Sweetie

THE Daily News Pet of the Week is Rockford (right), a 1-to-2-year-old pitbull mix at the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society. Rockford is cheerful, curious and sweet. He gets along great with other dogs, and would do best in a home with children older than 10. To adopt Rockford, contact PAWS, 100 N. 2nd St., at 215-238-9901. When inquiring, please provide his tag identifier, A14099383-Clinic. A $75 fee includes sterilization, vaccines and microchipping.

Two strange, wonderful worlds collide when PT Lovekraft (led by Hard Liquor Theater's Carmen Martella), who describe their music as "horror circus synth rock," meet ethereal trip-hoppers Sweetie (9 tonight, the Khyber, 56 S. 2nd St., $8, 215-238-5888, www.thekhyber .com). Phantom Creep Friday is the place to find all rock subgenres ending in "billy," as well as punk and garage. Tonight features the Comiskey Players, Blue Suede Bombers and Los Griswolds (La Tazza, 108 Chestnut St., 215-922-7322, doors open 6:30 tonight, $5, www.phantomcreep friday.

I AM AN American woman responding to the letter by Imam Isa Abdulmatin (Oct. 30). He attempts to insult American women, but it fails on points so numerous I could run out of ink. American women are perfectly aware that men are sexually attracted to them. Sweetie, that is the whole idea. Who pretends otherwise? And so what? (Let us skip for a moment Mr. Abdulmatin's characterization of American men as sex-crazed rapists. I will leave it to them to respond to that.) Gloria C. Endres, Philadelphia Why does it always take man to give an opinion of women?

Robust, broad-boned and radiantly horsey, Jane Campion resembles a jillaroo, which is Australian for "cowgirl. " But even jillaroos get the blues, as Campion could have told you last May at the Cannes Film Festival, where her debut feature, Sweetie, instantly polarized the audience. Midway into the premiere of Campion's imagistic movie about the friction between two sisters, one as reedy and introverted as the other is elephantine and extroverted, half the audience had sped for the doors.

Nancy Yaros starts by sitting cross-legged on the floor and spreading letters of the alphabet in front of her. Sweetie, a little white Maltese with a mustache, floppy ears, and a cowlick of a tail, trots over, alert and expectant. "OK, Sweetie," Yaros says, "show me W. " Sweetie steps forward in a little waddle-style walk and puts her paw on the "W," tapping it twice. "Good girl!" Yaros says. And on it goes for an hour. Sweetie picks out shapes - "she loves doing shapes" - then colors, playing cards.

Moody and provocative, Sweetie is a startlingly original film from Australia. It marks the feature debut of New Zealand-born Jane Campion, a director of such tilted vision that her view of ordinary life on Earth is as extraordinary as satellite footage of Venutians at play. Reduced to its plot, Sweetie is the story of two Sydney, Australia, sisters, the introverted, reed-slim Kay (Karen Colston) and the extroverted, elephantine Sweetie (Genevieve Lemon), who may or may not be a mental case.

I'll let all the other guys buy those heart-shaped goat cheeses. In my house, a ripe blue mold is the more likely prelude to romance. And few blues are more promising than St. Augur from the Auvergne region of France. This ivory cow's milk triple-creme has a luxuriously spreadable texture, but the full-flavored, parsley-colored veining makes it a sure bet: smoky blue funk without the bite. As a pre-Valentine's test, I left a wedge on the kitchen table one early morning on my way out the door.

Now, look. Just think how much easier it is to deal with head lice than it used to be. Used to be the preferred treatment was a crew cut for Sweetie. And then all his fellow pupils would make fun of the flat top - and he'd come home, faced streaked with grimy tears and knuckles torn bloody from protecting his dignity. But now your kid probably wants the flat top. Or a mohawk. Or worse. Tell him tough: today the treatment for lice is a shampoo or cream rinse. But watch out as you read on. Your head may start to itch.

We asked several Philly favorites how they do their holiday shopping and to offer their best tips. Here's what they said: Eagles Pro Bowl cornerback Troy Vincent Who does the shopping? "My wife does, I'd say, 99.3 percent of it. " How do you do it? "Everywhere from on-line to discount stores to last-hour sales. " How much do you spend? "She says $3,000. I say $4,000, so somewhere in between. " What do you want for Christmas? "I have everything I need. I do enjoy getting presents, but I really don't need anything, so I guess I just want peace.

After all the controversy surrounding Wired, known around these parts as The Laugh and Death of John Belushi, we are bemused. Its Thursday premiere at the 42d Cannes Film Festival left us, shall we say, short-circuited. In the opening scene of the surrealistic hodgepodge, which purports to be based on the best-selling Bob Woodward account of Belushi's March 1982 death, the dead comedian is wheeled into the Los Angeles morgue. There he bolts from the gurney, unzips his body bag and dashes out of the hospital.

