Behavior

WAS IT only a week ago that we were the center of the universe? Now, all the camera lights, the 50 daily e-mails from Bill Clinton and the embarrassing behavior by the national media surrounding the Democratic primary have shifted to Indiana and North Carolina. We're relieved to have our city back. But the weeks leading up to last Tuesday's primary were good weeks for Philadlephia. We got the Colbert bump. On national TV, we watched our mayor being funny and our former mayor being even funnier.

A gentle, non-punitive approach to improving dogs' behavior and a lucid text that any novice should be able to understand distinguish Everyday Dog: Training Your Dog to Be the Companion You Want by Nancy E. Johnson (Howell Book House, Macmillan Publishing, $17.95). Of the scores of dog-training, problem-solving books I've read, this is the first that offers different techniques for training puppies and adult canines, even when the same problem, such as housebreaking, is concerned.

Snowballs rained down, dangerously and persistently. Fights broke out in the stands. Several individuals ran onto the playing field and disrupted play. Dozens of customers invaded the sidelines in search of snow for ammunition. If anarchy did not reign in some sections of Veterans Stadium, it was chillingly close. And Eagles owner Norman Braman - who had as his guest at the game yesterday Paul Tagliabue, the NFL's new commissioner - was furious. "It's a disgrace," Braman said, after the Eagles' 20-10 victory over Dallas.

A day after the violent outbreak of looting in the East Market Street area during the parade for Julius Erving, some police and gang-control workers started talking to students about what went on. John White Sr., an assistant city managing director and head of the city's community intervention program, said he sent 18 community intervention workers in two-person teams into schools and public housing complexes to hold "rap sessions on these anti-social...

This month - Domestic Violence Awareness Month - the Commentary Page is featuring a series of essays by workers in the field of domestic abuse. In almost 16 years of counseling men who abuse their partners, I've been asked lots of questions about my clients. The thing people most frequently want to know is: Can these guys change? My answer is always an emphatic but qualified yes, because while I've witnessed many dramatic and inspiring conversions, the countervailing truth is that relatively very few abusive men actually come for help or stick with the grueling process.

Upper Moreland High School seniors and their friends must leave their water balloons, beach balls, kazoos and water pistols at home when they don caps and gowns for their commencement ceremony Wednesday. Although they may toss their caps during the "graduation salute" at the end of commencement, no jeering or cat calling will be tolerated. The banned items and behavior are listed in a sternly worded letter to seniors and their parents from high school principal Robert H. Bubeck and assistant principals L. John DeLaurentis and Charles D. Cassady.

A Dec. 3 article referred to a case of a battered woman who fatally shot her husband as he tried to hit her with a piece of pipe. During the five years of their marriage, she had suffered repeated physical abuse, which resulted in numerous injuries, including the loss of sight in one eye. The defense sought to introduce testimony on the "battered women's syndrome," which the judge did not allow. The story said that "the syndrome . . . can cause irrational behavior in a victim," in a sentence worded such that readers may have erroneously inferred that the woman's lawyer made such a statement.

Some people want to explore space, make a million dollars, or become a movie star. Malik, 9, wants stickers on his behavior chart - lots of them. He can earn them by speaking quietly in the house, staying in bed before 6:30 a.m., and dressing for school, eating and brushing his teeth with a pleasant attitude. The size of his allowance depends on the sticker pile-up. He likes to go shopping with his foster father, and will use some of his money to get a toy for his foster brother back home, too. Neglect and abuse are in Malik's background, and he receives therapy to help him deal with it. He takes medication for an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and for behavior management.

An epidemic of coarse and obnoxious behavior is in full swing in the workplace. Examples are the boss who begins a meeting late, then takes phone calls while his subordinate sits and waits, and the co-worker who drains the last of the coffee and fails to start a fresh pot, according to Training magazine. Some advice for the civil-minded who find themselves confronted by obnoxious office behavior: Watch your language. Avoid vulgarities, sarcasm and dismissive responses like "whatever," which implies "I don't care.

Chile's Marcelo Rios, the former world No. 1, has been fined $10,000 by the ATP for unsportsmanlike behavior at the players party during the Italian Open at Rome last week. The fine was the maximum under ATP rules. Rios became rowdy during the party and later went out on the town, allegedly attacking a taxi driver and two Carabinieri policemen, the ATP said. Italian officials said Rios had been drinking at the time. Rios was knocked out of both the Italian and German Opens in early rounds.

