Mughal-e-Azam

College basketball

Senderoff, at center of probe into improper calls to recruits, resigns: Indiana assistant coach Rob Senderoff, still the focus of an investigation into improper telephone calls to recruits, resigned Tuesday.

So far, the investigation has cost the Hoosiers one scholarship and cost coach Kelvin Sampson - a former Washington State coach - a $500,000 pay raise. The NCAA is conducting its own investigation, which could lead to further sanctions.

“Rob Senderoff has decided it is in his and Indiana University’s best interests that he voluntarily resign,” the school said in a statement.

Senderoff, a former assistant at Kent State, was hired by Sampson in May 2006, the same month the NCAA sanctioned Sampson for making 577 impermissible phone calls between 2000 and 2004 while he was the coach at Oklahoma.

Sampson was barred from calling recruits or making off-campus recruiting trips for one year, but on Oct. 14, less than five months after those sanctions expired, Indiana announced its compliance office had discovered new violations that occurred while the original sanctions were still in effect.

Nevada player who was beaten is kicked off team: Nevada sophomore forward Tyrone Hanson, who was beaten unconscious and robbed Sunday at a Halloween party where three people were shot to death, has been kicked off the team because he had been told not to go out that night, Wolf Pack coach Mark Fox said.

Fox is a former Washington assistant coach.

Tennessee center is hospitalized: Tennessee sophomore center Wayne Chism was hospitalized after being knocked unconscious when teammate Jordan Howell drove toward the basket and struck him in the head with an elbow during practice.

Chism was alert after being taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Soccer

Brazil hosted Cup in 1950: The country with the most World Cup titles will finally get another chance to win one at home. Brazil, which has earned a record five World Cups, was awarded the right to host 2014 tournament by FIFA’s executive committee.

Brazil hosted the event in 1950, losing to Uruguay in the final.

The 2011 Women’s World Cup was awarded to Germany, which beat out Canada.

College athletics

Athletes outperform nonathletes in federal graduation rates: Nearly every main demographic group of top college athletes exceeds the graduation rate for its student-body counterparts.

According to federal graduation rates released by the NCAA, 63 percent of Division I athletes who started college as freshmen in 2000 graduated in six years. That beats the graduation rate for all students at Division I schools by 1 percent and matched last year’s percentage.

White athletes had a 67 percent graduation rate, compared with 64 percent for white students overall. Black athletes outperformed their student-body counterparts 53 percent to 46 percent.

Golf

High stakes in finale: As the final tournament of the PGA Tour season, the Children’s Miracle Network Classic in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., has a serious tone. The final top 125 players on the money list will earn Tour cards with full 2008 exemptions. The next 25 get Tour membership but are not exempt and get into tournaments on a space-available basis.

Jeff Gove of Seattle is 153rd on the money list, four places above Michael Putnam of University Place.

Woods denies rumors: Tiger Woods, the world’s top-ranked player, said rumors about him leaving swing coach Hank Haney are untrue.

“I have not split with Hank Haney, my friend and swing coach,” Woods said in his monthly newsletter. “He’s spent more time at home helping his wife deal with health issues, which is the way it should be.”

Olympics

Boxers Russell, Williams qualify for Beijing: Bantamweight Gary Russell Jr. and featherweight Raynell Williams qualified for next year’s Beijing Games with convincing victories and built on the U.S. team’s momentum at the world championships in Chicago.

That’s not the ticket: Ticket sales for the Beijing Games were suspended after overwhelming demand crashed the computer-ticketing system, organizers said. When tickets went on sale in China on a first-come, first-served basis, there was an overload.

Seattle Times news services

Q: My wife and I dined out last night. One of our friends brought a bottle of the Matthews Claret. It was the first time I had tried this wine and was very impressed. My friend said the wine-store employee he deals with told him it was comparable to Leonetti. I really question this. I have one bottle of Leonetti Cab but have not opened it yet. I have tried Leonetti Merlot and found it to be absolutely stunning. What are your thoughts?

