Spock

Amelia Dudley's dream came true shortly after 1 p.m. #F yesterday.That's when she finally climbed into the sphere at the top of KidWorks, the three-story-high jungle gym at the center of Port Discovery, the $32 million children's museum that opened in downtown Baltimore."

For more than a half-century, Dr. Benjamin Spock has been the sage of sensible parenting, dispensing advice on matters from croup to hyperactivity in his enduring book, "Baby and Child Care."But now it's the baby doctor who needs help, according to his wife, who issued a highly unusual appeal this week for donations to subsidize costly home health care for the ailing 94-year-old pediatrician and author.With their savings drained by bills for 24-hour nursing, a macrobiotic chef, yoga therapy, twice-weekly psychoanalysis and shiatsu massage, Mary Morgan, Spock's wife of 21 years, said she decided to turn to friends for help through a letter-writing campaign and a series of fund-raising parties to coincide with the publication of the seventh revised edition of the baby book on the author's birthday, May 2.Spock's two sons by a previous marriage, John and Michael, are not commenting about the appeal, which has circulated largely through Internet messages passed from friend to friend, and was reported yesterday in the Boston Globe.

Benjamin Spock's enduring gift is the comfort he provided parents who came to a new job with no training.In his landmark 1946 book, "Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care," the tall, graceful Yankee sent parents a simple but profound message: There really were answers to their questions about raising children. Until then, pediatricians used intuition when it came to behavioral or developmental issues or ignored them.Spock's book allowed parents to feed their babies when the babies cried, not according to an arbitrarily imposed doctor's schedule.

BOSTON -- It was not a book that parents merely read. We clutched it like a steering wheel. We held onto it like a security blanket through the sleep-deprived terrors of early parenthood.When the hospital irrationally released the helpless 6-pound infant into our care without demanding to see a parenting degree, a dated driver's license, a passing test score, we had Dr. Spock's index to cling to."Newborns: Feelings in the early weeks."When we were poised at the fearful edge of the first bath, we gripped the spine of this book as tightly as the wobbly head of our newborn and looked it up."

"Dr. Spock: An American Life," by Thomas Maier. Harcourt Brace. Illustrated. 488 pages. $30.When Dr. Benjamin Spock died in March at age 94, his obituaries were as overstuffed and unlikely as a John Irving novel. The two main acts of Spock's epochal career - as author of the Baby Boom child care bible and then, in the Sixties, as goofy aging antiwar protester - were familiar enough.But who remembered that Spock, as a gangling Yalie, rowed on the U.S. gold-medal crew team in the "Chariots of Fire" Olympics?

MILLIONS OF American GIs just back from World War II wasted little time in 1946 getting married, settling down and raising families -- a rush of new responsibilities that left the parents bewildered about the best way to handle child-rearing. That's why they eagerly embraced the common-sense teachings Dr. Benjamin M. Spock.Indeed Dr. Spock, who died Sunday at 94, was both a household word and the proxy pediatrician for that huge bulge in the nation's population known as baby boomers -- the surge of children conceived by returning GIs. He gave young couples reassurance and sound guidance on child-rearing that became the bible to a generation of moms and dads.

Mollie Panter-Downes,90, who wrote Letter from London for the New Yorker magazine, died Jan. 22 in Haslemere, England.Mrs. Panter-Downes' first Letter from London appeared Sept. 9, 1939, and her last letter was March 26, 1984. Her last article appeared Aug. 18, 1986.E. T. Dunlap,82, a former state representative and longtime chancellor of Oklahoma colleges and universities, died Friday in Oklahoma City of a stroke. He was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as chairman of Sallie Mae Corp.

God love him. Dr. Benjamin M. Spock, the pediatrician whose book "Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care" sold 40 million copies in 39 languages, is still reflecting, teaching and writing at age 91. His latest work, "A Better World for Our Children," decries America's moral and spiritual deterioration and offers ideas -- some very specific and practical -- to reverse the trend.As many remember, Dr. Spock is more than just a world-famous pediatrician. He worked for the nuclear test ban treaty in 1962, spoke out against our action in Vietnam and was arrested, tried and convicted for conspiring to counsel, aid and abet resistance to the draft.

Dr. Benjamin Spock is 91 and worried.Not about the usual things, like health -- "I don't feel great, but until two years ago I didn't even feel old"; or love -- he's happily married to a woman 40 years his junior; or money -- his famous child-care book still sells half a million copies each year.Spock's big problem, he says, is the realization that he'll leave America's children in a worse situation than he found them -- a fact the activist says he wants to fight with each remaining breath.

Move over, Dr. Spock, there's a new generation of books about pregnancy and parenting out there.From "The Miracle Year," a guide to the six months before and after the birth of a first baby, to "When Good Kids Do Bad Things," a guide for the parents of teen-agers, and everything in between: "The Six Vital Ingredients of Self-Esteem and How to Develop Them in Your Child," "The Seven Secrets of Effective Fathers" and "Raising Your Type A Child."There's even "Miss Manners' Guide to Rearing Perfect Children" and whole bookshelves more -- a boomlet of baby books to keep pace with the boomlet of babies.

