Cave

AL QAEDA'S recent efforts to affect the U.S. presidential election are backfiring, with polls confirming that Osama bin Laden is in trouble. But last night's speech by bin Laden to followers at a cave in a mountain area of Afghanistan interrupted by cries of "McCain" and "Elect him!" might just be the breaking point. Bin Laden's efforts to paint Republican presidential nominee John McCain as a friend of unrepentant billionaires and an enemy of Islam and Allah are blowing up in his face.

Nick Cave used to be so deathly serious it was hard to bear. But now, along with his dastardly mustache, booming voice, and biblical blues- and rockabilly-infused songs of love and death, the 51-year-old Australian has a crackling sense of humor. "We're all going to come and live here," Cave said of America at the Electric Factory on Tuesday, the last date of his U.S. tour. He gestured toward his six-man band, the Bad Seeds, who included the former Birthday Park guitarist Mick Harvey and the wild man violinist Warren Ellis, of the Dirty Three.

The LPGA Tour's "mea culpa" didn't need much translation. Facing anger from lawmakers and bewilderment from sponsors, the LPGA Tour backed off plans to suspend players who cannot speak English well enough to be understood at pro-ams, in interviews or in making acceptance speeches at tournaments in the United States. The policy has generated a storm of bad publicity since it was announced last month. LPGA Tour commissioner Carolyn Bivens said she would have a revised plan by the end of the year that would not include suspensions, although fining non-English speakers remains an option.

The Phillies understood the reality that their killer loss to a terrible team created last night at Nationals Park. They have backed themselves into the very same corner as last season. "We battled back last year," Chase Utley said after a 9-7 loss to the Washington Nationals, who entered the night as the worst team in baseball. "Now we have to battle back again. " Two Ryan Howard home runs were not enough for the Phillies, who are three games behind the first-place New York Mets in the National League East with just 22 to play.

Cheese of the Month A little "cave time" can be a good thing, especially if you're a cheese. Consider this spectacular two-year-old Swiss Gruyère from Emmi: the aging transforms the mild waxiness of a standard Gruyère (usually about five months old) into a far more intense experience. The texture of a firm, smooth slice is densely creamy, but also has the salty crunch of protein crystals sparking in every bite. The whey crunchies come about when the cheese's curds are heated and pressed.

I inched along the iron-rich red sand on my belly, the milky beam of light from my headlamp illuminating the narrow gap ahead of me. Breathe, I told myself. Don't panic! I used my elbows to slither forward and had to duck even lower as my helmet struck a low-hanging stalactite. My heart pounded so loud it seemed to vibrate off the limestone walls. It was the morning of my 30th birthday, and I was deep inside the Kelly Hill Caves on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. As an avid traveler and adventurer, I am willing to try most things at least once.

As its title hints, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery's "Cave Paintings" is an exhibition of large, not easily deciphered works on walls that appear to record events over a passage of time, diagrammatically, lyrically, or both. But unlike, for example, the bulls and felines that decorate Lascaux, these "cave paintings" come in acrylic and oil on canvas, steel chain and brass-threaded wire, enamel on aluminum, and ink and gouache on paper. You have to wonder what a prehistoric artist might have fashioned from such sophisticated media.

What is the sound of a Buddhist nun sitting alone for 12 years in a Himalayan cave? "Quiet," Tenzin Palmo recalled last week. "Never boring. And very beautiful. " The phone line from Vancouver fell silent for a moment. "I wasn't planning to do 12 years," she continued. "But it was the ideal place to practice" meditation. "So, I just stayed there. " "There" was a space both tiny and vast, like the self Buddhists seek to know. Palmo's cave near the Tibetan border was so small she slept sitting up, her legs folded beneath her as in meditation.

Six years after Pier 34 South by Penn's Landing collapsed, killing three young women at a nightclub, the two men who ran the pier will soon face a criminal trial to determine whether they knew the pier could soon cave in. Selection of a jury for pier owner Michael Asbell, 64, of Merion, and Heat nightclub operator Eli Karetny, 65, of Cherry Hill, starts today. A long trial is expected, with scores of witnesses, including a key expert. The trial, before Common Pleas Court Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper, comes after the District Attorney's Office fought for years to get the felony charges reinstated.

Of all the threats that our messy world faces, nuclear weaponry ranks right up there. Add anti-Semitism, and you've got a combination that should make any reasonable person recoil. No wonder human-rights activist Elie Wiesel, an otherwise soft-spoken soul, pulled no punches when describing Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as "pathologically sick. " I wish it were that simple. Problem is, the ballistic Ahmadinejad is entirely rational from the perspective of a religious fanatic.