The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 31

ANN LANDERS Friend stays by her side despite depression, 5D Living SECTION Calendar: 4D Horoscopes: 4D Comics: 5D Friday, December 4, 1992 1 Features Editor: Joe Cutis, 660-1865 H3SS He's the 'Big Bird' of the '90s Dee Tom Hardie grandparenting "Barney is a dinosaur from our imagination. And when he's tall He's what we call A dinosaur sensation." "Barney and Friends" theme song sung to the tune of "Yankee Doodle" Barney sells If your kids can't get enough of "Barney Friends" Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. on Vermont ETV, you can tune in this Saturday and again on Dec. 13 from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

for a Barney-athon as part of the public television station's fundralsing effort. There are also JO "Barney and The Backyard Gang" videos available. Meanwhile, Barney is creating a marketing sensation: A stuffed animal version of Barney is one of the hottest toys this Christmas. A total of i.2 million Barney stuffed animals and puppets are expected to sell this year. He's the No.

1 seller for the entire JCPenney Co. (stores and catalog). Prices start at $16.95 for a 12-inch Barney, or 19.95 for the more popular 14-inch size. JCPenney In University Mall has a major display offering everything from the stuffed Barneys and Baby Bop, a female "baby" who appears on the show, to T-shirts, sweats, raincoats, socks and yes, even underwear. i The creators of "Barney and Friends" are publishing 13 Barney books this year, working -on a network TV special for next fall, a feature film and albums.

And In a few years, they want to take him on the road, How well any of these products will do depends on how well Barney does, says Carolyn Shapiro, senior editor of Toy and Hobby World magazine in New York. "Barney has great potential," says Shapiro. "But his success off screen depends on how well he does as a character. If people get sick of him that's the end of that." What Barney has going fpr him is that he's a dinosaur and wholesome at that. Being a dinosaur makes him a hit with kids, being wholesome makes him popular with parents.

Barney toys, video tapes, and selected apparel Items can also be ordered through the Lyons Group. The address Is: 300 E. Bethany Road, P.O. Box 8000, Allen, Texas 75002. Or call (800) By Nancl Hellmlch Gannett News Service If Barney's theme song plays over and over in your head, then you're probably a kid or the parent of one who's hooked on "Barney and Friends," public TV's top show for the preschool set.

The star of the PBS show is a huge purple Tyfannosaurus Rex who bounces and sings with several exuberant children. His favorite phrases include "stuuuuuuuupendous" and "super-de-duper." He shrugs and hugs and sings songs like "I Love You." The result: Kids love him back. "He's pretty cool. He's funny," says Brian Eppes, 13, who plays Michael on the show. "Barney and Friends," aimed at kids ages 1 to 6, premiered on public television last April.

Within one month it had 1.5 million viewers and was the No. 1 rated children's show on PBS. When PBS announced it wasn't renewing "Barney" last summer, programmers and viewers wailed and the show was snatched from the jaws of death. It's now in pre-production for 20 more episodes. But viewers won't see the new shows until next September.

What is it about Barney that turns kids on who tune him in? "He thinks like them. He celebrates the child and childhood," says Sheryl Leach, one of the creators and executive producers of "Barney and Friends." "Barney is magic, and he uses his magic for fun," says Bob West, the voice of Barney. David Joyner bounces around in the 30-pound costume. Barney may be big now, but he 4 IP' fU X. Yli "1 1 j.

i yl; D'V. It -j 'vwtf: Age's just a matter of mind If any of the estimated 60 million grandparents in the United States are looking for the ideal present to give themselves this Christmas, we can recommend a fascinating new book, "Over the Hill at 40 and Other Outrageous Lies." In this detailed but highly readable book, Florence and Al Tauber, a successful husband-andt-wife team of more than 40 years, argue: "Aging doesn't have to mean decrepitude. The biggest part of staying healthy and vigorous is your state of mind." The Taubers, who have one son and a grandson, Alan, 1 3, have taken direct aim at what they label the "Third Age" generation, the "people who have been pushed aside because of age discrimination." "We should be judged by our functional age, not by our chronological age in years," Florence Tauber, a youthful, dynamic 66, told us a few days ago. "In some societies the elderly are not defined by chronological age, but by an achieved status such as becoming a grandparent, or being appointed to a council of elders. But in Western societies today the elderly are automatically defined as all those over 65, regardless of status or competence," she added.

On the subject of grandparenting, she told us: "Grandparenting is much more rewarding -We have children at the wrong time, when we are trying to find our own way in life and grow up ourselves. We should all hope that our children forgive us for growing up on them." The Taubers stress, "Instead of thinking about retirement as a period of inactivity, think instead of it as an opportunity to discover new career ideas." Their book, which also serves as a resource for other current books on the aging process, includes such chapters as: "Aging on Hold," "Memory," "Incontinence," "Sex," "Heart Disease," "Job Strategies for People With Disabilities" and "The Second 50 Years." Available from Third Age Press, 1075 N.W. Murray Road, Suite 277, Portland, 97229-9906. Call (800) 247-6553. $14.95 plus $3 shipping and handling.

Dear Dee and Tom: I would like to respond to the gentleman from Burling-ton, who didn't want to get saddled baby-sitting with grandchildren yet un-. born, by relating a true story. One middle-aged woman, when informed that her oldest son and his wife were expecting her first grandchild, informed them that she did not want to be "stuck baby-sitting" after the baby came. She said she had already raised her children. The young couple solemnly listened to her, and true to her announcement they did not bring their child to her.