Here's one of the benefits of spending Valentine's Day at home: You get to eat what you want. Sure, you have to make it, but that also means costs can stay down, and you don't have to fight the crowds or be subjected to a rule-ridden tasting menu. And honestly, when is the last time you had a special dinner with your loved one at home without the TV on? Light some candles. It's a nice thing. Sticking around the abode means you can casually indulge. I've created a menu that allows just that, taking the best of a steak-house dinner and combining it with pop-a-pilsner elements.

THE Daily News Pet of the Week is Rockford (right), a 1-to-2-year-old pitbull mix at the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society. Rockford is cheerful, curious and sweet. He gets along great with other dogs, and would do best in a home with children older than 10. To adopt Rockford, contact PAWS, 100 N. 2nd St., at 215-238-9901. When inquiring, please provide his tag identifier, A14099383-Clinic. A $75 fee includes sterilization, vaccines and microchipping.

Baby pies are the newest dessert trend, and with this kit, you can make them at home. The package comes with four pans and a dough cutter, so you don't have to guess which size to cut the tops and bottoms. Chicago Metallic Pie Mold, $24.95 at Sur La Table, surlatable.com.   - Ashley Primis

DEAR ABBY: While standing in a checkout line yesterday, I witnessed a cashier speak to the older woman in front of me in a condescending manner. She kept calling her "Sweetie" and talking to her as if she were a 3-year-old. The woman was obviously offended, but said nothing. I experienced this kind of behavior often when my mother was alive. Receptionists, waitresses, store clerks and others would direct their questions to me and talk to me while my mother stood there, perfectly capable of answering the questions herself.

Scandalous sex tapes, adultery, and addiction ruled Celebdom in 2010. In other words, it was business as usual. But beyond the squalor, the muck and mire, there burns Love . Love of lust, love of art, love of self, love of money, love of porn, love of controlled substances. Here's a look at some of the more notable love stories of 2010. Weddings! Weddings! Weddings! For all the scandals, 2010 wrapped up all sugar: It was the year of a thousand engagements. Ah, but how many will actually marry?

Julio! How could you not tell us? Spanish heartthrob vocalist Julio Iglesias on Friday announced that he and his long-term partner, Dutch model Miranda Rijnsburger , had married Tuesday in a super-secret wedding. The couple vowed their vows in the reportedly lovely jet-set resort of Marbella in southern Spain. Levi: She's just as bad Levi Johnston insists his ex-fiancee, Bristol Palin , is just as predatory, narcissistic, and self-serving as he. "I don't think I'm any more obsessed with making a career out of this than she is," Levi told CBS' Early Show Friday.

What do you do when you have an earnest, hardworking owner and staff, a business with an ethical mission and mixed reviews from your clientele? I suppose you could hope that the Fox network's Gordon Ramsay and his "Kitchen Nightmares" reality TV would return to Philadelphia to take you from tough culinary love to emotional meltdown. That's what happened when Ramsay and company invaded the Hot Potato Cafe last month. (If the Fishtown eatery had ditched the frozen potatoes as I suggested in my review two years ago, they would have spared themselves a heck of a lot of reality.

What do you do when you have an earnest, hardworking owner and staff, a business with an ethical mission and mixed reviews from your clientele? I suppose you could hope that the Fox network's Gordon Ramsay and his "Kitchen Nightmares" reality TV would return to Philadelphia to take you from tough culinary love to emotional meltdown. That's what happened when Ramsay and company invaded the Hot Potato Cafe last month. (If the Fishtown eatery had ditched the frozen potatoes as I suggested in my review two years ago, they would have spared themselves a heck of a lot of reality.

In movies and books, love sparks like this: A low-lit room, soft music, murmurs and laughter and perhaps the tinkling sounds of glasses toasting. Two people spot each other, their eyes lock, they move toward each other. They talk for hours. This is another version: The crowded R6 platform, the rattle of rails as the train pulls in. She rushes to the newspaper box to grab something to read. He hands her a paper, says "Hello," then gets on the train. Then he does it again.

Sarah Miller is a writer in Los Angeles It's my fault that Rielle Hunter had an affair with John Edwards. Let me explain. I moved to Los Angeles in 2001 and rented a room in a house in Benedict Canyon, and lived there for almost a year. When I moved out of that room, Rielle Hunter moved in. The homeowner who had been a friend of a friend had, by virtue of my stay, become a close friend, so I was still over at the house a lot. Rielle padded in and out in Ugg boots and flared yoga pants, and in a voice that contained strange elements of surfer-ese and lockjaw, gave unasked-for information about her life's journey and personal health.