Christopher Columbus

A WORD OF thanks is due to the Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA), which published a brochure called Columbus: Fact vs. Fiction just in time for the celebration of the holiday named for the Italian explorer, which took place Monday. Reviewing our grade school history, we're reminded that Christopher Columbus is the guy credited with discovering America, sailing on the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria in 1492 from Europe to the West Indies. For years, he was revered as a bold explorer who helped alter the course of history.

Columbus Day came and went this week with little fanfare. Some folks were off for a Monday holiday; others had to work. It wasn't the focal point of a lot of celebration, pomp or public pageantry, though in some communities and in some places it is a rather important holiday. Unfortunately, Christopher Columbus has fallen from favor in the lexicon of historic figures who are regarded as heroes. His big claim to fame - unbeknownst to him, by the way - had long been his discovery of the Americas.

On December 29, 2008, COLUMBUS. Visitation 2140 N. Fulton Avenue, Sunday 2 to 6 P.M. Family will receive friends Monday at New Life Fellowship Church of Christ, 559 Robert Street at 10:30 A.M. Funeral at 11 A.M.

Growing up, Michelle Bagley aspired to become an actress yet also had a interest in the sciences. She went on to combine the two, ultimately becoming a Centennial High School science teacher who considers her classroom a stage, inspiring students in a sometimes unpopular subject. The New York-based Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation took notice. The independent federal agency established by Congress to support and encourage discovery is giving Bagley its Life Sciences Award.

When Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic for the first time, he discovered a native people who delighted in chewing and smoking the dried, pungent leaves of a plant unknown to Europe. Indians consumed them to enhance prayers, ward off illness, to relax.Some of the crewmen indulged out of curiosity and found the leaves to their liking -- and did not stop. Columbus berated his men for succumbing to a custom that apparently repelled him. But he eventually relented, declaring: "It's not within their power to refrain from indulging in the habit."

The contest between two area development firms vying to see which would win the right to build a multimillion-dollar marine research center in the Inner Harbor has come to a biblical conclusion.After weeks in which it seemed only an act of Solomon would end the deliberations over whether the Rouse Co. or the smaller Manekin Corp. would win the lucrative contract, the nine members of the Christopher Columbus Development Inc. voted last night to pick Rouse.The selection means the Rouse will take over development and ultimately management of the $164 million Christopher Columbus Center for Marine Research and Exploration.

Molecular biologist Thomas T. Chen has figured out how to fool Mother Nature.The fish he bathes in growth hormone or embryos he injects with growth hormone genes grow 20 to 80 percent faster than fish left with the amount of the hormone nature gave them, according to his studies.Manipulating the genetic makeup of living things to make them better, bigger, faster-growing and disease resistant is the mission of the Center of Marine Biotechnology in Baltimore. And the marine biotech center will form the cornerstone of the Christopher Columbus Center of Marine Research and Exploration being dedicated today.

New positionsChristopher Columbus Development Center appoints threeThe Christopher Columbus Development Center announced the appointments of Joseph B. Schaffer as chief financial officer, Joan M. Pesek as associate director of institutional development and Rosalia Scalia as a media relations representative.Schaffer, a University of Maryland graduate, was formerly CFO for Bally Manager Inc. He is a member of the Maryland JayCees and is active in athletic programs at Glen Burnie High School.

Washington - It's on its way: Christopher Columbus, the musical.And Christopher Columbus, the opera. And Christopher Columbus, the Hollywood movie (make that movies). And Christopher Columbus, the lecture series, the encyclopedia, the comic book, the ballet, the jigsaw puzzle, the exhibit, the puppet show, the 5K race, the essay contest, the commemorative key chain, the softball tournament, the luxury cruise . . .Welcome to Christopher Columbus, the year.The official Christopher Columbus Quincentenary commemoration is kicked off with a festival at Washington's Union Station tomorrow -- one year before the 500th anniversary of the seafarer's historic cruise to these parts.

