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tresp4ssing · 5 days ago
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(  hugh dancy  .  cis man  .  he/him  )  .    ⸻  bennett combe  ,  a  forty three  year  old  ,  has  survived  another  day  in  red  creek  where  they  have  lived  for  thirty years  .  the  lurker  is  known  for  being  dilligent  and  despondent  and  is  often  associated  with  fingerprinted lenses upon one's glasses , a journal whose script is clearly written in haste , accolades and praise of one's work as the ultimate high  .  in  a  small  town  where  they  work  as  the owner of the register  word  travels  fast  .  it’s  hard  to  keep  a  secret  ,  and  it  looks  like  the  boogeyman  knows  that  THIS FILE CANNOT BE FOUND .
PART : 001 — THE BASICS
full name : bennett connell combe. nickname(s) : ben is acceptable, though he doesn't like it too much. age : forty3 yrs old. hometown : baltimore, maryland, usa. gender & pronouns : cis man, he/him. orientation : bisexual, biromantic. western sun sign : taurus.
PART : 002 — THE APPEARANCE
faceclaim : hugh dancy. height : 5'10". hair color : dark brown. eye color : hazel. distinct marking(s) : ear-length, unruly waves ; a small section of raised skin under his left eye, the result of a teenage skateboarding accident ; a permanent indentation where brows meet in a furrow ; varying levels of beardedness as an indicator of his stress ; bad posture, as if he is curling in on himself in search of warmth
PART : 003 — DIG DEEPER
likes : romanticizing  other  versions  of  his  life,  the  smell  of  leather,  sinking  into  a  crowd  and  not  having  to  feel  like  you're  forced  to  be  anyone  or  anything,  the  sound  of  rain  pattering  against  glass,  solo  walks  around  a  neighborhood  park,  the  white  noise  provided  by  a  ceiling  fan,  feeding  stray  animals  outside  his  house dislikes : the  harsh  white  lighting  always  found  in  office  spaces,  dust,  objects  being  out  of  place,  staying  up  late,  snowstorms,  people  who  are  always  late,  conducting  interviews,  pickles  of  any  kind,  abrupt  noises
PART : 004 — QUICK FACTS
born  to  two  parents,  both  laywers,  with  his  father  in  corporate  law  and  his  mother  in  family  law,  the  concept  of  work  ethic  was  constantly  at  the  center  of  their  home  life
the  tale  is  one  of  many  young  boys,  born  with  a  shiny  silver  spoon  -  absent  parents,  raised  by  a  nanny,  attends  boarding  school  in  some  rural  northeast  region  just  to  get  him  out  of  their  hair  and  leave  the  care  to  overbearing  professors  and  school  staff
bennett's  detachment  from  his  home  life  easily  proved  to  have  affected  him  in  a  substantial  manner  -  it  simply  depends  on  who  you  are  to  make  the  call  as  a  net  positive  or  one  with  more  detrimental  effects
he  had  always  been  a  quiet  boy,  not  necessarily  anti-social,  but  reclusive,  in  terms  of  always  keeping  his  head  down  and  nose  out  of  everyone's  business
teachers  and  guardians  saw  him  as  an  obedient  student  -  one  who  remained  in  line  and  never  questioned  anything
fast  forward  to  age  thirteen,  where  his  father  scored  a  higher-level  position  with  a  michigan  firm,  prompting  their  move.  his  mother  also  lucked  out  with  an  adjunct  professor  position  at  the  university  of  michigan,  ann  arbor.  they  decided  on  red  creek  to  remain  out  of  the  noise  that  would  come  with  living  near  a  big  city  -  a  quaint  little  town  seemed  like  a  perfect  transition
they  opted  for  public  school  this  time,  mostly  out  of  convenience,  figuring  bennett  could  hold  his  own  as  he  started  at  the  local  school,  just  a  few  blocks  away  from  their  new  home.  it  was  mostly  his  mild  temperament  that  convinced  them,  figuring  that  he  would  keep  himself  out  of  trouble  regardless
some  time  into  his  high  school  career,  his  mother  became  pregnant  -  purely  an  accident.  initially,  they  took  a  similar  approach,  employing  a  full-time  nanny  to  deal  with  raising  bennett's  new  sibling  immediately  after  his  mother  returned  to  work.  eventually,  she  quit,  seemingly  out  of  nowhere,  leaving  bennett  to  balance  his  time  between  his  new  younger  sibling  and  school
in  order  to  continue  looking  after  them,  and  because  of  the  free  tuition  since  his  mother  was  employed  there,  he  decided  to  pursue  his  journalism  degree  at  the  university  of  michigan.  it  was  more  so  an  interest  born  out  of  practicality  than  interest.  his  dreams  of  becoming  a  writer  were  fully  compartmentalized  into  his  idea  of  a  pipe  dream
IN REDCREEK ...
