Camouflage

Underneath a for-sale sign, Gary Kachadourian drilled a brightly colored plywood panel onto a boarded-up storefront. It was a section of one of six murals by Baltimore artists he would install on one building at Howard and Mulberry streets.The murals add vivid colors to a block dominated by stores selling pagers and electronic equipment, a lone sandwich shop and several empty spaces for rent.Kachadourian, who works for the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Art and Culture, has been using the work of local artists to cover boarded-up windows in abandoned storefronts since last year.

He scurried beneath the pines to hide from the police chopper and its infrared eye. He climbed a tree to evade the bloodhounds. Once, he draped his camouflaged body with twigs and leaves, lying motionless as an all-terrain search vehicle nearly ran him over. Another time, he all but laughed at how easy it would have been to gun down a line of sitting-duck police officers. These were a fugitive's tales, an account of Joseph C. Palczynski's 10 days on the lam. They were the experiences claimed by a wanted man who seemed both lucky and cunning.

The Meadow Mill in Woodberry, a Jones Falls Expressway roadside landmark, is spinning in a new direction.Several years ago, the massive brick structure, built in 1877, ceased to function as the home of London Fog coats. It's now being converted into a mixed-use campus that includes studios for artists and photographers, the Potters Guild, an advertising agency and chemical business, a drapery-making shop and a bakery."Your imagination can run wild with this space," said developer Samuel K. Himmelrich Jr. as he walked through the mill's old power house, a cavernous space not far from the North Central Light-Rail Line's tracks.

WHEN EVENING shadows slipped across Vietnam's Central Highlands, Staff Sgt. Fred Bromwell got painted up and went night stalking. He would creep up on jungled enemy camps, lay and watch trails or spring thunderous ambushes. As a reconnaissance bushmaster, he was indistinguishable as a clump of bamboo, waiting to pounce.When he finally left the war after five years, Bromwell had claimed 109 confirmed enemy kills. But Vietnam had claimed another casualty in Bromwell - years of work would finally allow him to declare peace within his soul.

When is a flagpole not a flagpole? How about when it's a cellular phone tower?In its latest attempt to disguise unsightly antennae, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. plans to build a 125-foot flagpole -- with lights and an American flag -- in the Anneslie Shopping Center on York Road near Towson. The equipment would be tucked inside the pole.The move comes after community opposition last fall thwarted the company's proposal to build a cellular site camouflaged as a bell tower at nearby St. Pius X Roman Catholic Church.

Baltimore County police officers working night shifts will be trading in their shirts today -- switching from bright whites to subdued blues that they say will make them a less conspicuous target for a criminal aiming a gun.Although no studies or documented incidents suggest that officers wearing white shirts are shot more often, department officials say that perception has led to the change."

While some cellular phone towers are disguised as evergreens, palm trees or flagpoles, St. Pius X Roman Catholic Church near Towson is considering putting up a bell tower to hide a proposed 100-footer.The church -- which stands to gain thousands of dollars in rental income for allowing the tower to be built on its property -- hopes the camouflage will appeal to neighbors.So far, residents of the nearby Rodgers Forge community aren't convinced by the plan."We haven't seen an artist's rendering," said Rich DeNardi, who lives in the 200 block of Overbrook Road next to the church.

ROHRERSVILLE -- The unmistakable scent of fox on a stiflingly humid afternoon in Washington County smelled strangely sweet to Bernie Serafin and his burly group of friends.Breathe deep, they challenged. After all, there was no room yesterday for the prissy or the timid at the annual convention of the Maryland Fur Trappers Association. The group is 50 years old this year, and its members are just as macho and wild as you can get -- for a bunch of mostly retired men who began skinning and fleshing furs when they were teen-agers.

HAGERSTOWN - On the first Tuesday of each month, Steve Palmer is busy making new hunters. Youngsters gather at the Izaak Walton League clubhouse and range to sharpen their shooting skills and learn about safety and ethics. "They go to soccer. They go to T-ball. They go to Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. This is just another activity," says Palmer, president of the Washington County Federation of Sportsmen's Club. "We like to show them that hunting and shooting and fishing are things they can do their whole lives."

A photo accompanying an article in Sunday's Sun about th murder of an ex-Marine whose experiences were the basis for the movie "A Few Good Men" misidentified the man's attorney. )) His name is Don Marcari.The Sun regrets the errors.NEEDHAM, Mass. -- They are apparently unrelated flashes of violence, framing the final eight years of David Cox's life, from the front lines of the Cold War in Cuba to a muddy river bank in suburban Boston.The most traumatic incident of his military tour in Cuba would inspire a movie that left him indignant, his and his comrades' service careers altered to quench Hollywood's desire for drama.