Yak

More than a year has passed since musher Al Hardman and his team of huskies finished Alaska's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.So the Yak visited the musher at his home in Michigan to see how he and his dogs were doing.There was some sad news. Luka, 9, his top leader, died last August. Hardman was heartbroken."I really bonded with that dog," he said. "She always knew exactly what I wanted. I really miss her."The good news is that in May, two other females gave birth to 11 healthy puppies."This is Bear," said Hardman, introducing a puppy to the Yak. "He's the only one I've named so far. He looks like a polar bear; that's why I named him that."

I CAN'T SHOP with my wife. The problem is that she almost never has a clear objective. I always have a clear objective. Without a clear objective, you're just wandering randomly around a store, which is not the point of shopping. This is not just my opinion: This is the opinion of literally thousands of Nobel Prize- winning scientists whose names are available upon request. These scientists have traced the origins of shopping back to prehistoric times, when "shopping" was called "hunting," and primitive man would make out his "shopping list" by drawing, on his cave wall, a picture of his objective, usually a large wad of meat in the form of, say, a yak. He would then go out into the wild, locate his objective, and make the "purchase" by whomping the yak on the head with a club.

What was Sue thinking? That's what the Yak asked when he visited Chicago's Field Museum recently to see the famous Tyrannosaurus rex.The museum bought the world's largest, most complete T-rex fossil for $8.4 million in 1997. Workers are now cleaning and repairing Sue's bones, getting her ready to go on display in March 2000.The hot news is that museum paleontologists, or fossil scientists, have a 3D image of Sue's brain.The real brain decomposed 67 million years ago, of course, along with the rest of Sue's soft tissue.

EASTERN TIBET, China - Evening is approaching, and 10-year-old Maju Dorje has one last chore on the mountainside. He has to coax home a herd of baby yaks. He yells at them, hurls rocks at them, chases the animals down a steep, scrubby slope toward his family's tent, and finally in a chorus of grunts they arrive. One of Maju's sisters is waiting to grab each yak by the collar and tether it to a rope line. His mother is waiting with a dinner of sheep's ribs and noodles cooked over a yak dung fire.

A FUNGUS AMONG USWHAT is it?A morel is one of the tastiest wild mushrooms in North America, and mushrooms are a type of fungus. But a morel mushroom doesn't look anything like an ordinary button mushroom. Its head looks like a piece of sponge with big holes. Morels grow in forests, but they look like something from the ocean floor.What COLOR is it?Morels can be ivory, tan, brown, gray or black. They can be small, medium-sized or simply huge. The Yak found some that were about five inches tall on a recent morel-hunting trip.

The monster man of South Baltimore likes his corpses nice and fresh, decaying and oozy, attractive to vultures, but scary to people.Chuck Johnson produces lots of corpses, although he's neither the local hit man nor the neighborhood serial killer. To practically everybody around the Cross Street Market, he is the "The Monster Man."Mr. Johnson is the Dr. Frankenstein of Monsters Unlimited. In his studio over Movie Time Video on South Charles Street, he makes life-size monsters and weird creatures for horror theme parks, wretchedly ripped bodies for slasher movies, maniacal mutants for haunted attractions, creepy corpses for collectors.

AAAH! Oooh! Burble! Glop! Whooosh! Those were just some of the sounds that the Yak heard on his wacky walk-through of Nickelodeon studios in Orlando, Florida.Sound, sight (lots of orange and green slime) and smell (bananas and lime?) are just a few of the sensations the Yak had on the tour. Mostly, the Yak found out what he always suspected was true: Nickelodeon would be a cool place to work.The Yak isn't alone in wanting to tour Nickelodeon studios, which has a home in the Universal Studios theme park.

You're back in school and are bound to have book reports to do. Here are a few books the Yak recommends:* Do you like to camp? Be sure to pack "The Night Book: Exploring Nature After Dark with Activities, Experiments and Information," by Pamela Hickman (Kids Can Press, $12.95).* For Yak's Corner's youngest readers, "Red-Eyed Tree Frog" (Scholastic, $16.95) by Joy Cowley with pictures by Nic Bishop is a simple story with great pictures. It's about a red-eyed tree frog doing its best not to get eaten while looking for dinner in the rain forest.

Dwarf rhododendronBotanical name: Rhododendron yakushimanumPronunciation: ro-do-DEN-dronFamily: Ericaceae (heath)Common name: YakOrigin: JapanClass: ShrubDisplay period: Late May, JuneHeight: 3-4 feetEnvironment: Filtered light The Rhododendron genus, one of the largest and most varied in the plant kingdom, includes more than 800 species and in excess of 10,000 hybrids with amateurs as well as professionals engaged in the breeding. Azaleas, by the way, are actually rhododendrons, and are not, as is often thought, a genus of its own.The dwarf rhododendrons are the ones I find so appealing, having been won over by R. yakushimanum Centennial Celebration.

YAK CRAFTThe Yak got a great craft idea from Jo-Ann etc. and Jo-Ann stores: Styrofoam bugs! You can find this and other fun things at www.joannstores.com/project/kids. Then you can make a collection of bugs to last right up until school starts.MATERIALS1 small Styrofoam egg shape4 small round Styrofoam ballsAcrylic craft paintChenille stems1 small package of sequins1 package of "googly eyes"Craft glueToothpicksDIRECTIONS1. Paint Styrofoam balls. Allow to dry.2. Using egg shape as head, attach the balls together with toothpicks.