the  murders  and  disappearances  of  ‘99  began  his  first  year  of  university,  though  much  of  it  was  only  brought  to  his  knowledge  via  hearsay  and  snippets  of  the  news  he’d  pick  up  on.  he  lived  on  campus  monday  through  friday,  routinely  going  home  for  weekends  and  holidays 
much  of  his  journalistic  resume  relied  on  his  participation  within  various  publications  and  the  official  student  newspapper  of  umich
following  his  university  graduation  in  '03,  he  took  up  a  part-time  job  at  the  local  pharmacy,  a  cashier,  only  to  supplement  his  life  and  cover  his  rent  while  he  was  paid  per  story  at  the  register
eventually  working  his  way  through  the  team  -  hired  on  as  a  full-time  journalist  in  ‘04,  then  a  reporter  from  ’07-'12,  to  an  editor  in  ‘13-'15,  and  assistant  editor  in  ‘15-’20.  his  main  coverage  was  local  weather,  and  eventually  civil  disputes.  he  wholeheartedly  believes  that  his  rise  was  because  of  his  compliance  and  flexibility,  rather  than  his  passion  and  ability.  tldr  ;  he  feels  like  a  sellout,  and  he  probably  is  one
since  2021,  he  has  been  the  editor-in-chief  and  owner  of  the  register.  part  of  him  believes  that  the  sensationalizing  of  the  copycat  murders  and  disappearances  may  give  a  new  flare  to  the  publication,  as  much  as  he  would  hate  to  admit  it  out  loud
he  as  a  boss  is  just  like  his  parents,  methodical,  cold,  and  only  attached  to  all  matters  work  related
PART : 005 — POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS
npcs
heather  visser  —  the  two  were  the  same  age,  though  she  was  a  grade  below  him.  they  would  have  a  few  classes  that  overlapped,  mainly  honors  and  APs,  as  she  was  ever  the  achiever.  the  two  had  been  lab  partners  his  senior  year  of  high  school  in  their  ap  chemistry  class.  he  has  nothing  but  fondness  for  heather,  having  both  shared  their  dreams  for  what  they  hoped  their  adult  lives  would  look  like
wanted connections
here.
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justforbooks · 10 months ago
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The American novelist John Barth, who has died aged 93, was a noted evangelist for experimental fiction, beguiling his readers with complex stories within stories.
He claimed as his patron saint Scheherazade in the Arabian Nights, the vizier’s daughter whose tales, spun out for 1,001 nights, entranced King Shahryar: “The whole frame of these thousand nights and a night,” Barth said, “speaks to my heart, directly and intimately – and in many ways at once personal and technical.”
He came to notice with his third novel, The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), a riotous mock-epic pastiche that drew upon a satire of American manners of the same title published in 1708 by one Ebenezer Cooke.
Reviewers compared the book to Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, and enjoyed Barth’s rollicking use of coincidence, parody, farce, sentimentality and melodrama. It was much-hyped – “One of the greatest works of fiction of our time,” said the writer and artist Richard Kostelanetz – but Gore Vidal found Barth’s humour to be laboured: “I could not so much as summon up a smile at the lazy jokes and the horrendous pastiche of what Barth takes to be 18th-century English.” Other critics complained of its excessive length, narrow emotional range and an underlying facetiousness in Barth’s tone.
