It's a big ol' muddy river, the Amazon, but people drink the water, and swim and wash in it.

When you're swimming around out there, every National Geographic article you've ever read on piranhas comes to mind. With every stroke you take, you wonder.

Especially once you've fished. We caught a number of piranhas, and they made good eating. Put a little chunk of raw beef on a hook on a pole and you're all set--they seem to gobble anything with those vicious little razor-sharp teeth of theirs.

Which, as I say, gives one pause when swimming.

Here's the trick: Don't act like a dead raw chunk of beef. Look lively; show you have purpose. Above all, don't just float along.

To my mind, that's not only worthy advice for swimming in the Amazon, but a pretty good New Year's resolution for life in the Northern suburbs. It's going to be mine.

A happy new year to you.

Jane Rzepka, 12/21/98