Leonardo

EVERY ONCE in a while, you come across something in the newspaper so profoundly disturbing that you just want to go back to bed and pull the covers over your head.This happened to me the other morning.The sun was shining and the birds were chirping and I was on the back deck, enjoying my fourth cup of coffee and vibrating like a cheap motel bed, which is how you need to be in order to read the paper sometimes.And there it was, a short item on Page 2 of this very section.This is what it said: A fourth "Godfather" movie was in the works.

Clint Eastwood's latest film, "J. Edgar," due out Nov. 9, is a biopic on FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (played by Leonardo DiCaprio). Here's what the film's trailer revealed. 1. Leonardo DiCaprio loves him some accents: He's done Boston ("The Departed") and whatever he was trying to do in "Blood Diamond," but DiCaprio's Hoover-speak is a little vague here. Is it N.Y.? Generic East Coast? Simply gravelly? We're a little confused (for the record: Hoover was born in D.C.)

He dissected 30 bodies, kept about 20,000 pages of notes and seldom finished what he started. But nearly 500 years after his death, Leonardo da Vinci can still draw a crowd - not only as an artist, but as a scientist. Tonight, a sellout crowd of more than 400 will gather at the Walters Art Museum to hear Kennedy Krieger Institute researcher Jonathan Pevsner discuss da Vinci's genius, focusing on the Renaissance master's study of the human brain. Scholars have spent careers deciphering da Vinci's sketches of flying ships, his catapults and the prescient knowledge of his celestial observations.

For years, Leonardo stood under a bush in Mary Kay Pogar's front yard, red cap at a jaunty angle, thick book tucked under an arm. Then, on a summer day in 2005, the gnome disappeared. After a stop at Pogar's lab at a Towson hospital, he jetted around on Air Force One, went ice fishing in Antarctica and trotted along the Great Wall of China -- at least, if all the photos posted in the lab lounge were to be believed. For Pogar, a pathologist's assistant at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, the images were a tip-off that a co-worker filched her gnome.

A former Dunbar High School basketball star pleaded guilty yesterday to drug charges in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, four days after his brother pleaded guilty to similar charges, according to federal law enforcement officials. Federal prosecutors say that William "Billy" Wells -- as well as his brother, Leonardo Wells -- were involved in distributing large quantities of cocaine to wholesale customers. Prosecutors said Leonardo Wells purchased kilograms of cocaine and sold them to customers in Hagerstown and elsewhere from December 2003 until February of this year.

On May 13, 2006 PIETRO "Pete"DELEONARDO of Columbia, belovedhusband of Revena De Leonardo(nee Gregory) loving father of Tony De Leonardo and his wife Jeanine, cherished grandfather of Brandon De Leonardo, dear brother of Harriet Hiltner and Christine Constof, alsosurvived by other relatives and friends. Relatives and friends are invited to call at the WITZKE FUNERAL HOMES, INC., 5555 Twin Knolls Rd, Columbia, MD 21045, on Tuesday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. and to attend funeral services on Wednesday May 17 at 10 A.M. Interment Holly Hill Cemetery.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the history of art and a jewel of the collection at the Louvre Museum in Paris. So what's it doing in Baltimore? That's the question visitors to the Walters Art Museum have been asking this month as they enter the museum's Renaissance and Baroque galleries and spot the famous lady smiling down at them. Actually, as a wall label notes, it's not the "real" Mona Lisa. Instead, it is a copy -- albeit a very good one -- painted by an unknown French artist probably sometime in the 16th or 17th century.

The latest addition to the Baltimore theater scene is an aptly named new company called More Theatre. Under the leadership of artistic director Aimee Blankenship and managing director Jennifer Roberts, More Theatre opens its debut production, "Leonardo's Last Supper," tonight at St. John's Church in Charles Village.Written by British playwright and screenwriter Peter Barnes ("The Ruling Class" and "Enchanted April"), "Leonardo's Last Supper" is a dark comedy about a corrupt 16th-century undertaker and his family, who have fallen on hard times due to the end of the plague.

Navy Ensign Antonio Leonardo, son of Rudy and Joan Leonardo of Westminster, recently graduated from the Basic Civil Engineer Corps Officer School.During the course in Port Hueneme, Calif., students received instruction in engineering management, network analysis, financial management and Navy organization. Studies included military and civilian personnel management and administration, Navy industrial funding, shore facility planning and constructionbattalion operations.A 1983 graduate of Westminster High School, Ensign Leonardo joined the Navy in March 1987.

For years, Leonardo stood under a bush in Mary Kay Pogar's front yard, red cap at a jaunty angle, thick book tucked under an arm. Then, on a summer day in 2005, the gnome disappeared. After a stop at Pogar's lab at a Towson hospital, he jetted around on Air Force One, went ice fishing in Antarctica and trotted along the Great Wall of China -- at least, if all the photos posted in the lab lounge were to be believed. For Pogar, a pathologist's assistant at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, the images were a tip-off that a co-worker filched her gnome.

