The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 140

The Palm Beach Post SECTION MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1989 Accent pbi mrr-TiTir-p'-y turn b.i Latchkey kids face UF scandal a real sniglet instiGator 0 temptations TV I'm not having fun yet reading about my Florida Gators. Every headline heralds another scandal. The news lately has been so bad that the i Florida Fightin' Gators have become the Florida Frightened Gators. I mean, what do you call a continuing scandal entailing recruiting violations, player misconduct and financial irregularities? How about Gator-gate. Yeah, that's the ticket, we'll start a word game to cure i ami jfe.

Ron Wiggins a tsw.i,-."'- -j. By LAWRENCE KUTNER New York Times News Service Recent national surveys estimate that 2 million to 6 million children under the age of 13 regularly care for themselves without adult supervision after school or on weekends. For almost all parents of such latchkey children "children in self-care," as some researchers call them the decision to leave them alone is unwanted but unavoidable. High quality after-school programs in large cities, especially for older, children, have not kept up with the demand and, if not publicly financed; can be prohibitively expensive. There are proportionally more programs in the suburbs, according to child-care researchers.

Transportation to and from those programs, however, is ai common problem. A recent study found that eighth-i graders left at home alone more than 11 hours a week were twice as likely to use alcohol, tobacco and marijuana as children the same age who spent all their time after school supervised by adults. The study, which surveyed about 5,000 pupils in Southern California, was done by the University of Southern California and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The survey found that of the eighth graders who spent 11 hours or more week caring for themselves, 23 percent had consumed more than 11 drinks of alcohol in their lifetime, 13 percent had smoked more than one pack of cigarettes and 24 percent had tried marijuana. Among those who always had an adult caring for them at home, 11 percent had consumed more than 11 drinks of alcohol, 6 percent had smoked more than a pack of cigarettes and 14 percent had tried marijuana.

"This increased risk appeared no matter what the sex, race or socioeconomic status of the children," said Dr. Jean L. Richardson, an associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California who directed the study. She said parents should be concerned but not panicked by the findings, since a majority of children who cared for themselves after school did not abuse alcohol, tobacco or marijuana. The challenge for the parents of latchkey children is to make the most of an undesired situation by working out ways that the children can benefit from the time they spend alone.

-Jl For a small proportion of children, especially those in middle or junior high school, there is evidence that spending time alone after school can be better than participating in an inadequate or inappropriate adult-supervised after-school program. But child-development researchers emphasize that children who flourish when left alone after school are the exception rather than the norm, Michelle Pfeiffer plays sultry singer Susie Diamond in 'The Fabulous Baker a film about relationships. Not just a pretty face Juicy roles saved Michelle Pfeiffer from decorative oblivion these orange and blue blues. We'll call it Gatorlets with a tip of the freshman beanie to Sniglets inventor Rich Hall. PrevariGator: A coach who lies under oath to National College Athletic Association investigators.

What do you call septic tank cleaners who charter a bus to University of Florida games? Roto-Gator-Rooters. Or Roto-Rooter-Ga-tor-Rooters. By the same token, Golden Gators: of alum who live in San Francisco and charter jets for Florida games. PromulGators: of undergraduates all dressed up for the biggest dance of the year. LitiGators: of law school grads who challenge NCAA sanctions in court pro bono.

GardenGators: Fans who forever stroll down the primrose path of believing that this year will be The Year of the Gator. InterroGators: Loyal but more realistic alums who ask: "Will there ever be a Year of the Gator?" PearlyGators: Fundamentalist Gators who base their hopes of a Southeastern Conference championship on prayer and little else. r. TailGators: Fans who best embody the Gator spirit by enjoying pregame tailgate parties at Florida Field. NavlGator: Even more spirited than tail-Gators naviGators get as close to Florida Field as their boats will take them, and then have their tailgate party on the transom while catching the game on the radio.

IrriGators and fumiGators InstiGator: A disgruntled Florida Athletic Department employee who leaks allegations of rule violations to the press. DeniGator: Almost as bad as an instiGator. DeniGators are quick to bet against Florida, especially when they meet Georgia in the Gator Bowl for the all but annual humiliation. IrriGator: A Gator grown short-tempered and quarrelsome from bad publicity occasioned by the rumor-mongering media. Basketball coach Norm Sloan comes to mind.

FumiGator: Gator driven past the point of irriGation (see Coach Norm Sloan above). Gatorbaiters: Those would put their big fat ugly beaks at risk by teasing a Gator about recent events. MediaGator: A UF journalism graduate who will never stoop to mongering, unless, of course, the alleged impropriety involves a Florida State University Seminoles athletic team. SurroGators and profliGators Which reminds us: HymNole: Song books for devout FSU fans. SurroGator: Florida Gators happy to take Nole coeds out to dinner, etc.

when their boyfriends are too tired. ProfliGator: SurroGators who spend more time in Tallahassee than in Gainesville. ed by a friend, Steve Kloves. Still, coming on the heels of last year's acclaimed triple-header Married to the Mob, Tequila Sunrise and Dangerous Liaisons (which earned her a supporting-actress Oscar nomination) this movie represents not only a low-key choice on Pfeiffer's part but a risky one, as well. "Then it suddenly dawned on me that I had to sing," she continued.

