Fiat

Theodore J. Fiala Sr., 82, the heart and soul of the largest antique car collectors' association in the country, died Sunday at his home in Havertown. Mr. Fiala was a founding member of the Antique Automobile Club of America, which started in 1935 in Philadelphia with 14 members and has grown to about 58,000 members worldwide. Headquartered in Hershey, the group has 400 regions and chapters in almost every state and several foreign countries. The headquarters houses a library and research center, publishes a bi-monthly magazine and promotes more than a dozen car shows and rallies each year across the country.

They hadn't a clue the car was coming. No sidelong glimpse of headlights, no muffled thud of tires, not even a rush of air to announce the danger bearing down on them. On a stretch of street that seems sinister even in daylight, Officers Michelle McCurdy and Lillian Burroughs were concentrating too intently on the job before them to sense what was coming from behind. Until it was too late. "I didn't see the car at all until I heard the bang when it hit us," McCurdy says.

A red Fiat packed with explosives blew up yesterday in front of a market teeming with Israelis shopping for the weekend. Only the two occupants, believed to be Palestinians, were killed, and injuries to 21 bystanders were modest. But the bombing could nonetheless be a devastating blow to the fragile peace accord struck two weeks ago at the Wye River summit. The explosion took place about 10 a.m. as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet was meeting less than a mile away to approve the pact.

IN MY next life, I plan to come back as a member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. I know what you're thinking. Who wouldn't want a job where you can set your own salary by legislative fiat? But that's not it. Lawmakers in any state can do that. Anybody who can move millions with a pen stroke eventually will move a few dollars into his or her own pocket. For all we know, Pennsylvania lawmakers may deserve a pay raise. Most of us don't know enough about what goes on in Harrisburg to say whether they're worth even the gas money we spend to send them there.

Some deserve a second chance Times are tough, but for those with nonviolent misdemeanors in their past, the tough times just won't release their grip. Pennsylvania legislators should seize the opportunity to provide such constituents with the chance they need to move toward self sufficiency by passing Senate Bill 1220 ("Pa. bill would let more get clean slate," Tuesday). This bipartisan initiative contains well-conceived checks and balances that will help ensure it applies to deserving ex-offenders.

If we hadn't tried to save money on a car rental, we would never have met Valentine Butler, the septuagenarian English landowner who welcomed us to her 15th-century farmhouse like a rich aunt entertaining her favorite relatives. Exhausted from a busy year of writing and painting - my husband is a theater critic and I am an artist - we had planned a few days of leisurely garden visits in Somerset before tackling London and a week of marathon play- and museum-going. Because of the bargain price, our travel agent had suggested that we become "Country Rovers," purchasing a car-and-accommodations package offered by the English tour company Discover Britain and sold in this country through travel agents.

Outside the National Hotel, rays of morning sun were just touching the nearby Kremlin rooftops as I loaded my bags into a rental car for the 1,000- mile drive south to historic, sun-drenched Yalta. I was eager to get started by 6 and out of this city of 8 million people - the Soviet Union's largest - before it came to life. It wasn't the potential Sunday-morning traffic that intimidated me; Moscow's streets aren't exactly a breeze, but they're hardly troublesome when compared to driving in such places as Mexico City and Rome.

Two Philadelphia artists who created entirely different bodies of work in their careers but whose art displayed a similarly strong desire for personal expression are being remembered in memorial exhibitions this month and next. Charles Searles (1937- 2004), a West Philadelphia-born African American artist who studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and taught at Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts) is the subject of four shows. Two of them - at the La Salle University Art Museum and Temple University's Tyler School of Art - grew out of exhibition seminars taught last fall at both colleges and were largely developed by undergraduate and graduate students who took the courses.

Art Museums & Institutions African American Heritage Museum 661 Jackson Rd., Newtonville; 609-704-5495. www.aahmsnj.org . Tue.-Fri. 10 am-3 pm. The Barnes Foundation - Philadelphia 2025 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.; 215-278-7000. www.barnesfoundation.org . Ellsworth Kelly: Sculpture on the Wall. $18; $15 seniors 65 and over; $10 students and children 17 and under. Sat.-Mon., Wed.-Thu. 9:30 am-6 pm; Fri. 9:30 am-10 pm. Brandywine River Museum Rte. 1 & Rte. 100, Chadds Ford; 610-388-2700.

TO AT LEAST some Delaware Valley residents, early morning, rush-hour-traffic hassles have looked a lot better since August. Not that things have improved on the Blue Route or I-295, but the snafus have been monitored for Fox 29's morning news and gabfest "Good Day Philadelphia" by Kacie McDonnell. If the buzz is to be believed, she is well on her way to becoming Philly TV's next It Girl. There are plenty of folks - especially those who used to fall under the heading of "red-blooded American males" - who may assume that they get why the 5-foot-4-inch, hazel-eyed, raven-haired Pottsville native is garnering such attention.