Instead, "Junior" was taken often to his maternal grandparents and only on rare and special occasions to this particular grandmother. Years later, this grandmother has now repeatedly asked the child's parents to bring him over, but they don't. The moral of this story is that you can't possibly know before the first evolved simply enough. Five years ago, Leach, an elementary teacher in Allen, Texas, and mother of a very active 2-year-old, Patrick, noticed there weren't any videos that held a toddler's attention. She decided to create her own video starring a teddy bear.

One day she took Patrick to a dinosaur exhibit where he fell in love with Ty-rannosaurus Rex. She talked to her video partners about changing the iL i character to a dinosaur. Producer Kathy Parker said Barney should be friendly and have no claws. Dennis DeShazer named him Barney. Many kids adore the show scheduling their day around viewing times.

Diane Adair, a mother of a 6-year-old in Fresno, thinks the music is a key to the show's success. She also likes the fact it focuses on one topic for each program ecology, nutrition, exercise, friendship. "With 'Sesame Street' they might do a little blurb on animals and then they move on. It's more of a collage, where on 'Barney' they only do one specific topic." But some parents find "Barney" sappy and annoying. "They find it overly simple and sugary with a home-grown feci to it," admits Leach.

"A lot of children's programming that I have seen was designed to appeal to parents as well as to the kids. We don't really think about what the parents are going to like and dislike." Adds DeShazer: "It's difficult for adults to see the show though the child's eye. We encourage adults to watch their children watching the show." There are 30 episodes of "Barney and Friends," currently being shown on Vermont ETV, with 20 more in production for the fall. "Barney" airs Monday-Friday at 9 a.m. 'Brook' bubbles with nature Cold allergy is nothing to sneeze at By Douglas Birch The Baltimore Sun Many of us dread December, flinch at snowflakes and cower from the cold.

But for some, the cold may be more than a matter of personal discomfort. It may be a deadly threat. For a small group of people, perhaps less than 1 percent of the population, a rapid drop in temperature can cause an allergic reaction, said Dr. Martin D. Valentine of the Johns Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Center in Baltimore.

Some people develop painful, itchy rashes. In severe cases, sufferers wheeze, faint, or experience a swelling of the windpipe. For all sufferers, there is discomfort. For swimmers, the sudden shock of cold water can be fatal. "It's not the absolute temperature, it's the temperature change," Valentine said.

A drop from the balmy 70s inside your home to 20 or 30 degrees just outside the front door can raise welts. A dive into a cold pool or the ocean can be much worse for allergic swimmers who may go into shock and drown. To test for the allergy, he said, hold an ice cube against the skin. Anyone with the condition will get an itchy welt, resembling a mosquito bite and rising -inch or more above the skin. grandchild arrives how you will feel when that child lies in your arms.

So, don't say things that you'll likely regret later. Gaylene Lelko, Vallejo, Calif. Grand Remark of the Week: My daughter Maggie, of Far Hills, N.J., recently saw that her grandson, Campbell, 4, had collected a few coins in his pocket. She asked him, "What are you going to do with all that money?" Campbell immediately answered: "I'm going to send it to Bill Clinton. He needs it!" Jody Harvey, Ruxton, Md.

Review: "Blood Brook: A Naturalist's Home Ground," by Ted Levin. Chelsea Green Publishing $24. 95; 207 pp. Ey C.L. Gilbert Special to the Free Press It's often easy to imagine that the farther one gets from home, the more interesting and fascinating the world becomes; the local scene can seem boring and routine especially in the gray, leaden atmosphere of late fall.

But that may be because we aren't looking closely enough. "Blood Brook," Fairlee resident Ted Lavin's latest collection of essays, provides that close-up look, and eloquently and subtly demonstrates that there is as much wonder and adventure to be found in our back yards as in any exotic locale; we just have to keep our senses alert. observation. Writers, it seems, are hell bent on making sure the reader knows exactly what they think about a particular thing, and expanding small observations into deep ponderings about themselves and the condition of mankind. Levin spares us these often-anguished tangents and concentrates on the scientific details missing from his more musing essayist peers.

But "Blood Brook" is far from being a biology textbook. It sparkles with lively writing that infects the reader with Levin's bubbling enthusiasm for the events he witnesses. Like an experienced teacher, he gently inserts facts into the narrative, allowing the reader to learn without being taught. And by his example, he makes us See NATURALIST, 2D Naturalist and keen-eyed observer of life around him, Levin spends his time exploring the crannies and crevices of his home, his yard, the woods around him and Blood Brook the stream that flows through his property on its way to nearby Lake Fairlee. "Blood Brook" is a tightly crafted journal of observations ranging from the mating habits of dragonflies and the unique practical design of milkweed, to the demise of the eastern chestnut and the coming of "civilization" to James Bay, Ontario.

His examinations expose a galaxy of wonders that are right under our noses and help to make the ordinary extraordinary. Though deeply personal, "Blood Brook" avoids the introspection that seems so popular these days in natural history Tom and Dee Hardie welcome questions or suggestions short, about 100-150 words with a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Send to P.O. Box 33, Charlotte, Vt. 05445.

Their column appears Fridays in the Living section..