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%8 TABLE TALKS From one basic pastry recipe-- and how delightful this almond-flavored pastry is! -- you can make any number of different desserts. If you happen to be one of the lucky people with gooseberries in your garden--gooseberries are coming back into fashion, by the way--I especially recommend the pie made with that greatly underprized fruit. Or should that be "currant"? The dictionary is too far away to go and look it up, so here goes! ALMOND - FLAVORED PASTRY 1% c. sifted flour 1 tblsp. sugar H c. butter 2 tsp. almond extract 2 tblsp. water Sift flour; measure. Sift flour and sugar together. Cut butter into flour with pastry blender, or two knives. Sprinkle almond extract over mixture. Sprinkle water, one tablespoon at a time, over mixture, tossing quickly with a fork until dough forms a ball. (Use only enough water to make flour particles cling together--they should not be wet or slippery.) Form pastry into smooth ball between floured hands. Wrap and chill xk hour or longer, before rolling. Chilling makes this tender pastry easier to handle. This recipe makes enough pastry for any one of the three desserts that follow: BLUEBERRY TARTS Make Almond-Flavored Pastry. Chill. Roll out dough Vs inch thick. Cut 6 circles, 6 inches in diameter (a saucer makes a good guide). Fit circles over inverted custard cups. Prick with a fork dipped in flour, pinch corners around edge. Bake in hot (425°) oven 12 to 15 minutes. Cool. Blueberry Filling 1 pkg. vanilla pudding Vt c. heavy cream 1 tsp. vanilla 1 tblsp. sugar 3 c. blueberries Prepare pudding according to directions on package. Cool. Stir pudding until smooth. Whip cream. Add vanilla and sugar. Fold cream into pudding. Just before serving, remove tart shells carefully from custard cups. Fill pastry shells with pudding and berries. Makes 6 tarts. SAUTS SALLIES V'Ot course, you don't know which Je yours. None of them lookf' like you." GOOSEBERRY PIE Make ' Almond - Flavored Pastry. Divide dough in half, and store one half In refrigerator. Roll other half out very thin to make a 12-inch circle. Place loosely in 10-inch pie plate; pat out any air bubbles. Avoid stretching the pastry, or It may shrink during baking. Prick with fork dipped in flour, particularly around sides. Pinch overhang under the edge of pie plate to prevent sides from sliding down while baking. Roll out other half of pastry. Cut part of it into 9 strips, % inch wide and 12 inches long. Make three braids of three strips each, and piece together to make continuous braid. Brush rim with water; press Cut 6 diamond-shaped pieces out of remaining pastry. (If you wish, top centre of each diamond with half a pecan or walnut.) Bake shell in moderate (375°) oven about 10-15 minutes, and diamonds at the same temperature for about 10 minutes. Cool. You can prepare this shell a day ahead. Gooseberry Filling % c. water 2 c. sugar--or less according to sweetness of berries l'A qt. gooseberries % c. corn starch Cook % cup water and the sugar for a few minutes over low heat. Cut off stem and blossom tips from berries. Add to syrup. Simmer gently about 5 minutes or until cooked but still whole. Using a slotted spoon, remove berries from syrup. Place in pie shell. Dissolve corn starch in remaining % cup water. Stir into syrup. Cook syrup until thick and clear, about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Cool to lukewarm. Pour over berries. Decorate with diamond-shaped Some Kind Words For The Postman The j letter carrier must be gifted with an accurate retentive memory". He must assimilate for insjant use the postal rules and regulations which are contained in a book of Over 900 pages ... He must know how to detect obscene mail, dunning notices and all other prohibited kinds of mailing matter and be prepared at all times to answer the queries of the public. The letter carrier . . . must arrange his mail in an order Of sequence for delivery, he must learn the scheme of distribution for his route, which consists in memorizing upward Of several thousand names of patrons of the postal service and associating those names with the labeled pigeon-holes in the post Office distributing case. The carrier must keep a log book in which are recorded the removal addresses of former patrons of his route . . . The log book contains hundreds of names and the letter carrier is required to memorize the forwarding addresses so that he can write on the envelope without recourse to the log book, the new address. The letter carrier is also a Turn 'Em Upside-Down - Technicians May Murray, standing, and Peggy Byrne demonstrate a new X-ray unit at Wesley Memorial Hospital. Heavy straps insure the security and comfort of the patient, as the apparatus is mounted within an eight-foot-wide circular track. By revolving the patient in an upside-down position, doctors