Moon

WASHINGTON - The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, is being treated for pneumonia in an intensive-care unit at a Seoul hospital. The Rev. Joshua Cotter, vice president of the Unification Church USA, said Moon entered the hospital on Monday and was in critical condition. He said church members were praying and fasting for his quick recovery. A memo sent to church officials early Wednesday states that Moon, 93, "was pushing his limits in carrying out his schedule" when he fell ill and that his wife and children were with him. - Associated Press

The LAST full moon of the 1900s appeared over the Philadelphia skyline last night, brighter than usual because it's the winter solstice, meaning the moon is closer to the Earth than normal full moons.

The search for extraterrestrial life will start down a new path today. Galileo, which has been traveling around Jupiter for more than a year, will swoop close to the moon Europa. Scientists hope to collect detailed photos giving clues about whether the moon once supported life.

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon spoke in Center City last night without a hitch. That's a far cry from Moon's appearance just 11 days ago at Olympic Stadium in Seoul, Korea, where the controversial minister hitched some 30,000 couples - and tens of thousands more via satellite - at his largest mass wedding ceremony ever. There weren't any wedding bells last night at the Philadelphia Marriott Hotel, where Moon kicked off a 15-city U.S. speaking tour before a packed banquet room of about 800 true believers and truly curious.

Tomorrow, the moon will swell to its outer rim and gleam down in the night. Lovers will sit and gaze at each other, moon-eyed. Dog walkers will stare at the moon while their pets pause to bay at the magic glow. Farmers will praise the harvest moon, crooners will celebrate its silvery light. But in the world of law enforcement, the principal response to the fullness of the moon will be a collective moan. "I don't even have to look outside," said Colleen Pierce, who has been with the Berlin Police Department for nine years.

In 1910, a graduate student at Clark University recorded a wildly improbable prediction in his journal: that the presence of ice on the Moon would allow human explorers an opportunity for autonomy off Earth. That student was Robert H. Goddard, father of practical rocketry. The detection of possible ice deposits by the Pentagon's low-cost Clementine mission has led some to say we are close to realizing Goddard's tempting prospect of a foothold off Earth. Water is the most valuable natural resource in the solar system, key ingredient of rocket propulsion systems and potential space biospheres.

ON DEC. 14, 1972, Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan paused and looked out at the magnificent vista before him, and spoke the last words heard from the surface of the moon: "America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. We leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. " Cernan often laments the fact that he has the dubious distinction of being the last man on the moon because he knows that 31 years have passed, and the farthest that humans have traveled since then has been to low Earth orbit.

"Favorites of the Moon" ("Les Favoris de la Lune"). A comedy directed by Otar Iossliani from a screenplay by Gerard Brach and Iosseliani. Photographed by Philippe Theaudiere. Edited by Dominique Bellfort. Music by Nicolas Zourabichvill. Artistic collaboration: Catherine Foulon, Dimitri Eristavi and Leila Naskidachvill. Running time: 101 minutes. In French with English subtitles. A Spectrafilm release. One week only starting Friday, at the Roxy. The most audacious movie of the summer turns out not to be one of the season's premeditated blockbusters but a rather inaccessible 1984 French- Italian co-production made by a Soviet director.

America had no crack, no AIDS and no Sesame Street. Stamps were 6 cents. Bridge tolls were 50 cents. Haircuts, for males seeking them, were $3.50. There was a Woman's Medical College, a Pennsylvania Military College, and, Lord help us, 29 individual draft boards in Philadelphia. There were Blood, Sweat and Tears, Blind Faith, and Three Dog Night. Elvis and Hendrix were still alive. Judy Garland had just died, and at the top of the pop music charts was an ominous tune about the future, "In the Year 2525.

Mother. Virgin. Whore. This is the repertory of roles the unfortunate Josie Hogan gets to choose from in Eugene O'Neill's late classic, A Moon for the Misbegotten. But, in most respects, the man Josie loves is in far worse shape: James Tyrone Jr. is a dissolute, self-hating drunk, whose charm can't disguise the pain of a man hurtling toward destruction. The third principal character in this lyrical drama, which opened Friday at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at Allentown College, is no great shakes either.

IRVING, Texas - Sang-Moon Bae won the Bryon Nelson Championship on Sunday for his first PGA Tour title, beating Keegan Bradley by 2 strokes after blowing a 4-stroke lead. The 26-year-old South Korean closed with a 1-under 69 to finish at 13-under 267. Bradley was trying to become the Nelson's first wire-to-wire winner since Tom Watson in 1980. Bradley set the TPC Four Seasons course record with an opening 60 even with two bogeys, but finished with a 72 on a day with wind gusting near 40 m.p.h.