A: Let me offer some general thoughts on such wine comparisons. They remind me of my DJ days, when a new band would come along that sounded “just like” or “just as good as” so-and-so. Comparing an unknown bottle of wine to a well-known bottle is the same thing, and perhaps the easiest way to sell a new wine, but it does not always tell the customer anything of substance.

It is difficult to know what the retailer actually meant by this comparison without asking a lot of follow-up questions: How are the two wines comparable? What specifically do they have in common? Is one trying to imitate another?

That said, I would certainly agree that Matthews and Leonetti are two of the finest wineries in Washington state - or anywhere on the West Coast for that matter.

Personally, I find their styles quite distinctive. You have an apples-and-oranges comparison here: A Matthews Claret (what vintage?) and a Leonetti Merlot (different vintage?). The grape blend, grape sources and winemaking techniques are different.

The fact that you have tried wines from each and found them to your liking is what is most important. Getting to know a particular wine seller, and giving him or her a chance to understand your particular palate, is a good way to find new and as-yet-undiscovered wines that will suit your tastes.

Paul Gregutt answers questions weekly in the Wine section.

He can be reached by e-mail at wine@seattletimes.com.

My mother was big on Halloween. And by that, I don’t mean she spent that hallowed day baking ghoulish cupcakes with teensy candy pumpkins, or admiring the costumes she’d handcrafted for her four kids.

Mom was in it for the costumes and the candy, all right: her costumes - and our candy.

On a particularly memorable Halloween, she arrived to pick me up from a Girl Scout bonfire-fueled jamboree. Jumping out of her ‘69 VW Bug, she made her way through the crisp autumn leaves to find me. I can’t recall how - or even if - I was costumed that night, but I’ll never forget how I felt when I lifted my bobbing head from a vat full of tooth-bitten apples:

Wiping cold water from my eyes, I focused on a 5-foot-2-inch figure dressed like Bozo the Clown - complete with white-face makeup, Joker lips and a spiky Halloween-orange bathing cap that looked suspiciously like the one my mother wore that summer at our local swim club. “Surprise!” yelled Bozo. Having earned my Girl Scout Mortification Badge then and there, I slunk to the car and promptly burst into tears.

Ah, golden memories of Halloween! I’ve got a million of them. And not a single one involves “snack-size” candy bars, “Harvest Festivals” or trick-or-treating in a Costco-bought costume under the fluorescent lights of an indoor shopping mall.

Celebrating Halloween as a kid in Philadelphia - where decorating for the holiday remains a citywide imperative - I had the great fortune of living in a 500-tract subdivision where kids ruled, candy was king and our rallying cry was, “Trick or treat! Smell my feet! Give me something good to eat!”

Back then, we actually did get something good to eat. Trudging up and down the streets and cul-de-sacs with pillow cases and UNICEF boxes in hand - devoid of flashlights, reflective gear or, God forbid, our parents - we’d score big on Hershey Bars, Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews and the occasional caramel-coated apple that we’d scarf on the spot, never considering the need to X-ray that special treat for razor blades.

And when, our sacks full-up to nearly bursting, we’d arrive home to empty our loot onto the dining-room table and trade candy (”I’ll give you two Butterfingers for a Necco Wafer”), justice had to be served. Her name was Mom. We paid her in dividends of Nestle Crunch and 3 Muskeeters, which she’d stash in a cookie tin kept out of our reach - or so she thought - atop our “side-by-side refrigerator-freezer.”

These days I spend All Hallow’s Eve in the company of a Sweet-Tarted-up grade-schooler, whose dad - bless him - lovingly makes the boy’s costumes. Tonight, in the company of a woman whose “costume” involves an Eddie Bauer jacket and mom-jeans, my son will traipse through downtown Edmonds in a small-town scene straight out of “Hocus Pocus.”

