Gadgets

It may be true that the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. And no longer are those toys found only in the home entertainment center, the garage or the tool shed. With celebrity chefs Emeril Lagasse, Anthony Bourdain and "Naked Chef" Jamie Oliver making cooking a manly pastime, these days home cooks in many households are as likely to be men as women. And many of these guys have favorite kitchen gadgets - culinary paraphernalia they just couldn't reduce a sauce, peel a potato or roll a piecrust without.

Inflatable travel products, bless their reinforced chambers, shape up as the ideal gadgets for people on the go. They're lightweight, collapsible and easy to pack. And when inflated, they rise to tasks far beyond what their deflated flimsiness would suggest. Over the years they've gotten more sophisticated, too. The simple travel pillow still has its appeal, of course. But even it has been, er, pumped up in the form of Le Pump, a multichambered model that boasts head-coddling side wings and its own inflation bulb.

Ever fear you're as much a prisoner of your high-tech gadgets as you are their master? Aggravate no longer. We have glimpsed the new-tech millennium at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show, and it is going to be sweet - filled with gadgets that are easier to deploy, uniquely responsive to your needs, and much more capable of juggling the information overload we increasingly suffer. Imagine video recorders so smart the devices seek out and capture your favorite programs automatically, or an equally surprising, son-of-radio audio service and player that delivers just the information and entertainment you want, for consumption when you want it. For families who love surfing the Internet, the good news is that parents and children won't have to fight for access in prime time.

Are you expecting a new grilling apron for Father's Day? Maybe one that will say in bold letters: "Cows tremble at the mention of my name" or "Become one with nature, then marinate and grill it" or "Daddy's little grill"? Don't be embarrassed. It's a price you pay for being a family man in a culture that the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association says now has grills - ever bigger ones - outside 81 percent of American homes. And, in what a woman might call a "duh!" finding, the Arlington, Va.-based industry trade group also says that 65 percent of men polled say their interest in grilling comes from "being in charge of an open flame.

It's time once again for that colossus of colossi, that giant of giants, that conglomeration of everything from dustbusters to doorknobs, from Veg-O- Matics to chainsaws, from bathtubs to the kitchen sink. Make that, especially the kitchen sink. It's the Philadelphia Home Show! Starting today, the annual extravaganza for do-it-yourselfers, home remodelers, would-be homeowners and dwellers in all types of abodes begins at the Philadelphia Civic Center and continues through Valentine's Day. Nearly 500 exhibitors - more than ever before - will staff 1,200 booths crammed with every appliance, improvement, addition, fixture or geegaw needed or imagined for the modern home.

Who isn't tempted by kitchen products that promise to make putting meals on the table more fun, or to give you a leg up in pulling together everything from snacks to party spreads with greater ease and polish? Whether you're a longtime cook or a novice in the kitchen, there's plenty to consider in the array of new and recent equipment and gadgets, so let's begin with a gizmo that could maintain the fizz at your next party. The Fizzmo helps keep large bottles of soda from going flat.

If you believe that there is nothing new under the sun, just 10 minutes in the new products' booth at the National Hardware Show would surely change your mind. At some point in the three-day annual show, at least 65,000 people pass through Booth 10000, where more than 1,500 gizmos, gadgets and doo-dads are lined neatly on table after table, identified by large white signs with dark black lettering. For most, especially the manufacturers, marketers and retailers who make up the overwhelming majority of the mass of people surging through the McCormack Center along Lake Michigan, Booth 10000 is not only the starting point of their visit, but of their year.

9 tonight TNT Hit police procedural returns for a sixth season with Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick, right) and her team moving into new, high-tech quarters, where they find the gadgets get in the way of their work.

Now see what you have done! You've got me agreeing with an oil man. Theodore A. Burtis, chairman of the board of Sun Co., was right when he said (Letter to the Editor, Jan. 12) that The Inquirer was wrong to suggest a new levy on oil to get the country out of the red. We must cut out luxury items to balance the budget. I can see no greater luxury than spending a trillion dollars on military gadgets when we already have enough to destroy the world too many times. Hezekiah Nickelson Philadelphia.

College kickoff Make your kitchen football-friendly with a flexible cutting board that has your team's insignia. These are 12-by-15 inches, have a nonslip coating, and come with 80 different college emblems.   An extra-point Oreo Themed snacks and gadgets for eating-while-watching-football have gotten ridiculous. A pigskin-shaped grill? A helmet as a chip-and-dip tray? But we'll give these Oreos a pass.