tells us the 2012 CRV's body and glass have been completely redesigned in the interests of improved visibility - and it is good - and what I like are the location and feel of the steering wheel plus the highish positioning of the transmission.
New in this model is a central LED screen that displays information ranging from average speed, to kilometres to empty. It also displays audio and Bluetooth hands-free information, the controls for which are mounted on the steering wheel.
One reason people buy SUV-style vehicles is to enjoy more rear load space, and this new CRV has had this area increased from 524 litres to a very good 589 litres. And, thanks to Honda's Magic Seat system, the rear seats now have the ability to lay completely flat, which can increase maximum cargo space to 1669 litres. That's a massive amount of space.
The S also has Honda's Econ operating mode which, at the push of a button, alters the CRV's electronic throttle so it doesn't respond as much to accelerator pedal input. It also has the Eco Assist feature which changes the colour of panels either side of the rev counter to encourage efficient driving - white for inefficient, green for efficient.
All this allowed me to achieve an average fuel consumption better than the stated 7.7 L/100 km, which is very good for any SUV-shaped petrol vehicle, even if it is front-driven.
Having already spent quite an amount of time behind the wheel of the new CRV Sport, I did find that at times the smaller- engined S version was slightly lacking in grunt. But I also found it to be quieter and with a better ride. So overall that's a nice balance of what you get, and what you don't, when compared to its CRV sibling that retails for $9000 more.
Even if that means inviting controversy. In GTA III, the player could make use of the services of a prostitute to bolster his health - and then kill her afterwards to get his money back. There was an immediate chorus of disapproval from concerned groups, but Rockstar refused to engage them after pointing out that its games are for adults, not children. The company had a point - last year, a report from Bond University in Queensland found that the average age of gamers in Australia is 32.
"We were always an easy target," says Houser. "Even when our most violent and antisocial game, Manhunt [where the player has to commit a series of increasingly gruesome murders], came out in 2003, the film Saw 3, which is far more violent, was being lauded as a slasher classic.
"Interacting with a system, as one does in a game, is no better or worse than looking at pictures or reading words in a book. I don't think society is in great shape, but I don't think video games have caused the problems."
In Australia, GTA III was refused an MA15+ classification due to its "sexualised violence"; with no R18+ rating for video games available here, copies were pulled from shelves.
Rockstar also became the specific target of proposed US legislation to limit the actions of video-game characters, with Hillary Clinton calling for a probe on video-game violence. "[Children are] playing a game that encourages them to have sex with prostitutes and then murder them. That's kind of hard to digest," she said in a 2005 speech.
Lawsuits followed, many brought before the courts by Florida attorney and religious crusader Jack Thompson, who claimed he wouldn't be happy until Rockstar was out of business. When GTA: Vice City was released, it immediately became obvious that Rockstar had no intention of tempering the brashness of the series. But it was with the release of GTA: San Andreas two years later that the company would face its most famous - and most expensive - controversy.
Although GTA: San Andreas was awash with gang violence, the game was eventually banned in a number of countries, including Australia, because of a hidden piece of code, accessible to just a handful of particularly technologically adept gamers. Almost a year after its release, a Dutch hacker
released a patch for the PC version of the game which unlocked a piece of code that allowed the player to have sex, albeit dressed, with his in-game girlfriend - and thus gain health - by pressing a series of buttons.
See your ad here
The lawsuits kept coming, this time with claimants accusing Rockstar of having misrepresented the game's content. The presence of sexualised content on the disc meant the game would need reclassifying. The cost of amending and rebranding GTA: San Andreas, and settling class-action suits, ended up in the tens of millions of dollars.
The new sequel is due out early next year and Houser calls its central protagonist, Trevor, "the most psychopathic in GTA history". He adds: "If people don't like it they are always free to not play it."