Standard-Speaker from Hazleton, Pennsylvania • Page 47

Standard-Speaker, Sunday, February 16, 1897 E7 Dancin- Hobbies (Continued from Pi i again? Dowburd asked. "Again," came the reply. The music began again, and 'Botanical prints' latest issue again, ujr mm iuuiui sung, most students moved smoothly. One couple cutting up the floor was Carl and Dorothy of nnnvni1io By SYD KRONISH For the Associated Press A oo in Dowburd had them demonstrate the proper dance position for the rest of the class. mm "Look at the way his arm ia and the way her hand is just resting on it," Dowburd said.

They moved effortlessly across the floor while looking at each other, not their feet. student who needs hands-on instruction. Soon everybody seems to be getting it. When the music stops, they give each other a round of applause. Then it's back on the floor for an open dance.

The students practice what they have learned. "It's a good form of exercise and it's fun to learn," said student Dorothy Staudenmeier of Conyngham. She and her husband, Jim, decided to give ballroom dancing a try. "She felt she would enjoy it, and felt I should enjoy it," said, laughing. "We listen to oldies music all the time on the radio, and we have oldies music at home," Dorothy said.

"When you hear it, you want to dance to it." After the session, the instructors critiqued their class. "Good job for the first time," Dowburd said. "We straightened out those people with two left feet. I was impressed. At least the people had a really good time." In the next few weeks, the class will learn the tango, cha cha, and Jitterbug.

So remember, look your partner in the eye. And watch out for those toes. ASSOCIATED PRESS The U.S. Postal Service has issued two 32-cent stamps depicting the flowering of plant life and featuring 17th-century illustrations by Maria Sibylla Merian. Independence celebrated Palau, a former U.S.-administered Trust Territory in the Western Pacific, has released a set of se-tenent (attached) 20-cent stamps to celebrate its second anniversary of independence.

The new stamps bridge Palau's links with its Japanese period (1918-1944) and its current status as a sovereign nation, now a popular tourist attraction to modern Japanese and Americans. The stamps reproduce two paintings created by the contemporary Kirie artist Koh Sekiguchi. Kirie is a drawing or painting in which the artist expresses his image by cutting paper with an edged tool. The simplicity creates a cultural design of beauty, say the postal officials of Palau. The stamps of Palau are available at your local dealer.

Ten most popular stamps What are the 10 most popular U.S. commemorative stamps? The first is the Elvis Presley issue of 1993 124 million. The second is the Wildlife set of 1992. Following in order are the Rock 'n' Roll issue of 1993, Moon Landing 1994, Civil War 1995, Legends of the West 1994, Marilyn Monroe 1995, Summer Olympics 1992, Centennial Olympics 1996 and Space Fantasy 1993. The flowering of plant life an unusual display of metamorphosis comes alive on the latest pair of 32-cent stamps to be released by the U.S.

Postal Service. The new stamps, labeled "The Merian Botanical Prints," feature two 17th-century illustrations by German artist Maria Sibylla Merian. Her pioneering compositions helped shed light on the mysterious transitions of plants and insects as they develop throughout their life cycles. The designs are being issued in self-adhesive booklets of 15 and 20. Each booklet includes both designs printed side by side.

The stamp artwork displays a flowering pineapple with two varieties of roaches and a citron festooned with moth, larva, pupa and beetle. The subjects were selected from more than 70 engravings housed at the National Museum of Women in the Arts located in Washington, D.C. The National Museum of Women in the Arts is a private, nonprofit museum established in 1981 to enhance the awareness of women's artistic endeavors. Merian was one of the great female artists of the 17th century who created a scientific record chronicling the metamorphic process at work. You may order your first day of issue postmarks by mail.

Purchase the new convertible booklets of stamps at your local post office. Affix the stamps to your envelopes, "I come from a non-dancing family," Carl said. He explained that he last waltzed more than 60 years ago. "I didn't really have to drag him out here," Dorothy said. "If you enjoy music and you feel the beat, you're body just wants to move to the beat." "I just like to have my arms around my woman," Carl said, beaming.

The instructors moved to another dance: the foxtrot. After demonstrating the simple steps, the students are turn- 1 il CI mi address the envelopes and place in a larger envelope addressed to: Merian Botanical Prints Stamps, Postmaster, 900 Brentwood Rd. NE, Washington, D.C. 20066-9991. Requests for first day of issue cancellations must be postmarked by June 1 For stamp collecting purposes, you may purchase the self-adhesive vendible booklet of 15 by calling 800-STAMP-24 or by writing to the Philatelic Fulfillment Center, U.S.

Postal Service, P.O. Box 41963, Kansas City, Mo. 64141-6636. The self-adhesive convertible booklet of 20 is available at your local post office. eu muse un uie uuur again, i ne instructors hover around, ready to correct any mistakes.

