I've found you don't need to wear a necktie if you can hit.

-- Ted Williams

I will be ready for any future baseball trips, thanks to Marge Darlack . She sent a very nice, handmade tie with little baseballs on it.

Thank you, Marge, I will wear it proudly for big games.

Sandra Schuman , of Hephzibah, is also generous, but she took a different route.

She sent a flower seed postcard from Victoria, British Columbia. (It's actually a seed packet with a space on the back for a note and postage.)

Her message was also interesting. Apparently she's very lucky at winning vacation trips. "At Bear Mountain Westin Resort in Victoria, B.C., with my husband Tommy and my two sons," she wrote. "T.J. and Tyler enjoy the second trip won on Live With Regis and Kelly . Tommy and I went to Hawaii five years ago!"

Another regular traveler is Phyllis Holland Badke , who sent cards from:

- Albuquerque: "On the road to Denver ... Traveling with me is Dora Whitehead , Irene Shore , Patsy Spivey , Jean Crawford and Latrelle Todd .

- New Mexico: "Visited Santa Fe yesterday. They were having a festival and my guess is that at least 1,000 people were there.

- Denver: "Weather is hot -- 18 straight days of high heat."

- Yellowstone: "Gas prices bursting our budget."

- The Black Hills: "A fun highway to drive but motorcycles were everywhere. The Rally brought in 750,000 cycles."

- And Wyoming: "Saw many wild horses and lots of bison."

And finally, the always imaginative Pat VanHooser , of North Augusta, sends a photo of an elephant statue from Atlantic City. She writes: "I couldn't find a postcard of this so I made my own! Greetings from Atlantic City. I'm flying home ... leaving the elephant behind."

(I get it, Pat.)

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TODAY'S JOKE: Here's one shared by Betty Williams .

A teacher was trying to get a seventh-grade history class to understand how the Indians must have felt when they first encountered the Spanish explorers.

"How would you feel," she asked, "if someone showed up on your doorstep who looked very different, spoke a strange language and wore unusual clothes? Wouldn't you be a bit scared?"

"Nah," one boy answered, "I'd just figure it was my sister's date."