Odessa

The Five: A Novel of Jewish Life in Turn-of-the-Century Odessa Vladimir Jabotinsky; trans. from Russian by Michael R. Katz; introd. by Michael Stanislawski Cornell University Press / 203 pages Like Paris at the time of the revolution, in Odessa around 1905 it was the best of times and also the worst of times. In czarist Russia's unique warm-water port, French, Italian, Armenian, Greek and Jewish businesspeople mingled with Ukrainians and Russians to form a prototype of 20th-century society.

ODESSA, Ukraine -- The whole political landscape of what used to be the Soviet Union is undergoing a geologic upheaval of Himalayan proportions.Here, a country the size of France is about to be born in a referendum next Sunday on Ukrainian independence that everyone expects will be approved. But in one respect, at least, Odessans are like most other people: The great political events are simply not an abiding concern.In the far-to-the-north Russian capital of Moscow and the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, politics flourishes in a hothouse atmosphere.

Sunday will be the last day for members of Baltimore's Jewish community to pick up empty boxes to participate in a program of assistance to Jews in Odessa, Ukraine.Participants in what is known as the Family Share Package Drive are asked to fill the boxes, which are available at eight locations, with specified items. They include new school, office and art supplies, new toys, children's drawings, comic books, baby supplies, toiletries, first aid material and nonperishable kosher treats, such as candy and coffee.

Casual basketball followers in Baltimore City might not remember Daishon Knight . The 6-foot-1, 188-pound combo guard didn't play for Lake Clifton during his senior year of high school in 2010, and he never suited up for a local AAU team either. But starting this fall, hoops fans from this area will get a chance to follow Knight's progress on a bigger stage when he takes the court for Illinois State. Knight, a West Baltimore native, signed his letter of intent to play for the Redbirds last week.

Burnum Burnum,61, an Aboriginal activist who once claimed Britain for his people, has died of a heart attack in Canberra, Australia.Moshe Ganchoff,92, a cantor and composer widely acknowledged as one of the last great exponents of the Odessa tradition of liturgical music, died Aug. 11 in New York.Pub Date: 8/20/97

On December 29, 2006, VIOLA ODESSA STEWART. Visitation on Thursday, January 4, 2007 at THE DERRICK C. JONES FUNERAL HOME, P.A., 4611 Park Heights Avenue, from 2 until 7pm. Mrs. Stewart will lie instate at Israel Baptist Church, 1220 N. Chester St. on Friday, January 5, at 9am. Family will receive friends at 10 with Funeral Service to follow at 10:30 am.

On February 13, 2008, IOLA ODESSA ADAMS. On Sunday, friends may call VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES, 4101 Edmondson avenue, from 4 to 8 P.M. On Monday, Mrs. Adams will lie instate at New Life Inspirational Church, 2621 Oswego Avenue, where the family will receive friends from 10:30 to 11 A.M. with services to follow. Inquiries to (410)233-2400.

GRIGORYEVKA, Soviet Union -- When Occidental Petroleum Corp. signed the contract in 1973 to build a huge fertilizer plant and port on the Black Sea, it was hailed as the "biggest deal ever."Occidental Chairman Armand Hammer, a longtime advocate of closer U.S.-Soviet ties, called the gigantic chemical complex "the crowning achievement of our relations with the Soviet Union."But now environmental activists are trying to close parts of the project as a threat to Odessa, a southern Ukrainian city less than 10 miles from the plant that has a population of more than 1 million.

The set for Babel: How It Was Done in Odessa features a large leather saddle suspended in front of a stunning modern tapestry of the sun. The saddle hangs there, unused and uncommented on, throughout the five short stories by Isaac Babel that make up the production. Possibly, the saddle is intended to suggest the omnipresent specter of the Cossacks, who plague the Russian Jews who are the protagonists of Babel's stories. But that's just a guess. Basically, the saddle remains a mystery -- like too much of this latest Theatre Project offering.

THINGS HAVEN'T been great in Odessa, Texas, for a while, thanks in no small part to the collapse of the oil industry.It hasn't always been that way. During the early 1980s, there were jobs aplenty and money to burn in west Texas, as oil flowed as freely as water.But the boom went bust, and the region rallied around the only thing that seemingly was everlasting: high school football.In Odessa -- an average-sized American city of just over 100,000 with a frightening murder rate of almost 30 deaths for every 100,000 people -- there are two high schools, but only one that matters.