Open A Window

POLICE LOG* Hickory Ridge: 10300 block of Owen Brown Road: Someone pried open a window at Botanical Decorators and tried to take a computer early Wednesday.

People passing through the intersection at Charles and Centre streets recently may have noticed an intriguing banner hanging from the wall above the entrance to the Walters Art Museum . The oversize image depicts a black woman dressed in the manner of a 16 t h century Italian lady-in-waiting, who returns our gaze with an expression of ironic, amused self-awareness. Who is she? Alas, we don't know. The picture is based on a painting attributed to the Italian master Annibale Carracci, probably from the 1580s and possibly completed in Venice, where the artist is known to have traveled during those years and where objects such as the richly ornamented gilt tower clock the woman holds in one hand were common in the homes of that city's wealthy elite.

POLICE LOG* Long Reach: 8800 block of Flowerstock Row: A burglar forced open a window between late Thursday and early Friday and stole a purse while the female resident slept, police said.

WASHINGTON - One display case holds the remains of a 15-year-old Anne Arundel County boy, a servant who apparently was murdered and stuffed into a hole scooped out of a dirt cellar. Farther along are the bones of a strapping lad of 12 or 13, with evidence of a raging infection in his lower jaw. He was found in a hastily dug grave in Jamestown, Va., an Indian arrow in his thigh. Even more telling is a baby, born into the wealth and power of Maryland's first family and interred in a costly lead coffin in St. Mary's City.

Police logOakland Mills: 6100 block of Agail Place: Someone tried to pry open a window screen between Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon but didn't enter.Pub Date: 11/15/96

POLICE LOG* Kings Contrivance: 10100 block of Westleigh Drive: Someone forced open a window between 11:30 a.m. Saturday and midnight Sunday, and stole jewelry and silver dollars.* Owen Brown: 6400 block of Dobbin Road: A window was smashed outside of Herman's World of Sporting Goods about 9 p.m. Sunday. Clothes were taken.

Police logKings Contrivance: 9800 block of Broken Land Parkway: Someone tried to steal a 1992 Dodge Caravan by prying open a window Tuesday. Police also said someone tampered with the ignition of a 1990 Honda Accord the same day.Pub Date: 5/10/96

FireMount Airy: Firefighters responded at 8: 31 a.m. Wednesday--to a brush fire in the 6100 block of Davis Road. Units were out one hour.PoliceMount Airy: Employees of Prospect Motors, a car repair shop in the first block of Park Ave., told police that someone pried open a window, entered the business and stole property between 7 p.m. Monday and 6: 30 a.m. Tuesday. The loss was estimated at $780.Pub Date: 5/30/97

Police logfTCWilde Lake: 5400 block of Blue Heron Lane: A burglar entered a storage shed at Bryant Woods Elementary School between Friday and Monday morning. Nothing was reported taken.River Hill: 6300 block of Gentle Light Lane: Someone entered a residence by removing a rear window screen and prying open a window Monday evening or early Tuesday. A microwave oven was stolen.Town Center: 5500 Sterrett Place: Someone stole a 1993 Infiniti, Maryland license tags DGP 618, Monday between 1 p.m. and 4: 30 p.m.Pub Date: 9/26/96

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Howard County.Ellicott City: 9500 Long View Drive: Someone forced open the door of a house and stole telephones, a videocassette recorder, credit cards and cash between 11 a.m. and 10: 10 p.m. Tuesday.Ellicott City: 10200 Castle Hill Court: Someone kicked out a residence's basement window and stole $300 in coins, jewelry, a stereo deck and cassette player between 7: 15 a.m. and 10: 45 p.m. Tuesday.Owen Brown: 7500 block of Hickory Lane: Police arrested two teen-agers Tuesday night in connection with a woman's report that two men brandished a handgun when they approached her car at 8: 44 p.m. Tuesday.

President-elect Barack Obama has stated that "literacy is the highway to success" and that libraries represent "a window to a larger world." Adviser David Axelrod recently said libraries will be part of the proposed economic stimulus package. As the nation and the world look to a new chapter in history, these statements leave me optimistic. During these tough economic times, library services across the nation are in great demand. Families are examining their budgets and turning to libraries more than ever.

