Canon

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.

Res MusicAmerica likes to think of itself as a musical smorgasbord. And so it is. This new music organization, formerly known as Res Musica, sponsors concerts where one is as likely to hear a rag for piano as a piece for electric cello and computer tape.The problem with smorgasbords (and yesterday's Res MusicAmerica's concert at the Baltimore Museum was no exception) is that they tend to leave one with indigestion -- in this case of the audio-acoustic variety.The least interesting piece on yesterday's varied program -- all of the pieces were either world premieres or local premieres -- was Brian Bevelander's Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano.

It was the "desert island disc" of my childhood: Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto performed with virtuosic fire by pianist Eugene Istomin, conductor Eugene Ormandy -- then at the peak of his powers -- and Ormandy's fabulous Philadelphians, the most sumptuous-sounding band of 'em all.I wore the grooves on that LP to dust.It was with great anticipation, then, that I attended Eugene Istomin's recital at St. John's College last Sunday afternoon, for there's no friend like an old friend.Now 68, Istomin is no longer the fire-breather who mesmerized me in my boyhood.

Yet another gripes column."In the advertisement they say, 'What is worse than a yeast infection?' I say, 'Plenty. I mean, nobody dies of it, do they?'""A personal gripe of mine is when people write my name incorrectly. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard, would you? I mean, how hard is it to spell David Goldman?""People who adopt Rush Limbaugh-esque tactics and label people 'liberals' and dismiss them automatically. This is harmful, divisive stereotyping that does nothing to help this country.

FIELD OF BLOOD By Denise Mina. Little, Brown. 350 pages. Denise Mina's novels illuminate the darkest, most uncomfortable corners of her native Glasgow, and this, the first in a new series, continues to do so in exemplary fashion. Eschewing contemporary setting for a look at the recession-tinged, religious-obsessed early 1980s, Field of Blood is a tale of two unrelated Paddy Meehans: the elder incarcerated for a crime he did not commit, and the younger working her way up in the world of journalism while asserting her independence, much to the chagrin of her family and fiance, Sean.

With her 12th novel, "Saint Maybe," Anne Tyler adds to her already sizable colony of gently eccentric, fictional Baltimoreans.At least we think they're fictional.But don't we all know someone who seems to have wandered out of an Anne Tyler novel? Someone pale and vague and spinsterish. Someone who favors clothes of indeterminate vintage, food of comforting sameness and streets of well-trod familiarity. Someone who lives in the same faded, cluttered house that his parents and grandparents lived in.Sound all too familiar?

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.

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.

Canon S600 printer delivers sharpness for a decent price Printer-makers have flooded the market with machines that can do a competent job at all price ranges. That makes choosing a bad printer pretty hard to do. But if you want a fast, solid performer without much flash, the Canon S600 Bubble Jet Printer ($200) stands out. The S600, with a color resolution of 2,400-by-1,200 dots per inch, works with both Macintosh and Windows-based PCs. It features both USB and parallel port connections, allowing it to be used with Windows 95 or later and Mac OS 8.1 or later.

Showing off its prowess in both printer and computer technology, Canon Inc. has introduced a powerful 7.7-pound laptop with a built-in ink-jet printer. So small and unobtrusive is the printer that the Canon Note Jet 486 looks pretty much like a normal notebook computer.Prices will start at $2,499 when the Note Jet 486 becomes widely available next month.When it is equipped with an optional facsimile modem, which costs an additional $399 or $899, depending on speed, the Note Jet 486 can also serve as a plain-paper facsimile receiver and printer.