Weather Vane

THERE are two schools of thought about Arlen Specter's defection (or rather, homecoming) to the Democrats. The first is that he was so desperate to keep his spot in Congress, so incapable of hearing his name without the honorific "Sen. " before it, that he jumped ship to avoid being destroyed in the GOP primary. That's probably true. The other is that he no longer felt at home in a party that had become increasingly conservative, rejecting his views on abortion, stem-cell research and trillion-dollar budgets, etc. That's also probably true.

In the foreword he wrote for the catalog of his 40-year personal collection of antiques that Pook & Pook Inc. will sell May 5, dealer James Grievo says a love of weather vanes dominated his passion from the start. Indeed, there are 11 in the sale beginning at 10 a.m. at the gallery in Downingtown, with half of them expected to bring five-figure prices. But the 400 lots to be offered are otherwise so diverse as to suggest that Grievo, who lives and works with his wife, Sheryl, in Stockton, N.J., is consumed by the thrill of acquisition for its own sake.

"If I had to send a piece of American sculpture to France or Japan to sum up what is American about American art, I'd send this weather vane," said Stephen Score after he bought a large horse-and-rider weather vane for a record $770,000 last month at Sotheby's in New York. "It stands up as a world-class art object next to any impressionist painting or Jasper Johns. It is the piece that says everything that can be said about American folk art; in fact, it transcends the category," said Score, an Essex, Mass.

The residents of Woodbury won't need a weatherman anymore to know which way the wind is blowing. After a seven-year absence, a new weather vane was installed yesterday atop the old Gloucester County Courthouse to replace one destroyed by a 1981 storm. The return of the weather vane was considered a milestone by those involved in the $2 million restoration of the courthouse, which dates to 1885. Around lunch time, passers-by along Broad and Delaware Streets looked pleased to see the familiar landmark swinging in a light breeze above the 105- foot-high clock tower.

Trainer Shug McGaughey, who shipped Coronado's Quest from New York to Monmouth Park to capture last Sunday's $1 million Haskell, will invade Delaware Park today when he sends out probable favorite Hidden Reserve in the $100,000 Sweet and Sassy Stakes at six furlongs. Owned by Ogden Phipps, Hidden Reserve is a 4-year-old daughter of the amazing Mr. Prospector. She has raced well in graded stakes company but has yet to win a stake. Delaware Park's leading jockey, Mike McCarthy, will be aboard Hidden Reserve for the first time in the filly and mare event.

Roger DiTarando built his first weather vane more than a decade ago, and it's still turning in the wind above his metalworking workshop. Three intoxicated pigs dance atop an immense puffy cloud, and the four vanes bear an N, a heart, a star, and a crescent moon. "I call it 'Three Sheets to the Wind,' " DiTarando says, adding that the weather vane - made of cast bronze, copper, brass and steel - involved an extravagant 60 pieces. Hardly marketable, he says, but he loves to sit on the porch of his Vernon, Conn.

A Bucks County man who sent his former therapist letters from jail saying that he would kill her if she didn't pay him back was given a sentence of time served to 23 months in prison. What this means, according to Frank Moore, assistant district attorney, is that the man will be returned to Norristown State Hospital, where he was involuntarily committed. He already has served nearly nine months in Bucks County Prison. John Joseph Murray, whose last known address was in the 100 block of Summit Trace Road in Langhorne, had been convicted in Bucks County Court on Sept.

Freeman's Americana sale next Saturday has its playful side. Along with serious stuff (furniture, paintings, textiles, and silver), the 382 lots to be offered beginning at noon also include a dragon-shaped weather vane, a wrought-iron devil's face, and a folk-art alligator made of wood, metal, nails and bottle tops for eyes with the word litigator painted on its side. The weather vane, a 33-inch-long verdigris depiction of a dragon (with replaced wings), has its own demonic tradition.

A small watercolor of a colonial woman, riding on horseback and carrying a tulip, set an Americana record for Pennsylvania German fraktur last month when a collector paid $110,000 for it. The fraktur, a watercolor drawing 8 inches by 6 1/2 inches and inscribed "Laedy Waschington," is one of a small group said to have been painted in Bethel Township, Berks County, during the last decades of the 18th century. It is similar to one about the same size in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller collection at Colonial Williamsburg.

Reaching upward, a church's spire is a symbolic link between earth and heaven and is a practical landmark to help people find the way to worship. Dozens of steeples stand out in the Main Line sky. Probably none are as well-known as the twin spires of St. Thomas of Villanova Chapel in Villanova modeled after the Chartres Cathedral in France. The chapel, built in 1887, was designed by Edwin F. Durang of Philadelphia, who also was the architect for Our Mother of Good Counsel Roman Catholic Church in Bryn Mawr and the Sisters of Mercy Convent Motherhouse in Merion.

