Sphinx

A fellow can only take so much lunch-table teasing. Eventually, he has to respond. He has to answer the critics. He has to give a difficult task a whirl, even if that means risking embarrassment. Mohamed El-Laisy, a 6-5, 200-pound senior center, is known as "Abdelnaby" to his basketball teammates at the William Bodine High School for International Affairs. It's because he hails from Egypt, like Portland rookie Alaa Abdelnaby, formerly of Duke. It's not because he's a tremendous player.

It's all about the story. Each item in the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology - each statue, pitcher, mummy, mosaic, and sphinx - comes with one. The story of how it got here - "you won't find a museum comparable to it anywhere," in the words of new director Julian Siggers. The story of how it was found. "Much of the time, you're digging in the wrong place," says C. Brian Rose, curator of the Mediterranean section and a man who has done his share of digging. "When you find the right place, it's exciting.

WE INTERRUPT THIS HEAT WAVE FOR WORD FROM A COLD FRONT The Cold War goes on - in Texas. State Attorney General Dan Morales said this week that because it couldn't be determined exactly when the Cold War ended, it didn't. His opinion was sought on a state law that has meant free college educations for veterans who served since the Korean War. Listed among the conflicts covered by the law is "the Cold War. " The University of Texas recently sought clarification since most Americans consider the U.S.-Soviet standoff long over.

David O'Connor has no particular attachment to any of the dozen or so mummies he hangs out with, but he loves his sphinx. "This is a wonderful sphinx. Magnificent. I really like it," said the eminent Egyptologist, warmly patting the 3,000-year-old monument on its stone paws. "It's really the largest, best-preserved sphinx outside of Egypt," explained the University of Pennsylvania professor and associate curator of the University Museum's Egyptian department. But it's the magnificent stone head of Pharaoh Ramses II that gives O'Connor special pride and pleasure.

It's not easy to come to Cairo and avoid the Great Pyramids. You feel compelled to see them. How often do you get within 20 minutes of a Wonder of the World? I went with Anders, a Swedish soldier on leave from the United Nations peacekeeping force patrolling the Lebanon-Israel border. He had a great sense of humor about his role in the peace process. "We are like nature photographers," he said of the U.N. force. "We sit around with video cameras filming each side launching rockets over our heads.

THE CONQUERING CANDY Now coming to you, direct from a successful tour of the Persian Gulf - the Desert Bar! Beginning Memorial Day weekend, Hershey will begin nationwide sales of the heat-resistant candy bar it developed for soldiers in the gulf war. The company says it is marketing the bar domestically because GIs and people who bought it at the company visitors' center in Hershey, Pa., ate it up. HARVEST MOON Don't worry that we...

Which would interest you more? 1. An address by Dr. Adbel Aziz Hamouda, an Egyptian cultural and educational attache, on "The Role of Egypt in Today's Changing World. " 2. Seeing your name translated into ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. 3. Having someone remodel your face to look like Cleopatra's. 4. Taking a belly-dance lesson. 5. Meeting a mummy. Ahhh, why not simply pick 'em all? Practically all things Egyptian are possible from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow - one day only - at the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology on the University of Pennsylvania campus.

Clara (Lucia Bose), the incomparably beautiful heroine of The Lady Without Camelias, is a former Milanese shopgirl and overnight movie sensation who in only her second picture is the star of a movie called The Woman Without Destiny. The title of the film-within-the-film is significant, for in this neglected Michelangelo Antonioni 1953 movie enjoying its belated Philadelphia premiere today, Clara herself is a woman without destiny. This luminous girl, a shapely hunk of common Italian marble, passively permits any number of Italian aristocrats to sculpt her and her career.

Imagine someone giving the Sphinx of Giza a face lift. Or, rehabbing the interior of the pyramid of Khafre, which the stately sphinx has guarded for centuries. No one would dream of altering such wonders of the Old World, but the Tayoun family is in a way doing something similar in renovating the Middle East Restaurant, one of the wonders of Old City. For years, the Middle East served as a pleasant oasis in a city that was much like a desert when it came to Middle Eastern foods.

