"I thought it was the funniest thing I've ever seen," Caligiuri said. "I have to say the only thing more pathetic than being interested in where and with whom I've had breakfast would be the fact that a campaign would criticize somebody for even listening to a political speech by someone of a different political party. That probably crystallizes what's wrong with American politics right now."
If you're interested, when I reached Caligiuri, he'd just had lunch. Salad. With his wife. No word on any canoodling.
Get off the lawn; it's for dinner
Clarence Ridgley, a supervisor at a plastic bottle factory, was looking for blueberry bushes for his Liberty Heights yard.
Fritz Haeg, a Los Angeles architect-artist with an exhibit at New York's Whitney Museum, was looking to expand his war on front lawns.
Only the Internet could bring these two together, with this result: Ridgley's conventional front yard is about to become an artistic "installation." Under Haeg's international Edible Estates project, the grass will be ripped up next month and replaced with trees and plants that bear fruit, veggies and herbs.
Googling "edible" as he searched for those blueberry bushes, Ridgley stumbled upon news that Haeg was seeking a Baltimore yard to transform. (Haeg has already created Edible Estates in Salina, Kan.; Lakewood, Calif.; Maplewood, N.J.; and London. He has one in the works in Austin.) Already an avid backyard gardener, Ridgley submitted his address. Haeg chose it over dozens of others after a recent city tour.
He designs the gardens to be provocative and controversial, to make a statement against the "monoculture of lawns," as I wrote last month when the project was announced. Is Ridgley worried about how his new front yard will go over with neighbors? Not in the least.
"It helps to be the president of the community association," he said.
Ridgley does hope to tweak the guy across the street. For years, they've competed over "who has the greenest grass. I'm really going to blow him out of the water this year."