They occasionally partner up with a FASHION The Story of Creation told to kids, by a kid EYEWEAR By LARRY BLASKO Associated Press I CI 1 1 1 Every seat I I Ff I IrJll Every Performance. I I Every production. I I STANLEY 4 I 1 1 I I I II 1 WitM, I I II I i7M.iror I I AT AFFORDABLE PRICES 17 pxiOO in 1 lllilli'il'll: Illl-i i In both the read-it-to-me and' the exploring modes, the words of the story are highlighted as the narrator reads them. Navigation in the story is by clicking on either a left or right page corner. Presentation shows no discernible denominational tilt, and God is never pictured, so the software should pass muster for all flavors of doctrine.

The adaptation of the story to multimedia was done by Ruth Tiller, a children's author. On the Windows side, The Story of Creation wants to see Windows 3.1 or 95, a 486SX or higher processor, double-speed CD-ROM drive, a Sound Blaster or compatible sound card and an SVGA monitor. In Mac-land, it's System 7.0 or later and Power Macintosh, Iici, LCIII Performa 400 or higher, same CD-ROM and monitor requirements as for Windows. Eight megabytes of RAM is required for either machine. Installation was easy, and the software won points for wanting a 256-color display, but coping nicely with my display.

Little Ark Interactive also wins points for its pricing. A street price of about $20 recognizes that software has to compete in the family budget with kids' shoes, clothing and doctor visits. For information, call Little Ark Interactive at 800-397-4240. The Bible is an international best-seller, and the Creation is one of its best-known and most argued stories. But it isn't kids' stuff.

Or it wasn't, until Little Ark Interactive came along with some very creative software for a multimedia computer, either Windows or Macintosh. The Story of Creation, from Little Ark, a Random HouseBroder-bund company, is told in a clever and amusing way for kids ages 3 to 7. The narrator has a child's voice, which is a nice touch. With the read-it-to-me option, the narrator tells the story, enhanced with suitably clever animations as night and day are created, the heavens, land, oceans and all life. Or you can explore the story page by page.

Here, clicking on an object triggers an animated sight gag and original music. The rock, for example, does rock 'n' roll. A palm tree grabs a couple of coconuts for a halter top and a mound of grass for a skirt before doing the hula. All sorts of other such things abound and will trigger giggles galore. Adam and Eve appear, but discreetly behind bushes in the distance, and there's no unpleasantness with that snake and the apple.

For that matter, there's no unpleasantness anywhere. At each page, as a class of things are created, the child is reminded "God said That's ila nil iffl Klin; Hill i i i i II I TODD PLITTAssociated Press Gregory Mosher, left, producing director, and Edgar Rosenblum, executive director, stand outside the revived Circle in the Square theater in New York. Y-i i 4n 'Mill1 urn 'H n.iiih i'lflllilli'1 lilifilliir:" v.r. ulii'iiilii Kiillli -unlit i ill i 'M-n lOilui i llllKII: Theater Boscov's Optical is now a U.S. Healthcare provider (not available in Dover, Wilmington, Binghamton, Johnstown and Salisbury).

We are pleased to announce our acceptance of NVA and Managed Vision LTD eyecare program in PA and NJ, and MVP eyecare program in NY. (Continued from El) an oblong, in-the-round space, defines what types of shows work best there, Mosher said, although he prefers using a semi-circle configuration, not a full circle. "I don't think this is a space of extreme naturalism," he added. OFF Tomb Raider, Robotron offer exploring, shooting REGULAR PRICED li UL7 A IN 9 "I think you need language in this space. And its flexible 600 to 700 number of seats is the magic number.

Beyond that, you cannot see the actors' eyes, and I like seeing them. It's not the theater of gesture. "Ironically, the plays for which this theater is best known, the plays of Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill, are the trickiest ones to do here." "Stanley" has no set run, according to Mosher, who hopes to get at least a three-month run out of it. "Who knows?" he responded when asked its chances of success. "We will find out.

The audiences will tell us how long to run it. "There's a common mistake that you extend shows to make I 1.1 Vr.11 av. AIDS PLUS 2 FREE RONTTSF.S 1 Mosher has championed the idea of inexpensive tickets since he headed Lincoln Center Theater in the 1980s, producing such hits as "The House of Blue Leaves" and "Anything Goes." The theater had a cheap-seat policy and a flexible subscription plan that didn't lock its audiences into a specific Tuesday or Thursday every eight or 10 weeks. "The one thing we never discovered was: Could you consistently attract a young audience and the question has haunted me," Mosher said. "If the answer was there would be no future to the theater.