His next novel, Giles Goat-Boy (1966), brought Barth critical and commercial success. It was a mythology drenched campus novel, complete with cold war allegories and self-reflexive narratives, 766 pages long. Barth’s penchant for addressing political, religious and philosophical issues gave his novel a flavour of seriousness that was widely praised. Vidal, however, called it “a book to be taught rather than read”.
The following year, Barth published The Literature of Exhaustion, a manifesto for literary postmodernism, in the Atlantic magazine. The traditional forms of representation were used up, he argued. There were too many contemporary writers who went about their business as though James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, Samuel Beckett and Vladimir Nabokov had never written. Barth’s impatience with most fiction and his eloquent enthusiasm for the experimental caught a moment in contemporary culture. He became the poster boy for postmodernism.
One of the three children of Georgia (nee Simmons) and John Barth, who ran a sweet shop, he was born in Cambridge, a small crab and oyster town in Maryland, and grew up amid the flat, low-lying tidal marshlands on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay.
His twin sister was whimsically named Jill, and Barth’s family knew him as Jack, a source of teasing during their schooldays.
After graduating from high school, Barth enrolled in a summer programme at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. An enthusiastic jazz drummer, he hoped for a career as an arranger, but at the Juilliard he encountered some seriously talented performers and his ambitions shrank.
Instead, he enrolled at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, to study journalism. He remained at Hopkins to complete a master’s degree, and in 1953 landed a job in the English department at Pennsylvania State University, where he remained for 12 years.
Barth’s first published novel, The Floating Opera (1956), was a traditional first-person narrative about boozing, desire and nihilism on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake. The End of the Road (1958), described by the critic Leslie Fiedler as an example of “provincial American existentialism”, was a darker novel about a grad-school dropout, ending with an abortion. Some of the more gruesome details were cut at the insistence of his publishers, but restored when the novel was later reissued.
In 1965 he took a job teaching at the Buffalo campus of the State University of New York, where he remained until 1973. During that time of student unrest, the campus was repeatedly occupied by local police and troopers of the National Guard. Barth was less sympathetic to the protesters than some of his colleagues, but he wholeheartedly threw himself into the trashing of the practitioners of “traditional” fiction such as John Updike and William Styron, whose work he felt was a literary dead end.
Under the growing influence of Borges and 60s counterculture, Barth turned away from fat pastiche-novels to short fictional forms. Lost in the Funhouse (1968) was a melange of short fictions for print, tape and live voice, which he staged on campuses across the nation. In 1973 he returned to Johns Hopkins to take up a chair of creative writing, and stayed until retirement in 1992.
By the 80s, the frisky, postmodern self-consciousness that had made readers sit up in the 60s had lost some of its capacity to shock. It had gone, within a generation, from being a great cause to a routine, a shtick. Barth’s books increasingly needed to be explained to readers, and sales fell away. Complex, self-referential novels such as Chimera, which shared the National Book Award in 1973, the epistolary Letters (1979) and Sabbatical (1982) were seen as working out the implications of The Literature of Exhaustion.
In 1980 he revisited this essay with The Literature of Replenishment, in which he repented his youthful scorn for the 19th-century novel as practised by the “great premodernists” such as Dickens, Twain and Tolstoy. If, as the modernists asserted, linearity, rationality and consciousness are not the whole story, argued Barth, “we may appreciate that the contraries of those things are not the whole story either … A worthy program for postmodernist fiction, I believe, is the synthesis … of these modes of writing.”
Barth’s essays were collected in three volumes as The Friday Book (1984), Further Fridays (1995) and Final Fridays (2012). A further collection of short nonfiction pieces, Postscripts, was published in 2022. Once Upon a Time (1994), with its teasing promise of tall tales, was his most autobiographical novel. Coming Soon!!! (2001), with its references to The Floating Opera, showed that the old postmodernist playfulness was unquenched.
