STAYING IN

CHAIR CARE



Put up the Lemon Pledge. Your fine furniture deserves more attention than you may be giving it. According to the folks at The Woodworks, a twice-a-year, in-home waxing and feeding regimen will preserve delicate woods and prevent cracking and damage to cherished antiques. And, if you have a piece that’s in need of repair, their master craftsmen can restore it for you. Call them at 748-4737 for an estimate.

LIGHT WORK

PROFESSIONAL ADVICE Tully and Kalynn Weiss of Tully Weiss Lighting Design to shed some light on new trends in their field of expertise. One immediately came to mind: an innovative alternative to track lighting developed by a West German lighting designer. This new system is an easy-to-install, low-voltage, nickel-plated aircraft cable assembly that the Weisses think could change the way we look at lighting fixtures at home or in the office. “I think it is safe to say that this is the track lighting of the Nineties,” says Tully. “It brings a nice illusion of lightness to a space.” “Ya Ya Ho” (a two-cable system) and “Bakaru” (the three-cable version) are futuristic fixtures that give the appearance of lights suspended in space. “We’re all looking for illusions and for stimulus, and this is what that is,” says Tully. -Layne Morgan

Tuning in the World

listening The hottest source of world news isn’t the networks, cable, or satellite dish; more and more people are supplementing their CNN with BBC and Radio Netherlands, not to mention Voice of America, Radio Germany, France, and the Voice of Israel. Today’s shortwave, pardon me, “world band,” listener bears little resemblance to the nerd of yore, dialing up faint signals on a table-sized rig. Instead, they tap numbers into a high-tech receiver no larger than a dictionary to access hundreds of channels broadcasting in English.

Dallas’s central location and proximity to Latin America puts it on the crossroads of international airwaves. From Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, a smorgasbord of talk and music aimed at American audiences comes through with surprising clarity during local prime-time hours. By 10 p.m. and on, the bands jam with international fare. Daytime broadcasts from Voice of America, Christian Science Monitor Radio, and other North American stations, aimed at Africa or the Caribbean, are as clear as local AM radio.

Programming ranges from hard news-and the first ten minutes of Middle Eastern broadcasts give new meaning to that expression-to such culturally diverse shows as Alistair Cooke’s “Letter to America” on BBC.

Riding the international waves can be as easy as a trip to Radio Shack: one of the most highly rated receivers is Sangean’s Realistic DX-40 for $200. Besides tuning all the shortwave bands, it’s a powerful AM/FM radio, too. Similar models by Sony and Panasonic are found at Sterling’s. Passport To World Band Radio, shortwave’s annual “TV Guide,” is available at Bookstop and a definite help if you are just getting started.

-David Alex Schulz

Wines of the Picnic Variety



Vino One of the best remedies for spring fever we know of is that ancient ritual-the picnic. To us, the best excursions are fueled by simple fare and, of course, the requisite bottle-or two-of wine. When selecting a picnic wine, forget serious or snobby. Think light and fun. Look for a wine that is well made and secure, one that doesn’t require worshipful attention to be appreciated.

From Fall Creek Vineyards, consider the 1989 Chenin Blanc, selling for $5.95. Or try a California Chenin Blanc produced by Hacienda Wine Cellars, which retails for $6.65. In Sauvignon Blancs look for lush fruitiness like that in the 1988 R.H. Phillips Night Harvest or the 1988 M.G. Vallejo Fume Blanc, both $4.99.

And for something different, try Fetzer’s Red Zinfandel. Styled as light and fruity, this $5.95 wine positively begs to be slightly chilled and paired with fried chicken. -Becky Murphy

VIDEOS

PLAY BALL!

Forget lockouts, TV rights, and greedheads. Let’s watch two!

Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon made baseball sexy in Bull Durham (1988), but the movie’s got virtues beyond the erotic. For one, the action scenes on the diamond are the most realistic yet. Costner swings and-here’s the test-even throws like a major leaguer.

In Major Leagua (1989), Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger play for an unusual owner who orders the team to lose so that declining revenues will let her break her decamp to Florida. The players, a lovable lineup of kinkos, have other ideas.



What happened to Michael Moriarty, who shone so brightly in Bang The Drum Slowly (1973)? As pitcher Henry “Author” Wiggins, Moriarty learns that slow-witted catcher Bruce Pearson, played to perfection by Robert DeNiro, is dying of an incurable disease. Most of the players are semi-literate, but the script achieves a moving eloquence.



