First, a clarification: If you are one of those people who circles addresses in the classifieds Friday night, gets up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and fights over estate sale items with foam-at-the-mouth antique dealers, stop reading now. We are speaking to folks who simply like to piddle around on weekends in search of a bargain. Stay within the borders of Greenville Avenue, McCommas Boulevard, Abrams Road and Vanderbilt Avenue, and you'll find plenty of 25-cent paperbacks, $1 record albums and maybe even a cute wooden box or two. Caution: Stay away from used underwear, because that's just creepy.

When we drag friends to The Shake Rag on a given weekend, their reaction falls into one of two categories. The first is a squint-eyed "hmm" and a quick perusal of the store, acting as if they'd just gotten a bad sweater from Aunt Ethel. The second is helluva lot more appreciative, combing through the cherry-picked vinyl selection organized by decade, testing out the vintage music instruments and amps, drooling at the music memorabilia strewn across the walls and haggling with the owner over prices. It's not the cheapest place to beef up your musical collection, but just about everything in the tiny shop will whet music snobs' appetites. Even if you fall into the "first reaction" category, stop by this hidden gem off Lower Greenville to find a unique gift for the music snob in your life.

Your Singer getting a little creaky? Can't find your zipper attachment? Perhaps you're just in need of a lube job, if you know what we mean. No, we're not being rude; we just think you need a reliable, honest place to get your sewing machine worked on. The Sew & So, located near the downtown Garland square, is the place for sewing machine repair and reconditioning, as well as collectable machine sales and trade. The storefront may appear nondescript from the street, but within it lies a wealth of knowledge on all things related to those refined beasts that at one time graced every household. Our inherited Singer Portable Electric 221-1 received a new lease on life after a near fatal internal tangle, but this so-and-so got it purring like a kitten--and even offered us a pretty penny for it. We held on to our treasure, and though the good doctor played disappointed well, we suspect we saw a little glint in his eye that such a fine specimen would be well-used and returning, of course, for annual check-ups.