Eschewing last year’s costume (Count Dracula) for this year’s (an M&M), we’ll join 5,000 merrymakers who hit-up the local merchants, amassing umpteen miniversions of the same six candies (enough already with the Tootsie Rolls!). We’ll stop at the movie theater for a bag of popcorn and Just Say No to the line that snakes down the block from the local bake shop, where fresh doughnuts are free for those who can stand the wait.

Meanwhile, my husband will be sitting home with a cocktail and the dogs, waiting for the next wave of local urchins who know where to knock for full-size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Starburst candies and (if they’re very lucky and I haven’t been entirely too busy) a homemade caramel apple - hold the shaving implements.

If they’re smart, they’ll go across the street to our neighbors, the Smiths, who one-up us by a mile with their movie- theater-size candy boxes. And they’ll stay away from “Spooky Dave’s” - the neighborhood electrician who’s known to scare the yell out of the little ones when they ring his doorbell and he jumps out from behind a porch pillar dressed as a ghoul.

When we return home from our town’s communal festivities, cold, tired and hungry for the pizza that awaits us, we make certain to first pay a visit to the Smiths, and Spooky Dave, and the many neighbors who beg us to take an extra helping of candy - lest they’re forced to eat the leftovers themselves.

Back in the day - my day - there weren’t any “leftovers”: only lights turned out, doorbells unanswered and, occasionally, nickels and dimes doled out in lieu of sweets. But these days, with kids heading out to private parties, shopping malls and other clean, well-lighted places on Halloween, neighborhoods don’t see the kind of action they saw when I was growing up.

It’s enough to make my mother melancholic.

Mom recently moved from South Jersey to a fancy-pants retirement community in sunny South Carolina where, in the spirit of the season, I sent her a box of Nestle Crunch. I did it just so I can imagine her sitting poolside, soaking up some sun, sharing her Halloween candy with her gal-pals and clowning around in that spiky orange bathing cap. It’s a vision that still brings tears to my eyes.

Nancy Leson: Nancy Leson: 206-464-8838 or nleson@seattletimes.com.

More columns available at seattletimes.com/nancyleson.

With the major entertaining season just around the corner, The Seattle Times has assembled “The Holiday Host 2007,” a collection of tips and recipes to make your meal and party planning easier.

The 22-page booklet features color photos; advice from restaurant critic Nancy Leson on staging and producing the big holiday meal; a turkey-thawing and -cooking chart; plenty of ideas for your table, from proper place settings to a seasonal floral centerpiece; and 16 recipes. The three-hole-punch pages are secured with a decorative clip.

Send a check for $7 (to The Seattle Times) and your complete address to: “The Holiday Host 2007,” The Seattle Times Food Dept., P.O. Box 1735, Seattle WA 98111. Do not include an envelope.

Makes 5 apples

1 package (14 ounces) caramels, unwrapped

1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces

¼ cup milk

5 medium apples

5 wooden sticks

Buttered wax paper

½ cup sliced almonds

1. Combine caramels, chocolate pieces and milk in small heavy saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring frequently until smooth.

2. Wash and dry apples and firmly insert wooden sticks in stem end.

3. Dip apples into melted mixture, spooning coating over top to cover. Scrape excess off bottom of apples and roll in sliced almonds to coat bottom and sides.

4. Place on buttered wax paper to cool and set coating. If not eaten within several hours, store in refrigerator. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving.

From Hershey’s Chocolate

If you’re an 8- or 9- or 10-year-old girl in America in 2007, going to a Hannah Montana show is of paramount importance.

It’s important whether you’re a healthy girl living in Bellevue, or whether you’re a girl who’s had 18 chemotherapy treatments at Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle.

Hannah Montana — a character on the Disney Channel played by Miley Cyrus, who’s all of 14 — takes over the fantasies of her fans. So for them, sick or healthy, it’s beyond important.

It’s an obsession, just like for the generations of past girls it was Shaun Cassidy or Leif Garrett or the Backstreet Boys or the Monkees or the Bay City Rollers or even the pre-tabloid Britney Spears.

And it was Hannah Montana’s sold-out show at the KeyArena on Monday night that brought together two pairs of such young girls. For the family members and other adults present, it also was once again a reminder of the randomness of life-changing events.