In 1998, Barth won both the Lannan Foundation’s lifetime achievement award and the Pen/Malamud award for excellence in the short story.
He married Anne Strickland in 1950 and they had three children, Christine, John and Daniel. The couple divorced in 1969 and the following year he married Shelly Rosenberg. She and his children survive him.
🔔 John Simmons Barth, writer, born 27 May 1930; died 2 April 2024
Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?
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turtlethebean · 1 year ago
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Carchelle Week Day 5: Work
Also available on AO3: No Feelings at Work - Turtle_The_Bean - Criminal Case (Video Game) [Archive of Our Own]
All Carmen Martinez knew was work. That was how she spent most of her adult life. For more than fifteen years, her work was documenting a war in Yemen, which ultimately resulted in the takedown of a terrorist network. She won an award for that.
But after she won that award, journalism, which had been her passion for years, became mind-numbingly boring. She still loved her job, but there was no longer the thrill of watching what was unfolding in Yemen. Reports of what local billionaires were doing and whatever crime was happening in Baltimore paled in comparison to the things she witnessed back then. She needed something more.
So, when the Bureau offered her a job, she obviously accepted it. She needed more adventure in her life. After all, she was slowly but surely reaching an age where she would be too old and tired to cover stories like the ones she did previously.
Carmen set one rule in place when she started working: no feelings at work. Everything had to be covered with complete neutrality, unphased by her own opinions of what was happening. She didn’t allow herself to mourn the sheer number of lives lost in the war; it would take up too much of her time, and she feared some maternal instincts deciding to kick in randomly.
But most importantly, she wasn’t going to date anyone who had ties with her work. She wasn’t going to date any coworkers or any people she interviewed. She was going to keep her love life and her work life separate. She figured it would be better off that way. Romance at work could cause drama and rumours to spread like wildfire, and she wasn’t going to be a spark to ignite a controversy. She saw how the news handled lesbian relationships, making her more desperate to keep her love life away from her work.
And now, she was sitting in the breakroom, wondering where she went wrong in that rule. She wondered when and why her mind had suddenly started to betray what she thought was a reasonable rule. Besides getting into a few fistfights in her younger years, she was never a rulebreaker, and yet she was starting to break a rule she had set in place to protect herself.
She tried to put her attention back on herself. Her staring probably made her look angry, and she couldn’t deny the fact that she had a resting bitch face. She really wasn’t angry at her, despite being accused of being the mole. If anything, she had admiration for this other woman. Not only was she exceptionally pretty (in Carmen’s eyes, at least), but she was smart enough to solve the Bureau’s little mole problem.
Maybe she was mistaking gratitude for love? No, Jonah had saved her life before, and she never felt this way towards him.
She wasn’t even that close to her. In fact, she had just spent the past few weeks not trusting her at all, especially after her response to Elliot’s kidnapping. So why was she now getting these feelings? Were they bottled up while she was busy trying to figure out the mole’s identity, just like everyone else?
“Why are you aggressively staring at Michelle?” Carmen snapped out of her thoughts to hear Jonah beside her. She didn’t even know he was in the room with her.
“Jee- Jonah, don’t sneak up on me like that. Also, my staring was not that aggressive.” She started, feeling her heart rate slow down a bit after that fright.
“Whatever you say. Anyways, what’s up with you and staring at her? Do you not trust her?”
“I trust her,” Carmen poured herself another cup of coffee, “It’s just…I don’t know. I really don’t know how to feel about her.”
“Hmm…do you find yourself daydreaming about her?”
“I mean…” She remembered all the thoughts that had been flooding her brain recently, including ones she would rather not talk about with Jonah, “Yeah, I totally have.”
“Sounds like the first stage of love, infatuation to me.” Jonah winked and nudged his friend playfully.
“You’ve been reading Marina’s psychology books again, haven’t you?”