Adapted from a recent online discussion. Question: My husband has had a close group of friends since his early 20s, and they communicate daily through group texts and e-mails. When we first started dating, I found out some of the guys send naked pictures of girls to each other or pictures of girls they were sleeping with. I found this so tacky. Fast-forward five years and I just found out they still do this. I think this is very juvenile behavior - they're all in their mid-30s now and half are married - and the feminist in me just wants to scream.

TRENTON - Rutgers officials are scrutinizing practice videos of all sports to see if any coach engaged in behavior like the type that cost men's basketball coach Mike Rice his job, the university president announced Monday. The inquiry into Rice and how university officials responded is also going deeper as the school announced that it plans to hire a consultant to conduct an independent review. University president Robert Barchi, speaking Monday during a town-hall meeting on the school's Newark campus, said he wants any instances of bullying or homophobic language to be reported immediately.

This week's opening of the film 42 , on Jackie Robinson's integration of baseball, brings to mind the dramatic role played by Philadelphia in this seminal event in America's civil rights history. Robinson's integration of Major League Baseball during the 1947 season was revolutionary. The game had been segregated since the 1880s, reflecting the isolation of African Americans in the nation. Even in the years after World War II, America remained a segregated society, with African Americans, save for some entertainers and athletes like Joe Louis, largely invisible.

At 1 a.m. on May 7, 1991, Lenny Dykstra, drunk as he sped along winding Darby-Paoli Road in Radnor Township, slammed his red Mercedes sports car into a tree. The then-Phillies centerfielder escaped with fractured ribs and a broken collarbone. Twenty-two years later, that car crash remains an apt metaphor for Dykstra's life. Laws and limits aren't made for him. Dykstra is a self-powered machine bound for self-destruction. He races through life headfirst, heedless of others, an irresistible force in search of immovable objects.

Jon Welsh was kicked out of elementary school for a bunch of behavioral issues. He was bullying other students and misbehaving toward teachers and even the principal. "Throwing books," he said. "Spitting on people. " Welsh is now an Olney Charter sophomore and a wrestling team captain. Wilfredo Cruz used to go to school to have fun. For him, fun meant skipping class, getting into fights, and scrawling graffiti. "My mentality was doing whatever I wanted," he said. Cruz, too, is a sophomore at Olney Charter and a wrestling team captain.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - It was hours after a deadly Colorado theater shooting, and James Holmes was not acting like a man who methodically planned the attack and booby-trapped his apartment. As a police detective interviewed him, Holmes started pretending the paper bags on his hands - meant to preserve gunshot residue - were puppets. The former neuroscience graduate student tried to jam a staple into an electrical outlet. He played with a cup on the table. At least two officers noted that his eyes were dilated.

GLEN GALEONE is the man who supervises discipline at Archbishop Ryan High. His son, Gage, a 5-11, 175-pound senior, is the kid who runs the point for the basketball squad. Do you want to ask the question, or should I? Here we go: In his 4 years at Ryan, has Gage, head bowed, shoulders slumped, ever had to take the long, slow walk to dad's office because of a misstep involving behavior? "Nope," Gage said, smiling. "Not even once. " However . . . "I do go there to ask him for lunch money.

RUTGERS suspended men's basketball coach Mike Rice three games without pay and fined him $50,000 for a violation of department policy. Athletic director Tim Pernetti announced the decision Thursday. He said the suspension is a result of inappropriate behavior and language, not NCAA violations. "Mike will not be permitted to do anything," Pernetti said. "The suspension for this period of time and these games is a complete removal from the program. " Rice will return to his duties as head coach Jan. 2 at Syracuse.

DEAR ABBY: I am writing to you in response to "Not on My Watch" about the little boy who repeatedly exposes himself to other children. While correcting this behavior to protect the other children is something the parents and other concerned adults in this child's life should be doing, there may be more going on here that needs to be addressed. There are several issues happening with this boy that bother me. The repeated exposure of his private parts to others is the first. While this behavior is not unusual in young children and can be a normal part of sexual curiosity, the compulsive continuation and frequency of his behavior raises red flags.

Older teens and adults with attention deficit disorder are much less likely to commit a crime while on ADHD medication, a provocative study from Sweden found. It also showed in dramatic fashion how much more prone people with ADHD are to break the law - four to seven times more likely than others. The findings suggest that Ritalin, Adderall, and other drugs that curb hyperactivity and boost attention remain important beyond the school-age years and that wider use of these medications in older patients might help curb crime.