Mold

Hikers and skiers have a new piece of armor against the ravages of mangled skin.Johnson & Johnson has just released Band-Aid blister-relief cushions, designed to prevent hot spots from growing into blisters.The rubber-like adhesive pads mold to the body. They provide a cushion against rubbing shoes. They are slightly thinner than moleskin, but unlike that old standby, they hold moisture in the skin to speed healing.

"The Psychology of the Internet," by Patricia Wallace. Cambridge University Press. 264 pages. $24.95.As the 1990s slip away, it is time for a cursory backward glance at what the century's twilight years have brought for our country: the supercharged expansion of the economy, the impeachment of a president, the periodic violent sprees of sick men and lost boys.Underneath all of this, underneath seemingly everything that happens to us now as a society, is another of this decade's signal developments, the mass embrace of the Internet.

I HAVE BEEN HEARING about "figgy pudding" for years. Every December, Christmas carolers sing out, "Now bring us some figgy pudding." The line comes from the song called "A Merry Christmas" and is supposedly sung by folks with clear voices and good hearts. There is, however, a rather ominous tone to the following lyric: "We won't go until we get some, we won't go until we get some, we won't go until we get some, so bring it out here."It made me wonder: Who are these carolers? Kindly ladies and gentlemen or gang members holding up households in "their hood" for ransom?

ALBANY, N.Y. -- For openers, the two guys who won the economics prize from the Nobel foundation by all rights ought to turn in their medals and citations and whatever is left of the cash.Seems the theories, for which they were honored among all those who practice what justly has been described as the dismal science, work better some times than others. Their investment scheme, called a hedge fund, required extremely wealthy partners to begin with. It made them filthy rich in the process, but is now on its knees, kept from total disintegration by a rescue fund put together by distinguished financial institutions and shepherded by the Federal Reserve Board.

The caption for a photograph on the front page of yesterday's editions should have said that Kirk Stieff employee Terry Fletcher was softening a silver bowl by heating it, not that Joe Mekins Jr. was cutting a mold.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 10/23/98

WASHINGTON - You always gaze first at the faces, long slim heads atop stalk-like necks. These statues are not the oldest known representations of the human form, but they are nearly so, 8,500 years old. Cracks in the plaster faces could be mistaken for the wrinkles of old age.The statues are from the place called Ain Ghazal, "the Spring of the Gazelles," an ancient settlement on the eastern edge of Amman, Jordan. A bulldozer scraping away earth for a highway uncovered the ruins in 1974. Archaeologists began working there in 1982 and four years later shipped a cube of earth that entombed the statues to the Smithsonian Institution's Conservation Analytical Laboratory in Suitland.

The source of the moldlike contamination that forced Baltimore officials to close Waverly Elementary School on the eve of the school year is moisture-laden insulation inside the building's air ducts, school officials said yesterday."

The monster man of South Baltimore likes his corpses nice and fresh, decaying and oozy, attractive to vultures, but scary to people.Chuck Johnson produces lots of corpses, although he's neither the local hit man nor the neighborhood serial killer. To practically everybody around the Cross Street Market, he is the "The Monster Man."Mr. Johnson is the Dr. Frankenstein of Monsters Unlimited. In his studio over Movie Time Video on South Charles Street, he makes life-size monsters and weird creatures for horror theme parks, wretchedly ripped bodies for slasher movies, maniacal mutants for haunted attractions, creepy corpses for collectors.

Baltimore County school officials closed Fullerton Elementary School for six days yesterday amid concerns by parents and teachers about air quality, recurring mold and illnesses that have dogged the school since the start of the school year.Tests conducted on the mold -- found on floor tiles and in the air -- show nothing to be alarmed about, school officials said.But in response to persistent complaints this week -- including some triggered by irritations from the bleach solution used to clean floors -- officials decided to close the building to permit uninterrupted work on replacing the floor tiles, which will cost roughly $30,000 .The decision came after a meeting of school and PTA officials and County Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder, whose daughter, a Fullerton third-grader, had bronchitis and pneumonia recently.

Despite a widespread cleanup of mold and a $30,000 floor-tile replacement that closed Fullerton Elementary School for seven days late last month, parents and teachers are again complaining of poor air quality and illness, and health experts have found ventilation problems at the school.More than a week after the school reopened Nov. 6, six children remain home on doctors' recommendations.Teachers are reporting burning eyes, shortness of breath, sinus problems and other illnesses."Our taxes pay for our school," PTA president Dawn Ryan told school officials at a meeting at facilities headquarters yesterday.

