Pyramid

The Jack Abramoff scandal has focused badly needed attention on the quid pro quo between politicians and donors - the granting of legislative favors in return for big donations. But evidence suggests that when it comes to money in politics, Abramoff is a distraction from the real issue: the "pyramid of money. " Party leaders such as House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R., Ill.) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), as well as most incumbents from both parties, don't need to spend a dime on their reelections, since they represent districts that are one-party strongholds.

As part of a project on Egypt, sixth graders at Glenside-Weldon Elementary transformed part of their school into "The Avenue of the Pyramids. " Some dressed like ancient Egyptians yesterday when they opened their exhibit to the rest of the school. Among the projects was a plaster replica of King Tut's tomb.

A cleanup at a century-old South Philadelphia plant has turned nasty with the discovery of tanks and 55-gallon drums filled with thousands of gallons of hazardous chemicals. A pyramid of 1,250 chemical drums at the former Container Recyclers Ltd. includes unknown quantities of hydrofluoric acid, one of the most dangerous substances used in modern industry. "We got fuming drums. I mean some of that stuff's getting out, but it's not a whole lot," said Jim Pagano, enforcement chief for waste management with the Department of Environmental Resources.

The state attorney general is warning residents of the Philadelphia area to avoid putting money into a rapidly spreading investment game called "the airplane. " "The state Bureau of Consumer Protection has been getting an increasing number of reports of (the game) in Southeastern Pennsylvania," Attorney General LeRoy S. Zimmerman said yesterday, calling the airplane game an illegal pyramid scheme that has been appearing in various guises for decades. It operates this way, according to Zimmerman: Participants are asked to pay a fee of $2,200 for a "seat" on an imaginary airplane.

In 1546, King Francois I began building the Louvre. Future French kings added elegant hallways, sumptuous salons and palatial living rooms. Napoleon I designed an entire courtyard. Napoleon III constructed two more wings. Francois Mitterrand is just as ambitious. Over the objections of horrified traditionalists and reluctant conservative ministers, the Socialist French president is putting his own grandiose and expensive mark on the former royal palace, now one of the world's great museums.

Kids these days are so brazen. They attempt, and get away with, all varieties of transgressions. Why, one of the participants in this year's Daily News-Eagles City All-Star Football Game, to be played 7 p.m. April 8 at Northeast High, has not once, but twice, impersonated a police officer. And walked away scot-free, though somewhat jelly-legged. Of course, it helped that Drexel Reid Jr., a 6-foot, 175-pound defensive end from Germantown High called "Drexie" by his family, was asked to dress like a cop by a cop. And that his father, Drexel Sr., is also a cop. If you happened to watch the Thrill Show at JFK Stadium three and four years back, and happened to stay around for the grand finale, featuring daring stunts by the Highway Patrol's Motorcycle Drill Team, you saw both Drexel Reids in action.

Too many Americans are fat. This is because they are too sedentary, too work-centered, and have poor diets, both in what they eat and how much they eat. This produces all kinds of health costs. Despite all this, the government has no intention of playing finger-wagging "national nanny" on diet issues. That's pretty clear now as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) takes some heat for its outdated "food pyramid" of recommended foodstuffs, though it has put out a smarter revision for children.

Like millions of people, Kate Coler says she struggles with her weight. She travels a lot, snacks on the run and vows to use the new food pyramid to help shed extra pounds. And why wouldn't she? She's a key federal official who helped develop the new icon and now has the challenging task of promoting it. Her first speech outside Washington was at Philadelphia's Reading Terminal on Thursday - two days after the pyramid was unveiled. But several customers had trouble digesting the contents.

There are several theories as to why the ancient Egyptians built tombs in the shape of pyramids 5,000 or so years ago. Some scholars believe the pyramids represent the rays of the sun, which Egyptians revered. Others say the Egyptians envisioned the deceased pharaohs climbing the pyramids' sloping sides and into the sky, where they would live again in glory. To these ancients, death was cause for celebration. Camden County College art students, under the supervision of assistant professor Kay Klotzbach, struggled to capture that mood when they created, as a community-service project, a small-scale pyramid for children to see and touch.

The founder of an international mail fraud scheme that bilked more than $3.4 million from 25,000 people in 30 countries yesterday pleaded guilty to federal money laundering charges. Con artist Frederick Wallace Taft, 35, who owns homes in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and Lancaster, Pa., was arrested by U.S. postal inspectors Feb. 27 in Philadelphia as he tried to cash $135,000 in victims' checks from the investment swindle. Yesterday, Taft told U.S. District Judge Edward N. Cahn, "I did not set out to cheat anybody," before admitting he organized the scheme that operated from June 1991 through last February.

