SALISBURY POST
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2010 • 9A
COLUMNS
Teacher provides a teachable moment Cheapskate: How which is to teach children. — Not So Tired Teacher Dear Teacher: I have had an abundance of mail in response to the letter from the teacher who didn’t know how to respond to the demands of parents who expected an instant response to their e-mail queries and demands. Your ideas are great, and speaking as someone who deals with a great volume of e-mail, your suggestion to “avoid being defensive and to stay calm” is the best way to respond to just about any negative contact. I’d also like to recommend an informative (and very sweet) book detailing the sometimes tricky relationship between parents and a child’s teacher: “Between Home and School: Letters, Notes and Emails,” by Bill Harley (2010, Round River Productions). This might be a good holiday gift for a special teacher in your child’s life. Dear Amy: Recently I threw a baby shower luncheon for my sister-in-law. One guest called to tell me that she is a vegetarian, and another guest called to “inform me” that she is on a strict gluten-free diet. I didn’t mind their giving me this information, but what upset me was their “you
need to accommodate me” attitude. I didn’t know either lady and neither offered to bring a dish that would suit her needs. It took a lot of extra work for me to make the dishes to satisfy their diets. My mother-in-law told me that I should have stuck to my original menu and then let the “special” guests worry about their own needs. What do you think is proper? — Hostess Who Gave the Mostest Dear Hostess: Sometimes you just can’t win. If guests with special diets can’t consume the offerings at a meal, hosts feel frustrated and wish they had been informed ahead of time. If people contact you before an event informing you of their special dietary needs, it is kind of you to extend your generosity by trying to provide whatever food they can eat. You could easily cover both the vegetarian and the gluten-free diet by providing a vegetable and a fruit salad. I agree with you that preparing for special diets stretches your hospitality; you might have prompted these women to adjust their attitudes and also assist you by asking, “Could you give me some suggestions about specific dishes you can eat?”
If a suggestion is beyond your ability to provide, you should be honest and say so. Dear Amy: “Almost Wife” said her longtime boyfriend didn’t want to include her children in their lives. In this day and age when divorce is more common, you have to know that when you get involved with a woman or man who has children that they are part of the package in the relationship. My fiancee is a divorced woman with a 4-year-old daughter whom I quite simply adore and look at as if she were my own. If this guy cannot accept her children as family, then he truly does not care about her, since they are in fact a part of her. She should cut her losses. — Love Her and Her Kid Dear Love: Lucky you! Lucky her! And very lucky kid! Send questions via e-mail to askamy@tribune.com or by mail to Ask Amy, Chicago Tribune, TT500, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Amy Dickinson’s memoir, “The Mighty Queens of Freeville: A Mother, a Daughter and the Town that Raised Them” (Hyperion), is available in bookstores. TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
Nintendo says Wii sales got boost on Black Friday NEW YORK (AP) — In a told-you-so moment for Nintendo, sales of the Wii console are picking up, with 600,000 of them sold in the U.S. last week, according to the company. Nintendo Co. said Tuesday it sold 900,000 units of the DS handheld gaming system during that time. Put another way, the Japanese video game company said U.S. shoppers bought about 9,000 Nintendo systems every hour during the week of Black Friday. It did not provide international sales figures. Sales of the Wii have dropped this year as shoppers opted for high-defini-
tion consoles from Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. And the yen’s strength against the dollar cut into the company’s bottom line. But Nintendo has maintained it will do well during the holidays, as it always does. Nintendo’s products are geared less toward hardcore gamers and more toward family customers, who will spend a bigger chunk of their discretionary budget at Christmas, Hudson Square analyst Daniel Ernst said. Sony, meanwhile, said it has sold 4.1 million units of the Move motion controller worldwide since it went on sale
in the U.S. in September for most regions except Japan, where it hit store shelves in October. But these numbers don’t reflect retail sales to individual consumers — only to retailers. And Microsoft said Monday that it sold 2.5 million Kinect gaming sensors since Nov. 4. The company did not say how many of these were sold as standalone units as opposed to bundles with the Xbox 360 video game console. Microsoft is hoping that the Kinect, which lets players control games using their bodies, hand gestures and voices, will broaden the reach of the Xbox.