The Hangover * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $44.9 million $44.9 million 1 week Rated: R Running time: 100 minutes What it's about: A group of friends (including Zach Galifianakis, above) struggle to piece together what happened after an out-of-control Vegas bachelor party. Our take: This relentlessly jocular movie is designed to deliver lower-belly laughs with sleek contemporary efficiency. Up **** ( 4 STARS) $44.1 million $137.2 million 2 weeks Rated: PG Running time: 96 minutes What it's about: A 78-year-old widower (above)

Up **** ( 4 STARS) $68.1 million $68 million 1 week Rated: PG Running time: 96 minutes What it's about: A 78-year-old widower (above), in honor of his late wife, sets off on a grand adventure with a youthful stowaway. Our take: The latest Pixar animated feature goes where no cartoon has ever gone before - and takes a satisfied audience along with it. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian *** ( 3 STARS) $24.3 million $104.1 million 2 weeks Rated: PG Running time: 105 minutes What it's about: Exhibits at the Smithsonian - including an evil Egyptian pharaoh looking to rule the world - come to life.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian *** ( 3 Stars) $70 million $70 million 1 week Rated: PG Running time: 105 minutes What it's about: Exhibits at the Smithsonian - including an evil Egyptian pharaoh looking to rule the world - come to life. Yet again, security guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller, above) is forced to save the day. Our take: Faster-paced and even more enchanting than the original. Terminator: Salvation ** ( 2 STARS) $51.9 million $65.3 million 1 week Rated: PG-13 Running time: 115 minutes What it's about: The Resistance, led by John Connor (Christian Bale, above)

Angels & Demons ** ( 2 STARS) $46.2 million $42.2 million 1 week Rated: PG-13 Running time: 113 minutes What it's about: A Harvard professor (Tom Hanks, above) is in a race against time to stop a plot to destroy the Vatican. Our take: The filmmakers expend a lot of time, craft and energy just to keep a potboiler at low-to-medium boil. Star Trek *** (3 STARS) $43 million $147.6 million 2 weeks Rated: PG-13 Running time: 126 minutes What it's about: A young Spock (Zachary Quinto, above)

The new Star Trek arouses an instant affection that sometimes rises to ecstasy and never entirely wears out. Without any old-fogy nostalgia and with an impudent, non-obnoxious wit, it will win hordes of new admirers, while reminding the venerable franchise's followers why they became fans in the first place. With crackling fresh actors moving into the wittily revamped roles of James T. Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Bones, Sulu, Chekov and Scotty, the movie recaptures the team spirit that helped make the series memorable as much as its sci-fi inspirations or social-political parables.

Who wins your money-spending battles, your inner Mr. Spock or Homer Simpson? For a long time, economists assumed consumers made calculated and logical spending decisions that are in their best interests; that they would act like the always cool and calm Mr. Spock from Star Trek. Problem is, in the real world we often behave like the dopey Homer Simpson of the The Simpsons. Like Homer, we repeatedly get into trouble because of poor and impulsive decisions. You need only look at the rising levels of debt, bankruptcy and mortgage foreclosures, coupled with low savings rates and closets full of ridiculous and never-used junk, to see that somewhere consumers have gone awry with money decisions.

In the 1800s, before many physicians specialized in treating children, mothers were doctors to their families. In the 1950s, a quarter-century after pediatricians formed their own professional organization, Dr. Benjamin Spock was the guru parents turned to for advice. But the modern pediatrician has heavy competition. Parents have sleep coaches and message boards and moms' groups, Supernanny and La Leche League. With a few computer keystrokes, they can look up when their toddler should be walking or take an online quiz to see if a kindergartner might have ADHD.

A day after he celebrates his 69th birthday, author, actor, musician and photographer Leonard Nimoy comes to Baltimore tomorrow evening to appear in another of his many roles: that of Jewish activist. Nimoy has written books, directed movies and made more albums than the Beatles. But more than 30 years after he first played the role, he is still most recognized for his portrayal of that pointy-eared pillar of logic: Mr. Spock of "Star Trek." Though the television series lasted only three seasons (1966-69)

Amelia Dudley's dream came true shortly after 1 p.m. #F yesterday.That's when she finally climbed into the sphere at the top of KidWorks, the three-story-high jungle gym at the center of Port Discovery, the $32 million children's museum that opened in downtown Baltimore."

"Dr. Spock: An American Life," by Thomas Maier. Harcourt Brace. Illustrated. 488 pages. $30.When Dr. Benjamin Spock died in March at age 94, his obituaries were as overstuffed and unlikely as a John Irving novel. The two main acts of Spock's epochal career - as author of the Baby Boom child care bible and then, in the Sixties, as goofy aging antiwar protester - were familiar enough.But who remembered that Spock, as a gangling Yalie, rowed on the U.S. gold-medal crew team in the "Chariots of Fire" Olympics?