AVOID BLISTERS ON YOUR FEET

Hate blisters?

Who doesn't. But here's a quick and simple way to avoid them as much as possible.

Saturate a cotton pad with rubbing alcohol, then swipe it across the shoe straps, inside and out. (Do this only once to avoid drying out the leather.) Wear the shoes around the house to break it in. The alcohol speeds the leather's natural stretching process.

Try it. Your feet will thank you.

— Catherine E. Toth

FILM SCREENINGS

QUAD-RUGBY ACTION IN 'MURDERBALL'

Be warned! You've got only three days to catch crazy competitive, crazy athletic and just plain crazy dudes in armored wheelchairs go at each others throats on the hard court. "Murderball" — one of 2005's best documentaries in a year full of great ones — visits the ruthlessly vicious sport of professional quad rugby and the cocky players who rule it. Deftly digging beneath the violent hybrid of chariot races, football and bumper cars, "Murderball" directors Henry-Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro also explore the complex lives and personalities of the sport's fearless, disability-defying athletes. "Murderball" is completely absorbing and visceral filmmaking. Today at 1 and 7:30 p.m. at Doris Duke Theatre. Call 532-8768.

— Advertiser staff

FINAL WORD

"He has had to have a great number of battles to get to cast me. Fighting the studio heads. 'You mean the weird guy who does the European art movies? No, he's box-office poison.' "