WASHINGTON - There's a new U.S. symbol for healthful eating: The Agriculture Department unveiled "My Plate" on Thursday, abandoning the food pyramid that had guided many Americans but merely confused others. The new guide is divided into four different-sized quadrants, with fruits and vegetables taking up half the space and grains and protein making up the other half. The vegetables and grains portions are the largest of the four. Gone are the old pyramid's references to sugars, fats, or oils.

LOS ANGELES - Farewell food pyramid. Government officials are getting ready to dish out nutritional advice to the nation on a more appetizing platter. The U.S. Department of Agriculture was set to unveil a replacement to its much-maligned food pyramid this morning, scrapping the rainbow-striped triangle in favor of a simple circle designed to evoke a dinner plate. "That would go a long way to producing something that is actually useful for nutritionists and dietitians in the United States," said James Painter, a food psychologist and registered dietician at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill. The key, he said, is that it would give viewers a quick idea of what their meals should look like at the table.

It could be said that if you have not been to Egypt, you have hardly traveled. My wife and I had come to see the sights of an exceptional land - fertile without rain and bordered by a river that drains half a continent - and a civilization as old as history. Most tourists head for the Giza pyramids, arguably the most recognizable archaeological site on the planet. The three pyramids that make up the Giza Necropolis, 20 miles southwest of Cairo, have been photographed from every angle and been famous since ancient times, when the Great Pyramid was deemed one of the original Seven Wonders of the World.

10 p.m. A&E Angel (right) attempts to defy the laws of gravity by walking up the side of Las Vegas' Luxor Hotel and Casino and disappear into the blinding light at the top of the pyramid, all before thousands of onlookers.

The old brownstone, on a worn strip of Girard Avenue, has been remodeled. Gone are the shiny brass railings, the quarry-stone facade, the adjacent courtyard. Near the row of gray mailboxes hangs a symbol of North Philadelphia's slow revitalization - a For Sale sign. As David Howard stared at it from his parked car one recent afternoon, he felt a pang of regret - and a tingle of promise. Maybe he'd call to find out the asking price. Maybe he could acquire the old building and restore it to glory.

MAYOR NUTTER, as he reminds us on the other side of this page, has been visiting barbershops and beauty parlors to solicit ideas on how to cope with rapidly shrinking city revenues. And another round of citizen-engagement forums (see box) is also about to get under way. It's commendable that the administration is engaging the public, whether it is someone getting a shave or at a neighborhood kaffeeklatsch. But for these sessions to be worthwhile, it's important that the right questions be asked.

On Sunday, the d'Zert Club traveled to see the Sphinx and the only remaining wonder of the ancient world, the Great Pyramid, the largest of the three pyramids on the Giza Plateau, just outside Cairo. The Great Pyramid was built as a tomb by the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty, about 2560 BC. The pyramids, or "merkuti" as they are called in the ancient language of the Kemetans, are even more majestic and awe-inspiring when one is standing in their presence. When I first saw the pyramids, I couldn't believe that these great shrines to the kings who built them have survived for 4,000 years.

A Drexel University scientist who hails from Egypt announced provocative new findings yesterday about one of the enduring mysteries of his native land: How did the ancients lug the enormous carved blocks, weighing more than two tons apiece, to build the upper portions of the great pyramids? The answer, says Michel Barsoum: Some of the blocks were not carved at all, but were made atop the pyramids by pouring a concrete-like "geopolymer" that could be brought up in buckets. A version of this theory has been kicking around since the 1980s, promoted by French materials scientist Joseph Davidovits and widely rejected by traditional Egyptologists.

THERE'S AN interesting scene in "The Ten Commandments" where Yul Brynner, as the pharaoh, decides to show everyone that his word is law. Like a petulant child worried that he's not being taken seriously, Egypt's absolute ruler juts out his chin, squares his shoulders and says, "So let it be written, so let it be done. " Which basically means, my way or the highway. Of course, having a temper tantrum can lead to bad things, like a plague of locusts and such. I thought of this on Wednesday when the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the state legislature to amend current laws to permit same-sex marriage, or provide some comparable and virtually indistinguishable benefit to gay and lesbian couples.

Haven't cracked "The Da Vinci Code," but looking for a jump on Ron Howard's movie, which opens Friday? Here's a roundup of the major players and places from Dan Brown's mega-seller, as well as a look at whether the novel's assertions are accurate. (Warning: Contains spoilers.) The Priory of Sion: The first sentence in the "Code" reads: "FACT: The Priory of Sion - a European secret society founded in 1099 - is a real organization. " In the book, it is this society - whose members supposedly included Leonardo Da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli and Victor Hugo - that keeps the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene a secret.