Mystery

"The book I enjoyed reading was 'How to Kill a Monster' by R. L. Stine. It is summer and a young brother and his sister are being sent to stay with their grandparents. They hate to stay with them because their house is in a swamp in the middle of nowhere. Everything is green -- walls and furniture -- from the moss that grows due to the dampness. However, this year's visit will be much different from all the others."-- Sha'Quna CollinsChoptank Elementary"I like the 'Clue Jr.' mystery books by Della Rowland because the characters always figure out the mystery by using hard-to-find clues.

Ask the AthletesWho is your favorite singer, group or musician?Adam Graves, left wing, New York Rangers: "Bruce Springsteen. My favorite songs are 'Born to Run' and 'Glory Days.'"Tom Dolan, Olympic gold-medal swimmer: "I would say my all-time favorite is Public Enemy. I've been a huge rap fan my whole life."Omar Vizquel, shortstop, Cleveland Indians: "I enjoy (saxophonist) Kenny G a lot. I even bought a saxophone and took some lessons."Mystery AthleteThe Clues:This Mystery Athlete's team won two world championships in the past three seasons.

Mystery AthleteThe Mystery Athlete likes to catch big air. Using the clues below, can you figure out who he is?The Clues: This Mystery Athlete likes to catch big air. Using the clues below, can you figure out who he is?1. The Mystery Athlete competes in one of the most extreme sports around.2. The Mystery Athlete's first name rhymes with "baloney."3. The Mystery Athlete's last name and the name of a "bird of prey" are the same.The Athlete's nameANSWER: Skateboard champion Tony HawkSuper SpeedstersSpeed is the path to victory in most sports.

This Mystery Athlete plays for the WNBA. Using the clues below, can you figure out who she is?1. The Mystery Athlete's team won a gold medal at a sports event.2. The Mystery Athlete plays in the same city as Derek Jeter.2. The Mystery Athlete's last name is the Spanish word for "wolf."The Clues:ANSWER: Rebecca Lobo of the New York LibertyVISIT OUR WEB SITE AT WWW.SIKIDS.COMPub Date: 10/20/99

In times less politically correct than our own, we'd have described Hannah Ives as one "tough cookie."A breast cancer survivor estranged from her only daughter, fired from her job, forced to sit by as her husband, a Naval Academy professor, is embroiled in a very public controversy, yet still possessing the wherewithal to head down to South County and solve an 8-year-old murder.Hannah, you may have guessed, is a fictional character. But her creator, Marcia Talley of the Gingerville community just south of Annapolis, is an equally feisty soul; a Naval Academy systems librarian and breast cancer survivor who, at 56, is poised to see her first novel hit bookstore shelves Tuesday.

Mystery AthleteThis Mystery Athlete has zoomed to three championships in four years. Using the clues below, can you figure out who he is?The Clues:1. The Mystery Athlete's car number is the sum of 13 and 11.2. The hall of fame for the Mystery Athlete's sport is in Talladega, Alabama.3. The Mystery Athlete's name can be arranged to spell "Nerd, jog off."The Athlete's nameANSWER: NASCAR driving champion Jeff Gordon.Strange But True Stories about SportsKOOKY COACHESThe bellhop carrying their bags looked familiar to the San Francisco 49ers.

Mystery AthleteThis Mystery Athlete blazes up and down the court. Using the clues below, can you figure out who he is?The Clues:1. The Mystery Athlete's league holds its draft on June 30.2. The Mystery Athlete's team plays in the state of Oregon.3. The Mystery Athlete's first name spelled backward is a word for a person who wanders from place to place.The Athlete's nameANSWER: Damon Stoudamire of the Portland Trail BlazersIcelandSpranga is a sport played on the island of Heimaey, in Iceland's Westman Islands.

This Mystery AthleteThe Clues:This Mystery Athlete is a twirling, whirling winner. Using the clues below, can you figure out who she is?1. The Mystery Athlete competes on the same surface as Olympic speed skater Chris Witty.2. The Mystery Athlete won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics. She is the youngest Winter Olympic gold medalist.3. The Mystery Athlete's last name has the words ski and pin in it.The Athlete's nameAnswer: Tara Lipinski figure skaterGood SportsDefender Mark Santel of the Dallas Burn is a two-time Major League Soccer All-Star.

The Mystery Athlete gets a kick out of his sport. Using the clues, can you figure out who he is?1. The Mystery Athlete plays for the same U.S. national team as Eric Wynalda.2.The Mystery Athlete wears his hair in dreadlocks (a type of braid).3.The Mystery Athlete's pro team is based in the same city as hoopster Lisa Leslie's team.Q. Why are basketball players so bad at tennis?A. Because they hit nothing but net.- Michael W., 11Springfield, IllinoisQ. What is a couch potato's favorite sport?

