Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 35

BUYS BYKO! Dan's Discount Shoes falls victim to economy By JENICE M. ARMSTRONG armstrjphillynews.com Newsome twosome? IT'S ALL RELATIVE, SAYS GEORGES PERRIER Now Sen. Rick Santorum's being bashed in T-shirts. AFTER YEARS of being the go-to place for high quality shoes at cut-rate prices, Dan's Discount Shoes is going out of business. The store's owners say sales have been down in recent years first because of repairs along Chestnut Street that blocked customers' access, and then the decline in shopping after the Sept.

11 terrorist attacks. "It's a sign of the times," said James Van Arsdale, a co-owner of the 59-year-old store. "It's the economy. Busines has been dropping and we're not going to fight it." The loss of Dan's will be a blow to budget-minded, fashionable women who have long relied on the stores there are now two on Chestnut Street for discounted Italian shoes in unique styles. At Dan's, you could find shoes that typically cost $350 to $500 for just $85 to $125 It also is one of the only places in Center City that sells hard-to-find sizes such as size 13 for women.

Meanwhile, prices have been slashed to 50 percent off, with more discounts to come. But Van Arsdale warned, "If you wait until the end, the selection is not going to be as good." Going, going, gone The Philadelphia Trading Post, the huge furniture warehouse at 4023-25 Market had its second auction of the year yesterday. Among the items up for bid: nine -piece dining room sets, inlaid marble consoles and oriental rugs. They have auctions regularly, and prices are generally great. There's no set schedule for auctions; call 215-222-1680 to get notified about the next one.

Unlike many auctions, the Trading Post doesn't charge buyers' premiums a percentage of the purchase price of an item. Nor do they have price minimums known as reserves. Small indulgences The women's committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art will have its annual shopping event Wednesda at the Union League, 140 S. Broad St. Vendor from around the country will sell one -of-a-kind jewelry, clothes and gifts.

The cost is $10. A portion of the sales will benefit the Art Museum. For more information, call 215-684- 7930. Whips and chains, anyone? Fetishes Boutique 704 S. 5th is having a spring clearance sale.

Clearance merchandise will be 20 percent off, plus you get a second item of equal or lesser value free. The sale ends at 10 p.m. Wednesda y. CAUGHT BY cell just minutes before boarding a plane to Naples (Fla.) where he would be handed the Five Star plaque he re-earned for Le Bee-Fin, Georges Perrier denied that he and "competitor" chef Audrey Clare Taichman, 33, who runs Audrey Claire and Twenty Manning, are having a romanc e. "She is like my sister," said the 59-year-old master chef.

"There is no romanc there." He confirmed that she "stayed with me two days" during his recent jaunt to South Beach, but "she was just visiting. I like her like my sister." Audrey said any chatter on the part of their friends about a romanc is "just garbage." I'm here, I'm not queer, get used to it The People Paper, among others, has been having a gay old time bashing Sen. Rick Santorum for his less-than-artful coupling (no pun intended) of gays with polygamists, pedophiles and people who don't parallel-park properly, I think. Back in the day, to use the overused cliche people wrote their philosoph in books. That was followed by graffiti, then T-shirts, then bumper stickers, then spam, and now we're back to T-shirts, as you can see above.

We here at the People Paper owe Senator Rick a Big One. Ever since he started popping off, the gay communit has totally forgotten our hoary story about gay sex in public bathrooms. Other readers have forgotten our columnist it wasn't Abby who was way too tolerant of some female having sex with her dog. (You see what happens when we don't have an Allen Iverson story to run?) Neumann spared The food and music will be great, but not the greatest thing at tonight's 5th annual Mike Goffredo Memorial event at St. John Neumann High, organized by Kal Rudman and Bob Pan-tano.

(Starts at 6 p.m., 2600 Moore. Tickets at the door are $55.) The greatest thing will be Neumann President Father Michael Olivere making an official announc ement that the school will not close Neumann may merge with sister school St. Maria Goretti. Body double? It's "just friends" for CBS 3 anchor Denise Saunders, spotted at the sec- ber who started "Dolly Talks Hollywood," a weekly celeb segment heard Fridays on WBCB1490-AM, not Dolly Banks, as I wrote during a mental nap Perhaps WIP's TomBigby was napping, too, when he didn't volunteer that Howard Eskin is among those at the station enjoying bonuses as the result of strong ratings. A suddenly modest Eskin wouldn't talk to me about the amount To get him looking fine for his broadcast from outside the First Union Center before Our Guys beat the Hornets, the Sixers gave NBC-10's Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz a Sixers logo necktie to wear.

He couldn't, but will have his wife convert it into a bowtie, he told me. The last word A mother hearing her 5-year-old son using vulgar language decides to punish him. She tells him to go into the back yard and get a switch. He tells her, "Screw you, that's the electrician's job!" via the Internet Dan Gross contributed to this ond Sixers playoff game with bald, bearded private bodyguard Khalil. He wasn't guarding ferbody, he says.

Denise has known Khalil since last year, and he escorted her to the game when Kaye Lake, Denise's friend from D.C., had to bow out at the last minute Darling Denise and Khalil caught up with Kaye after the game at Glam. (No gunshots that night.) Make up your mind! Once we called it Channel 29. (We never called it WTXF.) In 1995, the station asked insisted, actually to be called Fox Philadelphia. Now they're back to Fox 29, as they showed last night as they unveiled their new set. The return to the past was motivated by the fact that most people kept calling them Fox 29 anyway (and some viewers confused it with the Fox News Channel).

People Paper people Councilman Frank Rizzo new WPEN950-AM show, which I wrote about on Friday, will start May 3, and will run from 4 to 6 p.m., depending on Phillies start time. He'll revive his "Rizzo to the Rescue" format, through which "we'll focus on helping people with their problems," he says It is Dolly Gar- If you hear, see or know something you want to share with e-mail Stu Bykofsky at stuspyphillynews.com or dia I up the StuSpyline: 215-854-5963. For recent columns, go to http:go.philly.combyko. Monica Malpass anchors 42. Malvern's Chris Young acts 32.

WDAS-FM's Joe "Butterball" Tamburro programs 61. Penelope Cruz cru ises 29. JayLeno gags 53. Saddam Hussein is "changed" at 66. Ann-Margret stars 62.

Cruz PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS PAGE 35 MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2003.