Mold

Jeffrey R. Smith probably was destined to become artistic director of the Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale. Although he initially resisted becoming the hand-picked successor to founder Robert Hamilton a few years ago, he eventually felt "called" to lead the Philadelphia institution. Smith, a Delran High graduate, sang for Hamilton as a boy growing up in Delran, one in a long line of South Jersey boys whose voices helped form the choir's reputation as a world-class vocal group.

Harmony Thompson and Yvonne Lung wheeled their cart past the metal detector and down the long hallway, onto the elevator, and into the art room. When Dorothy Johnson saw the supplies they unloaded - bottles of paint, glitter, colorful feathers, brushes, glue, scissors, and dozens of pieces of hardened, polished ceramic - she lit up. The Claymobile had come to Strawberry Mansion High. The outreach arm of the Clay Studio, a city nonprofit group specializing in education and promotion of the ceramic arts, sent Thompson and Lung to the school to open students' eyes to a new medium.

Janine James, 16, hoped her new mentor could help nurture her dream of becoming an award-winning actress in musicals - even though she had never been in a play. Five days after being paired with Penelope Reed, the producing artistic director at the historic Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, James was onstage, rehearsing A Christmas Carol. Mentoring programs have been around for decades, but James and Reed are part of the Youth Leadership Connectors Project - a new effort with a twist.

There are better ways to build a house, especially if you want to keep mold under control, Charles Perry believes. "Mold is a huge issue for my clients, especially lenders, since they have 80 percent exposure to the problem through [the] mortgage, compared with the homeowner's 20 percent equity," said Perry, principal of Environmental Assurance Group, a lending and real estate consulting firm, in West Hartford, Conn. So when some clients suggested that Perry make the year-round house he was planning to build on the site of a lakeside summer cottage in Chesterfield, N.H., a showcase for mold-resistant construction techniques and products, he agreed.

There are better ways to build a house, especially if you want to keep mold under control, Charles Perry believes. "Mold is a huge issue for my clients, especially lenders, since they have 80 percent exposure to the problem through [the] mortgage, compared with the homeowner's 20 percent equity," said Perry, principal of Environmental Assurance Group, a lending and real estate consulting firm, in West Hartford, Conn. So when some clients suggested that Perry make the year-round house he was planning to build on the site of a lakeside summer cottage in Chesterfield, N.H., a showcase for mold-resistant construction techniques and products, he agreed.

Actress Polly Bergen has had a long and distinguished career. Bet she never thought that at 77, she'd be playing a pot pusher. But that's her lot as Stella on Desperate Housewives. This week, she tricked her daughter, Lynette (Felicity Huffman), into eating pot-laced brownies to help relieve side effects of chemo. When Lynette figured out why she had been laughing so hard at SpongeBob cartoons and scarfing all those snacks, she lectured Stella on what an irresponsible parent she had always been.

When we want to create an upscale look for the interior of a modest home, it's tempting to look for magical solutions, the remodeling equivalent of a too-good-to-be-true diet pill or a can't-miss investment opportunity. Painting can have a huge impact, but "rich" colors don't have literal financial connotations. Flooring is another possibility, but even pricey inlaid-marble tile or exotic hardwood planking can't compensate for a room that's otherwise lackluster. Worse still, a lone high-end feature like that can call the wrong kind of attention to the rest of the space.

Lorena Ochoa was finishing her freshman year at the University of Arizona in 2001 just as Annika Sorenstam was establishing her reign as the No. 1 female golfer in the world, a distinction Sorenstam would keep for a long, long time. An admirer of Sorenstam's ability and consistency, Ochoa locked on her as her role model. Like Ochoa, who is from Mexico, Sorenstam came to the United States from another country, Sweden, to attend Arizona. Like Sorenstam, Ochoa would become NCAA player of the year and join the LPGA Tour.

The parade of witnesses testifying at Education Committee hearings in the House and Senate on the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a red flag, warning that Congress may be lulling itself into the belief that simply tweaking NCLB will raise the quality of U.S. schools. This false sense of security means that the real direction in which we must take schools - beyond compliance and toward innovation for a 21st-century education system - is being ignored. The next frontier for Americans' lives and livelihoods in the knowledge economy is a world-class education system that truly works for all students.

Want to know whether the White House has any real strategy to stabilize Iraq? Then pay attention to what happens - or doesn't happen - at a crucial meeting May 3 and 4 in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh. The event is a regional conference of leaders from Iraq and its neighbors that will be attended by Condoleezza Rice and, maybe, by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. The reason the meeting is so important: The American troop surge is only a tactic, which can't work unless it fits into a broader regional strategy.