Rainbow

Somewhere over the rainbow, Judy Garland never spotted her pot of gold. But a British actress named Tracie Bennett found hers - in the person of Judy. She is sensational in the erratic Broadway show End of the Rainbow, about Garland's last attempt at a comeback, which opened Monday night. If you're among Garland's legion of fans, you'll want to see Rainbow, but even if you're not, you'll want to see Bennett. Every minute she sings, Bennett channels Garland like a medium at a séance, and what would a Judy Garland impression be without the singing?

On the cover of Mariah Carey's new album, the beaming pop star poses with the colors of the rainbow splashed across her tank top, like a bubbly cable TV aerobics instructor or a va-va-voom Britney Spears showing off her awesome bod. The back of the booklet for Rainbow, though, argues for the philosophical attributes of the best-selling female artist of the decade. "In a perfect world human beings would co-exist harmoniously, like a rainbow," the 29-year-old Carey's note to her teenage fans muses.

JOHN BAER (column, June 27) likens the group Good Schools Pennsylvania to the cast of "The Wizard of Oz. " Maybe so, but remember: Dorothy got back to Kansas despite incredible odds. All this group is trying to do is improve school funding, a feat already accomplished in other states. It is too soon to count this movement out - the first reel is barely under way. M.L. Wernecke, Philadelphia

Unlike Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Ursula Brangwen lives under the rainbow. For her, the rainbow is not a beautiful quirk of the weather but a tantalizing and beckoning symbol of life's possibilities. In Ken Russell's voluptuous and uncharacteristically restrained adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's The Rainbow, Ursula finds herself stranded between what is and what could be. In other words, she is in terrain Lawrence found uniquely fertile and that Russell first explored 20 years ago in Women in Love.

Do you know Philadelphia has its own "Christmas menorahs" of sorts? I never heard of such things until I read my niece's wonderful story book, "The Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate," by Janice Cohn. The book tells the story of Jewish residents of Billings, Mont., victimized by a hate-mail campaign apparently organized by racist groups in the area. The situation reached a horrific crescendo at the holiday season when the town's only synagogue was vandalized, bomb threats were made and two families' menorahs were trashed.

Q. I read somewhere that the copper-bottom Revere Ware pots that have rainbow-looking spots on the inside of the bottom of the pots have copper coming through and it is unhealthy to use them. Any truth to this? My pots are almost 40 years old and in excellent shape except for these marks. - D.J. Jones Sarasota, Fla. Q. I have a set of three covered stainless steel bowls. Is it safe to use these for all types of food to be kept in the refrigerator, such as puddings, vegetables and pickled beets?

When Buena won the championship of the Cape-Atlantic League National Conference this season in field hockey, it ended an 11-year hold on the title by either Hammonton or St. Joseph. It also strengthened the school's rainbow connection. "I knew that we would have a pretty good team this year, and that we would be a contender," said Buena coach Barbara Meyrick. But when we saw a rainbow on Oct. 9 at Wildwood Catholic, our spirits were really lifted. " It seems that Pam Pickett, Buena's assistant field hockey coach, is also the school's head softball coach.

The great tenor looked out of his hotel room window and saw a sign. A rainbow arched above Logan Square, and they all knew that the idea had the ultimate OK. It was Luciano Pavarotti, the star of the show, whose idea it was to transfer the opera "L'Elisir d'Amore" to the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul when a crack in a beam forced the closing of the Academy of Music on Friday. Officials of the Opera Company of Philadelphia had gone to Pavarotti's suite in the Four Seasons Hotel to discuss what to do. They already had ruled out the Forrest Theater and the Spectrum as alternative locations for the elaborate production.

They used to make movies about the kind of thing that happened to Larry Ellis. You know the story: Guy skips payment of his gas bill to take his wife and mother to a concert, and gets discovered. Ellis lives in Shreveport, La. He's 23, a makeup artist at Dillard's department store. Has a wife, Tawana, who is expecting in January. Adores Patti LaBelle. When he learned that LaBelle would appear Memorial Day weekend at the Hollywood Casino & Hotel in Shreveport, he thought it would be the perfect Mother's Day gift for Tawana and his mother, Geraldine.

For the music lover, the upcoming decade marks the end of the rainbow with the opening of a new Orchestra Hall. And, if the architects and acoustical wizards are successful, the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Riccardo Muti, will not only have an audio recording venue, but a location capable of live audio and video broadcasting via satellite. European orchestras have been performing live on cable for years, and our great orchestra will be able to jump into the global market along with the wealth of concerts available to us. The new site at Broad and Spruce streets will also attract more opera and ballet to a renovated Academy of Music stage.

It's a beet, minus the root. Chard is a relative of the beet, but puts its energy into producing tender leaves and crunchy stalks instead of its root. Generally, any flavor that works well with spinach will partner with chard: butter, lemon, cream, garlic, shallots and vinaigrette. Try it in this easy quiche. Rainbow Chard, Bacon and Brie Quiche Makes 6 servings 1 prepared uncooked pie crust 8 ounces bacon, cut into small chunks 1 small yellow onion, diced 6 cups chopped rainbow chard (about ?

