New Guinea

It was like the best of Indiana Jones: an executive from Arizona who is also a World War II buff hopping on a plane to New Guinea, trekking through the jungle to a 9,000-foot summit.She struggles through the rain forest to find the wreckage of an American bomber that's been missing for 50 years -- the skeletons of its 11-member crew still are inside. Then, she tracks down a scavenger who had bought an identification bracelet taken from the remains of the pilot.Now, the executive is planning to return the bracelet to the pilot's widow in Portland, Ore.Call this executive Indiana Jan.For about 49 weeks of the year she is Janice Olson, manager of Fiesta Mall, a complex of 145 retail outlets in Mesa, Ariz.

Bernard J. Conroy, a retired career Army officer who served during World War II and Vietnam and later became a nursing home volunteer, died Nov. 5 of cancer at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 85. Bernard Jackson "Jack" Conroy was born and raised in New Orleans, where he graduated in 1943 from Fortier High School. The next year, he enlisted in the Navy and served in the Pacific Theater from 1944 to 1946 aboard a Landing Craft Support vessel. Mr. Conroy participated in the invasion of Okinawa, did mine sweeping between Formosa and the China Coast, and served on the Yangtze River patrol.

It was like the best of Indiana Jones: an executive from Arizona who is also a World War II buff hopping on a plane to New Guinea, trekking through the jungle to a 9,000-foot summit.She struggles through the rain forest to find the wreckage of an American bomber that's been missing for 50 years -- the skeletons of its 11-member crew still are inside. Then, she tracks down a scavenger who had bought an identification bracelet taken from the remains of the pilot.Now, the executive is planning to return the bracelet to the pilot's widow in Portland, Ore.Call this executive Indiana Jan.For about 49 weeks of the year she is Janice Olson, manager of Fiesta Mall, a complex of 145 retail outlets in Mesa, Ariz.

Bruce Beehler has enshrined the moment in August 1959, when he first glimpsed the future perching in a tree at Lake Roland. Picnicking with his family in Baltimore County, the 8-year-old boy happened to look up and spot a red-bellied woodpecker. "At the time, I didn't know what the hell it was," he says. "I just knew it was the most beautiful thing. And it's been all downhill ever since." As it turns out, the Baltimore-born naturalist was meant not only to marvel over birds, but to infect others with his passion.

Bruce Beehler has enshrined the moment in August 1959, when he first glimpsed the future perching in a tree at Lake Roland. Picnicking with his family in Baltimore County, the 8-year-old boy happened to look up and spot a red-bellied woodpecker. "At the time, I didn't know what the hell it was," he says. "I just knew it was the most beautiful thing. And it's been all downhill ever since." As it turns out, the Baltimore-born naturalist was meant not only to marvel over birds, but to infect others with his passion.

If I called them Busy Lizzies, Patient Lucies, Sultanas or Patient Plants, would you have an inkling of what I'm talking about? Chances are that not too many gardeners would. They are all passe names for what is now considered America's favorite bedding plant -- impatiens. A relative newcomer to the shade garden, Impatiens wallerana is most commonly referred to today as simply impatiens. We need only go back to the early 1940s, when Claude Hope, the man many regard as the godfather of today's impatiens, began a personal 20-year challenge to develop a strain for home gardens.

Retired National Guard Brig. Gen. Thomas F. McNeal, an engineer for the Bethlehem Steel Corp., died last Wednesday after a short illness at a hospital in Blue Hill, Maine, near his summer home at Sedgewick, Maine. He was 84.Services for General McNeal, who lived on Wickford Road, were being held today at Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church, 1316 Park Ave.He retired in 1963 as commander of the 1st Brigade of the 29th Division. He had kept basically the same post with different titles through two reorganizations since he was named commander of the 175th Infantry Regiment, the old 5th Regiment, in 1958.

A 78-year-old gay anthropologist from New York, having endured two hip replacements and suffering from Parkinson's disease, journeys to a remote part of the Peruvian jungle that's only been brushed lightly by western civilization. Sounds like a documentary worth seeing. But that's only half the story behind "Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal's Tale," a remarkable film about a remarkable man who's lived the kind of life usually reserved for adventure novels and pulp fiction.