Hence my much misquoted statement, The theater is What I was saying was: 'If you don't start finding a young audience, it will eventually die Like a Greek chorus foretelling doom, Rosenblum echoed Mosher's prediction. "We have skipped two or three generations of people not going to the theater," Rosenblum said. "We are giving them a signal that we are making the theater accessible." Besides advertising in traditional venues such as newspapers and magazines, Circle is mailing postcards to potential subscribers and advertising in New York movie theaters, re-' cord stores and clubs. "Maybe we will take up all the ads on subway cars for two weeks or maybe suburban train stations," Rosenblum added. "We want to find those people who haven't been coming to the theater and how we can best communicate with them." As for Circle's new identity, don't look for it just yet.

"Theater identities emerge only after you have done three, four, five plays," Mosher said. "And no matter how eloquent you are in describing your theater, its identity is what happens at 8 o'clock at night." wmmmmmmmmmmm AIDS YOU PAY ONLY Premiere in-the-ear (Standard) or Spectrum FS aid at t' mir rpmilar Inw nrirs nf S499 (Fittinn fee indiirtfiri I 399 r-. -r 0 CANAL AIDS Spectrum CA or Premiere Canal Aid at our regular low price of $699. (Fitting fee included.) YOU PAY ONLY $599 until you are dangling by her fingertips from a cliff. Or are poised to leap across a seemingly unleapable chasm.

Or have to swim. Or are blazing away with a pair of automatics. You'll need to master the camera, which lets you look everywhere. And everywhere is where you need to look. Clues to help you move through the game are hidden around each level.

Without them, you're stuck. Tomb Raider is amazing, a huge and engrossing epic adventure youH be playing long after you've zipped through lesser games. If Tomb Raider sounds a little tame, give Robotron a try. It's one of the purest shooters ever created. Robotron goes back to the early days of gaming.

But the new one is really new, with wonderful 3-D effects and a camera that zooms in and out of the action. Your job is basically to save humanity from invading robots and other unpleasant monsters. To do that, you travel through level after level. In each, you're placed in an arena with a gun and your wits. You have to scramble around the battlefield, shooting everything that moves.

I have no idea how long this game is I got to level 73 before I finally ran out of lives and time. It was several hours of mindless gunfire a great way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon. By WILLIAM SCHIFFMANN Associated Press If you want to know why people love video games, take a look at Tomb Raider. This epic adventure from Core and Eidos for Sony's PlayStation is part movie, part shooter, part puzzler and all entertainment. And to top it all, the main character is a woman.

Lara Croft is her name, and she will join the list of great fictional adventurers, right up there with Indiana Jones. In Tomb Raider, she's hunting for the lost civilization of Atlantis and Scion, a priceless artifact. Although she has been hired to find Scion, Lara knows her boss, Jaqueline Natla, is a bit on the shady side. And she also knows, much as Indiana Jones did, that she has competition on her quest. The stage is set.

To find Atlantis, Lara visits many lands and has many adventures. I just wish she had dressed more warmly. Tomb Raider is a vast, dazzling tour de force, leading you through a fascinating 3-D world, throwing in a bit of violence along with complex puzzles and acres and acres of things to see and do. Controlling Lara Croft is one of the best parts of the game. She seemingly has a million moves, and youH need them all to get through in one piece.

Wait YOU PAY ONLY COMPLETE IN-THE-CANAL AIDS Spectrum CIC at our regular low price of $1249. (Fitting fee included.) FREE 2ND YEAR WARRANTY WITH HEARING AID PURCHASE 1149 money on muse suuwo. w-tend shows to make them available to the public for a longer period of time and to move money through the theatrical economy. We don't have that profit motive. Profit doesn't have to be your motive for extending if you are a non-profit theater because you are always going to end up being subsidized.

I don't care how successful you are." Rosenblum said Circle has a budget of about $7 million for the next year and hopes to be out of Chapter 11, have its finances reorganized, make a settlement and move forward by the end of May, although it could take longer. What Mosher and Rosenblum are promising their subscribers are three plays over a year, but with no exact dates set for the next two offerings. One of the productions, though, will be an adaptation of the "Odyssey." FREE 1 YEAR OF BATTERIES (12 PACKS) WITH HEARING AID PURCHASE Expires 3197. Free cleaning and servicing of all makes and models. Risk-free 30-day home trial.

Certain in-the-ear instruments may not be appropriate for some hearing impairments. Appointments must be scheduled during sale period to hold this price. It you're not completely satisfied, return your hearing aid for a full refund and pay only a $25 fitting fee for each hearing Certain promotions are not approved by some insurance companies. Optical and hearing aids not available in Moorestown, Echelon and Levittown. Please call for an appointment.

Laurel Mall 455-9561, ext. 230 OPTICAL HEARING AID CENTER Optical and Hearing Aid Departments closed Sundays..