Dear Reader Column 1-26-05

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Dear Reader,

I've been eating way too much licorice lately and I've got to quit rolling hairballs. They are two bad habits that have got to go. I tell myself over and over that I'm not going to do these things anymore, but it's not working. So, I've come up with some ways to interrupt these undesirable behaviors.

I'll tell you about the hairball first. That's the worst one.
Whenever I'm sitting and reading for a long time, eventually my fingers end up wandering through my hair. I suppose it's a harmless nervous habit, but after a bit of wandering, I end up with strands of hair in my hand.

Now what to do with the hair? Tossing them on the floor is not an acceptable option for me, so I roll the strands up into a ball and set it on the end table beside my chair. The plan is to throw it in the trash after I'm done reading. But it's amazing what a big pile of hairballs a person can accumulate after reading for an hour. (I can now appreciate my poor cat's hairball dilemma firsthand.) But I'm happy to report that I've broken this nasty habit. As long as I read with white gloves on, my hair stays put. But now turning pages is a real challenge.

And so is eating too much licorice, but I'll address that bad habit tomorrow.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.DearReader.com

Comments

[nanci]

white gloves while you read? as my students would say, "yuck!" why don't you just put a pretty little waste can next to the chair - or, as i do when i'm working on paper art, tape a plastic bag to the side of my table. doesn't look pretty, but it does catch the scraps and cleanup takes 3 seconds (just toss the bag in the trash

thanks for being more than a column, you are a real person that people can identify with. n.