Having performed John Cage's supremely spare (and deeply economical) 4'33" of silence earlier this season, Orchestra 2001 was living particularly large in its contribution to the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts with a 40-member group performing Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) . The time-travel-themed PIFA landmarks for Saturday's program at Church of the Holy Trinity were the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the 1969 Apollo moon landing, commemorated by George Crumb's Night of the Four Moons . Crumb is a natural choice, given Swarthmore-based 2001's longtime association with the Media composer.

Carleen Hamilton wrote the first poem on a napkin, sitting in a coffee shop in Bermuda, on their honeymoon, Oct. 29, 1974. Oh, how I glowe   and grew to inconceivable brilliance in his loving fire. And we were called Sun and Moon. Complete life. Virtually every workday for the next 29 years, she wrote a poem on a napkin and packed it in her husband's lunch. And George Hamilton, director of the Fels Planetarium at the Franklin Institute, inspired by his new wife, her poetry, her devotion, and his own happiness, returned the kindness.

ARIES (March 21-April 19). An increase in income usually means an increase in responsibilities, but sometimes it actually means that people are starting to understand the value that was there all along. TAURUS (April 20-May 20). You want to work smart instead of hard, but most times the work you do is both. Today will represent most times. GEMINI (May 21-June 21). If the people you know are blending together in sameness, then try to make every person you know comfortable enough to bring their true self to the picture.

FORD PARKER "Moon" Mullen, the oldest Phillies alumnus - who played one season for the team in 1944 before going off to fight in World War II - died Thursday in Stanwood, Wash., at age 96. It not only was Moon's only year with the Phillies, but it was his only year in the major leagues. He was a left-handed hitting second baseman who hit .267 in 118 games. Moon was a native of Olympia, Wash., and played on the University of Oregon's legendary "Tall Firs" basketball team that beat Ohio State in the first NCAA title game in 1939.

Children have a playdate with the Sprout Network Saturday for the Super WHY Celebration at the Market & Shops at Comcast Center. Activities include storytime, and children can watch the network's favorite Super WHY episodes. There will be a meet and greet with Super WHY and Princess Presto and photo opportunities. Market merchants will have arts and crafts, kid-friendly lunch specials, an interactive gaming station, and more. Playdate is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.   KidsinCenterCity.com playdate with Sprout: The Super WHY Celebration, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday on the lower level of the Market & Shops at Comcast Center, 1701 JFK Blvd.

WASHINGTON - It had to happen: A start-up company is offering rides to the moon. Book your seat now - though it's going to set you back $750 million (it's unclear if that includes baggage fees). Led by heavy-hitter former NASA executives, the Golden Spike Co. would boldly go where humankind went 40 years ago, this time commercially, hawking tickets to foreign governments or space tourists. "Two seats, 750 each," said former NASA associate administrator Alan Stern on Thursday.

ST. LOUIS - With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and his signature "Moon River," Andy Williams was a voice of the 1960s, although not the '60s we usually hear about. The singer - known for his easy-listening style and his wholesome middle-America appeal - was the antithesis of the counterculture that gave rise to rock 'n' roll. Williams' plaintive tenor, boyish features and clean-cut demeanor helped him outlast many of the decade's rock stars and fellow crooners, such as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como.

GAPYEONG, SOUTH KOREA - The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, best known for conducting mass weddings involving thousands of couples, was a self-proclaimed messiah, but he was at least as good at attracting dollars as he was at drawing converts. His Unification Church claims 3 million followers, though ex-members and critics put the number at no more than 100,000. There is no questioning the vastness of the business empire Moon created through his church: ventures in several countries from hospitals and newspapers to cars and sushi, and even professional sports teams and a ballet troupe.

GAPYEONG, South Korea - Unification Church patriarch Sun Myung Moon leaves behind children who have been groomed to lead a religious movement famous for its mass weddings and business interests - if family feuds don't bring down the empire. Moon, the charismatic and controversial founder of the church, died Monday at age 92 at a church-owned hospital near his home in Gapyeong County, northeast of Seoul, two weeks after being hospitalized with pneumonia, church officials said. Flags flew at half-staff at a Unification Church in Seoul as followers trickled in, some wiping away tears as they wondered what would happen to a movement defined for decades by the man who founded it in 1954.