The healthy and ill girls didn’t meet because the hospital doesn’t want to set a precedent in which patients receiving gifts are to meet with benefactors, and because of concerns about patients’ immune systems.

The two healthy girls, Danielle Bensussen, 9; and Aubrey Smith, 8; and Aubrey’s mother, Tami Smith, all of Bellevue, dropped off four Hannah Montana tickets at the Giraffe Zone at Children’s Hospital, which has named various parts of its center with kid-friendly names.

They then had a meal at a nearby Burgermaster, and Tami Smith drove them back to Bellevue in her Volvo SUV. The mom said she knew a life such as her family leads can change overnight.

“It can be cancer, it can be a car accident, it can be anything,” she said.

The family had ended up with extra tickets. On Craigslist Monday, those tickets were selling for two and three times the $65 face value. Smith didn’t want the profit.

“It was more important to me to give them to two little girls,” she said. And to give her daughter and her friend a life lesson.

So she contacted the hospital.

Two girls getting treatment there were Kaylee Springfield, 8, of Port Angeles; and Kayla Rauenhorst, 10, of Fairbanks, Alaska.

They and their respective moms went to Monday night’s show, the girls having been chosen in a random drawing from patients getting a doctor’s approval their immune systems could withstand such a night out.

Kaylee Springfield is a shy girl, diagnosed with leukemia, who simply was happy to hold the Hannah Montana tickets.

Kayla Rauenhorst was diagnosed with bone cancer in her left leg. She’s had to have 4-½ inches of her femur cut off above the knee, and a prosthetic rod with a spring-loaded mechanism inserted in the gap.

Kayla and her mom, Tanya Coty, live in a nearby apartment. The rest of the family is in Alaska and sometimes visits.

Kayla told about her 18 chemotherapy treatments. “Sometimes it makes me really sick, sometimes you start throwing up, sometimes it sails by,” she said.

Tanya Coty said that now, when she talks to her daughter, it’s sometimes not as if she’s talking to a 10-year-old.

“She’s grown up so much in a matter of 11 months,” said the mother. “Some days it’s like I’m talking to a colleague or another adult.”

But on Monday night, it was time for 8-, 9- and 10-year-old girls to be just that, and sing along with the Hannah Montana tunes they have downloaded onto their iPods and memorized.

Eating their lunch at Burgermaster, Danielle Bensussen and Aubrey Smith sang a bit from one of their favorites, the one with lyrics that go:

“Who said, who said I can’t be Superman,

“I say, I say that I know I can.”

Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or elacitis@seattletimes.com

Don’t look for strict adherence to Bram Stoker’s gothic novel in the International Ballet Theatre’s “Dracula,” finishing its run at 7:30 p.m. today and Wednesday at the Meydenbauer Theatre in Bellevue.

The company’s student and professional dancers put the story on stage with colorful Romanian folk dances, even some tap and clogging. Along with ballet, it makes a heady caldron of images, danced in lavish costumes and set to recorded music that includes original work and classical pieces such as Gounod’s “Faust.” Astor Piazzolla’s swoony tango music is in there, and a piece by a lesser-known Russian composer, Georgy Sviridov, called “Snow-Storm,” based on short story by Alexander Pushkin.

Company founder Vera Altunina, who wrote the story line for this “Dracula,” teased out images from Stoker’s novel and other works by the author, creating the classical and character dances with two collaborators: Jerry Tassin did the jazz and tap choreography, and Eva Stone did the modern works.

The stage picture is inventive and often fascinatingly surreal, though at times divertissements (such as Irish clog dancing) steal attention from the plot. Small revolving strobes at the edge of the stage also flash into the audience regularly, proving a distraction.

Projections take the audience from the ordinary world of a bucolic village in Transylvania to the night world of the undead, complete with a gothic graveyard and castle.

“Dracula” is the season opener for the company, which continues its year with “The Nutcracker” in December. Both have become annual traditions.