“Well, it’s the only thing in her room besides her, and apparently, me staring at her while she’s giving therapy to someone makes people uncomfortable. So, I kinda gotta look at something that’s not her.”
“Yeah, I’d say someone staring at you, especially a big guy like yourself, staring at you while you’re trying to relive the darkest moments of your life is a little bit awkward.”
Carmen took a minute while Jonah was making himself and Marina some tea. Was her crush on Michelle really that obvious? Why didn’t anyone tell her until now? How often was she caught staring at her? How many times did people believe she was angry at her?
The questions flooded her mind and made the rest of her freeze up. She really didn’t want anyone to have the wrong impression of her thoughts and feelings towards Michelle, but people had probably already assumed that she was angry or just straight-up despised her.
Either way, she needed to make things right between them and set the record straight. She needed to let everyone know that she did not hate Michelle, nor was she holding any grudges against her.
“Michelle,” Carmen approached the other woman in the breakroom, “Can you meet me in my office later? There’s something I want to discuss with you.”
“Alright, what time should I meet you there?” Michelle replied, her tone as professional as ever.
“I’d say around four o’clock would be alright.”
“Okay then, I’ll see you later.” Michelle smiled and grabbed her items from the table before leaving.
There, now Carmen could make sure that everyone knew that she did not hate Michelle whatsoever. She proudly walked back over to Jonah and took a long sip of her coffee.
“Did you mean to use your ‘meet me in the parking lot’ voice?” He asked, making her almost spit out her coffee.
“Did I actually use that kind of voice?” Great, now she was embarrassed even more.
“Yeah…it did not look good.”
“Shit, and after all the effort I went through to make it seem like I didn’t hate her. Screw it, guess I’ll just have to explain everything to her tonight.”
“Good luck with that one.” Jonah took a sip of his tea and left to find his girlfriend, leaving his embarrassed friend standing in the breakroom, contemplating her life choices.
---
 Carmen was absolutely panicking now. Why did she have to choose her office to confess her feelings? Sure, it was one way to ensure almost absolute privacy, but at the same time, she told herself not to mix her feelings with work.
Trying to calm herself down, she turned to typing away at her keyboard, focused on writing her report about their last case in Africa. However, in her flurry of trying to focus while getting increasingly frustrated with herself, she knocked her coffee mug, spilling it all over her computer, causing it to malfunction and letting out the worst high-pitched noise she could imagine. She launched the computer at the wall, trying to get it to stop making that horrid noise, and once it eventually stopped, she slouched in her chair in exhaustion.
A knock at the door suddenly caught her attention and made her pretend that she wasn’t just freaking out like crazy. “Come in.”
“I heard a lot of crashing noises. Is now a bad time?” Michelle asked, opening the door to Carmen’s office. 4 o’clock already? Carmen must’ve lost track of time in her work.
“No, not at all. Come in and sit down…but close the door behind you, please.”
Michelle closed the door behind her. Carmen wished she could ask her to lock it to ensure nobody would walk in on them, but she didn’t want to make herself seem any more suspicious than she already was.
“So, what did you call me in here for?” Michelle smiled, making the other detective’s heart leap in a way she never thought possible.
“Oh, um, well, I just wanted to set the record straight between us,” Carmen explained. How was she doing this? Why was she doing this?
“What is there to set straight?”
“Well, I figured people probably think I’m angry at you or that I hate you, but that’s really not the situation at all.”
“I understand. You do tend to look a little angry when you’re looking at me, or at least when I catch you looking at me.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I’ve been told I have a resting bitch face,” Carmen chuckled, “But I don’t hate you. In fact, it’s the opposite.”
Michelle cocked her head to the side in curiosity, “And what would you mean by that?”
“Erm, well, it’s kind of embarrassing,” now was her chance, “But I think I have feelings towards you…romantic feelings.”
“Oh, thank goodness!”
“Huh?”
“I was worried the feelings weren’t mutual, which is why I never spoke to you about them, but I’m glad you feel the same way about me.”
