Monk

One at a time, they walked through the side door of the temple and into the courtyard. They wore the apparel of the life they knew: Oversized shorts. T-shirts bearing the words Red Sox and Nautica. Thirteen mops of hair, each as black as polished coal. Like the 12 other boys, Paul Kasemphantai stopped in front of a white chair that had been left for him. Fifteen and slender as a greyhound, he had been attending the temple for as long as he could remember, studying Thai music, language and chants.

Tony Shalhoub has spent so much time in Monk's head that the obsessive-compulsive detective has gotten into the actor's head. "I never had a problem shaking hands," Shalhoub said. "Now I do." As the USA series enters its fourth season, it hasn't quite gotten to the stage where Shalhoub whips out a tissue to wipe his hands after shaking someone else's, Shalhoub said. "But I do have the ugly thoughts." Monk's ugly thoughts, a product of every conceivable phobia, make for some of the most beautifully unconventional detective work this side of Columbo.

What is art? is not the question. What is saffron? is the question. More than previous works of public art, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates has been open to colorful interpretation. The pleated fabric panels hanging from the 7,500 gates winding through Central Park have been described as the color of Orangeade, Home Depot signs, highway safety cones or, as The New Yorker reported this week, "something you would wear only in the woods during deer season." These observers, obviously, have not bought into the saffron designation that Christo and Jeanne-Claude have given the color and instead believe they are seeing orange.

On February 4, 2005, WANDA P. (nee Porter), beloved wife of David Monks; devoted mother of Bobby D. Kennedy and Charles A. Kennedy; devoted grandmother of Michelle, Libby and Emily and five great-grandchildren; devoted sister of Tommy Lowery and Polly Jeffries. Memorial services to be held at the Lassahn Funeral Home, 7401 Belair Road on Saturday, February 12 at 6 P.M. OROS, 100, died. Survivors include her children, Albert P. Orosz, Frances K. Hartling, Elaine M. Cantone and brother, John Sakowski.

BEIJING - A Chinese court commuted the death sentence imposed on a Tibetan monk to life imprisonment, the government announced yesterday, in a case closely watched by human rights groups. Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche was convicted in 2002 of a series of bombings in an area of southwestern China near Tibet and given a death sentence that was suspended for two years. Activists have argued that the case was trumped up, pointing to a lack of evidence or proper legal procedures and the improbability that Tenzin Deleg would do such a thing given his calling and philosophy.

On October 15, 2004, MR. JOSEPH DONZO MONK, devoted husband of Viola Monk. On today, friends may call at VAUGHN C. GREENE Funeral Services (EAST), 4905 York Road, where the family will receive friends from 4 to 8 P.M. On Wednesday, Mr. Monk will lie instate at Waters A.M.E. Church, 417 Asquith Street, where the family will receive friends from 10 to 10:30 A.M., with Services to follow. Inquiries to (410) 433-7500.

Jazz hasn't been a hip thing in pop culture for more than 50 years - not since Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie were the undisputed kings of cool. These days, there are still young, vibrant jazz artists out there - Joshua Redman, Marcus Roberts and Jane Monheit among them. But it's a sure bet that none will crack Billboard's Hot 100. Jazz - the art and its relentlessly creative spirit - is not lost today. It may not be all over MTV or BET, but there still is a charged, exciting community out there pushing the music, keeping the proverbial flame burning.

On September 9, 2004, CHARLES A., SR.; beloved husband of Marie B. (nee Bender); devoted father of Charles Jr. and his wife Suzanne and Pamela Peacher and her friend William Monk; loving grandfather of Charlie and Andrew Peacher; dear brother of Rev. Eric Peacher, June Grden, Ruth Davis, Grace Lassahn and the late Oliver, William, George and Mildred Peacher, Dorothy Strem and Elizabeth Schwartz. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Relatives and friends are invited to call at the Schimunek Funeral Home, Inc., 9705 Belair Road (Perry Hall)

Everett A. Lego, a Shaolin Buddhist monk and martial arts instructor, died of pneumonia Aug. 18 at Union Memorial Hospital. The Hampden resident was 74. Mr. Lego, who was known as Ed, was born in Hampden and attended city public schools before he left in the late 1940s to study in Taiwan. While there he became a Shaolin monk and a master in t'ai chi ch'uan, a form of self-defense and morning meditative exercises that originated in China. He lived briefly in New York City before returning in 1956 to Baltimore, where he owned and operated a men's hairstyling business.