Knots

Former rocker Michelle Phillips has California Dreamed her way onto the cast of the hottest soap at CBS. (Outside of the news division, that is.) Our Knots Landing spy reports that Phillips, the onetime Mamas and Papas star whose recent book on the '60s group has thrust her back into the national spotlight, will join the Knots intrigue for at least 10 episodes, beginning with the 17th segment. Phillips will pop up as the presumed-to-be-dead mother of young Paige Matheson, played by the impossibly leggy Nicollette Sheridan.

When local fiber artist Ed Bing Lee makes his art, he likes it to be flexible - no getting bogged down by machinery, computer automation or bulky looms. For the 76-year-old Philadelphian, 10 fingers and a table do just fine. Lee's work is on display at the 33d annual Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, which runs through Sunday. His intricate fiber creations are "definitely in the vein of one-of-a-kind, and that's what this show is all about," says show manager Nancy O'Meara.

The "Big J" is homeward bound. In the dawn's early light yesterday, the USS New Jersey inched out of its mothball berth between the aircraft carriers Ranger and Midway and was tethered by chains and braided steel cable to the seagoing tug Sea Victory for the long, slow trip to its birthplace in Philadelphia. With the 249-foot Sea Victory towing the New Jersey and two smaller tugs on its port and starboard sides, the 887-foot battleship glided out of Sinclair Inlet on the slack high tide at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and headed for Rich Passage before entering the shipping lanes of Puget Sound.

There are 8,000 rugs for sale in the Oriental rug department of Strawbridge's Center City store. And one that is not. Not for any price. Not to anyone. Harry Hovsepian, its owner, doesn't have a room in his house big enough for it, so he keeps it hanging on a wall on the fifth floor of Strawbridge's, where he sold hand-woven Orientals for 50 years. Even in a room with 12-foot ceilings, it can't be unfurled completely. And that's what hooked Hovsepian when he saw it 20-some years ago and what captivates him still.

When I see Sonya Clark's provocative art that shows kinky black hair as abacus beads or fashioned into a set of vintage pearls, I am warmed with pride. To me, the pieces say that African American hair in its natural state is a beautiful medium. After all, my nappy knots could be a part of Clark's solo exhibition that opens Friday at Snyderman-Works Galleries. But pride isn't Clark's intention. Nor is defiance. Clark uses hair as a medium to tell a personal story, that of a first-generation African American woman whose parents immigrated from the Caribbean.

Drawing between 300 and 400 scouts from Connecticut to Virginia, the sixth annual Handicapped Camporee, sponsored by the Philadelphia Boy Scouts, was held over the weekend at the Philadelphia Navy Base. The scouts, both physically and mentally handicapped, participated in outdoor skills and games. They practiced first aid and tying knots, they went bowling and ate in the base mess hall, and they seemed to be having a fine time rollicking on the sun-drenched fields.

The crew of Stars & Stripes probably couldn't have dreamed of a worse scenario in which to enter the first race of the America's Cup. A sky that had been clear and filled with a radiant sun nearly every day for about two months was suddenly mottled with a building cloud cover. And the Indian Ocean's surface had flattened from foamy blue-green swells into a mean-looking slate of gray. Worse than that, the cloud cover ensured that the bully sea breeze called the Fremantle Doctor would lay down in surrender.

The battleship New Jersey is slated to arrive this afternoon at the mouth of the Delaware Bay to begin the final 24-hour journey to its birthplace in Philadelphia. About 1,000 people have signed on for a sold-out special cruise aboard the Cape May-Lewes ferryboat Cape May to greet the warship this afternoon, and officials expect boaters and spectators to turn out along the river tomorrow for a Veterans Day salute to "The Big J. " The New Jersey, which had been in mothballs in Bremerton, Wash.

The Mariner-class national championship will be decided today off Brant Beach, N.J., as Helmuth Meyhoefer of the Narasketuck Yacht Club in Massapequa, N.Y., tries to regain the title he won six times between 1977 and 1982. Meyhoefer, an American Airlines pilot, held the lead yesterday over Sam Streep of the Brant Beach Yacht Club after the first three races of the championship series. Four races are scheduled for today, beginning at 10:30 a.m., weather and wind permitting, in Barnegat Bay. Twenty Mariners competed yesterday in winds that averaged about 18 knots and gusted over 20 knots.

"The Campbell Playhouse," a dramatic radio series created by Orson Welles and originally broadcast 50 years ago, will air over WCAU (1210/AM) for 26 weeks starting in December. The one-hour shows will air on more than 100 radio stations nationwide, hosted by Helen Hayes, an original member of the playhouse cast. The series will be sponsored by Campbell Soup Co., which also sponsored the originals. The first play of the series is "Peter Ibetson," by George duMaurier, and will star Hayes.

