DEAR ABBY: Please hurry your new cookbooklet. I can't wait! Your first one was excellent. I am ordering another for my daughter. Abby, I have a picture of you with your delicious chocolate cake. It was on the cover of Family Circle magazine about 30 years ago. (You still look the same!)
Keep up the good work - you make my day, and I love your column. - MRS. BETTY NATKIEDEAR MRS. NATKIE: About two months ago, Mrs. Rudolph O. Oberg of Quincy, Mass., wrote to ask when the Dear Abby Cookbooklet II was coming out. I replied, "It's in the works; I'm hoping to get it out before Thanksgiving."
Well, it's ready! Such winners as Heavenly Peanut Butter Pie, Beer and Cheddar Cheesecake, Raw Apple Cake With Caramel Glaze, Abby's Turkey Loaf, California Chicken Casserole and Hearty Bean Soup are included.
To order, send a long, business-size, self-addressed envelope, plus check or money order for $3.95 ($4.50 in Canada) to: More Favorite Recipes by Dear Abby, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, Ill. 61054. (Postage is included.)
DEAR ABBY: When I was 16, I became pregnant out of wedlock. I was so ashamed that I told no one. When I was four months along, I told my parents, who were very loving and understanding.
I was sent to live with my grandmother in another state and stayed with her until I graduated from high school. No one in the family knew about this pregnancy except for my grandmother and my parents - not even my siblings were told. In those days, a pregnancy out of wedlock was a terrible disgrace, so I gave my baby up for adoption.
Over 20 years have passed, and now my most horrible nightmare has come true. I received a letter from the adoption agency wanting to know of my whereabouts. The letter was sent to my parents' home in a state where I no longer reside. They are as devastated over this invasion of privacy as I.
Abby, I gave the child up for adoption in order to close that chapter in my life, and I do not want to be located.
So far, I have done nothing about answering the letter from the agency, because I don't know where to turn. Fear is consuming me, and it's making me sick. Had I known this could happen, I might have chosen another option.
Please tell me what course of action to take. - CLOSED CHAPTER
DEAR CLOSED: Have a lawyer write to the adoption agency and advise it that you gave up the child for adoption with the understanding that your identity and whereabouts were not to be disclosed. And that's the way you want it.
DEAR ABBY: Concerning the issue of whether it's proper to drink soup from a soup bowl, here's a day-brightener I read in the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald:
"A man was sitting in a restaurant, drinking his soup from a bowl, when he accidentally spilled some soup onto his lap. He stood up and yelled, `Waiter! There's a soup in my fly!"' - GERALD M. GILBERTSON, BROOKLYN CENTER, MINN.
Everything you'll need to know about planning a wedding can be found in Abby's booklet, "How to Have a Lovely Wedding." To order, send a long, business-size, self-addressed envelope, plus check or money order for $3.95 ($4.50 in Canada) to: Dear Abby, Wedding Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054. (Postage is included.)