Tin

THE FEDERAL Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has always been hand-in-glove with disaster, but unfortunately, the agency under the Bush administration has made sure that disaster applies to its own performance. The incompetence shown during the agency's slow and inadequate response to Hurricaine Katrina keeps getting worse. The latest: A study by the Centers for Disease Control confirmed high levels of formaldehyde in trailers issued to displaced Katrina families. The news comes two years after trailer inhabitants and others, like the Sierra Club, first raised concerns about ailments caused by the trailers.

In a boost for the flagging USX Fairless Works in Bucks County, Crown Cork & Seal Co. Inc. yesterday confirmed that it would spend up to $5 million to convert an empty building at the steel plant into a facility for its beverage- and soup-can business. The deal will enable USX to revive an empty, 147,000-square-foot building at Fairless and provide more steel to Crown Cork & Seal, historically one of the plant's biggest customers. Crown Cork will lease the building. Crown Cork, meanwhile, will be able to transport steel for beverage and food cans more efficiently.

Question: I have a home, built about 1950, that has tin siding. Can or should this siding be repainted (and how?), or is it best to remove it and install new siding, such as vinyl? Answer: I've seen a lot of evidence that tin siding can be repainted, although I haven't found much information on how to do it. I had tin gutters — actually terne, a zinc/tin alloy — on my turn-of-the-20th-century former house. The experts recommended Tin-O-Lin, which I bought at a Philadelphia roofing supplier, a slow-drying linseed oil-based primer and finish coat recommended for spot priming exposed and rusted areas.

The Buddy Ryan-Mike Ditka digs come a little more sporadically these days, but they still come. You just have to be patient. All last week Ryan had been gently prodding Ditka with coy one-liners, smug little pronouncements. He made fun of Ditka. He said Ditka wasn't a good evaluator of talent. Said he never speaks to Ditka and never wants to. Suggested that Ditka was jealous of Ryan when George Halas hired Ryan to coach the defense before hiring Ditka as the head man. All last week Ditka hadn't bitten back, choosing a higher road.

Dear Polly: I have a tin-lined copper pot. I clean the copper regularly with lemon juice and salt to keep it beautifully shiny, but the tin interior is darkening. How can I clean that up as well? - Betty It's best to let the tin darken naturally. Don't attempt to polish it. Polishing the tin would gradually remove thin layers of the metal and, once the tin layer is worn away, the pot will have to be retinned before you can use it again. As I'm sure you know, it is unsafe to cook in unlined copper since undesirable amounts of copper can leach into some foods.

Q: uestion: What can you tell me about my 22 1/2-inch-by-28 1/2-inch tin sign advertising "Armour's 'Star' Hams and Bacon"? It shows a woman wearing a long white skirt, high-collared blouse and fancy hat and taking money from her wallet to give to a boy who's holding a ham. They're standing in front of a butcher's counter, with ham and bacon displayed. Since reading about a 1910 Campbell Soup sign that sold at auction for $93,000 in July 1990, I've been curious about my sign's value.

Perhaps it is the packaging, John McCann's steel-cut Irish Oatmeal, unrepentently retro in that black-and-white, bemedaled tuxedo of a tin, as sturdy - and weighty - as a quart of old-time wood putty. Philosophically, of course, it presents a dilemma: The carbon footprint of hauling oats a few thousand food miles from green County Kildare cannot, one assumes, be very dainty. But then again, there is so much that can (and shortly will) be said in its favor, not only nutritionally, for sure, but the fact that no animals were harmed in its testing or manufacture: These oats are as whole-food and wholesome as a tinned whole food can be. They are more costly, no question, than Quaker Oats, my childhood stalwart.

The clamor of hammers on metal begins at dawn and continues until the sun has set over the fields of sunflowers. New towns built from bamboo poles and corrugated tin are quickly rising over the Deccan plain. A muddy five-minute walk from the stone rubble that was Betsangve, 150 carpenters and 300 laborers are building shelters for the survivors of the earthquake that killed perhaps 1,000 of their fellow villagers. Workers lug 15-foot poles over their shoulders and above their heads.

The factory in Ivyland, Bucks County, is humming. Metal is cut, then bent with a pneumatic whoosh. Sparks fly over the spot welders. This is cookie-cutter production. Literally. Fox Run Craftsmen sells 20 million cookie cutters a year, and its owners believe it is the nation's largest manufacturer of traditional tin-plate cookie cutters. "It is a simple item, but it is something that people do enjoy," said Janet Bergman, merchandising assistant at Fox Run. Bergman's father, John Clarke, bought the company 26 years ago, when it was a small manufacturer of tin cookie cutters, decorative items, waxes and furniture polish.

Seeing it for the first time, even the first few times, you have to wonder why - why, in the upscale community of Margate, is a 65-foot-tall, tin-plated elephant standing on the beach? Why? Simple. The elephant came first. Lucy, as this ponderous pachyderm is so fondly known, arrived at a time when nothing else stood on this portion of the island. She was a real estate shill, the product of one James Lafferty, a Philadelphia entrepreneur who was trying to sell his oceanfront lots and figured he needed something big to attract a crowd.