can watch the progress of an opaque dye sometimes injected into the spinal column for diagnosis. Island Camera Queens -- Whe queen, these girls were tfying to w Lopez, Noemi Leon, Zennie Lopez, l of the Philippine Islands i the "Miss Press Photographer" title. Left to right: Isabel Sarena, Ofelia Bautista and Emmie Soriano. sort of a secret service mam He is frequently called upon to Obtain information of a strictly confidential nature, elicited by the several secret service departments of the government both within and without the postal service. He is called upon to give clues to the whereabouts Of alleged criminals, of seditious persons, of smugglers, bootleggers, post Office robbers, of fraudulent schemers making use Of the mail service, of deserters from the Army and Navy, of counterfeiters, illicit distilleries and other revenue dodgers. The letter carrier must be a mechanic and chauffeur, as all classes of mail are collected by motor vehicles and large parcel post packages and registered parcels are delivered by motor vehicles. He is used as a collection agency in delivering COD parcels and unpaid mail, and is responsible for all moneys entrusted to his custody as well as for the mail and packages. He must be a sphinx in respect to knowledge acquired by him in the performance of his duties imparting to no one under penalty for violation thereof, confidence received by him in his employment. He must be a trained diplomat in handling all classes of people, the irate, the quarrelsome, the complaining and the "knock*s." He is the buffer between &e patron whose grievance is not redressable and the department, charged with responsibility for rectifying the complaint of the aggrieved. He must be honest, loyal, industrious and sober at all times, as well as neat and circumspect in his attire. In summation, a letter carrier serves in a dedicated position. His job is one of great importance to all citizens of our country. From the Postal Record Public Enemy The labor racketeer is an enemy of the employer, of the community, Of industrial peace, and, in particular, of labor itself. Said Federal Judge Ruby M. Hulen in sentencing to long prison terms five "shake-down" men who had operated in the St. Louis industrial area: The evidence of merciless use and betrayal of people who labor for their livelihood and were members of unions supposed to be represented by these defendants is shocking. Not only were these men found guilty of "holding up" contractors? The workmen in the unions they controlled as officers were also deprived of wages when called out on strikes which involved few actual grievances and resulted in little if any improvement in wages or working conditions. One of those convicted, it was shown, had used up something over $100,000 from the union treasury in defending himself and Other officials against the racketeering indictments, and there seems no way of the union recovering it. The St. Louis industrial area in recent years has been especially plagued with labor racketeering in certain of the building trades. This had ties with the gang world and with politics -- not an infrequent alliance -- and was hard to dislodge. The Post-Dispatch, in one of its typical crusades, exposed the facts, public opinion demanded action, and federal prosecutors, grand juries, and courts did the rest. Other areas enmeshed in this particularly vicious kind of criminal network should take heart. But they should also take heed that it may take all three --fearless exposure, public indignation, and conscientious agents of justice -- to do the job.-- From The Christian Science Monitor. .. PLAIN HORSE SENSE . By f. (BOB) VON PILIS There are two attitudes which represent extreme positions respecting our economic and social order. The one attitude is espoused by those who reject any and every kind of economic planning or organization. They constitute the group of extreme individualists or the so-called school of economic liberalism. They want no interference whatsoever with the individual either from the government or from the social pressure of group organizations. They will tolerate no restrictions upon individual initiative or personal enterprise. They are liberal only to the extent that they wish to be liberated from -all social responsibility. They call it free enterprise but the freedom is for those who possess great resources and dominating strength rather than for the weak or those who depend simply on their own labour for their well-being. They oppose all efforts to establish collective bargaining by organized labour and they resent the action of government in enacting laws which make such collective bargaining obligatory. If there is to be any social planning, they will do it themselves without the collaboration of labour, consumers or the •government. They want the government restricted to the