Zen

There are comebacks, and then there is what Phil Jackson is doing. The world of sports, of course, is full of examples of the former, what with Muhammad Ali coming back time and again to win the heavyweight boxing championship and Mike Tyson returning for six rounds last week. But Jackson is not just coming back as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers -- he is returning to an organization that he unhappily parted ways with and that he promptly trash-talked in his 2004 autobiography, The Last Season.

Henderson Supplee Jr., 88, who retired in 1965 as chairman of the board of the Atlantic Refining Co. just before the merger that created the present Atlantic Richfield Co., died Monday of complications of cancer at a hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pa. Before joining the oil company in 1947, the resident of Radnor, Pa., had been president of the Supplee-Wills-Jones Milk Co., which had become a subsidiary of the National Dairy Products Corp. He was a former trustee of Princeton University and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Philadelphia.

These days interior designers have to know more than furniture and fabrics. They have to be Zen masters. The serene minimalist style of the '90s may have come and gone. Feng shui has run its course. And no one talks about cocooning anymore. But people still want to come home to a sanctuary, not a decorative showplace. "It's almost become a cliche after Sept. 11," says Eileen Cannon Paulin, author of a new book, The Serene Home (Sterling, $29.95) and editor of Romantic Homes magazine.

HBO's "Sex and the City" suggests we're not having enough sex, and the sex we're having is in the wrong city. Filmmaker Woody Allen taunts us with his cinematic Central Park strolls. Author Tama Janowitz shuns us for not attending enough avant-garde art openings.It's the same pretentious postcard New York has been sending those who dare live outside the 212 area code for generations: You don't live here, so go shuck corn or something.One may feel a similar attitude attack from the newest harbinger of Big Apple egotism: "From AbFab to Zen: Paper's Guide to Pop Culture," an en-chic-lopedia from the editors of Manhattan-based Paper magazine.

When it comes to creating a meditation garden, architect Jack Carman offers this advice: "It should be like those comfortable little places you had as a kid that made you feel protected." These gemlike spots are meant to be escapes, places that help quiet the mind and unravel the tensions of the day. At St. Paul's School in Brooklandville, the meditation garden is next to the chapel. Enclosed by ornamental grasses and boxwoods, it has several large trees and offers staff and students a secluded space to sit or eat lunch.

Even a few good men are hard to find in the "Fighting 57th." Defending post-Cold War Germany from an enemy that no longer exists, the U.S. Army battalion is a dumping ground for high school dropouts, drug abusers, brawlers and bigots.The good fights already have been fought, so these "braindicapped" recruits have only boredom to battle, heroin to shoot and each other to kill. War is hell, but peacetime in thisvolunteer's army is the proverbial cold day."Here, all the friendlies are enemies, and all the enemies are friendly," battalion clerk Ray Elwood tells us. "The main thing is to keep control of the situation.

London-based hairstylist and product developer Charles Worthington has added another hat to his rack: author. The former British Hairdresser of the Year (twice) has put out the Dream Hair series of four books (all published by Carlton Books and sold for $15 apiece), which explains how to get specific styles of salon hair at home. Here's the rundown: * City Hair -- Tricks of the trade for chic, sophisticated looks. * Big Date Hair -- Inside tips on how to look gorgeous when it really counts.

There's living right, and living at the right time. Meet Barry Zito - Zen guy, musician, would-be actor, dater of starlets, collector of stuffed animals and a man very definitely living both right and at the right time. Zito, the consistently fine left-hander formerly of the Oakland Athletics, has just agreed to a seven-year, $126 million deal with the San Francisco Giants. This staggering contract is the richest ever awarded a pitcher, which results in three immediate conclusions: Zito is the most fortunate pitcher in baseball history, Scott Boras has again proved to be the greatest agent in baseball history and the Giants are the dumbest organization in baseball history, or at least this week.

Oscar nominations will be announced soon, the second "Survivor" starts in a couple of weeks and Madonna just got married, but all Hollywood can talk about is a little soap opera called "All My Lakers." "AML," as its devoted fans call it, is the continuing story of a Zen master named Phil, and his struggle to keep his warring sons, "Shaq the Elder," and "Kobe the Kid," from tearing the Laker clan apart. This family feud, put aside last year in the interest of a championship, has bubbled over and gotten so big that the estimable Los Angeles Times, a corporate big brother to this newspaper, ran a review of the latest squabble on the front page one day last week.

Alexandra Stoddard is far more than an interior designer with an eye for color, balance and proportion. What makes this internationally published author stand out from the plethora of expense-is-no-object decorators is her humanity. In her books and in person, she comes off as part contemporary philosopher, part Zen student, part feng shui master and all heart.Unlike design diva Martha Stewart, who makes many people feel inadequate because they can't possibly live up to her superwoman abilities, Stoddard encourages her readers to be themselves and shows them how to live a wonderful life without spending a lot of money, time or energy.