I knew she would end up in a sticky situation.
But I was powerless to prevent it. I told her that the best way of handling the situation was to get surround herself by four people of equal strength and sensibility and then, using a most delicate hand, lay the precious item in the centre.
I was talking, of course, about the delicate art of covering a book with contact. Whoever thought of getting some plastic and making it sticky is both a genius and a jester in equal combination.
My daughter was helping my almost step grand daughter cover her school books.
They say the best way to learn is by making mistakes and I have made enough (and ruined enough books) to know that contact and I aren’t good friends.
My best advice is to have four people lightly grasp each corner, pulling sufficiently to take out all those bumps and ridges but not to ping it out of your grasp, lay the contact down (sticky side up – some people just have to be told) and place the book somewhere near its centre.
Misjudge the centre and any successful origami of the corners is thrown into confusion from the get go. But mine is a daughter who rarely needs the wisdom I have gleaned in a life as learned as my own. And so, I cast out my pearls of wisdom, sticky though they may be, hoping they would fall on a ground free of grit and consternation.
- Linda Muller