Nobody asked me, but, now that it has pulled out of the Trumpified Kennedy Center, it would be grand to see the Washington National Opera perform at the Lyric. Here’s a suggestion for the first production: “Silent Night,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera set in World War I and composed by Pea body Institute professor Kevin Puts. Staging that stunning work here would be a way of highlighting Puts’ many stellar accomplishments, paying homage to the Lyric’s operatic past and maybe even establishing a long-term home-away-from-home for the WNO. Kinda related: Amy Sherald brought her paintings to the Baltimore Museum of Art to avoid Trump censorship at the Smithsonian, and the BMA set attendance records as result. Washington’s loss, Baltimore’s gain — this could become a thing. Nobody asked me, but the weirdest sport in the Winter Olympics is not curling, it’s two-man luge. Call me crazy, but mark my words: I see something amazing up ahead for Baltimore — the Orioles in the World Series in October and the Ravens in the Super Bowl in February. A year from now, we could see a victory parade on Pratt Street.  Nobody asked me, but the way Donald Trump has messed with big bridge projects in Michigan and New York, no one should be surprised if (or when) he threatens federal funding for the Key Bridge rebuild. Coming up in revival on the big screen at The Senator: “Hellboy”! Oh boy! Nobody asked me, but it would be lovely to see someone in the city government or business community force some action at the empty site of the long-gone Morris Mechanic Theater. It’s been 10 years since the developer did nothing but demolish the theater and develop a gaping hole in downtown Baltimore. He should be shamed into doing something. Nobody asked me, but the denialism on climate change — and the gleeful shutting down of government programs to address it — is one of the most dangerous aspects of the Trump administration. Scientists say the warming of the planet has accelerated in the last few years and yet Trump troglodytes have sounded a full retreat from efforts to slow the release of the greenhouse gases that cause it. Nothing could be more harmful to future generations.  Nobody asked me, but the city needs to get behind a plan to build a new (and maybe even solar-powered!) ice rink in Patterson Park. And speaking of ice: The people who run CFG Bank Arena should appeal to the Professional Women’s Hockey League to bring its “Takeover Tour” to Baltimore next winter. CFG is not as big as Washington’s Capitol One Arena, where a game between the New York Sirens and Montreal Victoire drew 17,228 last month. But our arena has more seating capacity for ice hockey than the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, where the Ottawa Charge and Boston Fleet played a “Takeover Tour” game on Jan. 11. A single PWHL game at CFG would sell out. If the league wants to establish a team in Washington, they would need to draw fans from throughout Maryland and Virginia, and a game in Baltimore would create even more regional buzz. Note to the Spelling Bee master at The New York Times: Try including the word “espantoon” some day. It’s a Baltimore word. You can look it up. Nobody asked me, but everyone who drives around here will feel a lot safer when the young man convicted of negligent manslaughter in the 2023 Beltway crash that killed six construction workers is, finally and firmly, removed from our roadways and forbidden to operate a motor vehicle. Nobody asked me, but people who expected the recent snow to be quickly removed from city and county roads, or even within a couple of days, expected too much. That was not the usual fluff. It was frozen solid, hard as concrete within the first 24 hours — “snowcrete” — and not easily plowed aside. Besides, this is central Maryland. We still don’t do winter much; we average about 19 inches of snow a year — the Boston area, by contrast, averages 50 inches a year — and, though there’s been more investment, we still don’t have the full complement of humans and equipment to meet the moment. Nobody asked me, but it’s still considered a rite of passage in Baltimore: Your first meal at the Peppermill in Lutherville means you’ve graduated to the senior class. Nobody asked me to do so, but I invented a one-pot pasta dish during the recent hibernation. It’s called Rigatoni dolci e piccanti. You need a big pot, olive oil, two onions, four cloves of garlic, four red bell peppers, four cups of chicken or vegetable stock (heated or at room temperature), a half-pound of rigatoni and two cups of tomato sauce. Heat the pot, cover the base with olive oil. Chop the onions, garlic and peppers, and saute them in the pot. After a couple of minutes, pour in a cup of stock to soften the peppers and onions. Add the tomato sauce. Add salt, pepper, oregano and some crushed red pepper to give it a little kick. Then add the rigatoni. (Yes! We are cooking the rigatoni right in the sauce!) Add some stock as needed to soften the pasta, but be careful not to turn this dish into soup. As the rigatoni cooks, it absorbs the moisture — the sweetness of the peppers, and your spices — and thickens the sauce. Serve hot with some grated parmesan. Dan Rodricks writes his column weekly for Baltimore Fishbowl. He can be reached at [email protected] ...read more read less