Zen

The New York offices of hedge fund Tower Research Capital are decorated with Buddha statues, "ornate lamps, oriental rugs, pottery, sofas, tables and plenty of plants," says Alternative Investment News. More plants and statues are on the terrace, "creating a Zen garden feel." It's easy to be mellow when you can force hapless electricity customers to cover your losses. A Tower affiliate just lost what grid managers estimate to be an $80 million bet on electricity hedges that now must be covered by Baltimore Gas and Electric households and other Mid-Atlantic consumers.

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.

For some yoga students, the hour of practice finally becomes worthwhile when they stop stretching and start playing dead. Savasana, or corpse pose, gives students who come to yoga class for a workout a taste of the benefits of meditation. In corpse pose, students lie flat and still for a few minutes and attempt to avoid distracting thoughts. Many come out of the pose refreshed and wanting more. To an outsider, more intense meditation may seem like a personal and solitary activity, best done away from a crowd.

Talented siblings Po and Jo Chang have opened a new venture alongside their popular 10-year-old Chinese restaurant, Cafe Zen. This time, they've looked to the American West instead of the global East to create a Tex-Mex comfort food hang-out called Zen West. At first blush, burritos and nachos seem like an odd detour from garlic shrimp and Hunan pork, but the Changs have pulled it off, though there's still room for improvement. Their new restaurant, overlooking Belvedere Square in the former home of Gator's Pub, opened in September and mixes "yeehaw" and "om" with ease.

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.

"When are you going to take the leaf blower out of the box?" It wasn't the first time I'd heard such a request. When my wife bought me a digital camera as a holiday gift a few years ago, she had asked that very question the following spring with the digital camera still in the box, never opened, just like a circular saw bought for me years earlier. Not that I wasn't curious about the camera, but I'd depended on a very faithful, 35-mm single-reflex camera my whole adult life. Once I opened the new camera and tried digital photography, like a lot of other people, I never looked back.

The owners of the popular York Road eatery Cafe Zen are bringing what they hope will quickly become another favorite hangout to the neighborhood. They plan to open Zen West this week in the space that used to be Gator's. Restaurant consultant Spike Owen says he was brought in by the brother-and-sister team of Po and Jo Chang to help create their spin on the roadside diners they grew up with in Texas. Owen says he and the Changs have spent the past year gutting the place and giving it a whole new look.

Are you seething? How about angry, frustrated, anxious, flustered, annoyed or appalled? Would you admit, just between us, to a simple bout of uncontrollable impatience? Yes? Then you must be motoring through this wet and windy weekend. Relax your grip on the steering wheel for a second, take a deep breath and heed some advice from the doctor - Dr. Driving. "People are always driving with seething rage," says Leon James, professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii who runs the Web site drdriving.