THE SADDEST people who need to get a life are those for whom 22 hours of Tripp-Lewinsky tapes are not enough.In releasing these tapes, Chairman Henry Hyde of the House Judiciary Committee catered to a key demand of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal: the insatiable prurience of much of the American people.No other purpose is served. The transcripts were already public, with whatever information there is to convey. Only the voice remained a mystery, with what light it might shed on Ms. Lewinsky's attractions.

Doubtless, thousands of other women's ears perked up when Sen. Charles Schumer, introducing Sonia Sotomayor at Monday's confirmation hearing, mentioned the Latina jurist's girlhood affection for Nancy Drew books. The smart, plucky girl-detective was a role model for many women who recognized themselves in Nancy - including Hillary Clinton, Oprah, Sandra Day O'Connor and Laura Bush, to name a few. Add yours truly to the list. My father introduced to me to Nancy Drew when I was in the fifth grade.

Trouble Jesse Kellerman Putnam / 368 pages / $24.95 Since Edgar Allan Poe pioneered the mystery story more than 150 years ago, the genre has undergone countless innovations and permutations, from Poe's locked rooms to Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled detectives, from Ed McBain's police procedurals to Patricia Cornwell's forensics-driven novels. Collectively, they contain a modern mythology of crime while expressing, in the words of pop culture critic John G. Cawelti, "a deep uncertainty about the adequacy of traditional social institutions to meet the needs of individuals for security, for justice, or a sense of significance."

I wondered for a moment how life might have been had the moment of violence not happened. Perhaps 9-year-old Mystery Toma Hillian and his older brother could still have been playing on the stairwell landing. But on this night, just outside the sealed door of their second-floor apartment in Forestville, there was no fun and games. Instead, there was a memorial service honoring Mystery Toma and his mother, Katrina Denise Powe, both killed for reasons as yet unclear. Mystery's 12-year-old brother has been charged with first-degree murder.

Educational concerts are among the most important that any orchestra can give. You just never know when a little dose of classical music will strike a responsive chord in an unsuspecting kid. Coming up with new material for such concerts is a tough challenge, one the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra meets engagingly with its newest program, The Mystery Express. I caught a performance Thursday morning with about 2,000 students, grades four through eight, at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Their response affirmed that this 50-minute, multidimensional effort is a real attention-getter.

There's something wonderfully mysterious about Baltimore. Edgar Allan Poe, America's first great mystery writer, lived, wrote and died here, and this richly diverse city on the bay has provided personalities and backdrops for dozens of great reads by masters of the genre. Dashiell Hammett based two of his early novels on his experience working at the Baltimore branch of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Raymond Chandler mentions Baltimore in Farewell, My Lovely, and James M. Cain, who worked at the Baltimore News American, featured Baltimore in The Enchanted Isle.

Writer Laura Lippman is in her element. Perched on a stool before an audience of adoring fans at a book signing in White Marsh, the tall blonde is fielding questions about By a Spider's Thread (William Morrow, $24.95), the latest installment of her Baltimore-based mystery series featuring private investigator Tess Monaghan. With Lippman, though, the conversation inevitably wanders away from the immediate topic at hand. She offers her opinions on reading (a selfish act, best done in the bathtub with a glass of wine)

To most of us, Edgar, Agatha and Anthony are colorful and evocative first names. But to writers of "whodunits" - the murder-mystery novels and stories that captivate readers in search of puzzles and thrills - The Edgar, The Agatha and The Anthony comprise a Triple Crown of literary recognition. Each is a prestigious award bestowed on a few select writers for their mastery of the murder-mystery genre. When The Agatha (named for mystery writer par excellence, Dame Agatha Christie) and The Anthony (which honors long-time New York Times literary critic Anthony Boucher)

I love history, and I love the idea of using television to illuminate the joys of historical research. But I don't like History Detectives - a new 10-week series from PBS that purports to "bring American history to life in a whole new way" - very much at all. Great idea, poor execution. PBS hypes the series as "Antiques Roadshow meets CSI," allusions to both public television's highly successful show about the appraisal of antiques and collectibles, and the CBS hit drama about a team of forensic investigators working for the City of Las Vegas Police Department.

THE ONLY MYSTERY is why. Why was it that after eight years of fighting cancer, death came to Diane Geppi-Aikens at age 40? Since Sunday, when the news came, that was the question. Why did it come at a time in her life when, as a mother, sister, daughter, coach, partner and teacher, she was living and giving back at full throttle to anyone and everyone she touched? In a world filled with so many of us who fail to make use of every moment, every relationship, every challenge, why is it that someone so alive, so committed, so passionate is the one who gets called to leave too soon?

There are certain admirable elements in A Certain Mystery, Paragon Theatre's entry in this year's Baltimore Playwrights Festival. For example, there's the neat device of beginning and ending each act with a snippet of a college lecture. The audience serves as the class, and the lecturer is the recently deceased philosophy professor whose death is the source of the play's mystery. Then there's the rather gutsy choice by first-time playwright Brad Rogers to conclude the play with a degree of ambiguity - hardly the usual way to wrap up a murder mystery.