Hi folkvictorian, Some months ago I spoke of having what I thought to be a problem ... that some of my old underwear briefs had developed elastics so old and tired that they were inclined to stretch things ... ... and would slide down around my knees on the outside, while hung up by the crotch of my pants, putting me in a bind so to speak ... ... but that when I realized that, were I a female, gone shopping downtown in a dress, and had such a situation befall me - that would be a PROBLEM! My situation was merely a dilemma! One responder said that she'd done such, they tripped her, she fell with her forehead hitting a wooden container in the store, with blood flowing, ambulance called, etc. - costly! I'd thought to install short pieces of elastic, but that would cause bunching, and stretching between them (with possible rips), and were I to install a new elastic all round each of the nearly a dozen pairs ... it'd be darn near as costly as buying new! So I thought that I'd get a single stretchy elastic and make a belt, which would work for a half dozen or so of the briefs, but came to ask how to fasten it, as a button wouldn't do in an elastic. Everyone said that I should merely buy new ... but I said that few were holey ... and the one(s) that were, were mainly in the middle of the back, not under the hip bones where they should be - so I wondered whether I must have been jet-propelled at some time (that I'd been unaware of). And they were scarcely discoloured, so I felt that they had a substantial amount of potentially useful life remaining, given some alteration. Someone made an intreresting offer - that if I'd send the affected ones to her, she'd replace the elastic in each of them ... ... for $10.00 a pair. One or two others felt that to be a wise offer ... to a frugal old fella like me. Someone came on to suggest that this seemed a rather frivolous post ... someone wondered whether it was for real ... and someone else said that she'd been having rather a dreary day .... until she'd come upon that thread ... and that it'd made her day! My landlord, a busy sod farmer (though not so busy last year, with fewer houses being built, as we've had a major plant closing, with a major Ford assembly plant nearby about to close next year) said that I have too much time on my hands. 'Nuff said. ole joyful

I'm 50 and grew up in the Chicago area. A few memories are: --making those endless gum chains, for no real purpose. Did we really chew that much gum?? --also making endless yarn-rope chains with that neat little contraption (a spool with four nails in it) and a hook. I guess we were supposed to then sew them into a round rug, but we only kept making colorful chains. --my mother sprinkling then rolling up my dad's white shirts and putting them in the refrigerator (?) until ironing them. --typical school box sandwiches were liverwurst or peanut butter. For both, my mother spread mayonaise on the other side of the bread. (Peanut butter and mayo? Amazing that I'm still alive). --my German/Czech grandparent spread lard on bread, then dipped it in chopped parsley for a sandwich. --that super thin onion-skin-like overseas letter paper. You wrote on every inch and then the recipient lost a lot of the message because it always tore when trying to open the sides and top. --some of my favorites memories were long, hot summer days with mom and grandma sitting outside on the porch swing and fanning themselves while we ran through the sprinkler. And warm nights with the windows open and the crickets' songs and fire flies everwhere. Where did all the fire flies go? I don't even think we had electric fans. --some luxuries in the house were the occasional magazine my mom bought, paper towels, any beauty product besides Johnson's baby shampoo, Tame cream rinse, Ponds' cream. --powdered milk. We hated the stuff, but went through several years of it. Had to make it freezing cold before we could drink it. Yuck!

Greetings all. On my earlier post I meant to say that I like to add some sesame seed, flax, etc. to my oatmal, wheat or rye flakes' porridge. Recently I heard that the coating on the flax is so efficient that the seed goes right through me without my digestive system being able to wrest any nutritional value from it. What kind of sadness do you think that information added to my frugal thought patterns? Now I hear that I need to grind up the flax to obtain nutritional value from the seeds as they travel through my system. Sister-in-law tells me that a coffee grinder will do the job. I guess that one will need two grinders, though, should one lack enthusiasm for flaxified coffee. But one should do only a small quantity at a time, as it gets rancid rather quickly (not during this cold weather, I think - though it isn't really cold inside). Once could store a small bottle of the ground stuff in the frig. Wheat germ is a nutritional addition to porridge, also - but one should store that in the frig, as well, as it gets rancid if stored at room temp for too long. I remember having a few raisins added to porridge occasionally, which added some interesting variety. Something like adding them to rice pudding. I have taken to cutting about half a dozen cooking dates into small bits to add to my porridge for one, as well. That adds quite a different and interesting flavour! When we were children my youngest brother (currently the retiring farmer), hated oatmeal porridge - he'd sit looking at it for half an hour (and it was cold by then, of course). He scarcely ever eats it, yet. On my recent trip to the prairies that brother, who grows them, gave us a couple of bags of lentils. My brother's neighbour, who shares work with my brother quite a bit (his Dad was my brother's pal) braved the -25 degree cold to get most of a gallon ice cream pail of flax from his bin for me just before our return. I thanked him warmly for his effort. May your New Year bring the fulfillment of some of your worthwhile dreams and the visioning of some new ones. To be following by some implementation, of course - when you get around to it. ole joyful P.S. Have you ever seen a round piece of prettified paper or other material stuck on a frig, etc., with "tuit" written on it? When spouse says that s/he'll do so-and-so when s/he, "gets around to it ... " - give it to him/her. When your kid asks what that is, tell her/him that it's a "round tuit" that they're always saying that, " ...I'll do when I get a .... " Good project for spouses (or is that "spice"?) of procrastinators would be to make one such and quietly add it to the frig door, don't you think? OJ

Greetings, everyone. I'd had no indication prior to that trip that something was wrong with the rad. I had a '90 Dodge "Colt" (also standard tranny) from about '97 to about '04 or '05. I used it to travel the 12 miles or so to Uncle's farm nearly daily after his death, to make it look lived in, until the farm was sold, and, as I was usually travelling at midnight or 2 a.m or so, when there was little traffic, found that I could coast over 16 of the 20 km. trip ... and if anyone had told me that they could coast 80% of the time, I'd have thought them to be lying. Didn't have any clutch or transmission troubles with it. When the mechanic said that, at about 200K miles, it was risky to put it on the road, donated it to a charitable agency for a charitable receipt. When I initiated a discussion here about coasting some time ago, some said that such is illegal in their state. I've asked several police people and have been told that it's my responsibility to be in charge of my vehicle, and to drive in a safe manner. I don't usually do it if someone is following me rather closely, as it is not fair to interfere with his/her progress. _____________________________ The lady in question called me the next evening, to ask whether I'd got home O.K., and I told her that I had, and of the issues that I'd had to deal with ... and asked her how she knew that I'd had any problems. She said that she hadn't seen me at the commital, or afterward at the luncheon, and that she had been pretty sure that I'd have been there, so thought that something probably went wrong. And, yes ... I've seen her again ... why not? Last evening, as a matter of fact ... for a short visit before coming to the library ... but hadn't time to make this post, then. Any other questions/comments/(advisories)? ole joyful