In one of Asia's most isolated jungles, the Foja Mountains of western New Guinea, naturalists have discovered a vast unexplored preserve of exotic species new to science. Among the previously unknown species researchers found during a 15-day expedition in December were more than 20 species of frogs, five palms and four butterflies. They also found hundreds of rare birds and giant rhododendrons with white blossoms the size of bread plates, believed to be the largest on record. All told, the 3,700 square miles of mist-shrouded tropical forest might be the most pristine natural area in Asia and the Pacific, Conservation International announced in Indonesia today.

The El Nino phenomenon has been known for centuries in Peru. Fishermen there noted the arrival of warm Pacific waters, and a season of poor fishing, around Christmas. They named it El Nino - a Spanish reference to the Christ child. This year's event has already caused drought, fires, floods and storms that have killed hundreds of people and caused millions of dollars in damage around the Pacific. But El Nino (pronounced el neen-yo) can also bring benefits, such as a quiet Atlantic hurricane season and tropical game fish in northern waters.

In one of Asia's most isolated jungles, the Foja Mountains of western New Guinea, naturalists have discovered a vast unexplored preserve of exotic species new to science. Among the previously unknown species researchers found during a 15-day expedition in December were more than 20 species of frogs, five palms and four butterflies. They also found hundreds of rare birds and giant rhododendrons with white blossoms the size of bread plates, believed to be the largest on record. All told, the 3,700 square miles of mist-shrouded tropical forest might be the most pristine natural area in Asia and the Pacific, Conservation International announced in Indonesia today.

If I called them Busy Lizzies, Patient Lucies, Sultanas or Patient Plants, would you have an inkling of what I'm talking about? Chances are that not too many gardeners would. They are all passe names for what is now considered America's favorite bedding plant -- impatiens. A relative newcomer to the shade garden, Impatiens wallerana is most commonly referred to today as simply impatiens. We need only go back to the early 1940s, when Claude Hope, the man many regard as the godfather of today's impatiens, began a personal 20-year challenge to develop a strain for home gardens.

BEFORE precision-guided Tomahawk cruise missiles, before artillery, before swords and spears, probably even before the first caveman's bright idea of chipping flint into a sharp point, there was war. That is the conclusion of a growing number of anthropologists and biologists: that war is not a product of civilization -- of nations and economies and boundary lines -- but has somehow been hardwired into the brain, humanity's most potent weapon for good...

In his lifetime, Robert S. Meushaw was decorated for valor as a soldier and a Baltimore fire captain -- saving the lives of a dozen or more men from the beaches of New Guinea to South Howard Street. But in the end, his greatest legacy was an item that would grace thousands of tackle boxes owned by Maryland fisherman: the "Meushaw Jig." It was nothing less than "the most famous and productive lure the Chesapeake has ever seen for [rockfish]," wrote Sun columnist Bill Burton in 1990. "This small lead-headed feathered jig caught rock at the Bay Bridge when nothing else did."

A 78-year-old gay anthropologist from New York, having endured two hip replacements and suffering from Parkinson's disease, journeys to a remote part of the Peruvian jungle that's only been brushed lightly by western civilization. Sounds like a documentary worth seeing. But that's only half the story behind "Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal's Tale," a remarkable film about a remarkable man who's lived the kind of life usually reserved for adventure novels and pulp fiction.

When people think of anthropologists, they may picture Margaret Mead studying the remote culture of Papua New Guinea, or Louis and Mary Leakey unearthing the remains of human ancestors in Africa.But in the plush offices of a Baltimore marketing company anthropologists are taking root and training their sights on the tribal customs of Jane and Joe Consumer here in the United States.Cultural anthropologists head and staff Context-Based Research Group, a subsidiary started this month by Richardson, Myers & Donofrio.

BEFORE precision-guided Tomahawk cruise missiles, before artillery, before swords and spears, probably even before the first caveman's bright idea of chipping flint into a sharp point, there was war. That is the conclusion of a growing number of anthropologists and biologists: that war is not a product of civilization -- of nations and economies and boundary lines -- but has somehow been hardwired into the brain, humanity's most potent weapon for good...

The El Nino phenomenon has been known for centuries in Peru. Fishermen there noted the arrival of warm Pacific waters, and a season of poor fishing, around Christmas. They named it El Nino - a Spanish reference to the Christ child. This year's event has already caused drought, fires, floods and storms that have killed hundreds of people and caused millions of dollars in damage around the Pacific. But El Nino (pronounced el neen-yo) can also bring benefits, such as a quiet Atlantic hurricane season and tropical game fish in northern waters.