You can taste the hand-rolled, hand-cut love in each of Mrs. Hanes' Moravian cookies. While the spicy ginger version kept us munching during the winter months, the light-as-air, fruity, subtly sweet and snappy lemon crisps will keep us gleefully occupied all spring. Mrs. Hanes' Lemon Crisps, 1-pound tin, $20.25, or 2-pound tin, $35.50, hanescookies.com . - Ashley Primis

A long, narrow room with candlelit tables pressed up against its tiny stage isn't the most likely landing spot for an underground hip-hop act. And the Tin Angel clearly isn't the sort of place where Dessa usually finds herself. The seats were filled Friday night with fans eagerly anticipating the rapper-singer's first local headlining show, but the atmosphere lent itself to polite applause rather than more emphatic displays of approval. "At a rap show you know it's going well because someone ends up in the hospital," she remarked from the stage.

If you have $30,000 to spare, you can go to Lambertville on Saturday and bid on - with some assurance of success - a 67-inch-tall bronze by the Dutch artist Kees Verkade. Or you can rush down to Vineland in South Jersey and - with the same probable degree of success - bid on a 20-inch-long Marklin clockwork ocean liner. The liner, the Puritan, is one of nearly 1,500 lots in Bertoia Auctions' "Toys on World Tour" sale Friday and Saturday at the gallery at 2141 DeMarco Dr., just off Exit 35 of Route 55. And it has a presale estimate of $25,000 to $30,000, according to the auction catalog available in hard cover and online at www.bertoiaauctions.com . It is one of a dozen lots expected to bring five-figure prices.

On the whole, the fine art of stage banter is downright scarce in today's popular music - a shame. Eilen Jewell, the Boston-based singer-songwriter and tune-interpreter working freely across the wide realms of folk, country, blues, and rock and roll, is one performer who doesn't pass up such opportunity. Throughout Friday's set with her seasoned three-piece band at the Tin Angel, she took the time to connect with the crowd and set up songs - worthy endeavors that also helped establish the Idaho native's unique, low-key charm, bringing even her own talkativeness into her musing.

Nobody's more amazed than Suzie Brown at how music has changed her life. Tomorrow night at Tin Angel, she'll be onstage, long dark hair, dark eyes, sweetly singing her love songs about mixed messages and tender feelings. But just last week, a decade of dedication finally landed her in another heartfelt gig - talking arteries and angina, statins and EKGs with patients three days a week at Albert Einstein Medical Center. Becoming a cardiologist - not surprising for a daughter of two doctors.

It's easy to get lost in Hayes Carll's songs, even if you're the one singing them. Midway through playing "Arkansas Blues" at the Tin Angel on Thursday night, Carll digressed into a story about getting his start playing a rundown members-only club in a dry town, and by the time he was done, he'd lost his place. With a wry grin, he called out, "Anyone heard this song before?" As it turned out, a few members of the sellout crowd were able to assist him, but it wasn't long before he was wandering again.

Perhaps it is the packaging, John McCann's steel-cut Irish Oatmeal, unrepentently retro in that black-and-white, bemedaled tuxedo of a tin, as sturdy - and weighty - as a quart of old-time wood putty. Philosophically, of course, it presents a dilemma: The carbon footprint of hauling oats a few thousand food miles from green County Kildare cannot, one assumes, be very dainty. But then again, there is so much that can (and shortly will) be said in its favor, not only nutritionally, for sure, but the fact that no animals were harmed in its testing or manufacture: These oats are as whole-food and wholesome as a tinned whole food can be. They are more costly, no question, than Quaker Oats, my childhood stalwart.

There's a good reason alt-country violinist/vocalist Carrie Rodriguez isn't playing second fiddle - pun intended - to mentor Chip Taylor anymore. As the musically diverse Rodriguez proved at the Tin Angel Friday night, she's more than ready for her own spotlight. The Austin-bred, Brooklyn-based Rodriguez - backed by a four-member band that included her husband, Spanish saxophonist/keyboard player Javier Vercher - charmed the nearly sold-out crowd with a solid mix of ramped-up rockers and tender ballads.

Immediately challenge anyone who tells you black cats are unlucky. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams' plantation tale of a Southern family sinking in a swirl of greed, lies, illness and alcohol, has begun a stunning fifth life on Broadway - this time with an all-African American, A-list cast. For a dozen seesaw years its African American lead producer, Stephen C. Byrd - a Philadelphia native and former investment banker schooled in finance at Temple and Penn - pursued his belief that a black cast would bring new dimensions to the play's characters.

THE FEDERAL Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has always been hand-in-glove with disaster, but unfortunately, the agency under the Bush administration has made sure that disaster applies to its own performance. The incompetence shown during the agency's slow and inadequate response to Hurricaine Katrina keeps getting worse. The latest: A study by the Centers for Disease Control confirmed high levels of formaldehyde in trailers issued to displaced Katrina families. The news comes two years after trailer inhabitants and others, like the Sierra Club, first raised concerns about ailments caused by the trailers.