Nightmare

A dream had carried the boys so far from home, some 5,000 miles across the ocean to a cramped and dingy apartment in Philadelphia: a hope that ice hockey could change their lives. Ivan Pravilov could fulfill that dream, they were told. He could take them from the daily grind of post-communist Ukraine to the gleaming ice of the NHL. He'd done it before. He'd done if for Andrei Zyuzin, who went on to play for six NHL teams. He'd done it for Konstantin Kalmikov, a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996.

"A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors," a horror fantasy starring Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Patricia Arquette, Craig Wasson. Directed by Chuck Russell. Produced by Robert Shaye. Written by Wes Craven and Bruce Wagner. Photographed by Roy Wagner. Running time: 96 minutes. A New Line Cinema release. In area theaters. The best horror movies are like the worst dreams you ever had. The original "A Nightmare on Elm Street" was exactly that - oozy, feverish, jolting, disorienting, hypnotic.

Like most good ideas, Teen Dreams is based on a simple concept: Give three poor and troubled teenagers a video camera and a license to film stories of young lives that have turned into variations on a nightmare. Chilling, depressing but always compelling, the results ought to be required viewing for Washington politicians busy cutting away what's left of the safety net. Adwana, a blonde waif and a refugee from an abusive family in Arkansas, gives us a jolting look at the lives of street kids hustling for money on Hollywood Boulevard.

President Reagan's dream of a Strategic Defense Initiative - dubbed "Stars Wars" - that could render enemy nuclear missiles "impotent and obsolete" is rapidly turning into an extremely expensive and potentially dangerous nightmare. More and more scientists, including a number in the administration, admit that creating an impenetrable shield to protect us is impossible. Only 5 to 10 percent of the deployed Soviet warheads would kill half the urban population. SDI would not stop cruise missiles, low-flying bombers or commandos with nuclear devices in satchels.

RE DEBORAH Leavy's Gore/Obama "dream team" op-ed: Excellent column. I have been harping on this dream team since I saw Mr. Obama's speech at the DNC in '04 - he's a near-perfect candidate in many ways, but I feel that he's too inexperienced in national politics to be an effective president. But vice president? Marvelous. Teaming with Al Gore would create the finest possible combination, especially as their initials create such an obviously catchy slogan: Gore/Obama '08! Go GO Team!

The woman wanted a nightcap, not a nightmare, she said. The 37-year-old North Philadelphia woman said she agreed to go to a speakeasy with a stranger and wound up being raped and tortured last year. This week, after hearing the sordid details of the April 4, 1998 incident, Common Pleas Judge Steven R. Geroff convicted Charles Molette, 40, a carpenter, of Sprague Street near Chelten Avenue, of rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and aggravated assault. Sentencing was deferred.

From day one, this has been a disaster. It's a nightmare, and God knows when it's going to end . . . - Gwen Ford, 6200 block Osage Ave. Those words would surprise no one soon after May 13, 1985, the day the city's confrontation with MOVE erupted in flames that claimed 11 lives and 61 homes, including Gwen Ford's. But they were uttered last week - nearly 10 years later. It seems to have no end . . . Not for those who lost homes, possessions - and their trust.

Both parties have selected leaders with little experience to run a nation, let alone deal with foreign affairs. One candidate stands at the top of the ticket, the other is at the bottom. So why the fuss? Let?s face it, the most important issues in the minds of the American people are oil and the war. If the Republicans win, there?s a chance that we?ll dig for oil and salvage what remains of a cancerous economy. If it?s the Democrats, we can expect troop withdrawals that will leave the Iraqi people fending for themselves.

How deeply and profoundly sad that Anthony Sciamanna felt so burdened and alone in his sole-caretaking role that he ended his ill wife's life (Inquirer, July 25). Sciamanna wondered where everyone was when his wife was sick and alive. It is tragic in a country with so many resources that people feel there is no one to turn to for help. Most of the time there are caring, loving and willing people available to help out in times of need but until we erase the shame some folks feel in asking for help, that assistance will go to waste and, as in Sciamanna's case, needless heartbreak will be occur.

Phillies reliever Larry Andersen said this is the most exciting part of a professional career that began 23 years ago. It's certainly better than 1986 when, as a Houston Astro, he watched "that little bleep ruin it for everyone. " The little bleep, of course, was Lenny Dykstra, whose home run as a New York Met beat the Astros in Game 3 of that National League Championship Series, and whose ninth-inning triple in Game 6 sparked a three-run rally that sent the game into extra innings.