function of a policeman or umpire in enforcing private contracts but not to be entrusted with the responsibility of promoting justice and the common good. The Other Extreme The second group reject totally this attitude of the individualists and rush to the other extreme. These latter desire to socialize all resources or establish a state collectivity. Either all property, as in pure Communism, or at least all productive property, as in pure Socialism, should be owned in their theory by the community or by the State. The State or the community thereupon will engage through its bureaus and agencies in developing an elaborate system of national economic planning. The hope, impractical as that method may be, is to make pro- Sea Stories? - Probably not -looks more like a newspaper. However, this Italian boy has found the perfect way to beat the heat in his underwater "library," a cool stone ledge beneath the foundation at Rome's Foro Italico Stadium. vision for the needs of all citizens so that there will be no surplus and no deficiency. This system would ignore human nature and human rights as flagrantly as the afore-mentioned group of individualists. In fact, experience indicates that where this system has been tried human beings are victimized in a manner and to an extent even more disastrous. Persecution is the logical and inevitable result of such economic dictatorship. The Alternative Between these two extremes there is a "via media" completely consistent with Christian morality and with sound economic principles. It is manifestly impossible to expect good economic order if wages, prices, working conditions, and the .public good are left to chance or to the haphazard methods of so-called free enterprise. "Free competition . . . cannot be the ruling principle of the economic world." Economic supremacy can still less assume this function of a true and effective guiding principle, "for this is a headstrong and vehement power, which, if it is to prove beneficial to mankind, needs to be curbed strongly and ruled with prudence." The true remedy will be found in accomplishing two reforms in our social order. In the first place there must be re-established some form of vocational groups which will bind men together in society according to their respective occupations, thus creating a moral unity.. Second, there must be a reform of morals and a profound renewal of the Christian spirit which must precede the social reconstruction. The social organism has been dismembered and broken up into fragments each seeking its own selfish interest instead of the common good of all. Until the organic nature of society is again recognized and re-established through vocational groups either one of two things must happen.. The State must assume all responsibility, that is, become an absolute economic dictatorship or else the individual remains helpless, defenseless, and completely overpowered by those who enjoy supremacy. Boxing Really Tough In Slam Boxing ig one Of the most popular sports In Slam today. Match-e« are held every Thursday an4 Sunday afternoons in an open Colosseum-like stadium on Raja-damnern Avenue in Bangkok. The bouts last only five rounds. But they are often bloody affair* with one, sometimes both, of the boxers being carried out on stretchers. The boxers wear conventional gloves, but everything goes in the fight -- knees, feet, elbows, heads -- exerythlng except holding. A programme lists some of the special means of maiming for which each boxer is famous. The boxers may get anything from approximately $10 to $50 per match. Rough as it may be, they nevertheless box for the sport, rather than the money to be made. Each stops briefly at the entrance to the ring to kneel in a moment's prayer to the God of Sport. An orchestra, composed of native flutes, cymbals, trumpets and drums, plays an ancient wailing chant during the match. It serves as a strange background music to the wild cheering and jeering by the fans who will stick to their seats even when a sudden tropical downpour deluges the stadium. MERRY MENAGERIE Hear, Hear! - There was nothing wrong with the eyes of the hearing aid experts who chose Vivian Mathias, 22, as their "Miss Hearing Aid" during a convention. Herself suffering from impaired hearing most of her life, Vivian models a wrist-watch type of hearing aid, considers it just another portion of her costume as she does a watch or other jewelry. This column welcomes criticism, constructive or destructive, and suggestions, wise or otherwise. Address all mail to Bob Von Pilis, Whitby, Ont 1941 1950 Props For Wheat Increase -- The U.S. Government support pric« for each bushel of wheat to farmers has increased $1.26 since 1941. Above Newschart traces rise from 1941 (98 cents per bushel) to 1954 (224 cents per bushel). Only drop was 194? when support price clipped to 195 cents per bushel.