Sneakers

The dress code is in, which means that the David Letterman look is out for teachers at the Magnolia Public School. Letterman likes to wear sneakers - even with a business suit - when hosting his late-night television show, but if he were teaching at Magnolia, his outfit would violate the school's new dress code. The school board in August adopted a code for teachers, administrators and clerical staff that is broad for the most part but does ban sneakers. Only physical-education teachers are exempt from that prohibition.

Christopher Demby and his friend, Allen Gore, both 15, went to the 52nd Street Strip in West Philadelphia on March 17, 1990, to buy sneakers. They were stalked, then set upon by three teens, two with guns, who stole their new sneakers and left Christopher Demby dead in the street. Yesterday, the two gunmen, Kenyatta "Yattie" Miles, 20, and Michael Henry, 18, were convicted by a Common Pleas Court jury of first-degree murder in the slaying. A sentencing hearing for the two was set for today.

AS AN African-American, I am appalled by some of the negative reactions of my fellow African-Americans toward Bill Cosby's comments over the decline of moral and social structure in black communities and families. If what Bill Cosby has said does not refer to you, and if you are decent, productive parents, then you should not be offended by his remarks. I agree with Bill. Many African-Americans put too much importance on $200 sneakers, for example, and less on cleaning up their neighborhoods, respecting one another, pursuing a decent education - need I say more?

For an hour Saturday night, the borough will cordon off the one block of Mechanic Street for its first drag race. No fast cars will be competing on that tiny stretch of hill that is no more than a few hundred yards long. This race belongs to drag queens, who will celebrate Halloween with a race in heels to the top of the hill. The race will begin at 8:30 p.m. Saturday from the corner of Mechanic and Main Streets. The contestant who is fastest in pumps will take home nearly $1,000 in gift certificates to local businesses and a two-foot trophy of a gold-plated heeled sneaker with wings, said Sam Burns, a Chamber of Commerce member who thought up the race.

He took a shotgun blast in the right shoulder in a bloody rampage in an Oak Lane drug house in 1988, but Andre Kinard apparently didn't learn a thing, the prosecutor said. "Sometimes you look at these people and wonder if there was any impact, because they go out and commit the same kind of vicious acts," Assistant District Attorney Joe McGettigan said. Municipal Judge Arthur S. Kafrissen yesterday ordered Kinard, now 18, held without bail for trial over his alleged role in the murder of a 17-year-old boy during an attempt to steal the victim's new Nike sneakers on West Philadelphia's 52nd Street shopping strip.

WHILE millions of Americans know the conspiracies behind who killed JFK and why Elvis is living in a trailer park in Port Orange, Fla., I don't waste my time with such theories. Instead, I live my life and judge people on their athletic footwear. I call it the Sneaker Theory. Growing up, every generation had the fear of having to wear Bo-Bo's. Already the song is creeping in your head: Bo-Bo's, they make your feet feel fine, Bo-Bo's they cost $1.99. Just like you didn't want to be the kid who was forced to eat a urinal cake, you didn't want to be the kid wearing Bo-Bo's.

Sneakers as girly confections? In the male-dominated world of novelty kicks, that might seem a bit of a stretch. But then again, it hasn't ever been tried by the first bona-fide princesses of hip-hop. Vanessa and Angela Simmons, daughters of Reverend Joseph "Run" Simmons, one-third of the pioneer rap group Run-D.M.C., launched their sneaker line, Pastry, on Sunday. The design duo are also the nieces of urban fashion/lifestyle moguls Russell and Kimora Lee Simmons - the couple credited with taking hip-hop-inspired clothing mainstream with Phat Farm, Def Jam University, and the runway spectacle Baby Phat.

BACK IN APRIL, on the same day that his famous father, Michael Jordan, was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, Marcus Jordan announced he would play hoops at the University of Central Florida. That was a happy day for the Knights, who beat out the likes of Iowa, Stanford, Toledo, Butler, and Oklahoma for Marcus' talents. But it may end up being a costly decision for the university. Marcus, it seems, will only wear Nike Air Jordan sneakers because, he says, they hold special meaning to him and his family.

Homer Jackson is on the one. Whether using video to document the transcendent rush that came when he first dunked a basketball or bringing together a broad sampling of artists for a timely exhibit about sneakers, Jackson - as funk demi-god George Clinton might say - "is on the one," intuitively hitting a creative downbeat with a combination of precision and unkempt cool. The North Philadelphia multimedia artist has orchestrated "High Flying," an exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art that explores assorted perspectives on athletic footwear.

