Odyssey

A group of senior executives at furniture and jewelry retailer Reliable Stores Inc. has acquired a large stake in the company from New York investment firm Odyssey Partners and other outside investors.Managers led by Richard M. Barnett, president and chief executive of the Columbia-based company, now own 36 percent of Reliable's outstanding shares. An employee stock ownership plan holds the other 64 percent.Thomas R. Guercio, Reliable executive vice president and chief financial officer, declined to disclose the price or financing arrangements.

Gods, who can figure 'em?Just when you think you're finally on their good side, because they gave you and your lovely wife a beautiful baby boy, a ship sails into the harbor with the horrible news that your alliance of city-states is at war and you've been drafted to lead the troops.So, what can a king do except kiss the kid and the missus goodbye, make a quick sheep's-head sacrifice to Athena, the goddess with the great eyes, and set sail for Troy?"I am Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and this is my story," the portentous voice-over says as the ships become tiny specks on the back of mighty Poseidon.

What can cruise the ocean at better than 13 knots on pontoons bigger than a Trident submarine, is as tall as a 20-story building and can ride out hurricane-force winds without spilling a cup of coffee?It's the Odyssey, a converted North Sea drilling platform that is the centerpiece of a multinational project led by the Boeing Co. to do what's never been done before -- launch satellites into space from the ocean.Next summer, a Russian-Ukrainian rocket is scheduled to blast off from the Odyssey near Christmas Island in the Pacific, sending a new-generation Hughes communication satellite into a stationary orbit 22,300 miles above Earth.

LOCALLY Laureate Education Inc.The Baltimore-based provider of educational programs in Europe and Latin America fell 2.4 percent yesterday and has fallen in four of the past five trading days. The stock traded at about $31 for much of last month before climbing to a high of $36.35 Sept. 4. NATIONALLY Callaway Golf Co. The maker of Callaway golf clubs and Odyssey putters inched up 6 cents to $12.30 yesterday after warning that its third-quarter and full-year results could fall "significantly below" its previous guidance because of planned delays in introducing products and uncertainty about reorders.

Alice, Let's Eat: Further Adventures of a Happy Eater By Calvin Trillin Originally published in 1978, this was the second of Trillin's three autobiographical books about food (the "Tummy Trilogy"). Guided by an insatiable appetite, Trillin records his gastronomical odyssey - from barbecued mutton in Kentucky to latkes in London - often with his wife, Alice, who died in 2001, at his side. Trillin is a marvelous writer, affable and witty under any circumstances. He's also an extremely enthusiastic eater, so the books are filled with gourmet brio.

Herbert Zipper,92, a Viennese conductor whose life became the subject of an Academy Award-nominated documentary, died of lung cancer Monday in Santa Monica, Calif.He was imprisoned by the Nazis in the Dachau concentration camp, where he recruited fellow inmates to give secret concerts to raise the spirits of other prisoners. Mr. Zipper, who was Jewish, co-wrote "Dachau Song," a resistance song that spread from prison camp to prison camp. The song was published in 1992. "Never Give Up: The 20th Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper" was nominated for an Oscar last year.

Hillary Leech is a bright, articulate 9-year-old with aspirations of being a lawyer and writer. But she used to call herself the dumbest kid in class."

Change of hearts Taking a cue from Arthur C. Clarke's "2001 - A Space Odyssey," the makers of Sweetheart candies have embossed their heart-shaped sweets with 12 new sayings for this Valentine's Day. The New England Confectionary Co.'s new messages include: Love 2001, Moon Beam, U R A Star, Venus and Odyssey. You can get three 1.2-ounce boxes for a dollar. Seafood to go If you need crab cakes in a hurry, Chesapeake Bay Gourmet has a new Cash and Carry counter at its plant at 8805 Kelso Drive.

Nicholas Maw's "Spring Music" is the piece that everyone wanted the composer to write and that he resolutely refused to. That he finally relented will be obvious tomorrow and Friday evenings when the Baltimore Symphony and conductor Christopher Seaman perform it."There were an endless series of requests from conductors, publishers and orchestral managers for something that was fairly short and that made a nice beginning for a program," says Maw, a 56-year-old British-born, Washington resident.