Christopher Columbus accidentally stumbled upon America while sailing untraveled waters five centuries ago.Yesterday, however, the worn, heavily traveled streets ofBaltimore had to be blocked to make way for his modern counterpart, Donald Castranova, perched atop a parade float impersonating the man the city has been honoring annually for the last 100 years.Castranova, a leader of a Baltimore Italian dance group called Balli D'Italia, was one of hundreds representing different cultures for the 100th Christopher Columbus parade, which focused on the theme of the city's ethnic diversity.

It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave. I will take to the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom. - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass He had always loved the Chesapeake Bay and enjoyed history, but for the longest time, when Vince Leggett tried to blend his twin passions, he was left with some haunting questions. "I'd read of all the shipbuilders, boat captains and shipping magnates who supposedly made bay history, most of them members of the majority community," says Leggett, a public historian and former schools administrator who lives in Annapolis.

It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave. I will take to the water. This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom. - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass H e had always loved the Chesapeake Bay and enjoyed history, but for the longest time, when Vince Leggett tried to blend his twin passions, he was left with some haunting questions. "I'd read of all the shipbuilders, boat captains and shipping magnates who supposedly made bay history, most of them members of the majority community," says Leggett, a public historian and former schools administrator who lives in Annapolis.

On December 29, 2008, COLUMBUS. Visitation 2140 N. Fulton Avenue, Sunday 2 to 6 P.M. Family will receive friends Monday at New Life Fellowship Church of Christ, 559 Robert Street at 10:30 A.M. Funeral at 11 A.M.

The Original Knickerbocker The Life of Washington Irving By Andrew Burstein Basic Books / 420 pages / $27.50 Few Americans read Washington Irving today. The author of short-story classics like "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," influential biographies of Christopher Columbus and George Washington and popular travelogues is largely confined to the syllabuses of upper-level college and graduate-school classrooms. Irving's sentimental and English style lost favor over the 19th and 20th centuries, especially compared with the tall tales of Davy Crockett, the social criticism of Mark Twain and the plebeian poetry of Walt Whitman.

YOU ALWAYS said your boss was a maniac. Now experts back you up. John D. Gartner, Johns Hopkins assistant professor of psychiatry, believes U.S. business is replete with leaders whose brains are just a few dopamine molecules shy of earning them a label from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. That's a good thing, he says. In his new book, The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America, Gartner argues that the benefits delivered by exuberant, driven, slightly nutso entrepreneurs outweigh the numerous drawbacks.

Spanish researchers say they've won permission to open a tomb in the Dominican Republic purported to hold the remains of Christopher Columbus, edging closer to solving a century-old mystery over whether those bones or a rival set in Spain are the real thing. A team of two high school teachers from Seville and a leading Spanish forensic geneticist has been testing 500-year-old bone slivers for more than two years to try to pinpoint the final resting place of the explorer who arrived in the New World by accident in 1492 on an expedition chartered by Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel.

HOLLYWOOD -- Is there room on the Atlantic Ocean -- and on the big screen -- for two Christopher Columbuses?There was room last week in the trade papers for splashy multi-page ads touting two such projects, both to be released in 1992 to capitalize on the 500th anniversary of the Italian explorer's voyage to North America in the service of Spain.Producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind are working with a script by Mario Puzo, "Christopher Columbus: The Movie," with plans to begin shooting in April.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The winter wind is blowing hard and mean, the Ku Klux Klan wants a permit to demonstrate downtown, and the city's beloved Ohio State Buckeyes are headed for one of those second-tier bowl games that no one really cares about.So, maybe it is a good thing that the people of Columbus have something else to fuss over these days: Should a 500-ton statue of Christopher Columbus that is 6 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty be put near the Scioto River, not far from the life-size replica of the Santa Maria and the other monuments dedicated to the man and the myth?

A little bit of Italy rolled through downtown Baltimore yesterday as the city celebrated its 114th consecutive Columbus Day parade with the steady beat of marching bands, floating restaurants, fancy cars and perfect weather. Savoring brilliant sunshine and summerlike temperatures, spectators by the hundreds cheered and clapped as nearly 90 groups walked, marched or drove in the procession from the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon to Central Avenue in Little Italy. "This is the best day we've had in years," said Thomas J. Iacoboni, organizer of the parade culminating several Columbus-themed events that began weeks ago. "The idea is to get people to Little Italy."