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Speaking of baseball, what better way to flaunt your fan-dom than by covering your walls with the logo of your favorite team? Sure, it sounds excessive, but when it comes to America’s national passion this kind of behavior is allowed. Village wallpaper has just released its “Major League Baseball” collection, with borders and wall coverings for every American and National League team. Call 1-800-423-5881 to find a source near you.

LOCAL HERO

viewing Until George W. Bush andCo. develop the good sense to move theirteam to an air-conditioned downtownDallas site, aficionados can slake their late-season thirst for baseball action with Feelthe Heat, an entertaining home videoproduced by Dallas’s Mickey Holden.Forget the corn pone beginning of badNolan Ryan lyrics sung to the tune of”Rawhide” (“Nolan, Nolan, Nolan”). Afteran uneven start, this video takes off like arising fastball flung by the Texas strikeoutking himself, tracking Number 34’s careerthrough employment on both coasts andboth leagues. Interviews with more than ahalf-dozen stars like Bo and ReggieJackson, are well done, and some of the oldfootage dug up is quite amusing. Personalfavorite-a frustrated Norm Cash coiningto face Ryan, carrying not a bat, but apiano leg. -Tom Stephenson

Nolan Ryan: Feel theHeat, by HPG Home Video, is available at Target and Tom Thumb for $19.96, or for rent at Blockbuster Video.

Daisies for the Dog Days GARDENING Nothing boosts wilting spirits like blooming flowers, especially if you don’t haw to work for them. Tucked into the front of a bed or in a few prominently placed pots, they can make summer seem less sultry and the landscape tropical rather than, well, parched.

The citrus hues of heat-hardy daisies from the South, the Border, and the tropics are made- in-heaven summer coolers. These three newcomers to the local market offer fresh green foliage and sunny yellow blooms from summer to frost. Tropical yellow Melampodium is a full, leafy plant a foot high covered with golden stars. The Dalberg daisy offers delicate ferny foliage that mounds and spills over, flecked with tiny yellow flowers. The crushed leaves have the scent of celery. Threadleaf coreopsis is a knee-high, dense cloud of threadlike, spring-green foliage with two-inch stars of pale yellow or gold.

These daisies for the dog days like well-drained soil and, like any sensible Texan, plenty of water. Patio pots in 12-inch or larger sizes hold enough soil to retain moisture all day. Potted plants weather August better in spots out of the afternoon sun or on a pedestal above hot patio surfaces.

-Julie Ryan

ADVE NTURES IN

BABYSITTING

In the why didn’t someone think of this before department: the Central YWCA now offers classes on the finer points of babysitting to interested teens. To register call 827-5600.

A Fido Pharmacy? Yes, Finally Consumer trends The day has come when you can ask your local pharmacist which cough medicine is best for your kid and what type of ear mite medicine is best for your pooch. At more than 25 independent drugstores in the Metroplex, consumers can save up to 50 percent on over-the-counter and prescription pet medications. (Yes, you can get a written prescription from your vet-veterinarians will fill out prescriptions upon request.)

Arlington entrepreneur Don Praeger says that two to three area pharmacies are being added to that list every week. Praeger, president of Southwest Pet Inc., a licensed drug wholesaler, has found a loophole in the pet pharmaceutical distribution market, which has traditionally sold only to veterinarians.

Praeger’s 25-member staff, which includes veterinarians, trainers, and pharmacists, is on call to drugstore pharmacists after conducting an intensive training seminar on treating pet health problems. His doggie drugstore idea has been so successful that he’s expanding the concept to Houston, San Antonio, New Jersey, and New York.

To find out which drugstore in your neighborhood can fill pet prescriptions, call Metro (817) 265-1954.

-Sandra M. Colby

VIDEOS



CINEMA PARODYSIO

August. Hot. No think. Just laugh. Movies make fun of movies. TV. Life. The whole enchilada.

Henry Gibson, Donald Sutherland, and others enliven John Landis’s The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), a “Laugh-In” offshoot that has its moments of wicked fun but relies too much on bathroom jokes and “adult language” to cover a lack of serious laughs. But Landis got it right ten year* later with Amazon Women on the Moon (1987), a super parody of late-night movies and the kitschy culture of cable TV, all wrapped around le baddest sci-fi movie ever conceived.

In I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, a 1988 send-up of the Shaft-Super-fly-Badass Black P.I. film, Keenan Ivory Wayans reunites aging superdudes like Jim Brown, Bernie Casey, and Isaac Hayes to fight the insidious Mr. Big, who’s behind a rash of ghetto youths dying from wearing too many gold chains.