Along Lancaster Avenue in Downingtown, shopkeepers have stuffed their storefront windows with Christmas trees, lights and New Year's decorations. Not Bill Carlin. He has stuffed his window with sneakers, as he has every month since his store opened in February. Carlin is the manager of John's Sneaks, at 140 E. Lancaster Ave., which sells sneakers cheap and operates on a shoestring budget. That means no money for decorations and - at the sister store in Ardmore - no telephone. Advertising depends mostly on word of mouth.

  Broad Street was a no-go. I-95 was a parking lot. And game-day traffic hadn't even started yet. On the highways in and around Philadelphia on Sunday, a traffic disaster brewed with a fiery early-morning crash on I-95 near Broad Street shutting down that section of highway for much of the morning - while the Independence Blue Cross Broad Street Run rendered that 10-mile city spine off-limits to vehicle traffic until close to noon. The accident happened about 6 a.m. on the northbound side of I-95 when a tractor-trailer hit an empty, disabled car, State Police Cpl. Gerard McShea said.

Even in his most hyper moments, 6-year-old Dominick Andujar, who preferred break dancing and wrestling to homework, would stop whatever he was doing if he knew his mother was sick or needed help. "He was my little man . . . my son, my everything," Debbie Burgos, 34, of Camden, said. Dominick promised Burgos in August he would protect her if anyone ever tried to hurt her. She never expected that a few days after Dominick made that vow, he would act the hero and die for it. Just after midnight Sept.

By John Hearn We shopped rarely and with forethought and together. Shopping was a social ritual that followed a set procedure. After the tax refund arrived - usually in March, when cold ocean winds still swept the hills south of Boston - my mother gathered the four of us to trek uptown. Each of her three boys would get a pair of trousers, summer sneakers, and a Red Sox cap, all at least a size too big to accommodate growth. She feared outgrown clothes that could not be easily replaced.

A former scoutmaster for a Main Line Boy Scout troop has been charged with trading child pornography and allegedly admitted to a "close relationship" with a scout. Gerrett Conover, 47, of Woolwich Township, Gloucester County, was scoutmaster of Radnor Troop 284 from at least 1999 until 2001, said Thomas Harrington, chief executive officer of the Boy Scouts Cradle of Liberty Council. He was arrested Sept. 16 while trying to cross the border from Canada at Ogdensburg, N.Y. Authorities allegedly found child porn on a laptop computer he was carrying.

LEBRON JAMES recently discovered that in this country, nothing smooths a rough image like winning. In the past few months, James delivered a basketball gold medal for his country and a championship for his adopted NBA city of Miami, won an MVP award, tried to mend fences with his native Ohio and gave interviews about his newfound maturity. A state of grace that lasted all of one week. On Tuesday, Nike said it would use the new-and-improved Lebron to hype a new shoe and, with James as the face of the product, break the $300 sneaker "barrier.

Growing up in Camden in the 1980s, brothers Byron and Darien Gans were all about basketball. Not only was it the era of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, but Camden High School was a basketball powerhouse, creating NCAA champions and NBA players. The Gans brothers played street ball after school and, just like the players they admired, wore the latest trending sneakers - whether high-top or low, white or colorful, leather or canvas. Often Byron would paint his sneakers to match his outfit.

With dance all over reality TV, in movies, and on music videos, one might think the interest would translate into theater as well. But concert dance still struggles. Jerome Robbins' 1958 piece N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz is a fine starter piece for hesitant viewers, a ballet in sneakers. Performed in casual street clothes, its format is that of a plotless ballet, with group sections, a pas de deux, several small solos, various patterns across the stage, and all thoroughly accessible.

The sneakers were a fashion statement, but the Bishop Eustace basketball team made its main point with its play. Wearing fluorescent orange sneakers with their white-with-black-trim home uniforms, the Crusaders took care of business with a hard-fought, 62-54 victory over Pennsauken in an Olympic Conference interdivision game on Friday night. Senior guard Carson Puriefoy and senior forward Sho DaSilva led the way for Bishop Eustace (1-0), the No. 1 team in The Inquirer South Jersey Top 10. Puriefoy, a 6-foot guard, collected 24 points along with five assists and three steals.