Paradise

No. That's what cruise lines are telling some of their prospective passengers.No smoking, Carnival Cruise Line tells passengers on its Paradise cruise ship. No children on board, orders Renaissance. No gambling, Disney Cruise Line rules.All three lines have implemented their new "no" policies in the past year -- Carnival and Disney with the launch last year of new ships, Renaissance effective with bookings made after March 1 of this year.All made the moves in response to consumer pressures.

Everything at Paradise in a Teacup -- from the tables to the teapots -- is for sale, but there's a genuine sweetness to the place that can't be bought or sold. We didn't buy anything except lunch, but, after a long, stressful workweek, we were delighted to relax and enjoy a long, rainy afternoon indoors and all the gentle spirit the place could muster.Paradise is the perfect place to bring your grandmother or to have a birthday tea for children, who will delight in its sweet treats, flowery china and the teddy bears -- there must be hundreds -- that fill the restaurant.

THE river of economic history can play tricks on people -- like suddenly changing course. But it doesn't happen often. So now, too, East Asia's economic river, for all its rampaging, is likely to stay on course. Early next century -- even more than now -- Asia will be the world's No. 1 economic powerhouse.Economies are made up of things of value. Money itself has no value. It only measures value and gives people access to valued things accordingly. But because of the kind of economic system all the world's people now swim in, many confuse money's storm-driven whitecaps with the river.

Neighbors fighting the planned expansion of a Rite Aid Corp. store in the Baltimore County community of Paradise say company officials this week withdrew the proposal in the face of that opposition."

BOSTON -- The true moment of cross-cultural convergence came to my neighborhood this year when the local Starbucks started selling books. Not any books, mind you. Oprah's books. Books that came with Oprah's seal of approval.So the cycle was complete. We had bookstores selling coffee, coffee shops selling books and both being served by the same mass media maven. As if that weren't enough, companies that published books were being gobbled up by one or two vast international conglomerates in Germany or Britain.

MONTSERRAT is a Leeward Island in the Caribbean, a self-governing dependency of Britain. Its 39 square miles supported nearly 12,000 people in a lush, green, tropical paradise with hills above, a playground for the rich.Until two years ago, that is, when the Soufriere Hills volcano, four centuries dormant, roared to life. Now villages are gone. Much of the south is covered in ash. Clouds rise 10,000 feet. It may yet blow. Of some 4,000 residents huddling in the north of the island, half were being ferried by the British navy to the neighboring island of Antigua.

We found Paradise.Better than Paradise, actually, because Bali and Tahiti, which have been said to be Paradise, are overrun with tourists. Ujung Kulon, Indonesia's marvelous national park and a U.N. World Heritage site, is not. As nearly as I could tell, there were about nine of us enjoying fine white beaches, tropical breezes, peace and quiet, good food and good rest.The park is at the western tip (Ujung Kulon is the western peninsula) of Java, the principal island in the Indonesian archipelago.

"The Puttermesser Papers," by Cynthia Ozick. 233 pages. Knopf. $23.Reappearing as a novelist for the first time in the 1990s with "The Puttermesser Papers," the celebrated writer Cynthia Ozick puts on a bravura performance. The worldly existence of her anti-heroine Ruth Puttermesser, a civil servant and compulsive bookworm, pales next to the teeming inner life that she tracks in this novel. As self-appointed scribe of Puttermesser's fantasies, Ozick draws on all her considerable talents and reserves: her deep historical consciousness, sharpshooting irony, and intricate literary craftsmanship, to name a few.In her most recent fiction Ozick memorably captured, in two distinct keys, the emotional legacy of the Jewish experience of World War II. "The Puttermesser Papers" moves forward in time to a contemporary setting, but holds in beautiful equipoise the satiric edge of "The Messiah of Stockholm" (1987)

LIKE MANY OF US, Mary L. Bowman wanted a yard that she could turn into her idea of paradise. She chose an exclusive development in Baltimore County's Greenspring Valley, with covenants designed to prevent some neighbor's shed or privacy fence from spoiling her vision.That vision included stands of trees -- woodland habitats for wildlife. It never occurred to her that anyone might object to so beneficient an addition to her property.But one person's paradise is another's poison. Dr. Onkar N. Singh moved next door with his own idea of Shangri-la -- a house with a view.

Sally Geisse was supposed to be in paradise -- a luxurious Hawaiian resort with Oh wow! swimming pools, lush tropical gardens and plenty for her children to do. But with a baby, a toddler and a 5-year-old crammed into one hotel room, it sure didn't feel anything close to heaven."

