Ethan Allen

School, furniture store team up to improve scoresEthan Allen Interiors and West Friendship Elementary School have formed an educational partnership to help the students improve their scores on the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP).As part of the partnership, the students participated in a week-long activity to design a bedroom suite for a dream house, using the mathematical, decision-making and writing skills required for the MSPAP.The students submitted their entries, and three were selected for publication in an ad in The Sun. Readers voted for the best design, and Ethan Allen awarded a $50 savings bond to the winning student.

Well, it's not exactly Pottery Barn or Ethan Allen, but I guess aircraft interior design is a whole different ball of Minwax. Southwest Airlines today announced it is redesigning the interior of its fleet to "enhance customer comfort, improve fleet efficiency, and give back to the environment. " The whole comfort part is difficult to fathom since the new interior will actually allow for additional seats - capacity on the airline's 737-700s will increase from 137 seats to 143 seats.

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. -- Just days before a tour boat capsized in the Adirondack Mountains, killing 20 elderly people, the Coast Guard began rethinking its passenger-weight calculations to take into account Americans' expanding waistlines. At the time it flipped over, the 38-foot Ethan Allen was just under its capacity of 48 passengers - a figure that was arrived at by using a New York standard that assumes a 150-pound average for each man, woman and child, authorities said. The U.S. Coast Guard standard assumes a 140-pound average for each person.

No one who walks into Jeri and Jesse Hannon's townhouse in Mays Chapel North is likely to forget the dining room chandelier. Hanging from a 10-foot-high carved ceiling medallion, this magnificent fixture, fashioned of cut crystal and looking much like a carved ice sculpture, commands the space around it. The elegance of the chandelier almost solely defines Jeri Hannon's decorating scheme in the home she and her husband have occupied for the past...

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. -- The tour boat that sank Sunday, killing 20 passengers, should not have been carrying 48 people even though it was licensed to sail with that number, the lead investigator into the tragedy said yesterday. Stability tests of a virtually identical sister vessel, de Champlain, failed to meet Coast Guard safety standards when officials loaded its deck with water-filled barrels yesterday. "We had to stop the test at three drums," said Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

A Web high pointIf you'd love to know the difference between Thomas Sheraton and Thomas Chippendale, or find out why Grinling Gibbons is so revered for his carved embellishments, or learn more about Frank Lloyd Wright or art deco or mission or Greek furniture, you can now visit the place where professionals get some of their design expertise. The Bernice Bienenstock Furniture Library of High Point, N.C. (inset), has a Web site offering more than 500 books for sale on furniture and design.

One of the 10 best show-house rooms in America, according to House Beautiful, can be seen on the Eastern Shore.The River Room at the Beeches, the 1995 decorator show house benefiting the Historical Society of Talbot County, will be featured in the magazine's October issue -- and in a story on the show house in next Sunday's Today section.Darryl Savage and Anthony Awkard of D.H.S. Designs in Annapolis created this striking garden room.The house, located between Oxford and Easton on Peachblossom Creek, is open through June 30; call (410)

Well, it's not exactly Pottery Barn or Ethan Allen, but I guess aircraft interior design is a whole different ball of Minwax. Southwest Airlines today announced it is redesigning the interior of its fleet to "enhance customer comfort, improve fleet efficiency, and give back to the environment. " The whole comfort part is difficult to fathom since the new interior will actually allow for additional seats - capacity on the airline's 737-700s will increase from 137 seats to 143 seats.

Anyone who has ever considered redesigning a kitchen has gone through the drill. Corian, laminate, granite or ceramic tile? Wood floors, linoleum, carpeting or tile? Gas, halogen, electric coil or solid element cooktop? Glass doors, solid doors or a combination of the two?Whew. By the time you decide on the kitchen design, there's little energy left to coordinate the rest of the house. To complicate things even more, these days the kitchen is no longer a place where the cook toils in isolation.

Decorating outdoor living spaces is just as important as decorating the indoor spaces - though it poses its own challenges. Here are some tips on creating inviting decks, porches and patios, from Waverly, which produces fabrics, linens and wall coverings, and from a new book, "Pure Style Outdoors," by Jane Cumberbatch (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1998, $27.50).* Use strong and vibrant colors, such as bright yellow, bright blue, deep pink, aqua and apple green to complement the greenery and flowers outside.

