I know this sounds hoity-toity-- but the Center Club (in the transamerica building) has the absolute BEST crab cakes. No filler. Jumbo lump crab meat just held together with a Charm City magic and uber fresh.

Please check out the Woman's Industrial Exchange at 333 North Charles Street. We are open 6 days a week and have been selling local crafts in our building since 1899 - yep - that is not a typo! A group of women started the Baltimore Exchange in 1880 and bought the building in 1899. We have three other great establishments in our building and seven apartments. You can call our Shop Manager, Treena, at 410-685-4388 to set up an appt or send in your application on our website www.womansindustrialexchange.org to be a consignor.

Lame and pathetic. And I, unfortunately, am to blame. So with my apologies, here is a long overdue answer:

The cities were originally chosen based on partnerships we had with other weeklies: The Stranger in Seattle, Portland Mercury, etc. With the exception of The Stranger, these did not help build a core membership of smart locals and so they terminated. Baltimore was kept alive because it had the signs that it could become more like Questionland Seattle.

We recently put a huge effort into an update to the site and added many features which we thought were lacking (following questions, people etc.). Unfortunately the effort directed on the technology meant sacrificing efforts elsewhere.

We are based in Seattle which means we have always had two local experts around to make sure questions were answered etc. We cannot play that role in Baltimore and don't realistically have the resources to staff the individual sites with a smart, local person to promote the site, make sure questions are answered, recruit experts and a core membership.

We'd love to see the other sites flourish and would of course appreciate any ideas and feedback on how to make that happen on a budget of effectively zero.

Thanks for your interest and my sincere apologies for the delay. I wasn't aware of the question as it arrived somewhere in a thicket during the Questionland redesign.

Rebecca- that is my same question. I'm a huge fan of the stranger in Seattle and I thought-- is this the same Questionland here in Charm City? Lame no answers in 6 months.

Wit and Wisdom

I had a good crabcake recently at Koco's Pub in Hamilton. www.kocospub.com

Truck Patch Farms at the JFX market. The bacon is awesome!

The "Cardinal Sin" at Chazz: A Bronx Original!

Cora @ McCabe's made 1 for my hubby last weekend and he kept raving about how good it was!

Give a call to Appalachian Bluegrass, on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville. Also, check out the website of the Baltimore Folk Music Society. Many of these things are private, so you just have to get to know some of the folks and you will find what you want.