Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 45

no LPjLaj Ann Landers, 3-D Television, 7-D Comics, 8-D section FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1988 HD ST. PETERSBURG TIMES Hypertension: blacks at risk One in every three black Americans has high blood pressure, known medically as hypertension. Blacks are five to seven times more likely to have high blood pressure than are whites. Percentage of total U.S. population with high blood praaauro Parcantaga of total black population with high blood praaaura Storybook elephant lives on, from father's pen to son's I (soml 1 By GARRET CONDON Hartford Counnt Laurent de Brunhoff (left) revived the stories of Babar the Elephant, invented by his father, Jean de Brunhoff, who died 45 years ago.

I' American Black adults Americans MIDDLETOWN, Conn. Day after day, on the second floor of a white, Victorian-era house on the Wesleyan University campus here, a tall, trim, 62-year-old man carries on with an impeccably dressed, 57-year-old elephant. "He's a companion," explains the youthful Laurent de Brunhoff, his Parisian accent intact after more than two years in Middletown. "He's the one with whom I can invent this world of fantasy." This is no private world, but the realm of Babar (pronounced bah-BAHR) the Elephant, Three generations of children have grown up reading the books that feature the wise, gentle elephant in the Kelly green suit and his family and friends in the elephant city of Celesteville. There are nearly 30 Babar books in 18 languages today, as well as films, calendars and stuffed animals.

Yet the story of Laurent de Brun-hoff's relationship with Babar is more complicated than the usual storybook stuff. Made famous by Jean de Brunhoff, Laurent's father, Babar was taken over by Laurent after his father's death. Over the years, Laurent's Black men are 33 times more likely to have high blood pressure than are white men. In the Southeast, the death rate for strokes for black males is 125 per 100,000 people compared with 67 deaths per 100,000 for the total population and 87 deaths per 100,000 for black men living In other regions. Black women living in the Southeast also lead the nation in stroke deaths with 98 per 100,000, compared with 77 per 100,000 among black women living in other regions of the country and 62 per 100,000 for white women.

Sourca: National Hurt Lung and Blood InstituH changing relationship with his father's work and memory has had its effect on Babar's kingdom. And even Laurent de Brunhoffs latest life change his move to America in 1985 to live with author and Wesleyan Professor Phyllis Rose is reflected in the most recent Babar volume. Babar the Elephant first arrived one evening in Paris in 1931 when Laurent de Brunhoffs mother told him and his younger brother, Matthieu, a story of an orphaned elephant who came to the big city. The brothers were so taken with Timet art EARL TOWERY Random Houm I In the latest addition to the Babar story, last year's Babar's Little Girl, Laurent de Brunhoff adds new daughter Isabella. Please see BABAR 2-D Experts wonder why hypertension hits blacks harder Elizabeth Ashley out of place in 'My Parlor' By SALLY SQUIRES Washington Poat By THOMAS HARRISON Tlmai Staff Writer A coalition of health and black organizations has launched a nationwide campaign to increase detection and treatment of high blood pressure among blacks, who suffer a much higher rate of this condition than do whites.

attempts to conceal the body, then the crime. Ultimately, she weaves (ahem) a web of deceit into which the luckless Quentin falls, mouth open and arms akimbo. Most of the remainder of the play is given to Quentin's fitful attempts to extricate himself and Serena's exaggerated posturing for her beetle-browed butler TAMPA Come Into My Parlor is no place for one of the great women of the American stage. But there she is: Elizabeth Ashley, Tony Award winner, traipsing about the Playhouse stage in a blond fright wig, eyelids aflutter, REVIEW (George Ede), her attorney (Ann Ducati), a playwright (Jay Keye) and a dim-bulb district attorney (Steven Stahl). her foghorn pipes turned to "Full-Hoarse." Ashley plays Serena Lattimore, a 40-ish Broadway actress on the theater One in every three black Americans has high blood pressure, known medically as hypertension.

Despite more public awareness of the condition and its role in increasing the risk of stroke, blacks continue to have higher rates of hypertension and more fatal strokes than do whites. The new program, called HealthPITCH (for People Involved To Control High Blood Pressure), will offer free blood-pressure screening, medical referral, educational material and blood pressure tracking cards at special day-long fairs, which will be held throughout the United States. It is sponsored by the Association of Black 1 A 1 i i tit Speaking of the butler, I suspect that George Ede saw John Giclgud's performance in Arthur and decided to borrow a few things. Ede forgot Gielgud's restraint, however. Ede's best attributes are his eyebrows, which hang over his features like huge, cotton swabs.