While standing on the porch of his renovated yellow- and aqua-colored Victorian house in rural Shawsville, Danny Simpson says, "Observation comes natural to me." The diverse landscape that he observes includes a new Shell gas station across Route 23, still a country road. In the northern part of Harford County, Simpson stands on land that's part of the Piedmont Plateau. This fairly high elevation is flatter than the Blue Ridge foothills of his Martinsville, Va., hometown. Artist Simpson has made a home in Shawsville for the past 17 years, watching trees, fields, landscapes and streams on his daily jog. Now, he is putting seasonal and timeless images into original stained-glass pieces he sells from his studio and gallery at the rate of about one a month.

WASHINGTON - For the last 300 years, windows have reflected the ever-changing appearance and aspirations of the American home. The so-called "eyes" of a structure, windows have evolved from the small leaded glass casements of Puritan homes to the iconic walls of glass of the 1950s to a futuristic model equipped with a computer, video or television screen. The National Building Museum has mounted a major exhibition on the crucial role that windows have played in shaping U.S. architecture and domestic lifestyles.

The teacher asked a group of Walters Art Museum spectators who were just old enough to shed baby teeth to explain what made the piazza in the Renaissance painting View of the Ideal City so perfect. "Nobody is shooting anybody else," said 9-year-old Alexanderia Williams, of Dallas F. Nicholas Elementary School in Baltimore's Charles Village. Such unusual - even disturbing - observations are what museum educators have come to expect from children taking part in a pilot literacy and arts program called Mummies, Manuscripts and Myths.

WASHINGTON -- For the occasion Fran Boyd of Baltimore wore a black suit peppered with silver specks and big, gold earrings and sat at the table marked RESERVED at the very front where she could see her own life on the theater-sized movie screen. It was an odd enough occasion yesterday afternoon, a publicity event for an HBO mini-series staged in a U.S. Senate hearing room and attended by members of Congress, by Kweisi Mfume, head of the NAACP, by drug policy people, show-biz people, reporters.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Howard County.Ellicott City: 9500 Long View Drive: Someone forced open the door of a house and stole telephones, a videocassette recorder, credit cards and cash between 11 a.m. and 10: 10 p.m. Tuesday.Ellicott City: 10200 Castle Hill Court: Someone kicked out a residence's basement window and stole $300 in coins, jewelry, a stereo deck and cassette player between 7: 15 a.m. and 10: 45 p.m. Tuesday.Owen Brown: 7500 block of Hickory Lane: Police arrested two teen-agers Tuesday night in connection with a woman's report that two men brandished a handgun when they approached her car at 8: 44 p.m. Tuesday.

Recently I attended a self-assertiveness workshop called "Taking Charge of Your Life," which I really didn't want to go to, but my wife talked me into it.There were 15 of us and we met in a classroom at a local community college. The room was very hot and I wanted to open a window.But then I thought: What if the others don't want the window open? What if they look at me funny? What if I open the window and someone walks over and slams it shut and glares at me?Suddenly a small, balding man with stooped shoulders entered the room and slammed his briefcase on the desk.

POLICE LOG* Highland: 7100 block of Mink Hollow Road: Someone cut a window screen, pried open a window and took a CD player, jewelry, scrap gold, a coin collection, camera and travelers checks on Friday.* 12900 block of Brighton Dam Road: Someone entered an unlocked door and took a purse Saturday.* Fulton: 7100 block of Ducketts Lane: Someone entered a window to a Pine Ridge Club House and pried open the doors and office drawers inside on Monday. Apparently nothing was missing. A man was seen leaving the club house with a crow bar in his vehicle.

FireMount Airy: Firefighters responded at 8: 31 a.m. Wednesday--to a brush fire in the 6100 block of Davis Road. Units were out one hour.PoliceMount Airy: Employees of Prospect Motors, a car repair shop in the first block of Park Ave., told police that someone pried open a window, entered the business and stole property between 7 p.m. Monday and 6: 30 a.m. Tuesday. The loss was estimated at $780.Pub Date: 5/30/97

DANDONG, China -- The gash on Ma Guanzheng's forehead is a small sign of the vast hunger gripping North Korea these days.A teen-ager struck Ma with a rock earlier this month as he was transporting flour across the border into North Korea. Ma said a crowd of teen-age boys leapt on his truck, cut through inch-thick ropes that held the flour on top and made off with 30 bags."If you stop, it's even worse," said Ma, 49, smoking a cigarette as he waited to cross the border again last week. "They will steal more."