Octopus

Perched high on the hill that bicyclists love to hate, BLT's Cobblefish is what guidebooks call a destination restaurant. What that means is that, unless you're shopping for a case of Bud Light (the restaurant's nearest neighbor is a beer distributor), you don't stumble on the place accidentally. You deliberately drive up and away from Manayunk's trendy-to-the-max Main Street. You look for the BLT's Cobblefish sign. You park at a cost of $2 in the restaurant's cobble-bumpy courtyard.

Claude Lemieux was the trailer. The New Jersey Devils were changing lines, and Lemieux, just off the bench, was gliding down the slot in case something happened. Something did. Detroit Red Wings goalie Mike Vernon blocked John MacLean's shot from the left circle, and the puck caromed out to Lemieux. The leading goal scorer of the NHL playoffs, Lemieux showed why he is also a leading candidate to be the tournament's most valuable player. The New Jersey winger fired a shot past Vernon for his 12th goal and third in three games, and the Devils went on to beat the Wings, 2-1, at Joe Louis Arena in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals.

Pete Cusimano was the first guy to throw an octopus on the ice at a Detroit Red Wings hockey game. Had he known how the tradition would grow, he'd have cornered the market. Cusimano, who ran a fish and poultry market, did the ugly deed first on April 13, 1952. Now, as the Red Wings prepare for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals against the New Jersey Devils tomorrow night, throwing octopuses is a tradition. "I wish I had known 40 years ago," said Cusimano, 68. "I could have locked up this thing and retired.

Just when Chicago gets a sparkling, state-of-the-art sports palace, the United Center, here come fans of the Detroit Red Wings to - splat! - mess it up. At least that's the plan. Detroit fans are hoping to continue one of the grosser sports traditions and throw an octopus or two on the ice whenever their team scores against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight in Game 3 of their Western Conference final series. But officials at the United Center have a message for those who plan to bring mollusks to the arena: Don't.

It had eight long legs and eyes as black as night, and it stretched 15 feet across. Its suckers, for seizing and holding prey, were bright pink. But the children did not fear its presence, they were never in danger. This gangling, blue-green octopus was suspended from the ceiling by pulleys. "He was actually pretty scary looking when he was all wire," said Tara Levy, 11, as she stood under the octopus, painting its stomach. "Once we got him covered with newspaper, plaster and started to paint him, he looked pretty good.

Their goal is an iron embrace - tempered by expressions of cooperation, but constructed with coils of tank treads. While American troops yesterday avoided the first serious street violence to erupt since they began landing, they continued to insinuate themselves throughout Haiti's capital city of Port-au-Prince. Top U.S. military officials portrayed the operation as one might the advance of an octopus. Marines arrived near the northern city of Cap-Haitien. Transport ships were scheduled to unload armored, tank-tracked Bradley Fighting Vehicles in Port- au-Prince.

Carol Barylski, an art teacher at Shawnee High School in Medford, used to think the conclusion of the school's Spirit Week was depressing. That was when she had to throw away all the artwork made by classes that had competed to be named the one with the most school spirit. "It was such a shame to throw away such talented work," said Barylski, who has taught art at Shawnee for 13 years. So, two years ago, she said, "we decided to donate the artwork to someone who might enjoy it. " The pictures went to Memorial Hospital of Burlington County in Mount Holly, and pediatric patients there were delighted to find Peter Pan and Captain Hook on their walls.

Eating one's words on occasion is a price one pays for being a critic. But, given a choice, one would rather not. Which is why I was delighted to reread in my 1991 review of the then-new Ritz-Carlton Dining Room a prediction that has come to pass. What I said then was: "The Ritz-Carlton would probably be a superior choice for hotel dining once the staff gets over its first-year jitters. " The staff has and the place is. On two recent review visits, the service was smooth and unobtrusive, all the better for letting us savor a dining room so elegantly outfitted that we could feel - however temporarily - like old money at home.

A chambered nautilus, one of four of the deep-sea creatures from the Indo- Pacific, adjusts to its new residence at the State Aquarium at Camden. The exhibit has red lighting to protect the delicate relatives of the octopus. Nautiluses live in dark ocean depths, coming to the surface on moonless nights to breed.

The materials scattered around the Barkley Elementary School classroom Tuesday morning were typical building blocks for school kids' projects: drawing paper, scissors, Magic Markers, glue. The people working with the supplies, however, were long out of grade school, with children of their own. Instead of first or second graders, the parents of summer school students had come to this classroom to make games for their children, games they could take home to help their children practice reading skills.