Bottle Cap Fix . . .

. . .Just Plain Common Sense

In the kitchen there's a round white table on metal legs. For a long while the table wobbled.

Two people sit for breakfast. One puts a hand on the table while reaching across for the milk. The other person's coffee spills as the table wobbles.

Same two people work on the morning crossword puzzle. The puzzle in the paper has been duplicated twice so each has a copy.

One has an answer and leans forward to pencil it in. The table wobbles. The other wads up a napkin and puts it under one leg of the table. Wrong leg.

The other tries the napkin under a leg on his side. Not that leg either. There's four legs. One of them must be the offending, too-short leg. All are tried. The table still wobbles.

Then the common sense advocate - you know it's Lady B - has an idea as she gazes at the gallon milk jug on the table. That red cap on top looks like the right thing. Down under it goes, placed under one leg. No more wobble.

There's another common sense story at this abode that has brought on numerous laughs whe told to guests.

An old stump of a long-ago sawed-down elm tree near the patio needed removing. Old Newsie gathered several tools - pickax, shovel, saw, sledgehammer - and commenced to dig around the stump.

No much progress was being made since the ground was hard. Lady B remarked the stump was old and should uproot easily. That said, she laid both hands on the stump and pushed. No more stump.

Common sense has other applications every day. Like the time the office light wouldn't go on.

Searched around for a new bulb for a bit, returned to the office, found light glowing. A questioning look at unohoo brought, with a triumphant smile, "plugged the cord in."

And then . . . oh, I'm gonna stop here.

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