Grease

I've been following news reports on the tax-code revision passed by the Senate, but no one has listed the groups that are being given tax breaks. Except for a few brought out into the open by Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D., Ohio) the public has little knowledge of the rest. The Inquirer should publish a list of the groups so the public can make up its own mind on the tax bill. Sen. Bob Packwood (R., Ore.) continues to defend the bill, including the exceptions, because they are "the grease" to move it. However, the Senate saw fit to remove items beneficial to the middle class such as full deductibility of contributions to IRAs, and double exemptions for the blind and the elderly.

Annette Charles, 63, perhaps best-known for her role as Cha Cha DiGregorio in Grease , has died. Her agent confirmed she died Wednesday night. A longtime friend, Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge, said she died in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer. Her death cames a little more than two months after the death of Grease actor Jeff Conaway, whose character was Cha Cha's date at a dance. Ms. Charles appeared on many TV shows during the 1970s and early 1980s, including Barnaby Jones ; The Bionic Woman ; Magnum, P.I. ; Bonanza ; The Mod Squad ; Gunsmoke ; and The Flying Nun . Born Annette Cardona, she became a speech professor under that name at California State University, Northridge.

An employee of a South Philadelphia doughnut shop was critically burned early yesterday when a car crashed into the shop and overturned a vat of boiling grease. The driver of the car also was critically injured and a customer was hurt in the 1 a.m. accident, police said. The employee, Joseph Lewis, 24, of Hazel Avenue near 48th Street, was admitted to St. Agnes Hospital's Burn Center suffering third-degree burns of the chest and face. The driver, Vincent Ventresca, 18, of Churchville, Bucks County, was admitted to Methodist Hospital with head injuries.

Grease, the musical that spawned Sandy Dumbrowski and Danny Zuko, and taught a generation the hand jive, is less about the birth of the American teenager than the birth of nostalgia for being an American teenager. In Grease, there are no classes to attend or parents to hassle teens. The kids of Rydel High School inhabit the glorious days of rock and roll, an autonomous world of paneled basements, record players, sock hops, sexual tension, and, occasionally, actual sex. You'd think by the popularity among the 'tween set of the movie version and the reality TV show You're the One That I Want, that Grease was wholesome family fare.

Throughout the first act and into the beginning of the second, the reaction of the audience at Tuesday's opening night of the musical Grease had been restrained. But at the opening of the second scene of Act 2, at the mere appearance of the silhouette of a man holding a microphone, the Academy of Music theatergoers broke into wild applause. They knew that Frankie Avalon was about to sing, and it was obvious from the ardent reception the hometown singer received before and after his single number that he was the reason most in the audience of 2,000 had come to the first musical in the Kimmel Center's Broadway at the Academy series.

An all-woman production of Grease planned by two small Philadelphia theater companies has been threatened with legal action by the licensing agent and may not go on as scheduled. The production of the popular high school musical by Brat Productions and Tapestry Theatre had been scheduled to preview tonight and open tomorrow at the Marian Anderson Recreation Center in South Philadelphia. But on Friday, lawyers for Samuel French Inc., which licenses the script, sent a letter threatening legal action if the show went on with an all-female cast.

The Broadway revival of Grease could stand a lube job. Why does this new version, which seems cramped on its stage, not get us moving in our seats? Or is the musical, which takes us back to Rydell High and the teenage angst of the '50s, wearing out? I sat there, waffling about the revival, which opened last night and works only to a point. Part of the problem is the casting. Sandy and Danny, the two leading characters-in-love, were ultimately chosen by the 7.5-million-strong TV audience of the NBC talent runoff, Grease: You're the One That I Want.

Question: My brother tracked in, on his work shoes, grease and oil from an auto repair shop. I have old, worn hardwood floors from when I purchased the house and haven't been able to redo them yet. The grease has made dark black patches on the parlor floor, right in the center of the room where you can see the ugly stains as soon as you walk in the front door. I have put throw rugs over the black stains but I really want to get the grease and oil out of the wood. How can I do that? Answer: This is what the National Wood Flooring Association recommends: First rub the area with kitchen soap that has a high lye content, or saturate cotton with hydrogen peroxide and place over the stain.

Grease on Ice. Doesn't the name sound like the slipperiest thing on the planet? ("How'dja break your leg, Bunky?" "Grease on ice. " "Ohhhh. ") But this rock-and-roll ice show, doing four engagements this weekend at the First Union Spectrum, seems to be on solid footing. It stars Olympic medalist Nancy Kerrigan skating the role of Sandy and 1994 U.S. champion Scott Davis as Kenickie. The choreographer is Barry Lather, who has worked - on linoleum floors - with Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul.

"Shrek Forever After," "Sex and the City 2," "The Karate Kid" - when it comes to movies, this summer seems unusually full of sequels, remakes and spinoffs. But Paramount is going a step further. On July 8, it will release "Grease Sing-a-Long," which is not a remake or a sequel, but a slightly retouched version of the 1978 musical film "Grease," which starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as a pair of 1950s-era high-schoolers. The movie, a smash in its day, could turn a sizable profit again.

