Adam And Eve

"The New Yorker Book of Literary Cartoons," edited by Bob Mankoff (Pocket Books, 105 pages, $19.95). Adam and Eve, unshockingly naked, sit in a grove of shedding apple trees. The caption speaks for Adam: "I can't help thinking there's a book in this." A few pages later, a beach scene: A uniformed cop stands, mildly menacingly, above a folding-chaise seated man with a large book in his hands and lap. Thc policeman speaks: "I'm sorry, sir, but Dostoyevsky is not considered summer reading.

Church doesn't ostracize gays The editorial on Sunday referred to the Catholic Church's "misguided effort to ostracize gays" ("D.C. archdiocese oversteps its bounds," Nov. 15). Regardless of whether the Archdiocese of Washington is justified in its actions, the editors demonstrate their lack of understanding of the church's position on homosexuality. That position is not about ostracizing anyone and has its basis in the biology of male and female bodies. That biology is the same whether one believes we were created by God or were an accident of the universe.

Ever since Adam and Eve took a bite of the apple, we have been haunted by Desire, that shape-shifting seducer who promises us beauty, understanding and fulfillment if only we chase after More. On the one hand, that is a blessing. We would still be clumsy, clueless creatures huddling in caves - or naked in the Garden - without it. Desire and appetite drive our ambition, fire our curiosity and lead us to discover in ways that complacency and fullness never can. It is Desire that propels culture forward, urging us to explore, to dare, to persevere so we may uncover all the wisdom, comforts and delights that make life grand.

LOS ANGELES -- In a scientific coup that appears to have tracked down the Adam and Eve of poultry, researchers at the City of Hope Medical Center have found that the modern poultry industry got its start more than 10,000 years ago when a Vietnamese farmer took a pair of red jungle fowl into a hut and began breeding them.All domesticated chickens now grown in the world -- an average of more than 8 billion per year -- are descendants of those unlikely ancestors, which still exist in their ancient form, according to genetic typing results reported this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Now that apples, widely regarded as one of nature's most perfect health foods, are in season, the natural instinct is to wrap them in sweet coatings and make them sinful. Just like Adam and Eve, I have a weakness for wicked apples, and recently found several tasty examples of licentiousness on a stick. Candy Apple Man Address --Baltimore Farmers' Market, Saratoga Street between Holliday and Gay streets Phone --443-602-1319 Hours --8 a.m.-noon Sundays A medium-size apple dipped in caramel and rolled in nuts, $2.50, from the Candy Apple Man at the Baltimore Farmers' Market.

"The Loss of Sexual Innocence" proves once again what a frustratingly uneven director Mike Figgis can be. This is, after all, the filmmaker who made the mournful contemporary parable "Leaving Las Vegas," only to follow it up with the emotionally empty "One Night Stand."In this latest work, Figgis weaves together a collection of filmed short stories using the common thread of the Adam and Eve tale, resulting in a tangle of meditations on sex and sin. Or at least that's what Figgis must have had in mind.

There are three telemovies on TV tonight, including Fox's dramatization of the Menendez brothers murder trial.* "Health Care Reform Town Meeting" (7-9 p.m., WMPT, channels 22 and 67) Sponsored by Rep. Kweisi Mfume, a Maryland Democrat, this program features Hillary Rodham Clinton and Donna Shalala, secretary of health and human services. Broadcast live from Johns Hopkins Medical Institution's Turner Auditorium.* "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (8-8:30 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Pam Grier is guest star, which is enough information right there to get me to watch.

If you hear there's something gross around, chances are you'll wanna see it. If it stinks, oozes or pulsates, half the neighborhood might come running. But why? What makes "gross" almost irresistible to mankind? And how do we define exactly what "gross" is?"It's hard to define gross," says William I. Miller, who wrote "The Anatomy of Disgust," "because it will often vary from one culture to the next. But what is constant is that each culture will find something disgusting."Sylvia Branzei, author of the cool "Grossology" books, says: "Anything that makes your nose turn up and your stomach clinch is gross."

The legislature can do whatever it wishes regarding same-sex marriage, but if a future referendum is held using this wording it will be easily defeated. Most people are amenable to the idea that if two people of the same sex are truly in love and committed to each other the state should afford them the benefits of marriage, such as rights of survivorship and related financial and legal protections. This would be called what it is --- a civil union, protected by civil rights.

They entered the Maryland Institute, College of Art in togas, caftans, butterfly wings, even fig leaves. And they weren't even MICA students. Nope, these were 420 Baltimore notables dressed in formal wear or costumes to fit the nine different themes of this year's Art-a-Fare. The themes ranged from "It's Greek to Me" to "Old Chinatown" to "Adam and Eve's Garden of Delight." Each of nine rooms in MICA's main building had been assigned a different set of party hosts, who had then planned decorations, dinner and entertainment in that room along a chosen theme.