“As ‘The Nutcracker’ is to Christmas, ‘Dracula’ is to Halloween,” said Heidi Tucker, president of IBT’s board of directors. The Kirkland-based company in its seventh season of producing ballet repertoire in the Russian tradition, and their “Dracula” is in its fourth year.

Altunina came to America in 1993 to set dances on a Portland company, eventually settling on the Eastside. She taught at Cornish College, the Washington Academy of Performing Arts and Olympic Ballet, among other schools, before establishing her own school and company. There are now 200 students at the school, and graduates from the school’s professional division go on to dance in company productions. Because there is so much intergenerational support for IBT, and so many young dancers in the show, “Dracula” is considered appropriate for family audiences.

A cast of 40 dancers performs the two-act ballet, with soloist Oleg Gorboulev as Jonathan Harker. Gorboulev, a standout in the show, particularly with his ebullient leaps and lifts, was formerly with the Moscow Classical Ballet and retired from Pacific Northwest Ballet last year.

Mina, Jonathan’s fiancée, is danced by Sophie Edwards, a company soloist with IBT for the past five years. Lucy, Mina’s best friend, is danced by Hayley Fridenstine, another company soloist. Her Lucy is another standout performance, a genuine eccentric with a strange push-pull relationship with Dracula, who is seen as a shadowy character wreathed in fog and smoke. Magic man Vaclav plays the role with elusive menace - and more than a few tricks up his sleeve.

“Dracula” is a bit of a departure from the Russian classical tradition, with a wide variety of dancing styles and skills on stage, but Altunina says her version is “more surrealistic than scary.”

“It’s always a journey. You never know where you’ll depart,” Altunina said. “I’m always looking for something creative and exciting.”

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com

HONOLULU - Even the Hawaii Superferry’s strongest opponents are acknowledging that it will be sailing soon after the state Senate approved a bill putting it back in service.

Senators voted 20-5 to approve a bill Monday that allows the Superferry to sail from Oahu to Maui and Kauai without having to first complete an environmental study that courts have ruled is required by law. The ferry stopped sailing in late August because of court rulings and protests.

“It is inevitable that this bill or some version of it will pass,” said Sen. Gary Hooser, D-Kauai-Niihau, speaking to the Legislature before voting against it. “This issue has drained our spirit and divided our community. It is time now for all of us to move on.”

The compromise measure sets several conditions on the Superferry, a high-speed catamaran ferry that can carry up to 866 passengers and 282 vehicles, requiring it to make efforts to avoid whales and slow the spread of invasive species between the islands.

But it largely excludes provisions demanded by some environmentalists who wanted the Superferry to slow down in waters used by whales and wash cars before boarding.

A House committee is considering this version of the bill. A vote in favor of it would signal a consensus in the Legislature on the Superferry, and it could resume sailing in about two weeks. All that would be left would be for the full House of Representatives to vote on it and Gov. Linda Lingle to sign it into law.

The proposal puts Lingle in charge of creating and enforcing environmental rules for the Superferry so that it doesn’t collide with endangered humpback whales, spread invasive species or result in excessive traffic.

Lingle, a Republican, told representatives she’ll prepare those regulations soon after the bill is passed. Superferry officials have already said they’ll withdraw their threat to leave the islands if this version of the bill is approved.

The thought sparks a fire that could warm any winter night.

Would a Sonics fan root for the Portland Trail Blazers? Seattle connections are everywhere.

The Blazers’ best player, Brandon Roy, starred at Garfield and Washington. Martell Webster, another young Blazer, played with Spencer Hawes at Seattle Prep. The team is owned by Microsoft co-founder and Seahawks owner Paul Allen.

The Blazers are even coached by the guy Seattleites used to call Mr. Sonic, Nate McMillan. You can’t get any more Seattle than that.

And the local team is unrecognizable. The Sonics are coming off a 31-51 season, have traded away Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis and are owned by a bunch of guys who want to move the franchise to their home state, Oklahoma, if they don’t get a new arena.

