Candidate forums, Book Festival's full author schedule, and Main Street news

🎴 The Pokémon/TCG Show hits the TCC Event Center at TownMall of Westminster, 400 N. Center St., today — 9 a.m.–4 p.m. — buy, sell and trade, vendors welcome, sponsored by The Collectors Clubhouse. Free admission. See the flyer.

🎨 Off Track Art hosts a Reception & Meet the Artist today, 1–4 p.m., for September Spotlight Artist John Carter — a fine-art landscape photographer with more than 40 years behind the camera, whose work blends photography with digital "painterly" effects and celebrates rural Carroll County farm scenes and Assateague Island.

🍹 Mrs. Roper Romp hits Main Street today — a retro-costume pub crawl and poker run raising money for Springboard Community Services, which supports survivors of domestic violence. Check-in is 2:30–3 p.m. at Lost Lion, 27 E. Main St. (rear), before the group heads out at 3 p.m. to collect poker cards at stops including Collision Course, Liquid Library, Covalent Spirits, Rock Salt, Ernie's Place, Serra on Main and Off Track Art. VIP tickets are sold out, but general admission remains available. Get tickets.

🎡 Save the date: Westminster Fallfest returns Sept. 24–27 at City Park, 11 Longwell Ave. — amusement rides from Snyder's Attractions, more than 80 craft and business vendors, a Kids Zone, a BMX & muscle bike show and swap meet, and an opening parade down Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue Thursday evening. Full schedule.

🏈 O'Lordan's Irish Pub rolled out a Game Day Menu for NFL and Orioles games, available in the bars and Pub areas only: wings ($10 for eight, $15 for a dozen), cheese curds ($8.25), pretzel bites ($7.75), and whiskey tenders or potato skins ($9.75 each), plus $3 domestic bottles, $4 Yuengling and Natty Boh cans, and $6 Orange Crush. See the post.

🍽️ Liquid Library rolled out weekend specials: clam chowder is back, along with an upside-down chicken Caesar salad, the mushroom-and-garlic Maitake Miracle Pizza, a duck-and-pear Pearfect Duck Pizza, and cocktails including the mushroom-honey Queen of Woods and a Fig Margarita. See the post.

🌮 Rock Salt Grille also has new menu items and weekend features, including the return of a fan favorite: Southwestern Chicken Egg Rolls with Southwest Ranch. See the post.

🦪 Registration is open for the Westminster Oyster Stroll, Saturday, Oct. 10, noon–4 p.m., at 45 W. Main St. — oysters, music and food raising awareness for oyster aquaculture, hosted by the City of Westminster Recreation & Parks Department. Details and tickets.

✂️ High school kids still hang at the mall! Sew'N Sweep thanked students from Carroll County Career and Technology Center and Westminster High School for stopping by on a field trip to the store this week. See the photo.

🍿 R/C Westminster Movies 9 thanked everyone who came out Thursday for its Wine & Movie Night screening of Practical Magic 2. Judging by the Facebook comments, plenty of people are already hoping for the next one. See the recap. And don’t miss $5 back-to-school prices on movies through Oct. 8.

🚧 Westminster Wire made the rounds downtown this week: a red-white-and-blue light display on Main Street for Sept. 11 (see it), a facelift outside Connec-to-Talk at Locust Lane and Main (pictured above), and new steps going in at The Double Barrel Tasting Room's Main Street build-out (see it).

🤔 Westminster Wire also posed a few questions worth weighing in on: what should go in the empty storefront at Green and Liberty (weigh in); whether Direct To You Gas's vending machine still sells sodas for 75 cents, quarters only (yes, it does); and a history quiz on the building now home to Love It at Stella's Bridal and Fashions (take a guess).