FROM MONDAY’S COLUMN:

Dear Reader,

Don't miss this week's contest. I'll be forever grateful to the winner. Let me explain:

Last winter when my mother and her husband came to Florida to visit, they became garage sale junkies. Every day around 3 p.m., they'd pull up in my driveway, open the back of their van and proudly show me their new-found treasures. You know the saying, "one person's treasure is another person's trash"?

Okay, some of the things they bought were thrifty buys--not that any one person could ever use five potato peelers in one lifetime. And I admit that some of their other "great bargains" were amusing to look at, but only because I was trying to figure out what the heck they were. And then--there was the salad bowl. The big, humongous, king-sized, mammoth, capacious, jumbo--ugliest salad bowl I've ever seen. And like two proud parents they held it out to me, "Here, we bought this for you!"

The garage sale duo paid $2.00 for the wooden monstrosity--this week's book club prize. I realize the postage for mailing the bowl to the lucky winner will cost me much more than the two dollar price
tag, but it will be worth it, just to get it out of my house.

I've been hiding it under a shelf for the past year, and I have to get rid of it. It's the only good hiding place in my house, and since my mother and her husband are visiting again--and I noticed them circling garage sale ads--I fear I'm going to need the space soon.

You can win the salad bowl, no kidding. (And yes, they know it's the prize. It's all in good fun. They're honored to be contributing to the book club "super-bowl" of prizes.) Just email me and tell why you should be the lucky winner. I'm begging you--enter the contest--now don't let me down.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@Emailbookclub.com