Seattle, after 41 years with the Sonics, could find itself without an NBA team.

So would fans look south for their fix, maybe even root for the Blazers?

Please. For many, the only thing Oregon is good for is Oregonians’ delightful service of pumping a Washingtonian’s gas. Oh, and there is that no-sales-tax thing, too.

“I feel that dark cloud over my enthusiasm,” said Gary Conklin, an elementary physical-education teacher in Kirkland. “I feel that this is kind of the end, it’s definitely going to happen that they are going to leave. My allegiances in the short term, if they’re not here, would probably go to the Boston Celtics because of Ray Allen and the dynamic of Kevin Garnett. But there’s no way I would ever root for the Portland Trail Blazers. It could never happen.

“And I don’t see myself rooting for the Sonics in another city. It would hurt too much to see them ever go to the playoffs and NBA Finals and know that could have been us.”

Roy, the Seattle native, understands. Oregonians are supposed to travel to Seattle to watch professional sports teams like the Seahawks, Mariners and Storm. Not the other way around.

“We’ve always had major leagues,” Roy said of his hometown. “It’s hard for people in Seattle to cheer for Portland. I’ve heard them joke around and call them the Seattle Trail Blazers. I was like, ‘Whatever.’ Seattle, we have pride, and when it comes to Oregon, it’s like, ‘Boo, Oregon.’ In this case they want to cheer for us, but they won’t call us Portland.”

Conklin, a native, often drifts back to his youth when the city was seemingly bathed in green and gold. A Gary Payton jersey was the perfect gift. Shawn Kemp dunks were mimicked on lowered schoolyard hoops. And attending a game made you the hippest kid on the block.

The Sonics - the 1979 championship team or George Karl’s defensive menaces - were idols that built a current basketball hotbed in the state. Aaron Brooks, Nate Robinson, Jamal Crawford and Luke Ridnour now shine in the NBA after attending camps led by Sonics legends like Slick Watts and McMillan.

In fact, open to page 82 of the Blazers’ 2007-08 media guide and there’s Roy strolling off the court with his arm around a young baller, in a scene that could have been Roy as a kid at McMillan’s camp.

Roy has worked with Webster and other players to alter Portland’s perception of the team once referred to as the Jail Blazers. That, and the drafting of Greg Oden, has created some excitement in Portland, even though Oden will miss the season after having knee surgery.

You’d think it wouldn’t be such a jagged pill to cheer for these good guys, Seattle favorites playing just 2 ½ hours away.

Think again.

“It’s in my bones, [Portland] is the armpit under Seattle,” said Brian Robinson, a Seattle native who, with Steven Pyeatt, founded Save Our Sonics and Storm. “Detlef Schrempf was on the Portland Trail Blazers and I booed and hissed every time, and I love Detlef, he was a Husky and a Sonic. I will never support the Portland Trail Blazers.”

Robinson said if the Sonics left, rather than cheer for the Blazers, he’d be more interested in whether Seattle was going to get another franchise.

“We would start fighting for a new team. [Former Sonics owner] Howard Schultz started this argument too early. He started it four years ago and people are worn out of the monotony of it. The dialogue of people the day after they move, seven days before [governor] Christine Gregoire is due for re-election, will be very different than year four of the same old, same old. The immediate reaction is going to be anger and demand for a new team directed at the league and city officials.”

Robinson said city and NBA officials have reached a consensus that Seattle Center is the right location for the teams, fitting primary owner Clay Bennett’s wishes for a “world-class” facility. The $500 million price tag for a new arena and a plan for how it will be built remains a question, however. And Bennett isn’t cooperating, continuing to insist that KeyArena is not a viable option. Meanwhile, suits are filed against the Sonics as he tries to get out of the remainder of the KeyArena lease.

Roy, Webster and McMillan say they hope a solution is eventually found in Seattle. The trio combine for about 100 tickets when they return to play the Sonics. They enjoy the support and warm reception from fans in Seattle, but none can imagine the city without a team.