Stephen Weiss scored the first two playoff goals of his 10-year NHL career, Jose Theodore stopped 23 shots, and the host Florida Panthers got their first playoff victory in nearly 15 years, beating the New Jersey Devils, 4-2, on Sunday night to even the first-round series. Marcel Goc had a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who survived a frantic Devils rally in the third. Travis Zajac and Ilya Kovalchuk scored in the first 2 minutes, 2 seconds of the third period, and Martin Brodeur made 20 saves for New Jersey, losing a playoff game to Florida for the first time in six career postseason starts against the Panthers.

The red knot, a small shorebird whose 10,000-mile migration brings it to Delaware Bay each spring, has been designated an endangered species in New Jersey, the state Department of Environmental Protection announced Thursday. Wildlife officials said that the new status, a change from threatened, did not add protections. However, it is formal recognition that despite years of efforts to help the bird, its numbers continue to decline. The red knot population on the bay is about 15,000, down from nearly 100,000 two decades ago. The change was one of several revisions and additions adopted by the DEP. Put on the endangered list were two other birds - the black rail and golden-winged warbler - as well as the gray petaltail, which is a species of dragonfly, and Indiana bat. Six dragonfly species and three birds - the American kestrel, cattle egret, and horned lark - were added to the state's threatened list.

On what would have been John Lennon's 71st birthday (see below), Sir Paul McCartney , 69, wed skweezie Nancy Shevell , 51, Sunday, at a civil ceremony in Marylebone, central London. His third; her second. They'll throw a party Stateside later. Mac's daughter Beatrice was flower girl and his bro Mike was best male. Shevell wore a Stella McCartney dress, and Paul wore a blue suit. He gave her a 5-carat Neil Lane diamond in a platinum ring. Ringo Starr was there, with wife Barbara Bach , George Harrison's widow Olivia , Shevell's son Arlen , and her cousin, Barbara Walters . Wait . . . now Baba Wawa is sort of related to Paul?

When I see Sonya Clark's provocative art that shows kinky black hair as abacus beads or fashioned into a set of vintage pearls, I am warmed with pride. To me, the pieces say that African American hair in its natural state is a beautiful medium. After all, my nappy knots could be a part of Clark's solo exhibition that opens Friday at Snyderman-Works Galleries. But pride isn't Clark's intention. Nor is defiance. Clark uses hair as a medium to tell a personal story, that of a first-generation African American woman whose parents immigrated from the Caribbean.

When Tiffany Leonard picked Saturday as her wedding date a year and a half ago, her biggest worry was what the weather in the Dominican Republic would be for her honeymoon. Now, she and her fiance have to evacuate their Washington Crossing, Bucks County, home to avoid getting stranded by floodwaters on their wedding day, she said Thursday. "I have to drive across my lawn to get out," Leonard, 30, said hours before the Thursday night rehearsal dinner in South Jersey. "The wedding is still on for Saturday.

Their appointment was for 11:30 a.m. The bride arrived first at the storefront wedding chapel, amid the discount businesses and fast-food shops of Woodland Avenue, with its red carpet and cherub statues out front. Dressed in a deep-red sari with gold accents, she sat in the vestibule next to her friend and trembled, then giggled at her trembling, as she waited for her husband-to-be. Engaged two days, he was a few minutes late for their plans to elope. "I realized his love, and how deep it was," said the bride, Nancy, soon-to-be Nancy Singh, 19, a college junior, with her hands clasped on her lap, her round face beaming, "and I'm so happy.

NOW THAT Kim Kardashian has wed NBA hoopster Kris Humphries , Tattle gives their honeymoon period about two months. In the fall there will be an anonymous insider quoted about how their marriage is on the rocks. But, in the meantime, let's let them enjoy their happiness. Kim, 30, and Kris, 26, tied the knot Saturday night in the exclusive Montecito area near Santa Barbara, Kim's publicist Jill Fritzo told People magazine and E! She sort of had to tell E!

Finally, wildlife advocates say, a small shorebird is getting the attention it desperately needs. The Fish and Wildlife Service is moving to list the red knot as an endangered species, a process that likely will take until 2013, a spokesman for the agency said. The red knot has one of the longest migrations on the planet. Each spring, it stops for refueling at the Delaware Bay, where horseshoe crabs are just then coming ashore to lay their fat-rich eggs, a vital food for the bird.

YOU WATCHED it again, and again, and again, straining to catch some perceptible sign of discomfort. Cole Hamels delivered ball four in the dirt, caught the return throw from Carlos Ruiz, then walked back toward the pitcher's mound and wrapped his fingers around the seam, a stoic expression on his face. Hamels did not throw another pitch. Ruiz, sensing something amiss, trotted out to the mound and listened as his pitcher spoke to him through the webbing of a baseball glove. The veteran catcher turned toward the home dugout and beckoned for the trainer.

When it comes to the royal wedding, no detail is off-limits - the bride's weight, who's making her dress and who didn't make the guest list. Even the couple's finances are open to scrutiny. Will Prince William break with tradition and ask bride-to-be Kate Middleton to sign a prenup? While all eyes now are on the "wedding of the century," there are plenty of commoners in their 20s getting hitched every day. Their finances aren't fodder for the tabloids, although money will play a major role in their lives together.