Fresh eggs will sink; older eggs will float

Dear Heloise: You made me giggle when I saw you on & quot;Late Show With David Letterman. & quot; I did get your hint about the veggies/nylons, but for the life of me, I had no idea what your hints were with the eggs! Thanks for the much-needed comic relief. Karen Peterson, via e-mail
Thanks, Karen -- I got the giggles myself! It wasn't easy trying to share all of the information with David Letterman making his funny comments. However, the egg hints I gave were how to tell a fresh egg from a not-so-fresh one.
Here's the hint: An older egg has a larger air pocket inside the shell, so it floats in water. A fresh egg will sink. The egg that floated was from a carton of eggs that one of David Letterman's staff members had in his fridge, and the & quot;sell by & quot; date was Jan. 10! The sell-by date appears on every egg carton. The American Egg Board states that properly stored eggs can be eaten four to five weeks after the sell-by date and be OK.
Recently, my husband was making pancakes and noticed that the sell-by date printed on the end of the egg carton was & quot;Oct. 03. & quot; He showed it to me and couldn't believe we had 2-year-old eggs in our fridge! Well, upon further investigation, we determined that the & quot;03 & quot; meant the day, not the year. We took a poll at Heloise Central. Some thought it meant the day, and some thought it meant the year.
By the way, the pancakes were great! Heloise
Did you know that there are as many as 140 types of plums available to enjoy in the United States? Plums are such a healthy and yummy snack, so choose ones that are firm, with good coloring. Plums can be ripened by placing them in a brown-paper grocery bag at room temperature. Check on them daily, as they can ripen quickly. Store ripe plums in the refrigerator and use within a couple of days. What Little Jack Horner didn't know! Heloise
Dear Heloise: I read with interest the hint on how to measure liquid shortening. I learned many years ago that to measure solid shortening, you should use the displacement method: To measure 1/2 cup of shortening, fill a measuring cup with 1/2 cup of water and put in the solid ingredients until the water reaches 1 cup. Empty the water and use the solid. This was taught to me by a teacher who was also a family friend. Norma Miller from Hot Springs Village, Ark.
Dear Heloise: I make a good deal of candy at Christmas that needs to be refrigerated, and I seem to never have enough refrigerator space.
This year, I used standard cookie sheets instead of 13-by-9-by-2-inch pans and was able to make my own temporary refrigerator shelving.G. Mazzola, Houston
XSend a great hint to: Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000, Fax: (210) HELOISE or E-mail: Heloise@Heloise.com.
King Features Syndicate