Toying With Idea of Finding a Chimp

Fay Haggard of Santa Ana would like to find a 12-inch stuffed chimp with flesh-colored plastic face and hands and wearing tennis shoes and holding a banana. The upper torso is yellow; the bottom is black. She wants to give the animal to a young visitor from New York, but the last time she saw one was at the L.A. County Fair about four years ago. Can you help before Haggard falls flat on her face, or will the Easterner be convinced Haggard is trying to make a monkey out of him?

Ida LaBelle of Mission Viejo is trying to locate a large, wooden salad bowl set with screw-in legs that stands beside a dining-room table. The set she has in mind also has small serving bowls and a serving spoon and fork. LaBelle would be absolutely bowled over if she could locate a source. Can you help, or will LaBelle have to realize that her salad days may be at an end?

Eva Mayse of Montebello is looking for a traveling gooseneck mirror that magnifies on one side and unscrews to fit into its own pouch. Can you help before Mayse takes a gander at her next flight schedule, or will she then have to realize that her goose may be cooked?

Barbara Fallon of Long Beach is looking for a place that sells written-out address numbers in wrought iron. She has seen these on houses but can’t locate a source. Can you help address Fallon’s problem, or will she be so overwrought that she may wish her number were up?

Reader-to-Reader Help Line: Mrs. Kelly at (213) 649-7074 would like to locate an instruction book for songs to be played on a small electric organ, either a Kent or a Magnavox. Please help her get “organ”ized again. . . . Olivia at (213) 752-0447 needs two rear springs for a 1963 four-door, eight-cylinder Dodge Polaris. Don’t dodge this request, but help Olivia’s car spring back to life again. . . . Norm at (818) 705-4277 is looking for Un-Candles, which were formerly made by Corning; he prefers full-shape, seven-inch or nine-inch candles but will accept any size or shape, as long as they were made by Corning. Please see to it that he gets a light--an “Un-Light.”

Note: The Reader-to-Reader Help Line is only for one-time items and for products that are no longer available in stores. And you must give us written permission to publish your telephone number.

Jane Goetz of Malibu, who was looking for an iron that merely irons and has no steam holes, should strike while the iron is hot instead of blowing off steam. Four readers wrote that they would be willing to part with such an iron. If Goetz is still interested (or if anyone else is, for that matter), please send a stamped, self-addressed envelope, and we’ll see if we can get that matter ironed out.

Dorothy Samuels of Westminster, who was looking for a manual card shuffler, need not feel that the deck is stacked against her; we have two sources. Kathy Parnell of Alhambra writes that her father recently bought such a card shuffler at the Game Keeper in the Santa Anita Fashion Plaza in Arcadia. Three readers (Sally Roseman and Joan Scott, both of Los Angeles, and Mary B. Cate of San Diego) told us that the Old Village Shop, Unique Merchandise Mart, Building 8, Hanover, Pa. 17333, features a manual card shuffler for $9.99 plus shipping and insurance. Eight readers have manual shufflers and will make a deal or give them away. Send us a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

Herb Hain cannot answer mail personally but will, space permitting, respond in this column to readers who have--or need--helpful information. Write (do not telephone) to You Can Help!, You section, the Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.