Dentist to sponsor young campers Smile Savers Dentistry of Columbia will sponsor 10 Howard County children affected by cancer to attend Camp Friendship, a summer recreational program of the Carol Jean Cancer Foundation Inc. Donations collected from patients, local businesses and members of the community will be matched by the dental practice. Information: 410-730-6460. Cancer center gets Ethan Allen chair Ethan Allen Home Interiors has donated one of its "Chairs that Care" - chairs signed by breast cancer survivors - to the Center for Breast Care at Howard County General Hospital.

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. -- The tour boat that sank Sunday, killing 20 passengers, should not have been carrying 48 people even though it was licensed to sail with that number, the lead investigator into the tragedy said yesterday. Stability tests of a virtually identical sister vessel, de Champlain, failed to meet Coast Guard safety standards when officials loaded its deck with water-filled barrels yesterday. "We had to stop the test at three drums," said Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. -- Just days before a tour boat capsized in the Adirondack Mountains, killing 20 elderly people, the Coast Guard began rethinking its passenger-weight calculations to take into account Americans' expanding waistlines. At the time it flipped over, the 38-foot Ethan Allen was just under its capacity of 48 passengers - a figure that was arrived at by using a New York standard that assumes a 150-pound average for each man, woman and child, authorities said. The U.S. Coast Guard standard assumes a 140-pound average for each person.

In 1692, the American frontier was about where Exit 21 is today on the Baltimore Beltway. Across the ocean, England and France were waging another of their periodic wars, this one known as King William's War, and both superpowers were inciting their Indian allies in the New World to raid each other's Colonial settlers. The Governor's Council of Maryland ordered the construction of three defensive forts. Three centuries later, one of those forts still stands on a third of an acre owned by Baltimore County on Garrison Farms Court, a quiet residential cul-de-sac off Stevenson Road, just outside the Beltway.

A Web high pointIf you'd love to know the difference between Thomas Sheraton and Thomas Chippendale, or find out why Grinling Gibbons is so revered for his carved embellishments, or learn more about Frank Lloyd Wright or art deco or mission or Greek furniture, you can now visit the place where professionals get some of their design expertise. The Bernice Bienenstock Furniture Library of High Point, N.C. (inset), has a Web site offering more than 500 books for sale on furniture and design.

Decorating outdoor living spaces is just as important as decorating the indoor spaces - though it poses its own challenges. Here are some tips on creating inviting decks, porches and patios, from Waverly, which produces fabrics, linens and wall coverings, and from a new book, "Pure Style Outdoors," by Jane Cumberbatch (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1998, $27.50).* Use strong and vibrant colors, such as bright yellow, bright blue, deep pink, aqua and apple green to complement the greenery and flowers outside.

In 1692, the American frontier was about where Exit 21 is today on the Baltimore Beltway. Across the ocean, England and France were waging another of their periodic wars, this one known as King William's War, and both superpowers were inciting their Indian allies in the New World to raid each other's Colonial settlers. The Governor's Council of Maryland ordered the construction of three defensive forts. Three centuries later, one of those forts still stands on a third of an acre owned by Baltimore County on Garrison Farms Court, a quiet residential cul-de-sac off Stevenson Road, just outside the Beltway.

Dentist to sponsor young campers Smile Savers Dentistry of Columbia will sponsor 10 Howard County children affected by cancer to attend Camp Friendship, a summer recreational program of the Carol Jean Cancer Foundation Inc. Donations collected from patients, local businesses and members of the community will be matched by the dental practice. Information: 410-730-6460. Cancer center gets Ethan Allen chair Ethan Allen Home Interiors has donated one of its "Chairs that Care" - chairs signed by breast cancer survivors - to the Center for Breast Care at Howard County General Hospital.

School, furniture store team up to improve scoresEthan Allen Interiors and West Friendship Elementary School have formed an educational partnership to help the students improve their scores on the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP).As part of the partnership, the students participated in a week-long activity to design a bedroom suite for a dream house, using the mathematical, decision-making and writing skills required for the MSPAP.The students submitted their entries, and three were selected for publication in an ad in The Sun. Readers voted for the best design, and Ethan Allen awarded a $50 savings bond to the winning student.

One of the 10 best show-house rooms in America, according to House Beautiful, can be seen on the Eastern Shore.The River Room at the Beeches, the 1995 decorator show house benefiting the Historical Society of Talbot County, will be featured in the magazine's October issue -- and in a story on the show house in next Sunday's Today section.Darryl Savage and Anthony Awkard of D.H.S. Designs in Annapolis created this striking garden room.The house, located between Oxford and Easton on Peachblossom Creek, is open through June 30; call (410)