Show Conversations for the week ahead HOW I DO IT TRENDPATROL Muffin mania rises Monday Composer’s notes: How a hit song was The word is in for National Retail Baker’s Week starting Monday: Muffins! They’re healthier than a cookie and hotter than a croissant In the past two years 100 USA muffins stores have opened turning muffin munching into a $120 million business From The Retail Bakers of America this recipe for wheat yogurt muffins: Combine cup whole wheat flour cup wheat germ 3 Tbs packed brown sugar Vi tsp baking powder Vi Vi tsp baking soda bom At Tuesday’s Grammy Awards James “Jimmy Jam" Harris and partner Terry Lewis will be hot contenders in three different categories Harris describes the genesis of What Have You Done For Me Lately a hit song from Control the By Web Bryant “Bold snappy and spirited” — that’s how Don Wick of Tennessee’s tourism bureau describes the 32 setters and pointers vying to become the top USA bird dog in the 88th annual National Field Trial Championships Contestants strut TENNESSEE their stuff on the Grand Junction the exhibiting woodcock Ames Plantation near Silver Saddle goes to the canine panache while trailing quail and e the greatest Paw losers needn’t apply tsi CALIFORNIA STAMPING GROUNDS: “This is the last family activity in America” says Israel Bick of the International Stamp Collectors Society “I don’t tubes There’ll at Stamp be no count watching TV” honorExpo USA in Anaheim but ing the recent Voyager flight are much in demand Prices are expected to soar up to $10000 for stamps Well World’s 1893 Fair Chicago commemorating the nobody said it would be cheaper than watching TV MEAT ME IN MASS: Squeamish tourists should avoid Old Sturbridge Village during Day As will be apparent in the outdoor demonstration most every part of the animal is used — blood for sausage bristles for brushes fat for soap “It’s not the sort of thing people usually see" says Christie Kienholz of the historical village LONGHORN MARDI GRAS: Mi New Orleans has got on the island city of GalTexas when it comes to Mardi Gras The restored Strand district draws a crowd of 250000 people for its three days of events ball at including a the Tremont House HoteL The revelry reaches its peak at next Saturday’s Grand Night ftrade which will pass under a specially nothin’ veston designed Michael arch by famed architect Graves KEYSTONE CARNIVAL: mt Think skiing hits the skids 28 Poconos by March? The folks of Pennsylvania’s prove otherwise with their 1th annual Winter Carnival A highlight Skiing waiters attempt to deliver trays of unspilled champagne “If Mother Nature cooperates” says Nancy Dotter of the Poconos Vacation Bureau “we have skiing ’til the end of March” — 18 ‘USA WtEKEND'FEB 1987 Michael Leccese Janet Jackson album he and Lewis produced as well as wrote ‘We were in the studio with the drum machine and the keyboard Terry turned the drum machine on and I started playing a totally different song — a song we had written for George Benson that never made it “Terry heard that and said ‘What’s the bass line not the (whole) song just that one Now play with that the drum machine’ Then we came up with the keyboard part “When Janet came up to do the vocal we were talking about her relationships with different men And the what have you done for me lately?’ concept came up We pit By MUSIC lyrics” usually write the music says Janes “Jinny Jan” Harris MAKER: “We just kind of went in and did the lyrics in like five minutes So that was a song that comstudio “We usually write the music before the lyrics because the music is easier to come up with for us We do have titles subjects we want to deal with “It’s really easy to write the lyrics when the artist is contributing because a lot of times the artist will say something in the was actually posed in the Joe Stafford before the of conversation and it will just click You feed off of course each other’s ideas “It’s important for our artists to be our good friends because we’re like their psychiatrists They have to tell us all and then we have to make songs out of it “We do the songs to fit the artist And that’s what Janet was feeling and that’s why the song came out like that” — Regina Dennis CALENDAR Why is February short? It’s a long story We asked Cecil Adams the “smartest human being world” and author of The of Straight Dope A Compendium Human Knowledge (Ballantine $395) to tell us why February is the shortest month The answer “In the 8th Century BG a Roman king named Numa Pompilius established the basic Roman calendar Before Numa was on the job there were only 10 months March He added Januthrough December ary and February Since the Romans m the even numbers were unlucky he made seven of the months 29 and four 31 days long “But Numa needed one short month to make the total number of days work out to 355 the approximate length of 12 lunar cycles February got elected “In short February is short because it was the month nobody liked — a judgment I heartily concur with Frankly if the Romans had cut it down to 15 minutes it wouldn’t have bothered me a bit" thought days long tsp salt Ad± 1 container plain yogurt 6 Tbs melted butter 1 slightly beaten egg Vi cup raisins Stir until moist fill muffin full and cups bake at 375 for 2 minutes Makes dozen muffins 155 calories each Pouring on the graphics Say goodbye to traditional milk with their boring graphics The carton for VITAL 15 is a of fresh extravaganza roses sunglasses tennis visor a date book and oh yes a tall glass of milk “It’s for today’s active woman” says Jerry Berman of Sidjakov Ber- man & Gomez the San design company that packaged and named VITAL 15 a cartons milk from the California Milk Advisory Board Such premium packaging increases the retail price of a carton by about 10 cents tells Sugar Ray Leonard groan men fighL why |