Fish

Savvy entrepreneurial types would be well-advised to trundle down to the Roxy Screening Rooms this weekend at midnight and set up some fish-bark stands. That's right, bark shaped like fish - straight from the tree, curved like a cod. They'll sell like hotcakes to the giddy crowd exiting Tales From the Gimli Hospital. A magnificently murky, completely off-kilter movie - mostly silent and shot in grainy black-and-white - Tales From the Gimli Hospital is a funny, surreal, grim fairy tale, steeped in a lore of its own making.

Dayshawn, 11, wants to be adopted. And he would be happy to know that his new family had a big fish tank. He'd raise angelfish and goldfish and take complete care of them. He's already raising two trees, one lemon and one cherry. They're planted in pots, indoors, and he has tended them so well that new green shoots have appeared. He also planted wildflowers outside the group home where he lives with seven other children. There is neglect in Dayshawn's background, and he receives therapy for feelings of sadness, anger and abandonment.

Got fish phobia? Aliza Green's Field Guide to Seafood is a pocket guide to selecting and preparing varieties from bass to beltfish, skate and shad. This latest in a series of Field Guides by Green, a Philadelphia food writer and James Beard award winner, has a helpful glossary, color photos and detailed instructions. Reese's Cup Redux B.T. McElrath, an award-winning chocolatier, has a new seasonal line of chocolates that includes an upscale update on an old favorite: the peanut butter cup. Coated in a thick layer of European dark chocolate, its center is filled with a creamy blend of white chocolate and natural peanut butter.

Any recipe that begins with three pounds of salt is bound to give even the most fearless eater pause. But in the case of my favorite whole-fish preparation, all that salt becomes the vessel, rather than something to eat. The salt-crusted fish is an entertainer's gem: by all appearances daunting and impressive, but in practice a brilliant sleight of simple cooking. Assuming the notion of whole fish itself doesn't scare you away (in which case, see instructions below for a refresher)

Dear Polly: I love fish, but my family does not. That's OK, except they always complain about the smell after I cook my fish. Is there some way to get rid of the smell of cooking fish? - J.P. Dear J.P.: Baking fish in the oven rather than frying it leaves much less odor in the kitchen. If there is still an objectionable odor - or if you must have your fish fried - you can try a little simmering potpourri to clear up the air. Put a little cinnamon, or a stick of whole cinnamon, in a pan of water and place it on the stove.

You want to eat more fish. Ironically for the conscientious consumer, that has become more difficult to do, thanks to a wave of confusing information. Modern seafood cookbooks must explain and enlighten as well as offer accessible recipes; some have risen to this challenge better than others. Barton Seaver has hit the right notes with his first cookbook For Cod and Country (Sterling Epicure, $30; 175 recipes). For the Washington, D.C. chef, preparing seafood remains a personal enterprise.

Pete Hoover looked intently at his woolly bugger-to-be, just a size 6 hook held by a vise and wrapped in black thread. "Now get a nice, long feather," Ed Emery instructed, holding one up for show. "See the sheen on it? We talked about that last week. Tie it on by the tip. " Hoover selected a marabou - turkey under-feather, dyed black - and pressed it against the hook's shank. A few windings of black thread secured it in place. To an observer, the feather looked like nothing more than a clump of hair.

He threw his considerable fortune into efforts to end communism and tuberculosis in Poland, in the process befriending a dock worker who became Poland's president and a cardinal who became Pope. Now, Edward J. Piszek, the founder and former "Fish cake King" of Mrs. Paul's Kitchens, is about to return to the land of his parents' birth - to support Little League baseball. It may seem a relatively trivial pursuit, compared to his previous Polish, Polish American, and other philanthropic causes.

The way Phillies righthander Mike Maddux sees it, he bested his little brother during the weekend not once, but twice. Once with a ball, once with a pole. Yesterday, 35,066 spectators were able to confirm that Mike indeed outpitched Greg Maddux, of the Chicago Cubs, 6-3, at the sauna that has passed all summer for Veterans Stadium. With regard to the competition the brothers staged on Friday, there seems to be some dispute. "I outfished him," Mike, 26, said after he held the Cubs to 6 hits and 3 runs (2 earned)

Two Camden County lakes, where almost 1,000 fish died Sunday, suffered long-term damage and may have to be restocked, officials said yesterday. Large-mouth bass, sunfish, bluegills and other fish were found dead at the 12-acre Lekau Lake on the Pine Hill Boy Scout Reservation and at a lake on the Pine Valley Golf Course, according to state Department of Environmental Protection officials. The fish kill had not spread downstream to Clementon Lake yesterday, officials said. Lekau Lake will remain off limits to the Boy Scouts until the cause of the fish kill is determined.