HOT TIPS : THE TALE OF THE TAPE; OR ... HOW WE LEARNED TO DUCT AND COVER.

Go ahead: Kick yourself. You know you're wishing you had thought of this first.

Sure, you've known for years that it's one of the most durable and versatile adhesives on Earth. But aprons, wallets and shower curtains?

Joe Wilson's already beat you to it.

In ``Ductigami: The Art of the Tape'' (Boston Mills Press; $7.95), the master ductigamist and stand-up comedian provides simple, step-by-step instructions, including diagrams, on how to make 14 functional items for use around the house and in your daily travels.

You might need, for example, a cell phone holder made of duct tape or duct tape tool belt.

Be prepared for a challenge, though. Remember, Wilson didn't subtitle his book ``the simple art of the tape.''

You'll find yourself wadding up more than a few pieces of duct tape on your way to ductigami pro. But once you get the first few pieces into place, you'll impress yourself with how elaborate a project you can master.

There's also a bonus Wilson forgot to mention: Yanking all that sticky tape off the roll will give your arms a good workout.

Novices, Wilson advises, might want to start with one of the more basic projects, perhaps a telephone book cover, because ``it's simple and everyone should have one.''

- Betty Kwong

Through thicket and thin

Any gardener who has put in his time can confess to having one. It hangs in the garage, rusted, soiled, its blades nicked and gnawed by the unending tasks of trimming and pruning.

Loppers and pruners are staples in any gardener's arsenal, taking as much abuse as a gardener can muster.

Now the makers of Fiskars two-piece Power Pruning set claim their tools can take even more hard work - and you don't need more muscle to get the job done.

Their secret: a ``hypoid gear'' designed to maximize leverage.

Their PowerGear Bypass Pruner is good for smaller jobs. Its parallel handle opening lets you use all your fingers simultaneously for better cutting force. But the best part is its rotating lower handle, which turns smoothly as you compress, minimizing hand strain and blisters.

The PowerGear Anvil Lopper is designed for the bigger jobs - branches between -3/4 and 1-1/4 inches in diameter. It has an extra gear that provides more power and leverage, but its bite is sometimes too short to finish off the thicker branches in one fell swoop. There's one big plus, however: This lopper is remarkably light at only 13 ounces.

Fiskar's PowerGear set isn't available yet at local hardware stores, but you can be the first on your block to have one if you order by phone. Call [phone]. It'll cost you $49.95 plus $4.95 shipping and handling.

- Betty Kwong

Just the highlights

At last, a product that lets students and other inveterate highlighters mark the important stuff in their favorite books, then erase the highlighting so they can resell the books or give them unmarked to somebody else.

Tombow's new MONO Dry Highlighter, in a gear-driven, hand-held applicator, allows readers to apply a thin film of bright yellow tape on virtually any paper surface without the highlighting smearing. And once the marks have served their purpose, they can be removed with a pencil eraser.

Because it's dry, not wet like most pen-type highlighters, the new product won't bleed through porous papers like newsprint or thin papers like Bible pages. And it's transparent when pages are duplicated.

The only drawback is that it requires a bit more pressure to make the highlighter work than the pen variety, so if you've got a lot to highlight, you may have to fight off minor hand cramps.

At a suggested retail price of $2.98, MONO Dry Highlighter is available at Office Depot, Office Max and other major office supply stores.

- Carol Bidwell

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) You, too, can make a fashion statement in a duct-tape apron.

(2) no caption (Power Pruning)

(3) no caption (MONO Dry Highlighter)