Damn Yankees (1958) remains watch-able for a handful of witty songs and the spunky work of Ray Walston as the devil who turns a middle-aged fan into phenom Joe Hardy, savior of the lowly Washing-bests the Tempter, but the real-life Senators were sent to a very hot place for eternal torment. They became the Texas Rangers.

-Chris Tucker

Consulting Mrs. Manners



MODERN LESSONS So you can dress them up but you can’t take them out? Since “restaurant” to most kids means Big Macs over a Happy Meal box in the back of the Suburban (honey, get those fries out of your nose), it’s not too unusual for today’s child to be, shall we say, lacking in refinement and social graces. But help is here. It comes from Charlene Levering, a first-grade teacher at The Hockaday School, who has been teaching manners and table graces to children and adults for the last ten years. Every day after she finishes at Hockaday, Levering rushes home and pulls out silver service and trays, crystal stemware and finger bowls and awaits some very special guests. At 4:30 on one afternoon little girls arrive promptly for Pink Lemonade, a series of manners classes for preschoolers and first-graders. The next afternoon it’s Formal Table Etiquette for older girls, then classes for young boys and adults. The semester ends with a High Tea “graduation” at The Adolphus Hotel.

Over the years, Levering has taught some of the city’s most prominent natives how to hold a goblet, where to put a table napkin, and how not to slurp soup.

“The more casual your home life, the more important it is to add a bit of culture,” says Levering, who grew up during the very socially correct Fifties. “I’m glad to see manners making a comeback.” To discuss your child’s manners, or lack of them, call Levering at 368-0840. Sessions range from $15-$25 each for children and adults.

-Mary Candace Evans

Aromatic Gardening



Common Scents Garden fragrance is more and more on people’s minds, as herb gardens, lavishly fragrant antique roses, and aromatic native shrubs regain popularity. Most fragrances can be grown easily-just stop by your local nursery or herb farm and let your nose guide the way.

The fragrance of “Madame Isaac Pereire’s” large, double rose-magenta blooms is called “heady” and likened to raspberries. Rosarian Joe Woodard considers this 1881 French rose the rose world’s top whiff. It has “one of the heaviest and most continuous fragrances,” he says.

“Scented geraniums!” exclaims herbalist Bonnie Thurber, of Golden Meadows Herb Farm in southeast Dallas. “They’re nice to put where you’ll brush by them, and whoa! that really sets the scent free.” Rose, citrus, pineapple, and cinnamon are just a few geranium flavors that can scent lingerie and even flavor food; Thurber uses them in potpourri and pound cake.

Other favorite fragrances: wax myrtle, a native Southern shrub or small tree whose sage-green leaves exude a tonic, astringent aroma when they are brushed against, and yucca, another regional favorite, with its creamy white, sweet-scented torches of bloom. -Julie Ryan

curb Service

You’re home, hungry-and in luck. Dining In Elegance will deliver restaurant fare to your North Dallas home within an hour of your order from its dozen-eatery menu brochure. 241 DINE.

BOOKS



BUT DID YOU READ THE BOOK?

In my opinion, some books are better off staying that way. The minute Hollywood gets its hands on a book I like my palms start to sweat. I usually have to be dragged kicking and screaming to see the big screen version of what is usually, in my estimation, an overproduced, celluloid ego-fest, in which an author’s vision is subjugated to that of a director’s. So, before it’s too late:

The release of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a recent occurrence, so there’s no time to waste. This haunting story of a futuristic society in which emotion is suppressed and subservience is the order of the day is an apocalyptic tale for our time. Men rule. Women give birth. (1 said it was haunting.)

Barbra Streisand has latched onto Pat Conroy’s Prince of Tides, so I know we’re in trouble. Conroy’s brilliant Southern-gothic tale about a dysfunctional family with a collective pain that won’t stay buried was an instant best seller. Barbra plays the psychiatrist-please, say it ain’t so.

Recent fiascos:

Fay Weldon’s The Lives and Loves of a She-Devil was mangled into an atrocious mess. If you saw the movie, don’t admit it. Read the book and revel in Weldon’s brutal yet witty satire about love and that all-consuming passion called revenge.

Old Gringo (based on Carlos Fuentes’s novel Gringo Viejo), was a flawed movie based on a nearly flawless book. Fuentes’s imaginings of an American in the midst of the Mexican Revolution is a stunning achievement.

-Anne Warren