The sacred cows of the movie Western are gored in Rustlers’ Rhapsody (1985), with Tom Berenger as the milk-sipping hero battling villains like Andy Griffith in a hilarious turn as a cross-dressing cattle baron. Every convention of the horse opera comes in for lampooning-in fact, in this one, the horses actually sing.

Hollywood Shuffle (1987) stars RobertTownsend as an aspiring black actor trying to find a role assomething other thana flashy street stud ora groveling slave.Some of the vignettes-Iike the”Black Actor’s School”-are super.

-Chris Tucker

BOOKS



CRESCENT-CITY COOKING

Eating is the favorite pastime of New Orleans-the sport, art, and entertainment of a city that years ago surrendered to caloric hedonism with nary a backward glance in the mirror. Here’s a tasty assortment of New Orleans’s cookbooks du jour:

Justin Wilson’s Homegrown Louisiana Cookin’by Justin Wilson-Broader in scope and almost as Southern as it is Ca-jun/Creole, Wilson’s new book is big on the basics. Wilson, an appealing humorist with his own PBS cooking show, sea-thing from crawfish stew to venison roast with wine and a soup-con of Cajun wit.

The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book by the New Orleans Times-Picayune-A reissued 1901 cookbook with updates in the margins, this 630-page volume is a fun read with recipes for now-familiar standards like shrimp Creole and lost-art treasures like calas (rice fritters).

The Commander’s Palace New Orleans Cookbook by Ella and Dick Brennan-If the Picayune tome is Creole as it was, this is Creole as it is, with recipes from one of New Orleans’s best restaurants. Clearly written recipes let you cook to impress without too much anxiety.

Frank Davis Cooks Naturally N’Awlins by Frank Davis-The only thing Frank loves more than good food is exclamation points! They’re everywhere! Ignore them! But don’t ignore the recipes. Some are terrific, and reflective of the diverse ethnic influences on New Orleans food.

-Benee J. Kientz

Betty Ablon: Ghost Gastronome Profile Lots of us are secret sweet eaters, Betty Ablon is a secret brownie baker-not to mention cake cooker and muffin maker. She calls herself a “gastronomic ghostwriter”; her company, Chefs Shadow, makes goodies for Marty’s, Macy’s, Neiman’s, and lots of other well-known gourmet shops, restaurants, and mail-order houses. But Betty bakes under someone else’s byline; she’s the author of anonymous treats.

Thirteen years ago, Ablon was a social worker who wanted to satisfy her growing entrepreneurial itch. Raised on her grandmother’s rugelach and other homemade pastries, she started a small catering business featuring home-style cooking that a hostess could present as her own. It wasn’t long before Betty focused on a previously undiscovered piece of the food market pie-custom catering for gourmet shops. As Betty recalls it, “I approached Suzy Rothstein, then manager of Marty’s 2×4 gourmet section, and asked her if she ever used outside caterers to prepare her food. Her answer was an unqualified ’Never.’” Twelve years later, Betty calls herself ’’Marty’s oldest living vendor,” selling the store brownies, cookies, muffins, and carrot cake, as well as salads, dips, and her grandmother’s rugelach.

-Mary Brown Malouf

The Perils of Peer Pressure required Reading The city is a tough place to raise kids. Not only do parents have to contend with the perils of an urban environment, but they have to deal with the peer pressure their children experience from kids who are products of this urban environment.

Local counselor and author Sharon Scott has spent years developing innovative programs to help kids say no to negative peer pressure. Scott has taken her techniques on the road, teaching parents, teachers, and kids all over the country how to effectively combat a problem that every child faces on a daily basis. One of Scott’s most interesting methods of relaying her message is with her book, Too Smart For Trouble, which was specifically edited for kids between the ages of five and ten. “What I’m trying to tell parents is that it’s never too early to start leaching their children how to deal with negative peer pressure. I mean as early as four or five. We must build self-esteem in children and show them how to make decisions when we’re not around.’1 Scott’s book is written in a way kids can relate to-she even uses her cocker spaniel Nicholas as a co-author of sorts, letting him tell his own stories of how he deals with peer pressure in the canine world.

With back-to-school season right around the corner, Scott’s book should probably be added to every child’s required reading list. Too Smart For Trouble is available at Taylors, Rootabaga Bookery, Walden’s. Varsity, and other bookstores.

-Anne Warren