Carmen smiled. She never knew that mixing her feelings with her work could feel so…relieving. She wished she could savour the feeling forever, but the news was out.
Instead, she settled for something she could savour for a bit longer. She pulled Michelle closer to her and pressed her lips against hers. The two melted into a kiss that lasted until they both heard another knock at the door. They both jolted around to see Elliot Clayton, the Bureau’s tech expert, standing there with a toolbox.
“I came to fix Carmen’s computer because I heard it making the sound of death, but I guess I’ll do that later.” He said, dropping the toolbox at the door before walking away.
“Well…at least he knows I don’t hate you.” Carmen joked, trying to lighten the atmosphere a little bit.
“Yep, because making out in an office is just what your average coworkers do.” Michelle laughed, pushing the other woman away playfully before being pulled back into the kiss, where they stayed for a little while longer.
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baltimorecheckbook · 4 years ago
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Lakeforest Mall stakeholders, neighbors weigh in on the 102-acre site's future
More than 3,000 people replied to a survey regarding the Lakeforest Mall.
from https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2020/11/13/lakeforest-mall-future-weighed-in-gaithersburg.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
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baltimorecheckbook · 4 years ago
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Historic East Baltimore church to soon be converted into artist apartments, coworking space, cafe
Urban Scene Development co-founders Mark Shapiro and Michael Burton have converted a number of Baltimore sanctuaries for new uses.
from https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2020/11/13/east-baltimore-church-conversion-apartments-cowork.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
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baltimorecheckbook · 4 years ago
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MyMD Pharmaceuticals merges with South Jersey medical device firm
The merger is expected to close in the first half of 2021 and still requires approval from Akers shareholders.
from https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2020/11/13/mymd-pharmaceuticals-merges-akers-biosciences.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
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baltimorecheckbook · 4 years ago
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40 Under 40: Jay Turakhia, Truist
In addition to serving as market president for Truist, Jay Turakhia serves on the boards of HASA, the Cybersecurity Association of Maryland and the Harbour School.
from https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2020/11/13/40-under-40-jay-turakhia-truist-baltimore.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
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baltimorecheckbook · 4 years ago
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Baltimore 'is worth our fight' author Wes Moore tells downtown leaders
Downtown Partnership of Baltimore's leaders are optimistic despite Covid-19's impact on the city.
from https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2020/11/13/wes-moore-downtown-partnership-annual-meeting.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
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baltimorecheckbook · 4 years ago
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8 things you need to know this morning
Good morning and TGIF! (Of course, it's also Purple Friday.) Hope you survived two days of gloomy, wet weather. It was hard to complain after several days of perfect and warm fall weather. The sun will eventually return today with temperatures in the 60s. Cooler weather and sunshine continues on Saturday with rain possibly coming back on Sunday. [WBAL-TV] Here's what you need to know to start your day. The United States passed a grim milestone on Thursday, with more than 160,000 new cases reported…
from https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2020/11/13/8-things-you-need-to-know-this-morning.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
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baltimorecheckbook · 4 years ago
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40 Under 40: Dr. Neil Roy, LifeBridge Health
When he's not leading hospital emergency departments, Dr. Neil Roy can be found practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
from https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2020/11/13/40-under-40-dr-neil-roy-lifebridge-health.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
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baltimorecheckbook · 4 years ago
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Get to know the BBJ's 2020 class of 40 Under 40 honorees
Here is the Baltimore Business Journal's newest class of fast-rising young professionals.
from https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2020/11/13/get-to-know-bbjs-2020-class-40-under-40-winners.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
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baltimorecheckbook · 4 years ago
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40 Under 40: Jill Antos and Brian Arnold, Nepenthe Brewing Co.
Nepenthe Brewing Co. co-founders Jill Antos and Brian Arnold say following their gut with products and branding has helped their brewery stand out.
from https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2020/11/13/40-under-40-jill-antos-and-brian-arnold-nepenthe.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search
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