Bad Mood

Since she was hired two years ago as a medical assistant in suburban Chicago, Jennifer Simonsis has come to an agreement with her employer: During the winter, she is given time off to see her doctor, frequent breaks, and help in setting up a light-therapy lamp at her desk. Joining a controversial trend, Simonsis sought workplace accommodations for seasonal affective disorder, or SAD - depression triggered by limited daylight in winter. Pointing to a federal law that prohibits employers from discriminating against the disabled, some SAD sufferers say they are entitled to schedule changes, access to windows and other modifications.

When she was 12 years old, Christina Lewis Halpern was caught in the collision between great good fortune and terrible luck. And the suddenness and severity of the impact jolted her deeply, though it would take years for her to experience the full effects. And yet, after the pioneering African-American businessman Reginald F. Lewis died of a brain tumor on Jan. 19, 1993, just seven weeks after the disease was diagnosed, his youngest daughter took pains to conceal her shock. She didn't cry. Instead, she reacted by becoming responsible and very quiet.

There's The Story . . . the fairy-tale account of how an autographed napkin and a mother playing Cupid helped bring Kelly and Cal Ripken Jr. together; then there's the lesser-known tale of what took place six months later.The latter begins not with Once upon a time but with a line from Dickens: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .Kelly had just returned from an idyllic trip to Japan with the Orioles in 1984. She and her boyfriend, baseball superstar Cal Ripken Jr., had discussed getting engaged as they waited in a Tokyo airport.

If you liked the Jurassic Park movies but long for a more intimate look at dinosaurs stomping around in a bad mood, this could be your big chance. Starting tonight, Walking With Dinosaurs - The Live Experience kicks off the first of nine performances at 1st Mariner Arena, having played to mostly glowing reviews since opening in July. The $20 million show, based on the award-winning BBC television series, features 15 "live" dinosaurs, snarling fight scenes, lush scenery, erupting volcanos and a massive comet that slams into Earth and signals the end of the species.

Michele Nethercott Occupation Head of the Maryland public defender's Innocence Project In the News Based on DNA test results, her office won a new trial last week for a man who has spent 20 years in prison for a murder in Druid Hill Park. Nethercott is seeking to have DNA testing conducted in several other Baltimore murder convictions. Career Highlights A defense attorney for two decades and a public defender since 1988, Nethercott made headlines in November 2002 when DNA test results exonerated her client Bernard Webster of a Baltimore County rape for which he had spent 20 years in prison.

WHEN I BROUGHT my daughter to work with me -- in an attempt to demonstrate that I am not just gone when she gets home from school but am out being a role model for her -- she asked to meet the person who could fire me.I introduced her to the gentleman who holds that awful power, and he told her in very reassuring tones that I have not given him cause to exercise it, that I was a very good employee."

Well, now we know what happens to Roger Sterling when he takes LSD: He sees visions of the 1919 Black Sox and faces the truth about his marriage to Jane. In that order. Yes, this was a very odd yet very effective "Mad Men. " And not just because of the LSD party, but because of the non-linear storytelling, the exquisitely detailed depictions of two very sad relationships (Roger and Jane, Don and Megan) and the painful-to-watch life of Peggy. First of all, how perfect was it to make Roger the first "Mad Men" character to trip on LSD?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- When Bernard King shoots 2-for-8 from the field and scores only eight points, there's a good chance it means that his team has lost and the Washington Bullets forward will be in a bad mood.But yesterday, King's less-than-stellar performance was meaningless. It was not because King and his Eastern Conference teammates beat the West, 116-114, in the National Basketball Association All-Star game. It was because there was another All-Star Game for King.King received a standing ovation from the crowd at the Charlotte Coliseum upon his introduction in the East' starting lineup.

Eugenia M. "Jeanne" Kappler, a nurse-midwife who delivered many babies during nearly four decades in Maryland, died Tuesday of lung cancer at Brakeley Park Care Center in Phillipsburg, N.J. She was 83. Miss Kappler, a native of Oxford, N.J., was the youngest of seven children. She served in the Army Cadet Nursing Corps from 1943 to 1946 and graduated from St. Francis School of Nursing in Trenton, N.J., in 1946. A decade later, she received a nursing degree from Villanova University. Miss Kappler also studied to be a certified nurse-midwife at the Johns Hopkins University, graduating in 1958, and earned a master's degree from the University of Maryland in 1959, said her niece, Mary Alice Bockman.

You say you want a dog, but without all the hassles: the puddles the size of Lake Superior that appear all over the floor during housebreaking, the suicidal dashes in front of the mail truck, the endless yapping when you tie Rover out in the back yard, the way he hurls himself violently at the screen door when anyone knocks. Aibo could be the way to go -- at least if you have a spare $2,500 to plunk down (and who doesn't with the holidays just around the corner?) Aibo, for the uninitiated, is the little robotic dog first introduced by Sony in this country in June, when it proceeded to sell out in just four days.