Canon

Less expensive first-rate scanners are becoming as plentiful as inexpensive first-rate printers. Canon's CanoScan 9900F flatbed scanner impresses on a number of fronts, with only a few minor downsides. This is a 3200-by-6400 dot-per-inch scanner that is relatively fast without being a speed demon. The 9900F ($400) has four one-touch buttons on its face for copying, scanning, creating a file or e-mailing. It's not particularly slim nor light at 5 inches in height and 11.5 pounds. But like most flatbeds with an 8.5-by-11.

Howard Stern, Howie Mandel and Sharon Osbourne continue their talent search -- this week in Austin, Texas. Apparently the show doesn't mind reinforcing stereotypes because the first act of the night is a mariachi band led by a 10-year-old named Sebastien Delacruz. He's adorable and the whole act is just really entertaining. The band gets three "yeses" from the judges and they advance to the next round in Las Vegas. Next up, a cowboy who does impressions, but when he opens his mouth it just sounds like he's mimicking a Southern auctioneer.

WHEN I WAS younger and had the photo bug, I spent a lot of vacation time lugging a bag stuffed with single-lens reflex camera equipment. And every time we reached a scenic locale, I'd unload the bag on my wife's shoulder, fiddle with camera bodies and lenses, then climb a staircase or a rock, seeking just the right angle for the shot. For some unfathomable reason, my wife did not find this behavior grounds for divorce. But things changed when the kids arrived. Herding two active young boys on a trip doesn't leave much time for contemplative photography.

From: Vin de Pays des Cotes Catalanes, France Price: $16 Serve with: Seafood This dry white wine from the south of France has a style all its own. It's an imaginative blend of Muscat of Alexandria and viognier, two very floral and fruity grapes, but the blend is admirably restrained, rather than over the top. There is a hint of a wine that wanted to be sweet, but has been disciplined into dryness. It offers a wonderful palette of pear, peach, apricot, almond and herb flavors.

Sylvia Canon, the only director of Human Services Programs of Carroll County Inc. since its founding 13 years ago, will retire in three months. Canon, 63, will retire Jan. 12 from the agency that runs all social services programs in the county. She has devoted her career to social work, creating and operating programs for the needy. "I feel like I have been at this forever and it is time" to leave, she said. A graduate of Goucher College, Canon spent 30 years overseeing state and county programs before starting HSP in 1987.

WESTMINSTER -- Sylvia V. Canon often looks at the wooden wand hanging on her office wall and wishes she could wave it at the county's problems."If I had a magic wand, I would want affordable housing, accessible public transportation and child care, particularly for infants," she said.After 22 years addressing the needs of the county's neediest, Ms. Canon, 55, puts more faith in persistence and dedication than magic. As executive director of the Human Services Programs of Carroll County, she has learned to measure success in small steps.

When Kathy Brown, director of a Westminster outreach ministry, discovered she was the winner of Carroll County's annual humanitarian award, she deflected applause and credited the hundreds of volunteers who have helped her the past 15 years. The founder of Shepherd's Staff, Brown shared her secrets and recipes for drawing volunteers, whom she called "the heart of any organization," into her many activities. "Soup is my secret," she said. "If you want volunteers, bring them into your home and share a meal with them.

Since becoming executive director of Carroll County's Human Services Programs, Stephen Mood has often been introduced as "the new Sylvia." Most 57-year-old men would find that hard to take. But Mood doesn't mind the comparison to Sylvia Canon, the private nonprofit organization's founder and its director for 14 years. "Sylvia was a special leader and a great member of the community," said Mood, whose social work career spans more than 30 years. "I know it's a big spot to fill. I'm just working to get my feet on the ground.

Nearly three dozen members of a Prince George's County Episcopal church and their supporters yesterday filed ecclesiastical charges against acting Bishop Jane H. Dixon of Washington, escalating a dispute to retain a conservative rector at the 300-year-old parish. The parishioners and supporters of Christ Church in Accokeek charged that Dixon violated canon law by attempting to oust the Rev. Samuel L. Edwards, whom the parish called as its rector in December, after the 30-day period in canon law when she is allowed to intervene.

In the midst of dismantling her office and preparing to retire as director of Carroll County's Human Services Programs, Sylvia Canon promises to volunteer for the organization she founded in 1987. Canon, 63, will leave Jan. 12 after 40 years in social service, the past 13 as director of the county agency that started as "a patchwork place" with a staff of eight and one major program. She supervises more than 80 employees and runs more than 20 programs that helped more than 12,000 of the county's needy last year.

