As dump trucks hauled black coal from the site of a fatal train derailment on Main Street, Mr. Bubbles and Charlene Townsend, owner of Maxine's Antiques, added a pop of color to the landscape. Townsend pulled him in for a kiss.  "He's a celebrity dog."    For more local news, sign up for the Ellicott City Patch newsletter . Keep the conversation going on Facebook and Twitter . 

Ice cream is good. Hot dogs are good. Soon Main Street will have both in one place.  "Two weeks," Brendan Flannery said outside of LaLa's Ice Cream. He had just ripped a note off of the door informing him that his final inspection was complete. Flannery also owns and operates LaLa's Hot Dog Cart, but, he said "It can't be in downtown Ellicott City ... I don't want to talk about it." There was a cart about 15 years ago at the corner of Old Columbia Pike and Main Street, he said, "We're going to fight for that spot." For now, however, you can find the hot dog cart in Cradlerock and soon, he …

  Warning: Gender stereotypes ahead. Now that that’s out of the way, Keith Hoskins, manager of The Man Cave, says that, of course, women are welcome in the store on Old Columbia Pike. So, regardless of gender, if you like hot sauce, comic books, role-playing games or, incidentally, if you need your computer fixed, The Man Cave is for you. I stopped in on a Friday afternoon to pick up some hot sauce, unprepared for what I’d find. Keith Hoskins: hot sauce aficionado. “We get a shipment in every week,” Hoskins said, “and we have access to 2,600 different varieties through special order.” There’s…

Amy Herbert and Erik Fesmire, both of Ellicott City, were on their way to the courthouse Friday when they stopped in front of the Ellicott City sign on Main Street and Oella Avenue to take a picture in front of the flowers. Congrats!

If you're like me, you may have expected the dresses hanging outside of Discoveries to be green this week in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Not so.  Sally Fox Tennant owns the store at the corner of Main Street and Maryland Avenue. She sells trinkets and wind chimes and jewelry and, of course, dresses. Tennant said there's no secret meaning behind the colors of the dresses she puts out.  "It's just whatever I happen to have in," she said.  Blue it is.