Arts & Entertainment

Each year, Bethany Beach closes its summer season with the traditional farewell of the Bethany Beach Jazz Funeral on Labor Day. And, on the following Saturday, residents and visitors alike look forward to a slightly more relaxed post-summer atmosphere as they browse around the boardwalk and take in — and take home — the best art the area has to offer.

If a day of crabbing is what a customer wants, that can be accommodated. If they want to have a dozen crabs waiting on the boat to be eaten while they tour Delaware’s serene inland bays, that is also possible. Even if they want a trip to Seacrets in Ocean City for a couple of drinks and lunch, they will not be let down.

“I’ve been doing it most of my life,” shared Millville’s Diane Bennett about her artwork, which includes painting, basket-weaving and photography. “The kids used to steal my stuff from art class, so I figured I was pretty good — although I didn’t go to a very nice school,” she added with a chuckle.

It’s one of the hottest tickets in the area each summer, as lovers of beautiful homes and coastal décor take advantage of the rare opportunity to enter into otherwise private abodes, and see some of the best and most beautiful of the area’s dwellings.

It is quite amazing the number of places that are just a short trip from Bethany Beach that people know little or nothing about. All you have to do is to head inland a bit to the areas we know as the “inland bays.”

Ruth McNeill had been in the United States for more than 30 years when she answered a call from federal officials in med-February. After procrastinating for years but eventually passing the 10-question test she called “basic,” the German-born woman traveled to Philadelphia, following the call to receive her U.S. citizenship.

Since late 2004, Selbyville Police Chief Scott Collins has been sifting through minutes of old town meetings and copies of local newspapers archived in Dover and Selbyville or at various news organizations’ headquarters, searching for information on the town and department’s history.

Inside the doors of the Artful Bean in Bethany Beach, jazz or contemporary music usually graces the stereo system. Hand-blown glass decorates the store, along with ceramics, pottery and paintings, showcasing the work of artists from the local area and the region.

Organizers of the Seaside Craft Show had their fingers crossed last year in June, with the first edition of the Bethany Beach boardwalk event. But they were blessed with fine weather and a better-than-expected turnout, marking the event’s inaugural edition as a genuine blowout success.

For the price of a single meal at some local restaurants, area residents and visitors will be able to sample a wide variety of food and drinks and listen to jazz music on Sunday, at an event that is becoming an early-summer staple in the Bethany Beach area.

This month our interview is with Brian Trout, Golf Pro at Cripple Creek Golf and Country Club in Dagsboro.

The Pyle Center is renowned for the large numbers of kids that participate in either baseball or softball each summer. But tucked away behind its gamut of fields lies another opportunity for those who might like to try something other than the traditional ball and stick sports.

Bethany Beach resident John Scordo remembers growing up in Baltimore city in a hot-rod era. He remembers walking the streets of Baltimore, being in awe of the 1949 Mercurys, and the old Hudsons, just to name a couple models.

None of the members of the Bear Trap Historical Committee grew up in the area. Most of them haven’t even worked much locally. They bought houses in the Bear Trap Dunes community to retire. But since moving there, they have shown a keen interest in the area, its people and its history.

The annual Springfest festival, which welcomes in spring and celebrates the start of summer, has taken over the Ocean City (Md.) Inlet parking lot this weekend with entertainment, arts, crafts and food. Don’t drive when you can park and ride for $2

It wows ’em. Literally. The glass double doors whooshed aside as another responsible, law-abiding citizen entered Sussex County’s gleaming new Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) facility in Georgetown. “Wow. I’m impressed,” she said. She wasn’t alone.

I have been completely duped. My mother has learned to cook.
For years, I have gotten mile after mile out of my mother’s lack of food knowledge and inability to cook. I have played the role of savior at most holiday dinners over the years, coming to save the day, been the object of countless phone calls about recipes, cookware and where to shop.

Imagine being a high school student from a small Eastern European country, with a history of human settlement dating back thousands of years B.C. (possibly to the Stone Age). Then you come to the U.S. and find that many of your American high school contemporaries don’t know anything about your country, or where it’s located.

Lanier Phillips marched in Selma, Ala., alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963. He worked as a technical specialist on lighting projects with Jacques Cousteau.

Here and there one begins to notice the wispy smoke and sweet smell of barbeque. The daffodils and crocuses are up. The trees are greening. And the songbirds have returned — the human variety, too — they’re busy working out their do-re-mi’s in preparation for this year’s Springtime Jamboree, on Friday, April 7, and Saturday, April 8.