Santo Domingo

In pop recordings, listeners look for catchy melodies, seductive rhythms and expressive voices. In classical recordings, they want expert musicianship, fidelity to the score and an understanding of the music's spirit.But what should they seek in a Gregorian chant recording?There aren't any big names in the field, apart from the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos, whose "Chant" (Angel 55138) is soaring up the pop charts. Nor are there any familiar favorites to use as a guide; unless you've spent time in monasteries, the titles will be all Greek -- or, in this case, Latin -- to you.There isn't even a composer in the strict sense of the term.

Baseball Brewers: Invited P Bob Scanlan, P Hector Ramirez, IF Mickey Lopez and IF Jose Fernandez to spring training. Cubs: Invited IF Jeff Huson and OF Corey Patterson to spring training. Devil Rays: Agreed to terms with P Jim Mecir on one-year contract. Diamondbacks: Agreed to terms with P Matt Mantei on one-year contract and P Mike Morgan on minor-league contract. Mariners: P Frankie Rodriguez (2-4 with three saves and a 5.65 ERA in 28 games in 1999) agreed to one-year, $580,000 contract.

Ron Ridenhour,52, an infantryman turned journalist who seared the world's conscience with the first public account of the slaughter of 500 Vietnamese villagers at My Lai, died of a heart attack Sunday while playing handball in suburban New Orleans.Mr. Ridenhour was a door gunner on an observation helicopter that flew over the village a few days after the killings in March 1968. Three months after he returned home in December 1968, he typed up what he had learned in a three-page, single-spaced letter and sent off 30 copies to Arizona's congressional delegation and other federal officials.

Four Western Maryland College students were charged with burglary yesterday after Westminster police found signs of forced entry at a campus chapel and discovered three men and a woman hiding in the steeple.Campus security officers called police about 3 a.m. after hearing voices and seeing a light shining through the windows of Baker Memorial Chapel, police said.Police said windows in chapel doors had been broken and pry marks were found on locks. Campus officials said the chapel had been locked by security personnel at 8: 12 p.m. Monday.

Jazz Night, Western Maryland College's end-of-semester evening of live jazz performed by student musicians and vocalists, will be at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Decker College Center Forum.The evening will feature the WMC Jazz Ensemble, the Jazz Workshop, the Percussion Ensemble, a string section, guests and several vocalists. It is free, and refreshments will be provided. This semester's concert will feature big-band, reggae, rhythm and blues and Latin music. Performers will be led by Jazz Night organizer Steven "Bo" Eckard, a music lecturer at WMC.Tenor saxophonist Brian Beninghove, a junior at Westminster High School, and violinist Maggie Donahue, a senior at North Carroll High, will perform with the 24-member WMC Jazz Ensemble.

Dr. C. Earl Albrecht,92, Alaska's first full-time health commissioner and a legendary physician from territorial days, died Friday in Bradenton, Fla.He founded an international organization to share medical information among circumpolar regions. The 25-nation group is known as the International Union for Circumpolar Health.Dr. Albrecht arrived in Alaska in 1935 and became the sole doctor at a new settlement of 202 families at Palmer, a rural outpost 50 miles north of Anchorage. After serving in the Army during World War II, he became the territory's first full-time health commissioner.

It's amazing the history that can be found in Baltimore's older neighborhoods.Consider Fells Point and Seton Hill, two 18th century communities that have survived and remain as stable as they were decades ago. A walking tour of each neighborhood should be a part of Black History Month, celebrated this month.Start in the 500 block of S. Dallas St., one of those small -- almost an alley -- streets that dot Southeast Baltimore. It was here that Frederick Douglass built a small row of rental houses many years after he'd come to Baltimore.

Spend a night in the White House? Linda and Gary Patrick of Witchita Falls, Texas, can proudly say they spend every night there.Well, sort of.Mrs. Patrick, 48, a former nurse and now a homemaker, and Patrick, 58, a pharmacist and investor, live in a 22-room, 68-year-old home that boasts a similar design to that of the East Wing of the White House.The Patricks in 1995 bought the 11,000-square-foot home about 140 miles northwest of Dallas. For them and others who buy or build replica homes, reasons beyond investment potential often give them inspiration.

It's 18 degrees and snowing as I leave Baltimore, and forecasters are calling for the coldest weather of the winter over the next three days. Ten hours later, I'm sitting in shorts and a T-shirt at a ballpark in the Dominican Republic, sipping a cold beer and watching major leaguers from the front row. Now that's what I call fantasy baseball. While Oriole fans wait out the long winter, the Caribbean sun is shining, and the Dominican Winter League is in full swing. And the action on the field is only half of it: In the capital city of Santo Domingo, where my brother is stationed with the U.S. Foreign Service, our party of eight found the national passion of this baseball-crazed nation on vivid display.

Marie-Louise Meilleur of Canada, who turned 117 in August and had been designated the world's oldest person by the Guinness Book of Records, died Thursday in a nursing home in Corbeil, a small town in northern Ontario.Felicie Young Cormier, 118, who was born just after Reconstruction and raised 13 children, died Wednesday in Crowley, La. She lacked the official papers to prove she was the oldest person.Sister Jogues Egan, 79, who briefly went to jail for anti-war convictions in 1971, died Monday in New York after a brief illness.