"It was a little too late to have any second thoughts, so I just had to work really hard on the voice. I was really nervous about whether I could get the voice into shape in such a short period of time. I barely made it." Though Pfeiffer's first major movie role was in the 1982 musical Grease 2, she had no professional singing experi- Please see PFEIFFER4E By BOB STRAUSS Los Angeles Daily News 1 LOS ANGELES Coming off of one of the most successful years any movie actor could wish for, why did Michelle Pfeiffer opt to appear in The Fabulous Baker Boys, a determinedly modest relationship film from a first-time director? The answer is simple. It is a movie about people. And they did not make her sing People.

She did, however, have to wrap her surprisingly dulcet vocal cords around that hoariest of cocktail-lounge re- quests, Feelings. It is all in an evening's work for Susie Diamond, a former escort-service employee who adds new life and new tension to the long-running playing act of Jack and Frank Baker by real-life brothers Jeff and 'Then it suddenly dawned on me that I had to sing. It was a little too late to have any second thoughts, so I just had to work really hard on the MICHELLE PFEIFFER Beau Bridges, respectively). A sultry but strong-willed amateur with an uncanny aptitude for such dis-missible but tough-to-sing tunes as Ten Cents a Dance, The Look of Love and Makin' Whoopee, Susie catches the eye of bachelor Jack, although his cagey heart remains more elusive. "I reacted very emotionally to the script and to the character and ted to doing it," Pfeiffer said.

Baker Boys was written and direct Giant strides in sneaker tech inflate bladders which run down the tongue and around the ankle. It prcK vides a perfect, custom fit for the 1 1 Both shoes come with a small pump that allows the wearer to inflate different portions of the shoe. Locally, both shoes will be available at most Athlete's Foot, Champs and jTv Palm Beach Post Staff and Wire Reports The inflatable sneaker is coming to a store near you at $170 a pair and up. Looking to outduel each other in high-tech designs and high-end prices, market leader Nike Inc. and No.

2 Reebok International Ltd. are introducing shoes that literally inflate to fit your feet. Nike is currently shipping its Air Pressure basketball shoes to stores for $175. Reebok has introduced The Pump, slated to be shipped to stores in 1990 at $169.95. piayei.

An air release valve allows the shoes to be deflated. "We realize this is not a mass! market shoe," said Liz Dolan; spokeswoman for Beaverton, Ore. based Nike. "It's specifically for basAi ketball players with unusual anklet problems." Foot Locker stores. "Traditionally basketball players have oddly shaped feet.

Years of athletic training, broken bones and the fact that they are so tall all make finding a well-fitting shoe very difficult," says John Morgan, senior director of marketing for Reebok. "The Pump has a basketball emblem on the tongue that can be pressed to The Pump by Reebok can be inflated to fit your feet. The shoe will be available in 1990 for $169.95. Please see SNEAKERS4E; Television helping legitimize today's varied families i7 awe families. He thinks it is good for people to see the problems of families on TV because it makes them feel less alone or unique.

"It's a consolation of sorts to see a lot of other people in our boat," Tarantino said. "It may not solve our problems, but if we can study and watch each other, even on TV, we can get some insights on how to handle our problems." This season on The Cosby Show, Cliff and Clair Huxtable become stepgrandparents. Their daughter, Denise, marries a divorced Navy man with a 3-year-old daughter. Then, Denise and the child move in with the Huxtables while her husband is on duty. The show's producers weren't trying to make a social stand they were aiming for humor.

"We never try to contrive anything," said Gary Kott, supervising producer for the show and one of its three writers. "It seemed a natural way to get the Denise character back on the show. She is a young woman who, despite the logic and good common sense of her parents, has her own way of thinking. She was Please see TV F.MILIES4E By BARBARA SOMERVILLE Palm Beach Post Staff Writer In 1957, television brought us the Cleavers, the ideal American family. Back then, Dad wore a tie to dinner and the biggest problem in the world was the Beav.

Then came the TV families of the '70s like The Brady Bunch, which brought two widowers and their kids together in one big happy family. Divorce was an unusual prime-time occurrence in the families of 1970. But today on TV, as in real life, a family can be as diverse as the extended Huxtable family on Tfie Cosby Show or the family on the new series Life Goes On, which features a teenage boy with Down's syndrome and a parent who has been divorced and has a child from the previous marriage. By showing real family situations including divorce therapists say television helps legitimize the varied families of today, which are a far cry from the Cleavers. Psychologist Santo Tarantino, a professor at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, said a study based on 1988 data from the Census Bureau indicates only 15 percent of the population still live in nuclear 4 x- S3 Television brought together two widowers and their children and made them one big family in 'The Brady On 'The Cosby Denise marries a divorced Navy man with a 3-year-old daughter, Olivia..