QUOTE OF THE DAY A lot of the people who practice paganism aren't terribly public about it. We jokingly say they're in the broom closet." Sherry Marts, Open Hearth Foundation board member Article, PG 3B Up next Monday Rock class The Baltimore School of Rock tries to turn wannabe musicians into budding rock stars. IN TODAY Wednesday Coffee hour At Dukem Restaurant, 50 to 60 people show up each Sunday afternoon for an aromatic, Old World ritual: the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. IN TASTE Friday Gangsters The Departed, a film by Martin Scorsese, tells the story of two moles within Massachusetts law enforcement and the Irish mafia.

A former Dunbar High School basketball star pleaded guilty yesterday to drug charges in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, four days after his brother pleaded guilty to similar charges, according to federal law enforcement officials. Federal prosecutors say that William "Billy" Wells -- as well as his brother, Leonardo Wells -- were involved in distributing large quantities of cocaine to wholesale customers. Prosecutors said Leonardo Wells purchased kilograms of cocaine and sold them to customers in Hagerstown and elsewhere from December 2003 until February of this year.

On May 13, 2006 PIETRO "Pete"DELEONARDO of Columbia, belovedhusband of Revena De Leonardo(nee Gregory) loving father of Tony De Leonardo and his wife Jeanine, cherished grandfather of Brandon De Leonardo, dear brother of Harriet Hiltner and Christine Constof, alsosurvived by other relatives and friends. Relatives and friends are invited to call at the WITZKE FUNERAL HOMES, INC., 5555 Twin Knolls Rd, Columbia, MD 21045, on Tuesday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. and to attend funeral services on Wednesday May 17 at 10 A.M. Interment Holly Hill Cemetery.

On February 10, 2006 LEONARDO K. He is survived by three brothers, three sisters and a host of other relatives. Memorial Services Thursday at JAMES A. MORTON & SONS FUNERAL HOME, INC., 311 Main Street, Turner Station, MD. The family will receive friends 7-7:30 p.m. followed by services.

Not since Robert Downey Jr. in Chaplin has a star grown as an actor and grown up within a role as excitingly as Leonardo DiCaprio does as Howard Hughes in The Aviator. And The Aviator zooms light years beyond Chaplin as a movie. DiCaprio leaps onto the screen as a 21-year- -old moviemaking tyro and airplane nut mounting an unprecedented spectacle, Hell's Angels (1930), with the largest private fleet of biplanes in the world and a number of cameras that provokes disbelief even from Louis B. Mayer.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the history of art and a jewel of the collection at the Louvre Museum in Paris. So what's it doing in Baltimore? That's the question visitors to the Walters Art Museum have been asking this month as they enter the museum's Renaissance and Baroque galleries and spot the famous lady smiling down at them. Actually, as a wall label notes, it's not the "real" Mona Lisa. Instead, it is a copy -- albeit a very good one -- painted by an unknown French artist probably sometime in the 16th or 17th century.

When you know the answers to these questions, go to http://www.4Kids.org/detectives/1. How many varieties of sweet corn exist?2. Africans make up how much of the world population? To answer this question go to The Living Africa site at http://hyperion.advanced.org/16645/3. What is the primary topic of da Vinci's Codex Leicester?A Scientific MasterpieceYou've probably heard that Leonardo da Vinci wasn't just painter, right? Sure, Mona Lisa's face is on everything from spaghetti sauce to beach towels, but Leonardo was a serious thinker and a real Renaissance man!

QUOTE OF THE DAY A lot of the people who practice paganism aren't terribly public about it. We jokingly say they're in the broom closet." Sherry Marts, Open Hearth Foundation board member Article, PG 3B Up next Monday Rock class The Baltimore School of Rock tries to turn wannabe musicians into budding rock stars. IN TODAY Wednesday Coffee hour At Dukem Restaurant, 50 to 60 people show up each Sunday afternoon for an aromatic, Old World ritual: the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. IN TASTE Friday Gangsters The Departed, a film by Martin Scorsese, tells the story of two moles within Massachusetts law enforcement and the Irish mafia.

He dissected 30 bodies, kept about 20,000 pages of notes and seldom finished what he started. But nearly 500 years after his death, Leonardo da Vinci can still draw a crowd - not only as an artist, but as a scientist. Tonight, a sellout crowd of more than 400 will gather at the Walters Art Museum to hear Kennedy Krieger Institute researcher Jonathan Pevsner discuss da Vinci's genius, focusing on the Renaissance master's study of the human brain. Scholars have spent careers deciphering da Vinci's sketches of flying ships, his catapults and the prescient knowledge of his celestial observations.