Somewhere over the rainbow, Judy Garland never spotted her pot of gold. But a British actress named Tracie Bennett found hers - in the person of Judy. She is sensational in the erratic Broadway show End of the Rainbow, about Garland's last attempt at a comeback, which opened Monday night. If you're among Garland's legion of fans, you'll want to see Rainbow, but even if you're not, you'll want to see Bennett. Every minute she sings, Bennett channels Garland like a medium at a séance, and what would a Judy Garland impression be without the singing?

I've become a pot addict. No, not that kind of pot. I've never even tried that kind of pot. I stay away from all drugs except Crestor, which shows you the kind of party I am. But now, I'm addicted to sample pots of paint. No joke. I can't quit, and it all started so innocently. With gateway enamel. Here's what happened. I had just finished writing my next book, and if you're a loyal reader of this column, you know that as soon as I type The End, I have to begin something.

There are only a handful of well-known circuses in the United States: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, Cirque du Soleil, Big Apple, and UniverSoul. Cedric Walker, 58, owns one of them, the one that features first-rate performers from all over the world. Hint: It's not Cirque du Soleil. Walker is the chief executive officer and founder of UniverSoul Circus. Once considered a "black circus," UniverSoul has outgrown that categorization. Walker wants everyone to know that UniverSoul has far more to offer than just hip-hop under the big top. "UniverSoul originated as an idea to present family entertainment relevant to the urban experience," Walker explained in an interview from his hotel room in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Rain and sun and rain and sun and rain and sun. Along with plenty of wind. As George Washington High hosted Northeast on Friday in what became a Public AAAA Gold football all-timer, observers almost expected referee Ernie Gallagher to be replaced by "Hurricane" Schwartz. At one point, with the skies becoming incredibly dark, star Northeast running back Marquis Edwards, unavailable due to injury, shook his head and muttered, "It looks like the world's about to end up in here. " A nearby Viking added, "Or we're gettin' Hurricane Katrina.

Paul Simon may have been the marquee act of Saturday's Academy of Music Concert and Ball. But the brand-spanking-new designer gowns were the evening's twinkling stars. For two years we've watched the highest of society's fashionistas shop their closets for the Academy Ball, saying the economy had forced even them to penny-pinch. But it seems they've had enough. Instead of wearing recycled gowns in dark shades, ball-goers this year donned frocks that were bright and bold, some glamorous enough for a Hollywood red carpet.

Jennifer Collins, a transgender woman from Fishtown, arrived early at Independence Mall Sunday for her first Gay Pride Parade in Philadelphia, the city's 22d annual event. Dressed casually for the weather in denim shorts and a striped T-shirt, her shoulder-length blond hair pulled back with a headband, Collins, 44, did not stand out in the crowd of several thousand in her less than garish dress. While many of the floats feature over-the-top displays of skin for shock value, many paradegoers do not. For Collins, the parade serves to raise public consciousness.

Jim Henson wanted to make the world a better place, and he did. But back in the 1960s, Henson also wanted to come up with a funny way to sell Linit Fabric Finish and Pak-Nit pre-shrunk fabric, and he did that, too. (For the latter, he dreamed up two Hansel-and-Gretel-ish creatures, Shrinkel and Stretchel, who get thrown into an oven by a witch and live to tell the tale, with no marked size change.) At various times in his life, on avenues other than Sesame Street, Henson sought to explore surrealistic themes of time and confinement, fantasy and world peace, human emotions and futility, all through visual metaphors of Muppetness and Dali-ness, the mystical and the mythological, with a bit of Tolkienesque sci-fi thrown in. Not only that, but the creator of Kermit the Frog and the genius behind the Muppets, who died in 1990 at age 53, dreamed of building a pink psychedelic nightclub in the shape of a geodesic dome.

Students and teachers who greeted one another with hugs and hand-slaps at Rainbow Elementary School in the Coatesville Area School District yesterday had something besides the new school year to celebrate: the opening of a sparkling new building. The $24.8 million, 670-student Rainbow school, completed four months ahead of schedule and $3.5 million under budget, has energy-saving geothermal wells under the building to heat and cool; science labs; a computer lab; and classrooms arranged in "pods" that share common areas.

Evelyn Lovitz has waves of coneflower in her Cape May garden, mostly pink, purple and white, traditional colors for this popular North American wildflower. But two relative newcomers in the exploding coneflower market have her attention this season: 'Sunset,' which has salmon-orange petals and a henna-brown cone or center, and 'Twilight,' whose deep rosy petals encircle a button-center in rare burgundy. "Coneflowers are pretty, you can get them in all kinds of colors now, and if you want butterflies, they're like a magnet," Lovitz says.