At the Air Force Student Detachment barracks at Fort Meade, almost every room contains mold. Water drips from leaky pipes into buckets on the floor. Shower water seeps down a hallway wall. Forty-seven airmen live in these half-century-old barracks, among the worst on the Army installation in western Anne Arundel County. "I think we've gone beyond the point of saying these barracks are unsuitable," said Maj. Danny S. Chung, commander of a Marine Corps detachment at Fort Meade. "I think many people in the chain of command have realized that."

Teen held in assault, invasion Baltimore County police said yesterday that they had arrested a teenager in a home invasion and the assault on a 62-year-old woman Tuesday near Owings Mills. Loren Denver White, 17, of the first block of Wellhaven Circle was charged as an adult with attempted first-degree rape, armed robbery and burglary, motor vehicle theft, and assault and sex-offense counts. The home invasion was in the first block of Preakness Court. He was arrested Tuesday afternoon with two males at a vacant house in the first block of Ritters Lane, police said.

What's green and festive and makes you sneeze? It might be your Christmas tree. Allergists have long suspected that live Christmas trees are the culprits behind some folks' runny, itchy noses during the holidays -- and now one doctor believes he has proof. "I've been in practice for 30 years and, every year, between Christmas and New Year, we have everybody come in with recurring sinus infections," said Dr. John Santilli, a Connecticut allergy specialist. "We tell them, `Take down the tree,' but we never had the proof to show them."

Can anyone serve a Jell-O mold without becoming a laughingstock? This question congealed in my mind after a recent meeting of the Common Readers Book Club at my home, where I prepared, as a neon accompaniment to a truly lavish meal, a simple Jell-O mold. Let me explain first that the Common Readers Book Club is so named because our founding member, early on, forwarded an excellent quotation about the common reader's aim: simply to enjoy a book. We all identified with the quotation and derived our club name from it; but now, of course, not one of us can remember who said it. Come to think of it, none of us can remember the names of the main characters in the first two books we have read.

When Troy Smith stepped in front of the microphones after the Ravens' first practice at their recent minicamp, the mike stand had to be adjusted - down. That confirmed everybody's worst fears: Smith, the Ravens' fifth-round draft pick, was not as tall as Peyton Manning. Any other similarities to any other quarterbacks, past and present, will have to be determined on the field. How he plays, that is, not what vitals are next to his name in the program. Smith is listed at 6 feet even by the Ravens and 6-1 by the NFL, the shortest of the 11 quarterbacks chosen two weekends ago. When an observer, who claims to be 5-11, noticed in the locker room that he was looking up to a barefoot Smith, the rookie couldn't help but laugh.

With a controversial facilities upgrade to Mount Hebron High School looming, the Howard County Board of Education is evaluating the physical needs of its other older schools. Some Mount Hebron parents have been vocal in their opposition to a $49.8 million plan that would include mechanical upgrades, full systemic renovations and an expansion of the school's art, athletic and administrative offices. Many parents say they want a completely new school, some want plumbing, sewage and rodent problems addressed, and others want the school system to further investigate other alternatives.

On the change in the Ravens' offense I think what Brian Billick has done is to mold the offense around Steve McNair's style of play vs. having McNair fit into Jim Fassel's offense. McNair has looked a lot better the past two weeks. There is still some room for improvement but, oddly enough, he looks to be throwing the ball with more authority. McNair is simply being asked to not lose the game. Anything he does above and beyond average is icing on the cake.

A Circuit Court jury awarded $375,000 yesterday to three city residents who had sued the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, alleging that mold in their apartment building on Homewood Avenue created an unsafe living environment, according to court documents and their attorney. The lawsuit, filed in February 2005, said that the apartments in a converted schoolhouse in the East Baltimore-Midway neighborhood had water leaks, standing water and mold since the late 1990s. The suit sought $3.2 million for residents Louise Bills, Mary Roy and Johnnie Pratt.

There is only one Adalius Thomas. Literally. Final cuts Ravens retain seven cornerbacks, seven running backs. PG 10D

When state police responded to a report that a patient had assaulted his Harford County dentist, they went straight to the frazzled man in the parking lot. Police arrested Aaron Abraham Newman, 34, of Havre de Grace on Tuesday afternoon after he told troopers that while he was being fitted for a mold for dentures he had a panic attack because he has a phobia of dentists. According to charging documents, Newman was having an impression of his mouth taken at Forest Hill Family & Cosmetic Dentistry in the first block of Colgate Drive when he became agitated.