Comment: Recession over? ‘Rubbish! Total bloody rubbish’

Just in time for the upcoming “Be Nice On the Internet Week,” Patch has compiled the most blunt, thoughtful and outrageous comments on Howard County Patch sites. Readers talked the most this week about stories on Howard County Schools being open Monday and the decline of the Laurel Mall.

-- “In my opinion 50% of the Education process for K-12 should be concerned with socialization skills, the rest should be academic. I feel learning to live and work with your neighbors and others is crucial to succeeding in our America. I don't worry too much about which poet they are teaching my daughter this year in 10th grade GT English.” - Adam Ritter

"If it's a Howard County government holiday for everyone else, then it should be a holiday for students too." — Val McGuire

"I don't really know why they decided to have school on the 2nd, but I am okay with it. My son really needs his routine, and being back to it on the 1st day of the week will be good for him." — Shannon

Laurel Mall Macy's Set To Close -- “Unfortunately, Macy's in particular and Laurel Mall in general have been hobbled for many years by being located in a "sub-par", steadily-declining neighbourhood and no amount of revitalisation or new construction is going to change that ugly fact, especially in such hard times. Had Macy's continued to market their usual high-quality goods at Laurel Mall, they would've closed shop long ago simply because those who can afford such merchandise would much rather go shopping in safer, more attractive surroundings. Macy's, Penn Camera, Melody Record Shops, Borders Books & Music, Tower Records, Highs Dairy Stores, Sears, Kodak... the list of local, regional, and national business failures goes on and on, yet the "Guv'mint" keeps on trying to convince all of us that the Great Recession ended more than two years ago? Rubbish! Total bloody rubbish!” – John Floyd II