I found this Italian porcelain Capidomonte hibiscus at a neighbor’s estate sale.  Fran, herself a delicate flower, had moved to an assisted living facility.  I assume she took her nicer things with her, because there wasn’t much at the sale.  But standing out among the yellowed books, aluminum cookware, and midcentury furniture, was this fragile hibiscus.  It was a pretty thing among all the junk.

According to my interwebs research, in Hawaii, where the yellow hibiscus is the state flower, a hibiscus tucked behind a woman’s right ear indicates the woman is spoken for, and a hibiscus behind the left ear indicates the woman is available.  I hibiscus behind both ears probably means the woman is trouble.

Muumuus — those loose, usually floral-print dresses, that hang from the shoulder are also popular in Hawaiian culture.

Lilo in her muumuu

Three’s Company’s Mrs. Roper in her trademark muumuu

If you are young and slim and tan, you can probably pull off wearing a muumuu and flip flops (those cheap rubber thongs that slap against your heel as you walk making a “flip flop” sound) with a hibiscus tucked behind your ear.  But let’s face it — after a certain age, and definitely after a certain weight, a muumuu becomes a moo moo, and flip flops are more like waddle daddles, and wearing them in public is a definite fashion don’t.

Not long ago, I was waiting in line at the grocery store behind a woman over a certain age and certain weight who was wearing a moo moo and waddle daddles.  I am regularly guilted into donating a dollar to whatever cause the store is collecting for — like this one at Petco, for example:

How can you say no?  Well, I’ve observed that most of us manage to do so, but we do it politely, as in “Not today, thank you.”  On this particular occasion, the shy young cashier looked at the moo moo woman and said, ” Would you like to donate a dollar to breast cancer?”  I suppose technically she should have asked if she would like to donate a dollar to the fight against breast cancer or breast cancer research or something like that.  But we all know what she meant.  Except moo moo woman.  She replied very loudly and very very obnoxiously, “NO, I DON’T WANT TO DONATE A DOLLAR TO BREAST CANCER.  WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT?  BREAST CANCER IS A TERRIBLE DISEASE.  OH NO, I DON’T WANT TO DONATE TO BREAST CANCER, BLAH BLAH BLAH.”  The poor cashier just bowed her head and tried to avoid eye contact with her.  Moo moo woman paid the cashier and waddle daddled out of the store, much to the cashier’s relief.  Needless to say, I donated a dollar to breast cancer that day.

At the grocery store the other day, I found something else to do with a dollar — buy cranberries.  Left behind after the holidays — much like Fran’s porcelain hibiscus — they were on sale for a dollar a bag, less than half the price they were just a few weeks ago.  They were big, firm Wisconsin cranberries, perfect for baking with.

Inspired by the delicate hibiscus and the memory of the mean old moo moo woman who embarrassed the cashier over a request to donate a dollar, I bought a dollar bag of cranberries and made Cranberry Orange Pound Cake.  This is a happy, sunny cake to chase away the winter blues.