“It is a basketball city, and the NBA needs to stay up there,” said McMillan, who played his entire career in Seattle and remained with the Sonics as a coach, eventually leading the team to the Western Conference semifinals in 2004-05. “I won’t believe it until I see it. Somehow, they’re going to work out something up there, they should, and I just can’t visualize Seattle without the Sonics. I know what those fans will do for a basketball team.”

Webster’s family and friends peppered him with questions about whether the Blazers would just relocate to Seattle if the Sonics left. He laughed at the thought and said he had his mind blown by the serious possibility of his childhood team relocating.

Webster is especially close to the sticky business side, being a close friend of Schultz’s son, Jordan, and a nephew of one of the former board members who voted against Schultz’s decision to sell to Bennett’s ownership group. As Webster and Jordan Schultz walked the streets of downtown Seattle this past summer, Webster said people shouted, “Hey, there’s Coffee Boy! You sold our team!”

Said Webster: “I grew up watching the Sonics, and seeing them leave really doesn’t make any kind of sense, but after a couple of years in the league, you know it’s all business. I don’t know what it is, but these things happen. The same thing happened with Charlotte when they were the Hornets.

“It’s crazy. They’re the Sonics. Them and the Seahawks; that was all Seattle had. I don’t know why they’re doing this … but I wish they would stay.”

Yes, it would be sad to lose all of that winter-warming rivalry.

Jayda Evans: 206-464-2067 or jevans@seattletimes.com

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A force as insidious as Dracula is quietly sucking a nickel of every dollar’s worth of the electricity that seeps from your home’s outlets.

Insert the little fangs of your cell phone charger in the outlet and leave it there, phone attached: That’s vampire electronics.

Allow your computer to hide in the cloak of darkness known as “standby mode” rather than shutting it off: That’s vampire electronics.

The latest estimates show 5 percent of electricity used in the United States goes to standby power, a phenomenon energy efficiency experts find all the more terrifying as energy prices rise and the planet warms. That amounts to about $4 billion a year.

The percentage could rise to 20 percent by 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

In California, lawmakers passed a proposal last year - dubbed the Vampire Slayers Act - to add vampire electronics labels to consumer products, detailing how much energy a charger, computer, DVD player, PlayStation, microwave or coffee maker uses when on, off or in standby mode.

“It’s something people don’t know about,” said Dave Walton, home ideas director for Direct Energy, a utility and energy services company that has one of its four main offices in Dublin, Ohio.

The issue is particularly pressing in Ohio, the nation’s No. 1 emitter of toxic air emissions - mostly from electricity production at the state’s coal-fired power plants. Walton said skyrocketing energy costs mean everyone should worry about the vampires in the house.

The International Energy Agency has estimated standby energy use by vampire electronics at 200 to 400 terawatt-hours a year. The entire country of Italy consumes about 300 terawatt-hours of electricity each year, according to the agency.

Picture any appliance that displays a clock while otherwise idle, such as a microwave oven, coffee maker or DVD player. They constantly consume little bits of energy.

“About 40 percent of the electricity being used to power your home electronics is consumed while they are in that standby mode,” Walton said. “If you just focus on that piece, you will be making a big step.”

Ditto for things that charge, such as cell phones, PDAs, toothbrushes or portable tools, some of which trickle a charge even after the device that’s charging is at capacity.

Some chargers halt the flow of current when it’s not needed, which should happen automatically with chargers for lithium-ion batteries. If you’re uncertain, Walton advises unplugging chargers when not in use.

He recommends hooking up your home computer system, including accessories like a printer or scanner, to a single power strip that can be easily switched off each night. He advises shutting off the other vampires too, though the inconvenience of resetting the clocks, channels and timers on those devices each morning will discourage most people.

The government-backed Energy Star program, coordinated jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, identifies appliances that consume less energy.

If one in 10 American homes used only appliances endorsed through the program, the Energy Department estimates, it would reduce U.S. carbon emissions by the same amount as planting 1.7 million acres of trees.