Also this issue: Boom Town CP's dance critics take a look at all four evenings of DanceBoom! at the Wilma. -D.K and J.A Artsbeat -Debra Auspitz A Night with Dame Edna -David Anthony Fox Face Time -Lori Hill Party On, Garth -Deni Kasrel For the Love of Pig Iron! -A.D. Amorosi La Traviata: Verdi Good -David Shengold

January 30-February 5, 2003

artpicks

Stephen Dubner

by Andrew Milner

As we head for the off-season wondering if the Eagles ever deserved our idolatry, a fan of our cross-state NFL rival examines why we put heroes on pedestals to begin with.

After Stephen Dubner's father died of a heart attack in 1973, the 10-year-old began idolizing Franco Harris of the Pittsburgh Steelers. "I thought of him as dwelling somewhere between man and god, like the heroes of Greek mythology," Dubner writes in Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper (William Morrow). "They, I knew, had begun their lives as mortal men and women, walking the earth just as Franco now walked the earth, before their noble deeds elevated them to the mountaintop." The two shared curious lineage -- Franco, a Hall-of-Fame running back from Penn State, was half black and half Italian; Dubner's Jewish parents converted to Catholicism in adulthood -- and Dubner called himself "Franco" during his teens.

It's hard to compare jocks with Greek gods without sounding pretentious, yet Dubner keeps the narrative casual and avoids mawkishness. Studying the nature of hero worship, Dubner explores the adulation directed at everyone from Abraham Lincoln to Frank Sinatra, from Old Testament kings to Superman, who, like Dubner, has Jewish roots himself. Ambivalent about religion, Dubner found the football field his place to worship: "The will to win -- to escape, to beat back the powerlessness of childhood -- was the will to survive, and I learned that not by going to church or by studying history but, for better or worse, by watching Franco Harris play football."

Stephen Dubner will speak Thu., Jan. 30, 7 p.m., $10, Gershman Y, 401 S. Broad St., 215-446-3027.