Cat Book Will Keep Reader Purring

M. Ceschke of Pomona is on the prowl for a copy of “Drawing Cats and Kittens,” which sold for $1 but seems to have been scratched from most shelf inventories. Can you help make this the purrfect holiday gift for Ceschke before she has kittens, or will our reader litterally end up feline abandoned?

Dorothy Johnstone of Huntington Beach is panting for some 1 1/2- or 2-inch-wide elastic lace for use on the waist bands of ladies underwear. Can you help before Johnstone waists much more time, or should we just mention to her to cut out the frills once and for all?

A few months ago we published a request for the rules to the 99 game, for which we are still receiving requests. Now Betty Kephart of Woodland Hills would like a copy of the rules for the game of Anagrams as it was played years ago ; she says that the rules for the Anagram games sold today are not the same. Can you help before Kephart trips over her own words, or will she never know the games people played in the past? (By the way, this paragraph contains at least a dozen anagrams.)

Reader-to-Reader Help Line: Florence at (818) 996-3383 would like a copy of the book “The Grandee,” which is out of print and no longer available in bookstores; she lent her copy to someone but she can’t remember to whom, and she wants it to remain in the family, because the book is about the history of the Sephardic people in the United States. Please help Florence rediscover and nourish her roots. . . . Marlyn at (818) 846-7464 is trying to get her hands on four plastic dusty-rose coffee mugs by Ingrid ; that color is no longer made. Please help so that Marlyn can get some steam up while looking at the world over rose-colored glasses.

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

Julia Emerson of Buena Park, who was looking for a new rubber gasket for an old Mirro pressure cooker, will soon be able to let off some steam; we have a number of sources. The one closest to Buena Park is probably California Electric Service, 2025 S. Main St., Santa Ana, (714) 641-0529; this is from Nola Richards of Arcadia. A bit farther down the stretch is McVey Hardware in Temple City, according to Josephine Scheffing of Temple City, who says to ask for Gasket No. 5-9896 (she says she has the same cooker Emerson uses). Mrs. George Udell writes that Virgil’s Glendale Hardware Store, 520 N. Glendale Ave., Glendale, has a good selection of rubber gaskets for pressure cookers. Pauline Steele of Glendale suggests Tru Value hardware stores; if none of these sources can help, she (along with Mrs. D. K. Crawford of Pasadena) recommends that Emerson contact the main office of the Mirro Corp. The address is P.O. Box 409, Manitowoc, Wis. 64220.

For Marge Gomme of Manhattan Beach, who was hungering for some Maypo hot cereal, the heat is no longer on. Margaret Chaiet of Canoga Park and Lois Jenks of Los Angeles both say they found the cereal in their neighborhood Hughes markets. If there is none near Gomme, an inquiry to the Standard Milling Co. of Kansas City, Mo., should bring a list of conveniently located stores.

When Carolyne Williams of Ventura asked for some spruce gum, we knew she’d given us something tough to chew on. So far, we have heard of no sources; even a phone call to some chambers of commerce in Maine produced no results, although one woman there told us that Yank magazine carried spruce gum ads some time ago. However, Marie S. McCutchan of Encino forwarded us a small package of Kennebec Spruce Gum, which she claims is very old. Unfortunately, the manufacturer of that item has long since gone out of business and is not even listed in the phone directory anymore.

For the many readers who were asking about Fuller Brush dealers but couldn’t find one in their neighborhood, we now have a mail-order address (courtesy of Doris Murai of San Bruno): Fuller Service Team, P.O. Box 748, Rural Hill, N.C. 27098; the telephone number is (919) 744-1188.

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