Iguana

A lot about this year is best forgotten. But the photographs our readers sent us from their favorite travel destinations of 2008 for our weekly "Best Shots" column make for memories worth keeping -- as well as a momentary escape from tough times. The pictures we've selected for you to enjoy again sent us far away -- up a spiral staircase at the Vatican Museum, face to face with a marine iguana on the Galapagos Islands, to China's Great Wall -- and close to home, to share the sea with dolphins at Rehoboth Beach.

We are visiting several cities in Spain - Madrid, Seville, Granada - in the next few weeks. Can you offer a few tips regarding weather? Pack plenty of short-sleeve shirts and shorts. July and August are typically the hottest months of the year in most of Spain, although temperatures sometimes drop in late August. In the cities you will be visiting, expect daytime highs in the 90s and even the low 100s. At night, it should cool off into the low 70s and high 60s. Bring a light jacket or sweater just in case, but you probably won't need it. One good thing: Those cities experience little or no rain in August, so you can leave your umbrella at home.

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Three Afghan juveniles, whose detention has become an international cause celebre for critics of U.S. legal tactics in the war on terrorism, will soon be released and sent home, according to Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, commander of the task force that runs the Pentagon's sprawling complex of prisons by the sea. "We are very close to making a recommendation of a transfer back to their home country," Miller said yesterday of...

Donald E. Brown: The place of death of retired journalism professor Donald E. Brown, who died Dec. 18 at Church Home in Baltimore, was incorrectly reported in yesterday's editions.The Sun regrets the error.Donald E. Brown, 87, a former professor at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, died of prostate cancer Dec. 18 in Tempe, Ariz. Mr. Brown, who co-wrote the 1954 text "Radio and Television News," was also news director of radio stations across the Midwest. Before joining the Cronkite school, he taught journalism at the University of Illinois in Urbana, Ill. He retired in 1980.

Baltimore police have charged as juveniles two youths ages 11 and 14 with twice breaking into the Carrie Murray Nature Center in Leakin Park and stealing a dozen animals, a department spokesman said Thursday. A tip from a neighbor led police Tuesday to a house on Clifton Avenue in a West Baltimore townhouse development within walking distance of the nature preserve. Police said the center was broke into once between Saturday evening and Monday morning and again sometime Monday night or Tuesday morning.

On the ice, Washington Capitals rookie defenseman Brendan Witt is one tough customer: He is 6 feet 2, 212 pounds, and hits with power. Off the ice, he can be hard-nosed, too: His contract negotiations took two years because he held out until he got what he wanted -- five years, $6.7 million.But none of that quite prepares you for the sight of Witt with his pet -- Eddie the iguana.Witt reaches into the cage that sits near the foot of his bed and gently picks up his friend. Eddie is about 12 inches long, and when Witt wraps his giant hand around him he almost disappears.

AS IT HAS been unbearably hot and humid lately, we have been having the usual vicious battles over air conditioning at my house.The problem in a nutshell is this: As soon as the temperature reaches a point where vultures begin circling overhead, babies wail non-stop and flies drop off the ceiling, I close the windows and turn on the air conditioner, as any rational person would do.But when I leave the house, my wife turns the air conditioner off.I come...

QUIZ ANSWERSHere are answers to the questions from the Summer Reading List about insects and reptiles. That suggested book list appeared in the July 11 Home & Family section.Infants and preschoolersQ. In "Bugs!", what insect's hair makes for a great blanket or sweater?A. A caterpillar.Q. In "Bugs for Lunch," whose tongue is long and sticky and slurps termites and ants?A. An aardvark.Q. In "Cornelius," what does he learn to do that the other crocodiles pretend not to care about, but are then caught trying to do?

Israel Goldiamond, 76, an experimental psychologist who found novel ways to investigate animal and human behavior patterns and used this knowledge to help patients overcome unwanted habits, died of bone marrow cancer Nov. 19 in Chicago. He had retired from the University of Chicago in 1990 as professor emeritus of psychiatry and psychology. His forte was the analysis of behavior under controlled laboratoryconditions. His research generated methods of altering harmful or problematic behavior, including overeating, smoking and phobias.

When Bettie Acks dressed her 2-year-old iguana, Kermi, in a witch costume complete with black hat, cape and broom, she never had any doubt who would win first place in the Halloween costume contest for pets."