The rest of the supporting Please see PARLOR 3-0 comeback trail, in Joseph Hayes' deadly dull comedy-drama about sex, murder and bad timing. David Hedison is Quentin Ballard, Serena's husband and the director of her new stage hit. Come Into My Parlor is set in 1949 in a posh Manhattan duplex, where the irrational Serena kills her husband's pregnant, 23-year-old mistress (Crista Moore). The plot revolves around her labored Just why blacks are at greater risk is not clear. High blood pressure may in fact be a different disease in blacks.

Llcln Capehart Elizabeth Ashley and David Hedison star in Come Into My Parlor, Spider plants and their offspring thrive By BETTE SMITH Timet Gardening Correspondent neighborly gardens it ZA IX TREASURE ISLAND Huge striped spider plants, with a myriad of smaller plantlets, hang from supports on the screened patio at the home of Mary and Richard Coffman. "I call myself the 'spider says Mrs. Coffman with a iaugh and a touch of a British accent. She explains that she began gardening 14 years ago in Atlanta with three spider plants. The nine or 10 plants she has today are descendants of those.

"I had never grown a thing until about 1974," recalls this World War II British war bride, who says she had kept busy with three sons and a daughter. "For the first time I was without children in the home." Spider plants, more beautiful than their name im- plies, have crisp, green-and-white-striped foliage and produce delicate, white, daisy-like flowers along stolons (runners or stems) that lead to the plantlets. "The flowers are not too noticeable," says Mrs. Coffman. She explains that her father always had a garden at their home in Bristol, England.

He grew flowers and vegetables. "The English are sort of known for their beautiful gardens," she says. "Maybe these genes were lying dormant all those years." Please see COFFMAN 5-D I' it 1' 1 i Cardiologists, the National Council of Negro Women, the Congressional Black Caucus, the National High Blood Pressure Education Program and by the drug company E.R. Squibb Sons. Squibb, a manufacturer of blood-pressure medications, is underwriting all costs of the program.

Since 1972, when the federal government began its National High Blood Pressure Education Program, the number of deaths from stroke has dropped 50 percent. Despite these gains, stroke remains the third leading cause of death in the United States today. This year alone, some 500,000 Americans will suffer a stroke and 155,000 of those men and women will die, according to figures supplied by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Why the greater risk? Blood pressure is expressed with two numbers. The first, systolic pressure, is the force exerted when the heart is beating; the second, diastolic, is the force when the heart is at rest.

A reading in which either number is higher than 140-90 is considered high. Nationwide, some 58-million American adults about 28 percent of the total population have high blood pressure. But among the black population, 6.8-million or 38 percent suffer from high blood pressure. Blacks are five to seven times more likely to have high blood pressure than are whites. Just why blacks are at greater risk is not clear.

High blood pressure may in fact be a different disease in blacks. Dr. Elijah Saunders, president of the Association of Black Cardiologists and head of the division of hypertension at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore said high blood pressure develops at an earlier age in blacks than it does in whites. The condition "also seems to accelerate faster in blacks than in whites and is associated with a lot more complications, such as strokes and kidney disease," Saunders said. Blacks are 15 to 17 times more likely to develop kidney disease as a result of high blood pressure than are whites.

Studies by researchers at the Tufts Universi- Please see HEALTH 3-D 'I i 1 9i PLANT PROFILE Plant: Gloriosa, (Glo-ree-OH-sa), also known as Glory Lily or Traveling Lily. Origin: Tropical Africa. Characteristics: Long, bright green leaves with tendrils on the tips allow this short vine to cling to a trellis, fence or shrub. Bright, long-lasting flowers with turned-back red petals bordered in yellow become dark red as they age. Gloriosas bloom any time of year but usually during warm weather.

The largest and most popular flower is Gloriosa rothschildiana. Gloriosa superba is smaller and has more orange than red blooms. It produces flowers profusely and is sometimes grown from seeds. Growing tips: The strange-looking, Y-shaped tubers, which are poisonous if eaten, should be planted from January through April for flowers three to four months later. Tubers should be dug up and replanted every few years because new tubers form and "travel" each year, horizontally and vertically, moving deeper into the ground.

They are difficult to dig up without damage, but they can be reached successfully without tools by using a strong force of water to wash the soil away. Variety shown: Gloriosa rothschildiana grown by Melissa Johnson of St. Petersburg. It i it i ft in I 1.. 3 "vsr 4 Timet photo Diligence pays off for "spider woman" Mary Coffman's healthy spider plants..