IT TAKES only a day to turn a well-kept side street into a big, greasy pit. It's happened twice in the last month on Orianna Street in Northern Liberties, a local business owner named Christina tells us. One day Orianna looked fine. The next, there was a huge, sticky wet spot on the sidewalk. At first, Christina thought it was water. But it never dried up, and the stuff got all over her dog's paws. It also reeked of food. Christina guessed that it was used cooking oil. Before we keep going, we should tell you that one of the main reasons Orianna looks good at all is that Christina and her family keep it clean.

Repertory Films Ambler Theater 108 E. Butler Ave., Ambler; 215-345-7855. www.amblertheater.com . Gone With the Wind (1939) $9.75; $7.25 seniors, students with ID and children under 18. 8/31. 7 pm. Bryn Mawr Film Institute 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr; 610-527-9898. www.brynmawrfilm.org . Casablanca (1942) $10; $7 seniors and students with ID. 8/30. 7 pm. Gone With the Wind (1939) $10; $7 seniors and students with ID. 8/31. 7 pm. Colonial Theatre 227 Bridge St., Phoenixville; 610-917-1228.

Annette Charles, 63, perhaps best-known for her role as Cha Cha DiGregorio in Grease , has died. Her agent confirmed she died Wednesday night. A longtime friend, Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge, said she died in Los Angeles after a battle with cancer. Her death cames a little more than two months after the death of Grease actor Jeff Conaway, whose character was Cha Cha's date at a dance. Ms. Charles appeared on many TV shows during the 1970s and early 1980s, including Barnaby Jones ; The Bionic Woman ; Magnum, P.I. ; Bonanza ; The Mod Squad ; Gunsmoke ; and The Flying Nun . Born Annette Cardona, she became a speech professor under that name at California State University, Northridge.

EMBATTLED ACTOR Jeff Conaway , who portrayed Kenickie in the John Travolta - Olivia Newton John classic "Grease," died yesterday. Conaway had been hospitalized since he was discovered unconscious at his Encino, Calif., home on May 11. He was 60. Born in New York City, Conaway made his Broadway debut at 10 in "All the Way Home. " But his big break came with "Grease," first on Broadway (where he played lead Danny Zuko, the part played by Travolta in the film) and then in the film as bad-boy Kenickie.

Careful cooks know it's a smart idea to drain their cooking grease into a tin can for disposal, rather than letting it run down the drain. Nevertheless, plenty of fats, oils, and grease end up at wastewater treatment plants, where they are typically skimmed off and taken to a landfill. Now the Philadelphia Water Department plans to join the ranks of communities that have a more eco-friendly approach: turning the yucky scum into energy. The plan is to convert the stuff into methane gas by putting it into a digester, essentially a big tank that contains anaerobic bacteria.

Thanks to a fourth-grade teacher who encouraged the young Didi Conn to retell a story in her own way, the world got the chance to fall in love with a curly, pink-haired bob, "Beauty School Drop Out" and a pretty cool smoking technique. Conn, 59, was born Edith Bernstein and is known for her squeaky-voiced role as "Frenchy" in the movie "Grease. " She grew up in Brooklyn and by the time she was 2 wanted to be a dancer. But after reading "Pippy Longstocking" for a fourth-grade book report, Conn's ambition went from twirling center stage to shining on the silver screen.

"Shrek Forever After," "Sex and the City 2," "The Karate Kid" - when it comes to movies, this summer seems unusually full of sequels, remakes and spinoffs. But Paramount is going a step further. On July 8, it will release "Grease Sing-a-Long," which is not a remake or a sequel, but a slightly retouched version of the 1978 musical film "Grease," which starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as a pair of 1950s-era high-schoolers. The movie, a smash in its day, could turn a sizable profit again.

'WHERE'S the grease?" Those words were scrawled across the shirt of a Naval Academy midshipman on Monday. Unfortunately, "the grease" has gone the way of food fights and Ladies Nights. The Herndon Monument is a 21-foot obelisk in an area of the Annapolis campus called Lover's Lane. Every spring, hundreds of plebes - Naval Academy freshmen - have plotted to scale the structure and replace a cup-like sailor's cap with a midshipman's cap. It's a rite of passage that has marked the end of a demanding first year at the academy.

EMILY LANDSBURG started and sold her first company, a business taking care of people's boats, when she was just a few years out of college. "Nothing was easy about it," she says. "It wasn't an instant success. " Even after she and her partner made their first hire, Landsburg was still waitressing and working odd jobs to help pay her rent. Then, from the restaurant window one day, she caught a glimpse of their employee working on a client's boat. In an epiphany, she realized that out of thin air she had created a job. "I was just, like, oh my god, this is the coolest thing ever.