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Show It Makes Cents BY VI JUDGE Dear Readers: Here in the Dominican Republic, the oranges are very juicy and it's customary to buy one from a street vendor to eat as you walk along. They're great thirst quenchers. Tempting as they look on a hot day, however, we don't buy from the vendors for sanitary reasons. Their oanges, you see, are already peeled and cut in two, ready to be eaten. It's the way they prepare them that I want to tell you about. The bitter, outer colored part of the skin is carefully cut away, leaving the white, pulpy under-skin. This serves as a cup so that your hands don't get sticky as you eat the sweet juicy pulp inside. The "cup" is usually discarded, but it can also be eaten, if desired. I've decided this is the perfect way to serve an orange, especially for children. All you need is a sharp knife and patience to take care not to cut into the fruit. Try one, cold from the refrigerator, the next time you're thirsty. It's a better thirst quencher than soda pop, less expensive, and full of good-for-you stuff such as Vitamin C. I'll have to wait until I get home to see if this works in a dry climate, but here I find that an avocado pit grows just as fast if planted directly in the soil (pointed end down top just barely covered) instead of sprouting it first in water. I like to put three pits in one pot and plant something such as pothos or philodendrum to fill in around the base of the saplings as they reach for the sky. To keep them from reaching too hich and becoming spindly, I pinch off the tip of the new growth after they get five or six leaves. My favorite house plant, right now, is a blue enamel pot containing three avocado saplings, with philodendum trailing around the base to give them a natural setting Are you making up a list of resolutions, this New year? I hope so, and I hope you're making them specific, shortrange ones, directed toward lofty goals, such as: I will be more considerate. I will be more optimistic. I will be better natured. To resolve to visit bedfast Aunt Mary once a week is a goal you can achieve, AND, as you make those visits, you'll begin to know yourself as a kind, considerate person. If you resolve to read and perhaps memorize a short, optimistic thought each morning before star-ting your day, you can achieve that. AND, you'll begin to think of yourself as that op-timistic person you want to be. If you reoslve to dress, arrange your hair, put on your make up and a bright smile each morning before leaving your room, youH begin to LOVE yourself for being a cheerful, loving wife and mother. All of this is extremely good for that all-important self-image. So keep your lofty goals way up there where you can always see them. Stretch for them but a step at a time with specific short-range goals. That's the non-ego-deflating way to be the kind of a person you want to be be. I love you, dear readers. A happy, successful, self-image-building year to every one of you. Sincerely, Vi |