GOTTA LOVE THAT MAXINE!
I guess Maxine will take over for Martha...at least for a little while. :-) Go Maxine!!

Martha's Way Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice cream drips.
Maxine's Way Just suck the ice cream out of the bottom of the cone, for Pete's sake! You are probably lying on the couch with your feet up eating it, anyway!

Martha's Way To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.
Maxine's Way Buy Hungry Jack mashed potato mix and keep it in the pantry for up to a year.

Martha's Way When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking pan, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead and there won't be any white mess on the outside of the cake.
Maxine's Way Go to the bakery! They'll even decorate it for you.

Martha's Way If you accidentally oversalt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a peeled potato and it will absorb the excess salt for an instant "fix-me-up".
Maxine's Way If you oversalt a dish while you are cooking, that's too bad. Please recite with me the real woman's motto: "I made it and you will eat it and I don't care how bad it tastes!!!!"

Martha's Way Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.
Maxine's Way Celery? Never heard of it!

Martha's Way Brush some beaten egg white over pie crust before baking to yield a beautiful glossy finish.
Maxine's Way The Mrs. Smith frozen pie directions do not include brushing egg whites over the crust; so I don't.

Martha's Way Cure for headaches: take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.
Maxine's Way Take a lime, mix it with tequila, chill and drink!

Martha's Way If you have a problem opening jars, try using latex dishwashing gloves. They give a non-slip grip that makes opening jars easy.
Maxine's Way Go ask that very cute neighbor if he can open it for you.

Martha's Way Don't throw out all that leftover wine. Freeze into ice cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.
Maxine's Way Leftover wine???????? HEL-LO !!!!!

A short essay on the golden rule

The golden rule is endorsed by all the great world religions; Jesus, Hillel, and Confucius used it to summarize their ethical teachings. And for many centuries the idea has been influential among people of very diverse cultures. These facts suggest that the golden rule may be an important moral truth.

The golden rule is best interpreted as saying: "Treat others only in ways that you're willing to be treated in the same exact situation." To apply it, you'd imagine yourself in the exact place of the other person on the receiving end of the action. If you act in a given way toward another, and yet are unwilling to be treated that way in the same circumstances, then you violate the rule.

To apply the golden rule adequately, we need knowledge and imagination. We need to know what effect our actions have on the lives of others. And we need to be able to imagine ourselves, vividly and accurately, in the other person's place on the receiving end of the action. With knowledge, imagination, and the golden rule, we can progress far in our moral thinking.

The golden rule is best seen as a consistency principle. It doesn't replace regular moral norms. It isn't an infallible guide on which actions are right or wrong; it doesn't give all the answers. It only prescribes consistency - that we not have our actions (toward another) be out of harmony with our desires (toward a reversed situation action). It tests our moral coherence. If we violate the golden rule, then we're violating the spirit of fairness and concern that lie at the heart of morality.

The golden rule, with roots in a wide range of world cultures, is well suited to be a standard to which different cultures could appeal in resolving conflicts. As the world becomes more and more a single interacting global community, the need for such a common standard is becoming more urgent.

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in Kindergarten.Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain,but there in the sandpile at Sunday School.

These are the things I learned:
Share everything.Play fair.Don't hit people.Put things back where you found them.Clean up your own mess.Don't take things that aren't yours.Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.Wash your hands before you eat.Flush.Warm cookies and milk are good for you. Live a balanced life -learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.Take a nap every afternoon.When you go out into the world,watch out for traffic,hold hands,and stick together.Be aware of wonder.Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why,but we are all like that.Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the styrofoam cup-they all die. So do we.And then rememberthe Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned -the biggest word of all -LOOK. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm.Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world -had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are -when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.(from the book by Robert Fulghum)