Eddie Bauer

For all the shopping categories of the holiday season - career climber, kid-who-has-everything, coffee snob - today there are two basic camps of givers and receivers: Those who think the cool gadget of the moment is so yesterday, and those who break out in hives at the mention of USB or MP3. Is there anything out there from the way things used to be - back when analog was new, words were read on paper, and music played on vinyl - that would please your...

It's a problem that has countless women grumbling in store dressing rooms across America and catalog retailers like Eddie Bauer, L.L. Bean, and Lands' End complaining bitterly about millions of dollars in merchandise returns.In the chaotic world of women's clothing sizes, the numbers that shoppers see on garment tags, from tiny 2 all the way to 20, have become all but meaningless.Women waste hours trying on clothes that droop or squeeze, and catalog vendors end up with costly returns from similarly frus- trated mail-order customers.

SPRINGDALE, Utah -- Amid massive canyon gorges, surrounded by formations of Navajo sandstone that jut more than 2,000 feet into the brilliant blue sky of far southwestern Utah, some big truths are unavoidable:Man is very small, his achievements modest and fleeting. Nature possesses great power -- both brute force and delicate beauty. The physical history of the world unfolds in ways that will forever escape our understanding. And one more: I am an Easterner.Back East we don't have red cliffs and checkerboard mesas like the ones at Zion National Park, or badlands and towering pillars like the ones at Bryce Canyon.

WASHINGTON -- The record $176 million settlement in the discrimination lawsuit against Texaco will no doubt be hailed as a triumph of justice over bigotry. But despite the clear vindication of Texaco's black employees, the settlement is a Pyrrhic victory in the history of American race relations.Within days or weeks, the Texaco incident will be largely forgotten. The company's stock price already has rebounded. The intolerance that gave rise to the lawsuit will vanish from the news. As with similar episodes, white America will view Texaco as merely an aberration in a society that most whites believe to be equitable and even solicitous to blacks.

I just tried on a gazillion swimsuits without leaving my home or removing a stitch of clothing. There were no fluorescent lights, no tattletale three-way mirrors and no snide saleswomen saying, "You are going to try on that?" It's every woman's clothing dream and it's available courtesy of the Internet. Now, there's finally a really good reason for owning a computer. Virtual dressing rooms are just beginning to make their way onto the Web. With them, you can try on clothes on a virtual body that looks like yours.

Eddie Bauer Holdings Inc. Shares declined $1.74, or 18 percent, to $7.98 after the outdoor-clothing maker reported a loss of 73 cents a share in the second quarter on sales of $227 million. It was the fifth loss in six quarters.

Police arrested a woman Tuesday and charged her with stealing two pairs of jeans worth $60 from the Eddie Bauer store in Annapolis Mall, county police said.William T. Sides, an employee, told police he saw a woman leave the store without paying for the jeans shortly before 6:30 p.m.Another witness told police he saw a woman removing tags from jeans and leaving the mall, police said.A security officer and Officer Charmaine M. Beyer stopped a woman on the parking lot, police said. Merlinda Huff, 36, of no fixed address, was charged with theft.

POLICE LOG* King's Contrivance: 7000 block of Copperwood Way: Three cars were broken into during an overnight crime spree Aug. 1.A $160 pair of Eddie Bauer binoculars and a $200 pocket car phone were stolen from a 1989 Jeep Cherokee parked in front of the owner's house.The car's rear driver's window had been broken.Two bags of popcorn worth $2 were stolen from a nearby 1988 Ford Taurus, which had its driver's side window broken.A $100 car phone, a $400 leather bag, a $100 leather portfolio and a $200 calculator were stolen from a 1989 Honda Civic, whose driver's side rear window had been broken.

EPA declares health emergency in Montana towns WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday declared its first-ever "public health emergency," saying the federal government will funnel $6 million to provide medical care for people sickened by asbestos from a mine in a section of northwest Montana. The declaration applies to the towns of Libby and Troy, where for decades workers dug for vermiculite, a mineral used in insulation. They were unknowingly poisoning themselves: The vermiculite was contaminated with a toxic form of asbestos, which workers carried home on their clothes.

County police arrested a Bowie man and a 17-year-old Bowie girl Tuesday on theft charges after a stolen credit card was used to buy $747 worth of clothing from five stores at Marley Station.Police said a Macy's security guard called shortly after 4:30 p.m. when he saw two people picking up clothes without looking at size or price. He warned the sales clerk to ask for a second identification if one tried to use a credit card.When the girl attempted to pay with a card, the clerk asked for identification.