Let sleeping dogs lie - go with the flow - these sayings explain why television programmers can promote a show by scheduling it immediately after a successful one. These sayings also explain why incumbent politicians can count on our votes. In the latter case, of course, the sleeping dogs are definitely left lying.

Pizza, apple pie, ice cream - are these America's favorite foods because of taste, because of lack of imagination or because we're creatures of habit - habitually?

I've occasionally heard men talk about women changing their minds more than they do their clothes. Personally, I don't think that would be a bad thing. It would show that women are open-minded, flexible and can admit their mistakes. In fact, if the clothes analogy was used for men, they could be said to turn their minds inside out instead of changing them.

It's happened to all of us. We see people we haven't seen in years and they tell us we haven't changed a bit. When I was younger, I thought it was a compliment. Now I think it's an insult. Life is a process of growing. I don't want to be shortchanged.

Thomas Wolfe said you can't go home again - but you can. You just have to remember that you're going to your parents' home. No matter what you do, however, your parents can't send you to your room anymore. Your room's been turned into a home office or a gym.

Then there's the change that collects in the bottom of my purse and on the top of my husband's dresser. It collects in those places because there aren't many places left for us to use it. There's no more penny candy and no more ten cent phone calls. Now parking meters take credit cards and the homeless ask if you can spare a dollar. Soon you'll only be able to coin a phrase.

Now that I live in LA, I don't even have a change of seasons. Instead, I have earthquakes, fires and mudslides; but I'm not complaining. I wanted to get away from cold weather. I can handle LA - no sweat-er.