Barrels

Oil prices closed above the $140-a-barrel mark yesterday for the first time as investors continued to spurn the stock market in favor of commodities. "The trend to hard assets, and energy in particular, is unabated," said John Kilduff, a vice president at MF Global Ltd. in New York. "There's a lack of confidence in stocks and other markets right now, which has investors looking for safe havens. " With oil passing $140, traders are now expecting to see $145 and even $150, analysts said.

Lidia Kaminska is not like most musicians. For one thing, her instrument is so rarefied she has to escort it back to its birthplace in Italy every year or so to be tuned. For another, she left home at age 10 to pursue a life in music. Her parents, farmers, recognized her prodigious talent and delivered their daughter from a cozy 20-house village in Poland two hours from Warsaw to a large city with a good music school. She saw her family only on weekends, sometimes every other weekend.

Near the intersection of Bustleton Avenue with Byberry Road, which is to say in the farthest corner of the far Northeast, you will note in a shopping center that features a Home Depot and a Hong Kong-style banquet hall, a generic box of a supermarket that goes by the equally unevocative name of Net Cost. It is the southernmost of the Net Cost empire, which includes four outlets in Brooklyn, and one in Staten Island, all designed to appeal to the tastes of Eastern Europe's emigres - to the Russians and Ukrainians, the Czechs and Poles who have resettled in those precincts, and similarly in Philadelphia's far Northeast.

OPEC yesterday accused the United States of economic "mismanagement" and said the Bush administration was to blame for pushing oil prices to new records. The oil producer group rebuffed calls to boost output, saying supply is sufficient and demand is expected to weaken in the spring. Oil-futures prices surged a remarkable $5 a barrel yesterday to a record $104.52 in New York because of OPEC's stance plus a surprise drop in U.S. crude-oil stockpiles. Most analysts had expected the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration to report oil supplies rose last week for the eighth straight time.

Anyone who attended the 2006 Kennett Brewfest will be relieved to hear that organizers have added more than a few portable toilets to this year's event. The number of commodes will jump to 55, up from 25 last year, which resulted in 25 sizable lines. Other than that, Saturday's festival will be much the same as in years past: lively, jovial, and a bit bigger than the previous year. Forty-nine breweries will send representatives to pour ales and ciders, two ounces at a time, into the cups of upwards of 3,000 festival-goers, each of whom will pay a flat entrance fee for unlimited drinks.

Crude oil, the world's economic lifeblood, closed at more than $80 a barrel last week for the first time. The milestone is symbolic, but the potential of rising oil prices to harm the ability of businesses to expand and consumers to spend is not. "It's just one more weight on an already very fragile economy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, of West Chester. A big question is, how quickly will the surge in oil prices show up at the gasoline pump, where it will especially hurt low- and middle-income households?

Crude oil, the world's economic lifeblood, closed yesterday at more than $80 a barrel for the first time. The milestone is symbolic, but the potential of rising oil prices to harm the ability of businesses to expand and consumers to spend is not. "It's just one more weight on an already very fragile economy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com in West Chester. "If prices stay high, that's going to be another problem for the expansion. " A big question is how quickly the surge in oil prices will show up at the gasoline pump, where it will especially hurt low- and middle-income households.

OPEC agreed yesterday to boost oil production for the first time in more than a year, concerned that near-record prices might damage a world economy already suffering from weakness in the U.S. housing industry. Saudi Arabia, the largest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, led the group to add 500,000 barrels a day to its current production level, starting Nov. 1. The new target will be 27.2 million barrels a day, Kuwait's acting oil minister, Mohammed Abdullah al-Aleem, said in an interview.

FRIED STUFF with gravy is the essence of the Cracker Barrel. And cardiology. But that didn't stop the Chain Gang from recruiting some real live Southerners for an evenin' of country cookin' in that down-home spot known as Plymouth Meeting. We arrived early on a Tuesday night so the Barrel wasn't already bursting at the seams, like many of its patrons were. Yes, big portions attract big people. And when those portions are fried, with gravy, it's time to reinforce the Cracker Barrel rockin' chairs.

'Barrel Monkeys' is an homage to Australia's cellar rats, the purple-tongued laborers in the mega-wineries of Down Under. The RedHeads cooperative studio in McLaren Vale has thankfully given 16 such monkeys an outlet to moonlight from their day jobs and let off some winemaking steam. And this aptly named Barrel Monkeys is one impressive result, a full-throttle screwcap shiraz that delivers a dark-fruit blast and licorice spice. A novel fermentation over chardonnay lees lends an extra touch of creaminess to soften the 15.5% alcohol kick.