When Pamela Griffith flipped open the book in her prison cell and began to read, she felt an immediate, visceral connection in an environment where personal bonds of any type are in notoriously short supply. "It's funny. You feel a kinship in a certain way," Griffith, 53, told the other inmates participating in an unusual book club that's been running for nearly five years at the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women in Jessup. She leaned forward, and the words flew out of her: "Because her cells did what they did and the researchers did what they did, I'm sitting here today.

The humbling thing, for the Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool, has been the e-mail. The election over the weekend of the Annapolis priest to be the first openly lesbian bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion drew a stern rebuke from the Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the 70 million-member church. Struggling to hold together a denomination divided over homosexuality, Archbishop Rowan D. Williams warned that Glasspool's confirmation could jeopardize relations in a church already in turmoil after the consecration of an openly gay bishop in 2003.

The treatment for terminal cancer that Annapolis resident Mary Ellen Heibel took at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2004 and early 2005 worked beyond anyone's wildest hopes, wiping out malignant tumors in her lungs, liver, stomach and chest. Her doctor did not expect it, nor could he explain it. Surely the outcome was remarkable, but was it - in the sense applied by the Roman Catholic Church in such cases - a miracle? In a few weeks, a committee appointed by the Archdiocese of Baltimore will begin exploring that question, examining 11 witnesses, including Heibel, pressing her doctors, nurses and friends in an attempt to understand what happened.

The commencement ceremony yesterday at St. John's College in Annapolis was an apt display of a school that prides itself on individuality and freedom through learning. United by their years at a liberal arts school focused on a literary canon, the 128 graduates wore the traditional black gowns and awkward mortarboards. But their very different backgrounds and future paths were evident. Baltimorean Caroline Barry's purple-stockinged legs poked out from under her gown as she walked in the procession across the school's front lawn.

After three days in which Pope Benedict XVI has persistently addressed the scandal of child sexual abuse by priests, a top Vatican official said yesterday that the church is considering changes to the canon laws that govern how it handles such cases. The official, Cardinal William J. Levada, would not specify which canons were under reconsideration. But he suggested that they related to the church's statute of limitations, saying that his office has frequently had to judge allegations from years ago because the victims "don't feel personally able to come forward until" until they are more mature.

Maryland Episcopalians elected the Rev. Canon Eugene Taylor Sutton, canon pastor of the National Cathedral in Washington and an advocate of environmental causes, as the diocese's 14th bishop yesterday on a single ballot. Sutton, 54, the first African-American elected to lead the diocese in its 227-year history, also works as director of the Cathedral Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage. If the majority of bishops and standing committees of the national Episcopal Church consent, he will replace Bishop Robert Wilkes Ihloff, who retired in April.

* ERA Canon Reality Co. of Ellicott City recognized David W. McIlvaine as tops in listings and transactions in the Howard County office for 1993.

Canon S900 printer delivers sharp, fast copies of photos Canon's S900 Photo Printer ($400) dazzles with its speed and outshines similar printers with its photo reproduction. In many ways, with high-resolution pictures printed on the company's relatively expensive Photo Paper Pro, the Canon S900 (with a maximum 2,400-by-1,200 dots per inch resolution) surpasses regular photo-finish prints in color and sharpness. To make the printer faster, Canon doubled the number of ink spray nozzles to 3,072.

A decade ago, the Catholic Church tried to annul my marriage. My former husband, Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, wanted to remarry and stay in the good graces of the church; to do so, he needed the ruling. Despite 12 years of marriage and two children, a tribunal of the Archdiocese of Boston decided that our union was never valid, nor were our children the offspring of a true Catholic marriage. I did not agree with the archdiocese's decision. I was sure that our marriage, though failed, had been real.

Karen Feroli, executive director of Carroll Hospice and Carroll Home Care, recently was presented with the 2006 Sylvia V. Canon Humanitarian Award from the Community Services Council of Carroll County. The award is presented each year to an individual who initiates or sustains outstanding community service in Carroll County. Recipients demonstrate creativity, innovation and commitment that helps individuals throughout the community. Feroli has been with Carroll Hospice and Carroll Home Care for the past 10 years, while also serving as an advocate for the health and welfare in Carroll through her involvement in a variety of community activities.