Picture it, the late 1960s. Mom and Dad are simply too busy to teach their spawn to say please and thank you. So they enlist the help of a jaunty, colorful book with delightfully cheerful illustrations of giddy, pastel animals and happy cartoon gals in bonnets to teach them some manners. And if that doesn’t work, maybe they can listen to the included 45 record and learn by musical osmosis…
Last month I lopped off the top of a pineapple then let it dry out for almost a week before jabbing it with toothpicks and plopping it into water. I crossed my paws and dreamed about it someday actually turning into a houseplant. Maybe if things went really, really well, it would even grow a wee pineapple out the top just like the ones at the garden center! Of course my hopes weren’t all that high - not really. After all, I’ve tried this little supermarket gardening experiment more times than I’d care to admit and have never once been successful. But this time luck and the obnoxiously bright lights that my aerogarden emits across the entire den were enough coax my decapitated bromeialid chum into growing roots! Maybe the avacado pit beside it will take the hint and actually grow now, too. 
In other news, a Begonia Rex has been obtained. Strange and fantastic leaves!
