The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 55

DOES IT COME WITH LIPSTICK? Hefobuilders.com Hey! Nobody told us that getting nominated for vice president means you get your own action figure complete with three count 'em, three outfits. Online company hero builders.com this week unveiled a 12-inch plastic doll of GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin with a conservative suit a slightly sexed-up schoolgirl look and as a gun-toting superhero (think Angelina Jolie in assassin mode). This is almost as good as the Hilary Clinton Nut cracker (we are not making that up). The company also offers John McCain and Barack Obama in 12-inch plastic, 8-inch plush dolls and Pez candy dispensers. But no Joe Biden.

"We are having trouble re-creating his hairline but the entire design team is working diligently on the problem," herobuilders.com prez Emil Vicale told the Philadelphia Inquirer. Hope he's getting a Super Joe outfit FRIDAY SEPT. 12, 2008 TheNewsJoumal SERVING DELAWARE Updates and latest news: www.delawareonline.com News tips 324-2884 or featuresdelawareonline.com Ml (P PB 'V, Take a few swings for charity By BETSY PRICE The News Journal Batters up! It's a two-fer Saturday at Frawley Stadium with both a Home Run Derby and a group of celebrities, corporate hotshots and friends playing the Philadelphia Phillies Ballgirls to raise money for the Delaware chapter of the Huntington's Dis 1 nrr 4 ease Society. The genetic illness causes a decline in motor skills and mental abilities and ultimately death. Former Phillies star John Wockenfuss agreed to participate because the disease runs in his wife's family.

"My wife, Fran, lost a mother at a young age to Huntington's, and then a couple of years ago, she lost her younger brother," Wockenfuss said. They moved her brother from 1 It itl 4 John Wockenfuss Boston to a nursing home near them, and in the last year of his life, the brother came to live with them. "Seeing the effects of it is pPl IF YOU GO that really opens up your eyes," Wockenfuss said. Doctors don't know what ffl on causes the disease, but a genetic test can tell someone 9 whether or not they're going WHAT: The Second Annual Home Run for a Cure home run derby and celebrity-Philadelphia Phillies Ballgirls softball game. WHEN: Saturday, 4 p.m.

for the derby and 6 p.m. for the game. WHERE: Frawley Stadium, Wilmington. to get it. Many choose not to know.

Fran Wockenfuss didn't want the test, her husband says. "Fran is 52 now, and she could have been tested, but there's no sign of it. Normally people will show it earlier," he says. Wockenfuss, who played 11 years in the majors, first in Detroit and then in Philadelphia, says he's glad to pitch in to raise money for research. "Obviously, I became very close to her brother," he says.

In iHI MIWWiil- mii- Xwj-f IMJIWI TICKETS: $8 for the game; $6 for groups of 15 or more; $25 to participate in the derby. INFORMATION: (877) 384-3721 983-8329 Courtesy ot June Gallagher John Gallagher "It's important for people looking for an outlet for their creativity to know about places like this Delaware Children's Theatre." He may pitch a few lollipops" to some of the batters, but he's not sure about going to bat himself. "They want me to take a few swings, but I don't want to hurt myself. I'm 60 now. I can still swing, but I can't see as well," he says, and then laughs.

Contact Betsy Price at 124-2HS4 or bepricedelawareonhne.com. Big Mac obsession adds up to 23,000 eaten and still counting By RUSSELL PLUMMER The (Fond du Lac, Wis.) Reporter FOND DU LAC, Wis. Fully understanding Fond du Lac's Big Mac Daddy takes more than sorting through every box of memorabilia, rapper and proof-of-purchase clutter- IF YOU GO The benefit "John Gallagher Jr. and Friends" is scheduled for 730 p.m. Sept 20 at the Delaware Children's Theatre, 1014 Delaware Ave, Wilmington.

Doors open at 6:30. Tickets are or DCTBenefit me.com. Gallagher stars in "Farragut North" Oct 22 through Nov. 29 at the Atlantic Theater in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. Details: www.

atlantictheater.org. (ft i I i By KEN MAMMARELLA The News Journal WILMINGTON Tony-winning actor John Gallagher Jr. is returning to where he started learning his craft, the Delaware Children's Theatre. "This is where I started realizing how to express myself on stage. It's important for people looking for an outlet for their creativity to know about places like this," he said.

