🍦Another Crumbl Cookies

Good morning, Columbia. With the World Cup going on, we are going to attempt to explain the most confusing thing in sports for us Americans. Being offside in soccer (yes, it is singular) is just like being offside in hockey. Except the last defender is like a moving blue line and whether a play is offside or not is determined at the time of the pass, not when the ball crosses the line.

If you don’t know hockey, that won’t help you at all. Sorry.

In today’s Columbia Scoop:

Let’s get to it.

— Michelle Sinclair

A pizza shop named Hot Garbage is betting it’s name won’t scare you away. And the early reviews suggest that’s a smarter bet than picking the U.S. to win the World Cup (about 34 to 1).

Hot Garbage Pizza is getting ready to open a storefront at 8069 Tiber Alley in Ellicott City. But since that’s not done yet, they’re doing some pop-ups and one of them is this weekend at Old Mill Cafe. The pies are hand made with seasonal, locally-sourced ingredients and I should definitely not have written this while hungry.

Alongside Hot Garbage, The Plot Twist will be serving non-alcoholic bevvies and Old Mill Cafe will be slinging coffee and pastries. The pop-up goes from 3–8 PM.

And of course, we’ll let you know as soon as Hot Garbage opens. It looks like it’s gonna be a sweet place.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day word of freedom finally reached enslaved people in Texas, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Howard County has four ways to celebrate it this weekend, plus a bonus just over the county line.

One more (for our south county friends): the Laurel Juneteenth Celebration is Saturday at 4 PM at Emancipation Community Park, hosted by the City of Laurel.

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🎈 = family-friendly events

🎶 Teacher Palooza 4 - Massive end-of-school-year bash for educators at Reckless Shepherd with DJ, mechanical bull, drink specials, free buffet, and vacation giveaways.

🎭 HCST Presents: Fiddler on the Roof - Howard County Summer Theatre's 50th production milestone with live orchestra and ASL interpretation available for select performances.

🎨 Johan Lowie: Terrain of Memory - Landscape paintings exploring how memory reshapes place, with public reception Thursday at 6 PM at the Horowitz Center.

🎈🎶 Summer Sounds Series - Crafts & Cords night with live music and family activities at The Shoppes at Wilde Lake.

🎈🎶 Juneteenth at the Lakefront feat. Kyaira - Soul singer Kyaira headlines this celebration with Black-owned vendors, food trucks, and kids' activities at the Downtown Columbia Lakefront.

🎈🎨 Good Kid-izen: Water Safety Day - Hands-on water play and safety lessons for kids ages 2-10 at Color Burst Park.

🎭 The Second City Presents: Laugh Harder Not Smarter - Legendary comedy troupe brings classic sketches and signature improv to the Horowitz Center.

🎈🪕 Savage Bluegrass Festival - A full afternoon of Maryland bluegrass bands at Savage Mill's Little Lot, with Manor Hill beer, Boyd Cru wine, and food trucks. Bring chairs, a blanket, and the dog.

🎈🌍 Howard County Juneteenth Community Day & Block Party - Celebrating culture and community with food, activities, music, and vendors.

🎈🌍 Laurel Juneteenth Celebration - City of Laurel's community celebration at Emancipation Community Park.

👨 Happy Father’s Day

🎭 Toby's Dinner Theatre Presents: Mean Girls - Broadway musical with dinner buffet running through August.

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🍪 Cookie monster – Crumbl Cookies is opening its second Howard County spot at Columbia Crossing, tucked between Johnson Fitness & Wellness and Maiwand Kabob at 6131 Columbia Crossing Circle. The Utah chain rotates six new desserts every week, so the lineup is never the same twice. No opening date yet, but a pink Crumbl truck was already parked out back.

🇫🇷 Fancy French cookies – Woops!, a French macaron and gift shop, is now open at The Mall in Columbia. They sell handcrafted macarons in a rainbow of flavors plus giftable sweets. Consider it Crumbl’s fancy cousin that everyone thinks is so impressive at holiday meals.

🍎 Lunch Money – Howard County schools restart free summer meals Wednesday, June 24, serving any kid 18 and under — no application, no income check, no paperwork. Meals run weekdays through July 31 (except July 3) from 12:30–2 PM at 11 sites, including Atholton High and Deep Run Elementary. Find a site here.

📍 On the Beat – Howard County police opened a satellite office inside The Mall in Columbia this week, giving officers a home base for the mall, the Merriweather District, and the Lakefront. One officer is assigned to the mall around the clock, with two more downtown. The county is paying $100,000 for the space, its sixth satellite office countywide.

📶 Log On, Lakefront – Free public Wi-Fi just expanded at the Downtown Columbia Lakefront ahead of summer. It joins the county's 118 public hotspots at parks, libraries, and community centers — a network that moved more than 83 terabytes of data last month alone. For non-nerds, that’s about 6,200 movies streamed on Netflix.

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92 🌡️ 67 | ⛈️ | 43% ☔ | 💨 SW 18 mph

84 🌡️ 62 | 🌤️ | 9% ☔ | 💨 NW 12 mph

83 🌡️ 62 | ☀️ | 1% ☔ | 💨 NW 13 mph

85 🌡️ 64 | 🌤️ | 47% ☔ | 💨 W 7 mph

84 🌡️ 62 | 🌧️ | 72% ☔ | 💨 SW 10 mph

Bare Bones | Wayne George | 7 PM 

Bare Bones | 33RPM | 8 PM 
The Barn & Lodge | Andy B | 8 PM
Collective Encore | The Dirty Grass Players | 8 PM | Ticket
Cured 1821 | Jon Waller | 6 PM 
Kelsey’s Restaurant & Irish Pub | Brendan Pelan | 6 PM 
Looney’s Maple Lawn | Cover Up | 9 PM
The Morgan Inn | ENSLOW Trio | 8 PM 
Reckless Shepherd | Kash’d Out | 9 PM
Smashing Grapes | Cynthia Marie | 8 PM 
White Oak Tavern | Dan Heely | 7 PM

Bare Bones | Gary & The Groove | 8 PM 
The Barn & Lodge | Grayson Moon | 8 PM
Collective Encore | Green River | 8 PM | Ticket
Cured 1821 | Kevin Howard | 6 PM 
Kelsey’s Restaurant & Irish Pub | The Bard & The Bird | 6 PM 
Looney’s Maple Lawn | Kitty Back | 9 PM
Merriweather | Zach Top | 6:30PM | Tickets
The Morgan Inn | RANDOM LOGIC | 8 PM 
Smashing Grapes | Eddie Botts | 8 PM 
Sonoma’s | Antihero | 7 PM
White Oak Tavern | Enslow | 8 PM

The Barn & Lodge | Stephen Henson | 8 PM
Collective Encore | Father's Day Tribute to The Forefathers of Funk | 7 PM | Ticket
Cured 1821 | Bob & Aiden | 5 PM 
Manor Hill Brewing | Tears for Devere | 2 PM
The Morgan Inn | The Soul Family Band | 2 PM 
Oversea Distillery | Beny and the Jets | 7 PM
Smashing Grapes | Mark Gregan | 11 AM 
White Oak Tavern | Jazzy Brunch | 11 AM

Collective Encore | Bachelor Boys Band | 7 PM | Tickets

Thanks for reading Columbia Scoop today. If you found something useful, please share it with someone who hand paints beautiful model airplanes.