HEY KIDS! It’s time to send your
I don't know about you, but sometimes my refrigerator resembles a black hole. Things get pushed to the back, and small containers get hidden behind larger And items. now that the fridge is filled to capacity with all of our holiday food, I began to wonder whether MARY perhaps the HUNT only solution was to get a second refrigerator. (It wasn't!) Enter the following great reader tip to save my wallet and my sanity. Thank you, Pat! • Fridge finder. The items in the back of my refrigerator are sometimes hard to reach, and often I forget what's back there. I purchased small Lazy Susan-style turntables and placed all the small jars and containers (jellies, mayonnaise, salad dressings) on them. Now it's easier to find what I need. — Pat,
• Kool play dough. When I make play dough, I color it by adding a packet of unsweetened drink mix, e.g., Kool-Aid, instead of food coloring. The colors are vivid, and it has a fun smell. The kids love it! Just put it into the dry ingredients when you are mixing and let the fun begin. — Mary,
Wisconsin
California
• Quick labeling. With all the various sizes of plastic containers these days, the lids rarely fit all containers, even if they appear to be the same size and from the same manufacturer. I found that if I put a dot of fingernail polish on the lid and bottom of the matching container, it saves me lots of time and frustration. On one set, I put one dot; on another, I put two dots, etc. — Reader in Texas
• Windex kills ants. Don't use ant spray to kill ants. The fumes are terrible and can be very harmful. A much better alternative — and one that works like a charm — is Windex. — Mary,
• Shampoo for hair spray. I tried several household cleaners on the hair spray residue left on the bathroom tile, without any success. It then occurred to me that if shampoo gets hair spray out of my hair, why not off the floor, too? Just a few dots of shampoo on a wet rag removes all that sticky residue. — Brenda,
New York
• Quick cake decorating. My favorite way to decorate a frosted cake quickly is to take a cookie cutter, place it on top of the frosting and pour sprinkles inside the cookie cutter. When you lift the cutter off, you will have a perfectly sprinkled design. — Nancy, e-mail
• Greasing zippers. If the zipper won't zip on one of your jackets after it has gone through the wash, spray the end with a little cooking spray. With a little lubrication, the zipper catches and then glides easily. — Cathy,
California
• Laundry soap gifts. When I made Mary's homemade powdered laundry soap, I realized just how pretty it is. So my husband and I are making up a few batches for Christmas gifts. We're putting them in wide-mouth glass jars, and I'm making cards from grocery bags with the directions for how to use and make the soap. — Karen, e-mail CREATORS.COM
Had A Poor Thanksgiving Meal Due To Loose Dentures? Don’t Let Your Christmas Meal Be The Same! Illinois
Now with new mini dental implant technology you can enjoy secure eating comfort.
The Salisbury Post will publish its annual “Letters to Santa” special section on Wednesday, December 15, 2010
• In one short procedure you can have tightly fitting dentures • No surgical cutting or suturing • Minimal discomfort • Much less costly than conventional implants
Please email letters to santa@salisburypost.com Letters must be received by Thurs, December 2 before 5:00 p.m.
Letters to Santa
704-216-9153
Call for your complimentary consultation
Send your letters to:
c/o the Salisbury Post
PO Box 4639 Salisbury, NC 28145
Senior Citizen Discount Available (55 and older) for Dental Mini-Implants and Implant Dentures Finance Plans Available Through Care Credit
R127476
To place an ad in this section, please call the advertising department at 704-797-4241
to organize the fridge
Janak B. Patel, D.D.S. 2440 Statesville Blvd. • Suite 220 • Salisbury General Dentistry, Adults & Children, Aesthetic Dentistry, Bonding, Veneers, Bleaching, Crowns, Implant Dentistry
R127742
Dear Amy: You ran a letter from “Tired Teacher” in your column. Tired was asking how to manage the near-constant email contact from parents demanding instant responses. As someone in the education field who has experienced this, I have found the best way to handle these folks is to avoid being ASK defensive AMY and to stay calm. You can respond back via e-mail first; then progress to a phone call and then a meeting, if that doesn’t work. It helps to keep in mind that parents usually want what is best for their child and your job is to help them see that what you are doing is for the good of their child in the long run. If you always respond professionally and politely to e-mails, even when they are nasty, eventually the majority of parents will come to trust you. Unless it’s an emergency, any communication with parents should wait for planning periods and after school, to keep the teacher focused on his or her primary job —