Moon

The critic Walter Kerr called them "the crafty, the damned, and the forgiving. " The crafty is Phil Hogan, the pugnacious Connecticut tenant farmer; the damned is James Tyrone Jr., the self-loathing landlord drowning himself in bootleg booze. And the forgiving, when the long night's journey into day is finally done, is Phil's daughter Josie, the self-described "big, rough, ugly cow of a woman" who represses her vulnerability and goodness as desperately as Jim represses his memories.

Let's say a massive toxic spill totally ruined your comfy little rural community and turned it into a ghost town overnight. Where would you go to find that same rare atmosphere? How about the moon? Sure, it may lack a little something in conveniences, but the atmosphere is certainly rare. In fact, it's so rare it has to be imported. Impractical suggestion? Unlikely solution? Stupid idea? All of the above. That's why Plymouth, tomorrow night's ABC movie (9 p.m., Channel 6) about a small town that moves to the moon, is one of the 20th century's foremost examples of Dumb TV. The story by co-executive producer Lee David Zlotoff asks us to believe that the entire community of Plymouth, Ore., would vote to move moonward if the giant corporation that ruined their town agreed to rebuild Plymouth for them on the lunar surface.

Philadelphia Drama Guild artistic director Mary B. Robinson has again demonstrated her directorial finesse with a strong and compassionate reading of Eugene O'Neill's last play, "A Moon for the Misbegotten. " The production opened last night at the Zellerbach and brings the Guild season to a close. "Moon" is for ample reason considered a sequel to O'Neill's masterpiece, "Long Day's Journey into Night," in that its principal male character, James Tyrone Jr., is the Jamie of the latter's bluntly autobiographical drama 11 years older and, as dramaturge Victoria Abrash notes, "11 years more dissolute.

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's speaking style - in Korean, at length, with odd theories about race and color - has drawn millions of followers worldwide who consider him a messiah. Last night Moon, in a rare local appearance, dispensed his own brand of Christianity for two hours at a nearly full Pentecostal church in North Philadelphia. He handed out gold watches to witnessing clergy, but performed no marriages. Moon, 81, is on a 50-state tour called "We Will Stand America. " He last appeared in Philadelphia in 1995, just after marrying 30,000 couples in a stadium in his native Korea.

A July sunset in downtown Willow Grove. Peeking over a renovated shopping center, the round, silver moon begins its nightly ascent, riding an invisible path above the traffic-filled commercial district. Behind the glass doors of the Upper Moreland Township Police Department, two dispatchers are filled with apprehension at the sight. "Oh my God, look at that," dispatcher Ginny Ceneviva says to a colleague as they peer through the door. For Ceneviva, a dispatcher for 14 years, the moon's full face portends a busier than usual night on the desk.

The second most extraordinary attraction here is the Plexiglas-enclosed basketball court in the restaurant of the hotel that used to be a Sheraton. When the old Sheraton was sold to Indiana investors - a major one being Larry Bird, who played some hoops at Indiana State and currently labors in Boston - the new owners dubbed it "the Boston Connection" and laid it out along a basketball theme. The restaurant doesn't serve pheasant, but you can have a lovely filet - then grab a roundball for a game of one-on-one under glass.

Governors very often leave a physical, as well as a philosophical, mark during their tenure. Brendan T. Byrne, the former New Jersey chief executive, has an arena that bears his name at the Meadowlands. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh had a gazebo constructed and shrubbery planted at the state mansion so his wife, Ginny, could catch some rays in private. And Gov. Casey, nearing the completion of his first term in office, has already left his mark as well. Sometime in late 1987, an addition of sorts was erected just off a side driveway at the governor's mansion in downtown Harrisburg - a backboard and basketball hoop.

President Bush yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the day Americans walked on the moon by inviting today's children to "raise your eyes to the heavens and join us in a great dream" - a return to manned missions to the moon and onward to Mars. Standing before a massive American flag on the steps of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, the President gave strong, renewed support to an operational space station within 10 years. But 21st-century manned missions to the moon and to Mars may indeed be only "a great dream.

Rep. Curt Weldon joined other members of Congress and spoke at a Capitol Hill event March 23 that honored the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, whose claims of clairvoyance, tax-fraud conviction, and forays into the newspaper business have made him a political lightning rod and a figure of some ridicule. Weldon (R., Pa.), in a statement yesterday, said he had appeared briefly at the start of the event at the Dirksen Senate Office Building but had not known Moon would be honored in a ceremony hours later, after Weldon had left.

THE BUSH White House can't seem to make up its mind: Are we going to the moon or not? Early last week administration officials started leaking the idea that President Bush planned to announce a major space initiative, perhaps to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' historic flight in Kitty Hawk, N.C. The new goal: a return trip to the moon. Then later, White House spokesman Scott McClellan backpedaled, saying there was no plans for any immediate announcement.