It's all about the story. Each item in the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology - each statue, pitcher, mummy, mosaic, and sphinx - comes with one. The story of how it got here - "you won't find a museum comparable to it anywhere," in the words of new director Julian Siggers. The story of how it was found. "Much of the time, you're digging in the wrong place," says C. Brian Rose, curator of the Mediterranean section and a man who has done his share of digging. "When you find the right place, it's exciting.

It won't be at all surprising if the Bruce Nauman show assembled at the Venice Biennale by the Philadelphia Museum of Art moves art critics to high praise. But back in the 1960s, Nauman shook up another kind of critic. While a student at the University of California, Davis, he made a work of four square pieces of latex rubber and cheesecloth. Its moment of creation would occur when it was tossed into a corner. The fire marshal, tipped off about flammable materials in the wooden studios, showed up with a photographer to document the event as evidence of unsafe practices.

Look, up by the world's third-largest known sphinx: It's a 6-year-old from New Jersey! It's Batman! No, it's a 6-year-old from New Jersey dressed as Batman! "They're just costumes," said Owen Riley of Riverton, on this day better known as the Caped Crusader. "We've got lots of them at home. " It's exactly that kind of modesty that makes a hero super. Miniature avengers swarmed the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology yesterday to attend its Superhero Day. The festivities were the museum's contribution to the Penn Libraries' yearlong "POW: Comics, Animation, and Graphic Novels" program.

It's one thing to hear about Africa, but it is very different to go there and experience a totally different culture. Seeing all of these wonderful places and landmarks is so much better than hearing about them. When I saw the Pyramids and the Sphinx in Egypt, I was in awe. It made me proud to know that my ancestors built these incredible monuments that have lasted for more than 4,000 years. I also rode a camel, visited carpet- makers and perfume shops, and dined at a number of unusual restaurants.

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.

Jacqueline Eastridge did it. The 46-year-old paralegal for a Center City law firm has completed a 150-mile, six-day race through Egypt's Sahara desert. RacingThePlanet, the sponsor of the ultra-challenge, said yesterday that when Eastridge crossed the finish line at the Sphinx on Saturday, she was 42d out of 55 runners still in the competition and ninth out of the 13 remaining women. Before leaving Philadelphia, Eastridge, who was using the challenge to raise money for Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said her goal was not to place high, but to finish.

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is facing a predicament. Or is that the University Museum? Or the University of Pennsylvania Museum? Or the Penn Museum? Or the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology? Or that funky museum with the 12-ton sphinx and Egyptian mummies across the river? Whatever you call it, the museum finds itself with too many names, a logo most people don't get, and no image that captures what it is. So it has set out to find one nickname, one brand, one logo, one captivating personality.

There may be no other place where you can eat in a garage and sleep with two 800-pound lions - and like it. Just an hour and a half south of Norfolk, Va., this onetime capital of North Carolina is a quiet village easily reached by travelers heading to the Outer Banks from Norfolk, Richmond or Washington, D.C. It's also less than two hours from Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers made the world's first airplane flight. Kramer's Garage, which serviced classy cars here in the 1920s, switched to serving discriminating diners years ago, but it hasn't lost its motorcar flavor.

Lasers will shoot from a tower on the Delaware River, piercing the surface of the water. Purple sea lions will dance on the waves. Man o' war ships will battle to the death. A giant colorful sphinx will rise up beside the Ben Franklin Bridge. And, no, it doesn't involve hallucinogens. It's a $7.9 million sound-and-light show, approved yesterday by the Delaware River Port Authority, to land on the river New Year's Eve. The Port Authority, which makes its money from operating the four trans-river bridges and the Patco rail line, will fund the project but is looking to cover those expenses with corporate sponsorships.

It's not easy to come to Cairo and avoid the Great Pyramids. You feel compelled to see them. How often do you get within 20 minutes of a Wonder of the World? I went with Anders, a Swedish soldier on leave from the United Nations peacekeeping force patrolling the Lebanon-Israel border. He had a great sense of humor about his role in the peace process. "We are like nature photographers," he said of the U.N. force. "We sit around with video cameras filming each side launching rockets over our heads.