S elwyn Ray, executive director of The Maryland Mentoring Partnership, scanned the crowd in the Marriott Waterfront with pride. "This is our sixth annual MentorZing, and each year, it gets better and better and better," Ray said. "People are coming here because they care about young people, and they care about mentoring in Maryland." Many of those in the crowd were young participants in mentoring programs from around the state. Amber Wilson, a ninth-grader at Digital Harbor High School, delivered the dinner's opening prayer with her pastor, Dr. Bryan Claxton, of New Creation Christian Church.

Visions of Paradise National Geographic, $35 Is there heaven on earth? If so, where does it exist? That essentially was the assignment that the photographers whose work is represented in this volume were given. The book is divided into three main sections: land, water and air. Everyone, of course, has their own opinion of what makes a paradise, and the photographers here are no exception. In the land section are majestic images of the open sky country of Montana but also a cozy cafe in Paris; a pair of camels in the middle of a dust storm in Mali; and sunflowers buried under winter snow in Hokkaido, Japan.

Another paradise day in our old river town and we linger over supper in the backyard and talk about the dry weather and bats (Do they eat 3,000 mosquitoes per night? No, says the family biologist) and cousin Bruce's truck farm besieged by suburban yards, and of course Barack Obama's audacious trip to Iraq and Europe. Meanwhile, the sun goes down and little candles come out and a fresh pot of green tea and nobody feels the urge to get up and go. We are taciturn people, but give us a paradise night, balmy, a slight breeze stirring, candles burning, and we are on the verge of vast intimate revelations - "I became a writer as a way of drawing attention to myself.

On March 19, PRISCILLA M. WHITEHEAD. On Monday, friends may call at VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES (RANDALLSTOWN), 8728 Liberty Road, from 4 to 8 P.M. On Tuesday, Ms. Whitehead will lie instate at Greater Paradise Christian Center, 2900 E. Oliver Street, where the family will receive friends from 10:30 to 11 A.M., with services to follow. Inquiries to (410) 655-0015.

On Monday, PRISCILLA M. WHITEHEAD. On Monday, friends may call at VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES (RANDALLSTOWN), 8728 Liberty Road, from 4 to 8 P.M. On Tuesday, Ms. Whitehead will lie instate at Greater Paradise Christian Center, 2900 E. Oliver Street, where the family will receive friends from 10:30 to 11 A.M., with services to follow. Inquiries to (410) 655-0015.

If you ever doubt that America is the land of opportunity, look no farther than Ricky Williams, the running back who is on his fourth or fifth chance at a pro football career with his recent return to the Miami Dolphins. Williams looks different. He's clean-shaven, from dome to chin. And he sounds a bit different. He's not utterly the vague, navel-gazing guy we had come to know. Last week, he said he wanted to be a football player and that he realized it was what most fulfilled him. "Someone asked me a question.

When house hunting, it's hard to overlook an area called Paradise. For Bob and Michele Evans, their first day of home shopping with a Realtor in the southwest Baltimore County neighborhood turned up the perfect place for them. "This house made the best impression on us," said Michele Evans, 40, of their brick, two-story rowhouse in the Catonsville neighborhood of Paradise. "We knew where we wanted to be," added her husband, Bob, born the same day as his wife. "We wanted an end-of group [house]

When this Owings Mills dentist wants a cheeseburger in paradise, he just steps out his front door to a garden Jimmy Buffett would love. You can read about Hubert's slice of tropical paradise online tomorrow at baltimoresun.com/gardener.

On July 9, 2007, CLIFTON MURPHY, Jr., beloved husband of Beverly Murphy. A memorial service will be held on Saturday at 1st Baptist Church of Elkridge, 5795 Paradise Avenue, where the family will receive friends from 10-11 A.M., with services to follow. Inquiries to (410) 655-0015.

This picture of Paradise Bay was taken last November during an Antarctic cruise. Dwarfed by the gargantuan mountains and glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula is the Argentine base Almirante Brown, one of the few places where it is actually possible to set foot on the continent. Anne-Marie Sack Parkville The Sun welcomes readers' submissions for "My Best Shot." Photos should be accompanied by a description of when and where you took the picture and your name, address and phone number. Submissions cannot be individually acknowledged or returned, and upon submission become the property of The Sun. Write to: Travel Department, The Sun, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore 21278, or e-mail Travel@baltsun.