Culinary Arts

James Green is vague about why he's serving time in Camden's Riverfront Prison ("I have a bad temper. . . . I went a little too far"), but the fact remains that he's doing time for something. And now he is in a room full of knives, big sharp shiny ones, and all he has to do is reach right over and pick one up and . . . . . . Slice the ends off lots of little mustard packets so he can mix them into his special barbecue sauce. "It makes it a little sweet and sour, you know?"

Highlights of Philadelphia food-related programs are highlighted below. Suburban classes are listed online. Philadelphia Albertson's Cooking School, Box 27, Wynnewood. 610-649-9290 or cookline99@ aol.com ( www.albertson cookingschool.com). Behind the Scenes at Rittenhouse Hotel, lunch and tour of Le Bec-Fin's pastry kitchen, Jan. 12, 10 a.m., $75. American Swedish Historical Museum, 1900 Pattison Ave. 215-389-1776 ( www.american swedish.org). Swedish cooking class, Nov. 10. Chinatown Cooking and Tours , 215-500-9774 ( www.josephpoon .com)

THE DEQUAN Jackson Story is one of inspirational triumph. And while, yes, these words are being published in the sports section, and the endeavor in which he specializes is basketball, don't assume Jackson was once some horrible player who has blossomed into an All-American. His triumph can be traced to classrooms. As he wound down his middle school years, thanks to a nudge from his mother, Renee Henson, Jackson applied for admission to Murrell Dobbins Tech. "Sorry," he was told, "your grades aren't good enough.

Cooks and would-be-cooks in the Philadelphia area have more choices of subject matter and type of instruction than ever before, thanks to significant growth in all aspects of our region's food-service industry. New cooking schools and demonstration kitchens, among them five Learning Studio sites, are a large part of this growth. New subjects of study include phytochemical cuisine, a program providing insights into the complex nutritional properties of plant foods. There are classes in sushi-making, gourmet macrobiotics and vegetarian fare, bringing those once-exotic subjects into the mainstream.

Two Veterans Days stand out in my memory. Both involved religious ceremonies, and both occasions recalled the true meaning of this date. At 11 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1959, I was married. The walk to the altar on the arm of my father had been accomplished; I had joined my bridegroom and his father, who was acting as best man; and we were waiting for the anticipated commencement of the time-honored ritual. At exactly 11 o'clock, the sirens from the nearby firehouse began to sound.

One of the problems with a title like "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" is that it kind of spoils the suspense for a while. At least until the baby sitter lives up to expectations and dies, which takes a good 10 to 15 minutes. Then, with the surviving teens and children are left home alone, this movie is free to become what it wants to be, which is a re-arranged "Home Alone. " "Don't Tell Mom" alters the formula by substituting five children, ages 5-17, for Macaulay Culkin.

Two dozen area residents have enrolled in an automotive technician training program that started last month at Gloucester County College. The two-year Ford ASSET (Automotive Student Service Educational Training) program, an undertaking of the community college, the Gloucester County Institute of Technology, the Ford Motor Co., and Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealerships in the region, is divided into 10-week modules. In the academic-diagnostic module, students spend half their day at GCIT working on Ford vehicles and the other half at the community college, where they take courses to earn an associate's degree.

James P. Jackson Jr., 68, of West Philadelphia, whose 30-year career with the Army field artillery included two tours of combat duty during the Vietnam War, died last Saturday of cancer at St. Agnes Hospice Center. Sgt. Maj. Jackson wrote recently of his fond memories of hanging out on the corner of Third and South Streets with friends before graduating in 1962 from Benjamin Franklin High School. He immediately joined the Army and, after being promoted to drill sergeant, was sent to South Vietnam in 1968 and survived the Tet offensive.

Don Miller is working three jobs so that he and his fiancee, Danielle Romano, can save for their wedding and a house. From 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., he's an assistant instructor of culinary arts at the Pickering campus of the Chester County Intermediate Unit's Center for Arts and Technology near Phoenixville. Three evenings a week, he's a short-order cook at Pogey's Restaurant and Tavern in Malvern. Saturdays, he helps his sister conduct state inspections at a garage in North Philadelphia.

The Gloucester County Institute of Technology is catching up with the times by increasing full-time enrollment and decreasing the number of part-time students. Unlike their predecessors, ninth graders entering the Deptford school in an expanding program this fall will not face disruptive, time-consuming bus trips. Currently, most students split the school day between their home district, where they study traditional academic subjects, and the vocational-technical school, where they take career-oriented courses.