Alice in bloom at Field's

"The time has come," the walrus said, to talk of many things: Ofshoes and ships and sealing wax of cabbages and kings and why the seais boiling hot and whether pigs have wings."

Lewis CarrollC arroll wrote two of the most famous books in English literature -Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.Though he wrote them for children, many scholars study the books tofind meaning in what seems to be nonsense. Some of the charactershave become so well known that they are part of our everyday speech.We hear about people who "grin like a Cheshire cat" or who are "madas a March Hare."

And now, Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland is the theme ofMarshall Field's Sixth Annual Flower Show. Windows at Field's StateStreet store will depict scenes from the books. The windows willfeature hand-carved, hand-painted mechanical figures. All thefavorite characters - including Alice, the Cheshire Cat, HumptyDumpty, the White Rabbit, etc. - will be there from Saturday throughApril 3.The flower show is free and open at Field's State Street storeand also at their Water Tower Place store. For more information orto arrange a complimentary tour, call (312) 781-4483. Bring the kidsand return to the joys of childhood!GOURMET TIDBITS: Here's a recipe for Irish coffee from the Coqd'Or restaurant in the Drake Hotel. To each cup of steaming hotcoffee, add one jigger of Irish whiskey and a half-teaspoon of sugar,and mix. Top with a dollop of whipped cream. Then pour just a dropof green creme de menthe on the cream for that important bit of Irishgreen.BEAUTY BRIEFS: The colleens of Ireland have beautiful skin.This is due to the fact that Ireland is completely surrounded bywater. Their skin is moisturized each morning by the ocean breezes.In the good old U.S.A., many of us live and work in heated buildingsthat are devoid of moisture in the air. So during the winter monthsmoisturize your skin often with a gentle spray of water. Invest insmall plastic spray bottles, fill them with your favorite bottledwater. Spray your face as often as possible. Pat the skin almostdry and apply a moisture cream or lotion.TIMELY TIPS: Wednesday we celebrate the birthday of St. Patrick,the patron saint of Ireland. There is always a lot of discussion asto where St. Patrick was born. Because I don't want my readers toget into a "donnybrook" on this "foine" day, I did a bit of research,I did. I learned that the good saint was born about A.D. 389, eitherin Bannaven near the Severn estuary or in Scotland near the moderncity of Dumbarton. He was captured by Irish pirates at age 16 andtaken to Ireland to tend flocks of sheep. He escaped to France tobecome a monk. A vision led him to return to Ireland as a missionarybishop. St. Patrick founded 300 churches and converted thousands ofpeople to Christianity.Send your helpful hints or time-or money-saving ideas to DorseyConnors, Box 3600, Chicago 60654. If your letter is used, we willsend you $5. Read Dorsey Connors' column on the Internet atwww.suntimes.com