Illustration

The book is open to a page with a text of the supplication said on the Ten Days of Penitence between the Jewish high holy days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. The decorations of the page are at once beautiful, charming and mysterious: flowered borders with gold studs; urns holding arrangements of lilies and carnations; birds and animals including rabbits, partridges, a peacock, a cheetah and a lion; and who are the two richly dressed people shown in border medallions, one with long blond hair wearing a feathered headband and one a Moor wearing a turban?

Last weekend I was in cam lock lockdown. This is a state of frustration familiar to folks who buy self-assembled furniture. Self-assembled furniture is, I am told, a trend. In the furniture trade, it even has an abbreviation, RTA, for ready to assemble. I found it to be a pain, mainly in my knees and lower back. With self-assembled furniture, when you buy a bookcase it does not arrive in your home looking like a bookcase. Instead it looks like a big flat box stuffed with parts. Apparently we can thank Ingvar Kamprad for this.

Lige Daniels hangs from the tree in Center, Texas. His neck is bent backwards so that his head makes a grotesque right angle with his body. His corpse wears a white shirt and rumpled jeans. His feet are bare. Below Daniels stand members of the mob that lynched him. Many stare straight into the camera. One, a boy who can't be more than 11 or 12 years old, has his head cocked slightly to his left. He wears a shirt with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. A wide tie drapes his neck, its design almost clownish in appearance.

The recent surge of collector interest in illustrated children's books has been accompanied in the last year or so by the publication of several studies of prominent artists in the field -- Arthur Rackham, Jessie Willcox Smith and Bessie Pease Gutman, to name a few.These are now joined by one on Kate Greenaway, whose delicate, sunbonneted, Empire-waisted figures have made her a favorite of children for several generations and a symbol of the innocence of...

The world made a shocking discovery last week.Sports Illustrated, it was found, is by and large a men's magazine. Chauvinistically, too.This significant discovery was made in Toronto at the office of Young & Rubicam, which was under contract with adidas Canada Ltd. to produce an advertisement.The ad featured 11 members of the Richmond Hill Kick, a soccer team that plays in the National Soccer League there and is sponsored by adidas. They were photographed sporting adidas soccer shoes.And smiles.

The room was filled with people arguing passionately for more money for social programs - and a couple of voices calling for even greater reductions in property taxes. It may at first seem to be somewhat counterintuitive, but the annual City Council Taxpayers' Night held this week at War Memorial Building was another indication of the city's improving fortunes - and the important debate over what to do with additional resources. Not so long ago, circa the 1990s, Taxpayers' Nights that preceded the council's consideration of the budget were also dominated by similar pleas for more money for programs and tax relief - both with an important difference.

March is shaping up as an exciting month for Baltimore-area book lovers. Jodi Picoult comes to town, and there's a party marking Laura Lippman's new book. But first, let's note some unsung heroes. Everyone has a favorite author, but how many of us know the men and women who illustrate the books we read? They're crucial to setting the mood for a story, but they usually live in the author's shadow. Starting this week, you can celebrate the work of great illustrators who made you smile as a kid (and who probably made your own kids smile, too)

On the local restaurant scene, this was a year of big openings and small trends, chefs from the past making a new splash, and for me personally, a new appreciation of readers' passion for eating out -- brought about by the launch of my restaurant blog, Dining@Large, last April. In spite of the generally gloomy economic picture, a surprising number of new restaurants opened their doors in 2007, from Aloha Tokyo in Locust Point to Zella's Pizzeria in West Baltimore. The two that got the most press offer intriguing examples of important restaurant trends locally and nationally.

BUZZ WORDSBuzz Beamer's guide to sports slang will help you talk like a pro!banana heat(swimming): a race for swimmers who did not qualify for the final eventMeet Tony GwynnSan Diego Padre outfielder Tony Gwynn has won eight National League batting titles. Just call him Batman!Tony played basketball and baseball at San Diego State University. In 1981, he was chosen by the San Diego Padres, in the baseball draft, and by the San Diego Clippers, in the NBA draft - on the same day!"My first love was basketball," Tony says.

Services for Anne R. Thompson, an amateur painter who had worked as a commercial artist and medical illustrator, will be held at 11 a.m. today at the Asbury United Methodist Church, 78 Church Road, Arnold.Mrs. Thompson, who was 88 and lived in Arnold, died Monday at the Anne Arundel Medical Center after a long illness.Before her marriage in 1922, she worked in a commercial art studio and as a librarian and an illustrator for Dr. Howard Kelly at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.Later, she won several prizes for her oil paintings.