I Wear

WASHINGTON - Wednesday, Oct. 3: I call my doctor to plead for Cipro, the antibiotic that may not work on the Deadly Anthrax Virus but then again may. I tell him a man in Florida near the hijackers' training ground has been stricken. "Was he a farmer?" my doctor asks. "I don't know," I say. "I don't care. I want my Cipro." He mutters something about an epidemic of inanity. I explain that the terrorists are coming back to finish the job here, where they were interrupted; that they've been cyaniding dogs and Sarin-ing bunnies in Afghanistan; and that I've even heard of neighbors fashioning safe rooms with special lighting to kill viruses.

Helene Waranch, executive director of Literacy Works, goes for eye-catching hues and conservative style. "I'm a `Winter' person; I wear a lot of bright colors," she says. It's a stylish and practical approach that allows Waranch to pack her bags without too much second guessing - she and her husband are frequent travelers, with a soft spot for European cruises. Waranch, who lives in a Greenspring Valley home with a "wonderful walk-in closet," isn't one to flit from one style to another.

From operating on Dwight D. Eisenhower's in-grown toenail to pirating in the Inner Harbor, Dr. John Charlton, 69, has led a uniformed, if not uniform, life. He was a young podiatrist in the Army when called upon to examine President Eisenhower, and eventually Charlton and his wife Gloria became good buddies with Mamie, Ike's wife. After the Army, Charlton donned clown's togs as a potentate in the Shriners. And now, he is Captain Hook, tour guide aboard the Peter Pan Pirate Ship Baltimore, an amphibious vehicle that takes tourists on Baltimore streets and in the harbor as part of a historic tour program run by the Living Classrooms Foundation.

NBA NAME CHANGE We changed the nicknames of six NBA teams. The new nicknames are listed below. Each one has the same meaning as the team's real nickname. Write each team's real nickname on the line under the new nickname. (Hint: The players below play for four of the teams.) 1. Hopping Dinosaurs 2. Gold Pieces 3. The Spaceships 4. Eighty-minus-four Men 5. Fuzzy Wasps 6. Nervous Walkers ANSWERS: 1. Toronto Raptors; 2. Denver Nuggets; 3. Houston Rockets; 4. Philadelphia 76ers; 5. Charlotte Hornets; 6. Indiana Pacers ASK THE ATHLETES How did you choose your uniform number?

Funny Photos"What do I look like a kite!"-- Drew A., 7; Nashville, Tenn."How is it going down there?"-- Matthew Z., 11; Rossford, Ohio"Hey, I saw them do this in the circus!"-- Josh R., 12; Goshen, Ind."Whee! This is fun!"-- Whitney L., 10; Birmingham, Ala."Make way for Superman!"-- David K., 9; Austin, Texas"Free rides for everyone!"-- Travis H., 12; Florence, S. C.Ask the AthletesHow did you choose your uniform number?Jaromir Jagr, right wing, Pittsburgh Penguins: "My grandfather died in 1968.

Lauren Schott is a jeweler as intrigued by craft as design. Her wardrobe and home reflect a fascination with the way things are made. For Schott, the last, a form used for making shoes, is as much an object of beauty as the knee-high, black Lucchese, cowboy boots that rest on their own shelf above her dresser.Schott once apprenticed to a cobbler, and the experience led to insights in her jewelry work. For one thing, "My color palette has changed from multi-colored stones to more muted grays, blacks and greens," she says.

For Tracey Hough, and legions of other nurses, a scrub is no longer just a scrub; it's a bright fashion statement that elevates spirits all the way around.Hough, a 29-year-old licensed practical nurse who has spent her career working with the elderly, started out in traditional white and has worked her way to a bold lime green in the nursing color spectrum. Over the years, one administrator led to another, and one permissible color led to another. The "feeling was the brighter, the cheerier the uniforms are, the better the patients are," says Hough, who lives in North Baltimore and works at the Liberty Adult Daycare center.

In every realm of her life, Dera Fuller stays busy in joyful, proud and well-attired ways. Program and events coordinator at the Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis, Fuller, who lives in Coldspring Newtown, is also director of music at John Wesley AME Zion Church. Fuller, mother of two daughters, is also the wife of Chris Fuller, Morgan State's basketball coach.Within each of those realms, Fuller, a former full-figure model who stands at 6 feet, knows how to dress in ways that are at once tailored, flattering and comfortable.

Loren F. Miles Jr. -- tuba player, jazz trumpeter, president of the Western/Polytechnic Institute high school band, and a stylin' senior -- is getting ready for not one, but two proms, City College and Poly.And he'll be dressed differently for both. For the City prom, his date has requested a tuxedo. At Poly, he'll probably have on something black and silver, school colors, in a sharp suit. This, Loren, 17, knows for sure, his dates are "gonna look good but I can't let nobody one-up me."By working two jobs -- telemarketing at MBNA and at Vernon's Menswear in Security Square Mall -- Loren has put together an impressive wardrobe.

Diane Hartley, co-chair of the Cathedral Ball on April 24, will actually wear a tiara to the event, a benefit for the School of the Cathedral. Lest you automatically presume that Hartley has royal aspirations, know that the ball's theme is hats -- the more unusual, the better.From her north Baltimore home, Hartley, the 40-year-old mother of two young daughters, also runs a marketing consulting firm for large law firms around the country. Her job and mother duties require "two entire wardrobes," Hartley says.