Crying over Onions

I had heard long ago that you were supposed to cut one end off the onion first, but I could never remember which end it was supposed to be. After loads of mistakes, after many a tear, I finally began to figure out that it makes it a lot better to cut off the root end first. (Funny. My "tip book" says to cut the root end off last.) I put a note in the spot where I store my onions, reminding me to slice the root end off before peeling the onion. After a few months of that, I had finally gotten it through my sieve-like skull. Every now and then, with a kid helping me, I end up with one onion where the stem-end was cut before the root-end. And, oooooh, wow, do we end up sobbing over that mistake!