Walter:
>I just bought an avocado today, and I'm not sure if it is ripe.  Right
>now it feels hard.  How do tell?  Also, I'm looking for suggestions on
>how to eat it. :)

I prefer Christian's method to determine if it's ripe. After some time
you will be experienced enough to find it out by simply taking it into
one hand and pressing it slightly. No need to hurt the skin by using
a knife.

Bob:
>I cut 'em in half around the seed, twist the halves to separate 'em,
>slap a sturdy knife into the seed (use middle of blade rather than tip)
>& twist to remove the seed cleanly from that half.  a fork, tines
>straddling the knife blade will gently ease the seed off the knife onto
>plate or Zephyr's carpet...

With the difference, that I would drop the seed onto Bob's carpet :-),
this is pretty much the method I use.
There's perhaps one advantage of this method over peeling the skin:
if you were mistaken about the ripeness of the fruit, you can put it
back into the paper bag and let it continue ripening.

What one also can do with an erroneously opened unripe avocado: put
it into the drier and adjust to app. 90F. The surface will turn black
soon and build some crust. The whole thing can change its taste into
some fatty potatoe - luminous!

Kirt:
>I'm joking now ;) Only instinctos could come up with so many methods
>and complex directions for eating a raw egg. Sometimes I wonder if
>y'all just miss having recipes ;)

Yeah yeah yeah! And this avocado drying thing is just another recipe.
:-) In fact I almost always was too lazy to do recipes and long cooking
in bad old times. But it's just fun to play around with the food and
that's the thrill I think. :-)

How to eat avocados:
If the skin is guaranteed to be untreated, some sorts with thin skin
can be eaten unskinned. In this case if one additionally applies Bob's
cutting method, and bites into one half, one might get a familiar fee-
ling: there's a food, that is cut into two halves, which has a crunchy
crust and is soft and fatty inside, like that avocado.
This food in my oppinion is a roll, with lots of butter on it.
So it seems, that cooked fooders mimiced the taste and texture of an
avocado half by creating rolls and putting butter on it...
Isn't it funny?

Instinctive fatty greetings,

Stefan