In the foreword he wrote for the catalog of his 40-year personal collection of antiques that Pook & Pook Inc. will sell May 5, dealer James Grievo says a love of weather vanes dominated his passion from the start. Indeed, there are 11 in the sale beginning at 10 a.m. at the gallery in Downingtown, with half of them expected to bring five-figure prices. But the 400 lots to be offered are otherwise so diverse as to suggest that Grievo, who lives and works with his wife, Sheryl, in Stockton, N.J., is consumed by the thrill of acquisition for its own sake.

RE BYKO'S column on taxes: Before taxpayers are blamed for not making the tough choices, someone should talk about the waste in government, including patronage. Politicians hand out jobs to their friends and relatives like candy. I was a resident of Philly for 44 years before I moved out. I had dealings throughout the years with the licensing, water, tax, gas, housing, legal, trash and cashier departments. The only efficient one is the cashiers. At the others, you're guaranteed a long wait.

THERE are two schools of thought about Arlen Specter's defection (or rather, homecoming) to the Democrats. The first is that he was so desperate to keep his spot in Congress, so incapable of hearing his name without the honorific "Sen. " before it, that he jumped ship to avoid being destroyed in the GOP primary. That's probably true. The other is that he no longer felt at home in a party that had become increasingly conservative, rejecting his views on abortion, stem-cell research and trillion-dollar budgets, etc. That's also probably true.

Traditional coexists with contemporary this weekend at sales offering examples of each design leaning. Prices promise to be agreeably affordable. The traditional fare will be offered by Wiederseim Associates Inc. at a Valentine's Day antiques auction beginning at 9 a.m. tomorrow at the Ludwig's Corner firehouse in Glenmoore. Among the more than 400 lots are 19th-century antiques, Civil War memorabilia, and paintings by the turn-of-the-20th-century Chester County artist George Cope.

Auctions between today and Thursday will offer fine furniture, garden and farm equipment, and American Indian baskets. They all require a little traveling. The furniture will be featured at two sales. Beginning at 5 p.m. today in Garnet Valley, Briggs Auction will feature antique and reproduction furniture, including an Empire mahogany chest on ball-and-claw feet, two inlaid mahogany bedroom sets, one with a highboy, and a mahogany Gov. Winthrop desk. The 1,500-lots sale also includes country antiques and collectibles.

Roger DiTarando built his first weather vane more than a decade ago, and it's still turning in the wind above his metalworking workshop. Three intoxicated pigs dance atop an immense puffy cloud, and the four vanes bear an N, a heart, a star, and a crescent moon. "I call it 'Three Sheets to the Wind,' " DiTarando says, adding that the weather vane - made of cast bronze, copper, brass and steel - involved an extravagant 60 pieces. Hardly marketable, he says, but he loves to sit on the porch of his Vernon, Conn.

Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko is a man of many musical personalities, and in his case that's not a bad thing. Musically, he acts as anemometer, weather vane, and wind blast; he ascertains the direction and velocity of the wind, and then creates enough variation in the patterns of the weather to affect its ultimate direction. Born in Krakow 64 years ago, Stanko is one of an aging generation of Eastern European musicians who came up during the '60s and '70s. They embraced jazz, if not clandestinely, then at least with the knowledge that they were out of their nations' cultural and political mainstream, and realizing that they were also, like it or not, part of a "subversive" cultural elite.

Freeman's Americana sale next Saturday has its playful side. Along with serious stuff (furniture, paintings, textiles, and silver), the 382 lots to be offered beginning at noon also include a dragon-shaped weather vane, a wrought-iron devil's face, and a folk-art alligator made of wood, metal, nails and bottle tops for eyes with the word litigator painted on its side. The weather vane, a 33-inch-long verdigris depiction of a dragon (with replaced wings), has its own demonic tradition.

Weather vanes aren't quite as necessary as they once were, in the days before round-the-clock weather forecasts. But fancy meteorology can't replace the subtle pleasure of watching a vane take the breeze. Although few modern houses are built with weather vanes, roosters, cows, pigs, quails, horses, and other classic and inventive designs have appeared on the market - and on city and suburban rooftops - in recent years. Installing one requires a little more effort than hanging up a wind sock, but weather vanes have more style.

Little Sister, one of the more heavily traveled fillies in the nation, notched her ninth career victory in just 22 starts yesterday when she captured the $100,000 Sweet and Sassy Stakes at Delaware Park. Weather Vane, the even-money favorite, whipped Little Sister on June 20 in the Skipat Stakes at Pimlico, but could not hold a clear lead yesterday, finishing second under Mario Pino, 2 3/4 lengths behind the winner. Vivace, shipped from Miami for the race, was a nose back in third.