JAMES HARRIS is a man tormented. He dreams often of suffocating, choking as he wakes, unable to catch his breath. He keeps a knife tucked into his waistband almost always, a desperate defense against horrors he can easily imagine because he says he has lived them. He hesitates to get into anyone's car, unwilling to surrender control to the person behind the wheel. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and paranoia. Although five years have passed since the incident that changed his life, his torment doesn't end because his tormentor is still out there.

[ Listen to audio of Daily News City Editor Gar Joseph interview his grandmother, Leoni Hermann, about the Titanic disaster.] S TRONG south-westerly breeze, beam swell and lumpy sea . . . The "Bremen" passed near us, she reported having seen, one hour and a half before, bodies etc. This means about twenty five miles to the east. - From the diary of Frederick A. Hamilton, cable engineer of the trans-Atlantic cable ship "Mackay Bennett," April 20, 1912.   My grandmother, Leoni Hermann, came to America at age 11. She was from Dresden, Germany.

Who: Manager and co-owner with her husband, Greg Russell, of West Philly's Zocalo restaurant, featured on "Kitchen Nightmares," 8-10 p.m. Friday on Fox. From: Morelia, central Mexico Now: Williamstown, N.J. Age: 49 Kitchen connection: Mary and her chef-husband met as employees at Zocalo in the '90s. She made the tortillas and chips. He worked the line. In 2008, they bought the place. Having a 'Nightmare': The Russells aren't sure how chef Gordon Ramsay's producers found them, but the couple are glad they did. "It's necessary sometimes for someone to come and teach you how to run a business," said Mary.

PITTSBURGH - The 1-16 game has been the ultimate mismatch - 108-0 over 27 NCAA Tournaments. The 16-seed had only led at the half six times. So what exactly was UNC Asheville doing in front at halftime and well into the second half against Syracuse at Consol Energy Center? Well, the team with the undersized players was playing with much more passion, getting most of the loose balls and hitting the requisite number of threes that a huge underdog must. Just when you thought this might finally happen, Asheville stopped scoring.

Sixty-seven years later, he still has dreams of that dark, volcanic island - and the unimaginable horrors he witnessed there. He recalls a friend shot through the head, an American flag fluttering atop a mountain, and the sharp sting of a bullet passing through his jaw. Pvt. Bob Scullin was 19 when he landed on Feb. 19, 1945, with tens of thousands of other Marines on Iwo Jima, whose very name conjures images of ferocious combat. Twenty-seven service members - 22 Marines and five Navy seamen - received the Medal of Honor for their actions during a two-month battle that claimed the lives of 4,590 Americans and more than 20,000 Japanese.

What if you became sick - violently, seriously ill - everytime your children uttered a word? That's the nightmare world unleashed by Ben Marcus in his stunner of a novel The Flame Alphabet (Alfred A. Knopf, $25.95), due out Tuesday. The novel tells the story of Sam and Claire, an ordinary Jewish couple from Rochester, N.Y., who realize to their horror that the mysterious illness that has gripped them is caused by their daughter, Esther. Or, rather, by her words.

THE CLOSER you look at the plans for the Canadian Keystone XL Pipeline, the more obvious it becomes that it would deliver almost no jobs but could hasten environmental catastrophe. To paraphrase Stephen Colbert, the facts uncovered by scientists and journalists turn out to have a distinctly environmentalist bias. Maybe that's why Republicans in Congress are so hell-bent on not looking closer at it. Last month, President Obama announced that he would not decide for at least a year on whether to allow a pipeline to be built through the middle of the country to transport heavy crude from tar sands deposits in Alberta to refineries in Texas.

Nanjing Requiem By Ha Jin Pantheon. 320 pp. $26.95. Reviewed by John Timpane   The Rape of Nanjing is foreground and backdrop of Ha Jin's novel Nanjing Requiem . A fictionalized yet faithful portrayal of events during that nightmare time, Nanjing Requiem is two tragedies in one, a vast tragedy for the human race and a terrible misfortune for a good person, repaid for selflessness with...

JESSICA NUNEZ returns regularly to the scene of her living nightmare. She did so yesterday. The nightmare began Sept. 6, when her parents and aunt were shot to death in front of her and her sister during a robbery at the West Philly grocery store her father owned. Nunez, 20, said she has since returned to the store, Lorena's Grocery, at 50th and Parrish streets, to help keep it running. "They worked hard for 11 years and I'm not going to let this go," she said, standing in front of the store yesterday.

As the Eagles have changed lanes this season - drifting across traffic, falling ever farther behind the other teams cruising past - neither the coaching staff nor the players have distinguished themselves. They finally piled into the guard rail on Thursday night in Seattle with a loss that proved their eyes are no longer on the road. By the end of that mess, the Eagles couldn't even get the proper number of players on the field before the Seahawks took a knee on the final play.