The 24-year-old Delaware native, who is also a musician, will play at a Sept. 20 benefit for the theater. When he was 12, Gallagher debuted as the title character in "Tom Sawyer." A half-dozen shows at the theater followed, and, perhaps more important, he met Seth Kirschner (who played Huck Finn) and Adam Wahlberg there. The three formed a band, Not Now Murray, which Gallagher called an outlet for his "obsession with harmonies." Gallagher, who won the Tony award for best actor in a musical for "Spring Awakening," will perform with his parents, folk musicians June and John Gallagher and Kirschner at the benefit. He was still developing the rest of the lineup, although June said there was a possibility of a Not Now Murray reunion that night.

"Johnny wanted to come home and give back to the community that nurtured him," June said of the benefit. Gallagher expects to perform mostly his own songs (he's been writing since age 15), mostly roots music with rock 'n' roll energy, simply performed with just an acoustic guitar, a la John Prine or Steve Goodman. See GALLAGHER E3 ing his home. 11 Getty Images file At Radio City Music Hall last year, Gallagher showed off his Tony for best performer by an actor in a musical. i St Don Gorske, 54, hit his latest milestone when he ate his Big Mac last month.

He vows to continue even when his local McDonald's where his lips first met two-all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun closes for renovations. But the physically fit husband, father, traveler and author has more layers than the sandwich he adores. It's an obsession that began May 17, 1 kj omg JLlcUl LU 111CUXC ultimate statement lJ 1. T), ,,1, 1 1 1. 4-1, 1, uiux-eid muiidwjx iciuiiib xs uic iiu-iidWK 1972, when he got his first car.

AP file Don Gorske, of Fond du Lac, has By TERESA WILTZ I Til. Inside a safe box, been eating Big Macs since May 17, he has all his re- 1972, and has the receipts to prove it ceipts. Inside his head are distinct memories of how his obsessive-compulsive disorder mixes with numbers, dates and facts. Goiske became lascinatea witn numbers betore he entered school. His mother helped him track odometer readings from family cars, and he used subtraction to determine average miles traveled in a week.

Now, he is employed by Waupun Correctional Institution in Waupun and deals with dates and numbers daily. For Gorske, seeing McDonald's track its number of customers served only motivated him to track his share eaten. His desire to keep records has even trickled into a 205-page book he wrote, "22,477 Big Macs." The book -which Gorske typed using one finger and double-spaced between every word was published May 2. Asked if he thinks people think he is little crazy for eating 23,000 Big Macs, Don Gorske said he doesn't care, he is still in love. "I promised myself I would eat a Big Mac every day no matter how bad things got," he said.

"The best thing of the whole day was the Big Mac. It is not just a matter of I love them. It was just great that no matter how bad my day went whether I ate it at work or at home the Big Mac was there for me." folk who go by such monikers as AfrocousticPunk, Rape Whistle and Aunaturale22. To be black and Mohawked -or fro-hawked is to rage against both the machine and one's own community, a double dose of in-your-face out-siderism, rendering a life lived on the outskirts of the outskirts. "I wanted to be the ultimate rebel," says New York artist musicianindie label owner M.J.

Zilla, who cut her waist-length dreads a couple of years back in favor of a flat-topfro-hawk hybrid. "What better way to do it than to do the Mohawk? Socially, I'm making that statement: I'm definitely not going to conform any more "It's a symbol, a visual reference. They can say, 'Oh yeah, we knew she's Consider the Mohawk, circa 1979, straight tresses shellacked See FRO-HAWK E6 me Washington Post WASHINGTON The fro-hawk has been in, and out, and in again, but right now, in the ranir-s days ef sunder, it's enjoying a certain renaissance. You'll find it in the explosion of dreadlocks fanning out from the otherwise shaved head of a doorman at trendy Marvin in Washington. See it doing a more subdued low-rise fade on Redman as he bounces onstage with the Wu-Tang Clan recently at the "Rock the Bells" rap tour.

Or check it out, in all its glamour-girl glory, on Jack Davey, from the Los Angeles electronica duo JDavey. And stalk the gallery at Afropunk.com, the online community that sprang up in the wake of filmmaker James Spooner's 2003 documentary of the same name, and you'll encounter a bevy of fro-hawked Melvin Collins, 34, sports his twist on the Mohawk. The Washington Post GERALD MART1NEAU.