The Lid Is Off on This Storage Problem
Muriel Helfenbein of Pasadena is searching for some clear-plastic sweater storage boxes with drawers ; she doesn’t like the ones that have lids, because they are difficult to open when stacked on top of each other. Can you help before Helfenbein is really in a sweat, or is it clear that we may never find out whether she’s really stacked?
Mary Yule of Sierra Madre desperately needs the old brush rollers with boar bristles ; the nylon type scratches the scalp, she claims. Can you help get Yule on a roll, or will she end up scratching her head--and not because she’s “boared”?
Ilse Miller of Studio City would like to find the coconut products she ran across on a recent trip to Tahiti, especially the soap. Can you help Miller come clean before she goes nuts, or will she have to realize that, as far as Tahitian products are concerned, it’s no soap?
Helen Simon of Malibu is looking for Sani Wax oil polish ; her neighborhood hardware stores no longer carry it. Can you help before Simon waxes desperate, or will this episode leave a dull film on her personality?
Reader-to-Reader Help Line: Marlene at (808) 248-8211 needs a hand-held Panasonic JE-720U talking calculator that has been discontinued. Please help before Marlene ends up talking to herself. . . . Julie at (818) 355-0836 wants to replace an oval Grandinette crock pot , made 15 years ago; please help so that Julie will neither go to pot nor think that this is a lot of crock. . . . Margaret at (619) 328-9527 and Eleanor at (213) 275-3589 are both looking for Janie stick cleaner , which seems to have disappeared from the shelves. Please stick around long enough to help these two readers.
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.
Toye Brill of Simi Valley, who needed knit shorts in mid-thigh length for her husband, is on the right track. The item is available at J. C. Penney, in stores or in their catalogue (according to Tamira Thompson and S. R. Casey of Arcadia and Pam Bradley of Whittier); at Montgomery Ward (by Linda Herman of Van Nuys); the May Co. (by Herman and a Woodland Hills reader named Margarita), and in Sears catalogues (by Beth Andrews of Oxnard and Emma King of Manhattan Beach). Louise Shane of the Valley Department Store, 245 N. Euclid Ave., Ontario, says her store carries the shorts in 100% combed cotton.
We also have the following mail-order sources: Cable Car Clothiers, 150 Post St., San Francisco, Calif. 94108 (from Anne Plourde of Gardena); Whitman Textiles, 11570 S.E. Dixie Highway, Hobe Sound, Fla. 33455 (from William Miller of Capistrano Beach), and National Wholesale Co., Lexington, N.C. 27294 (from a Reno reader). In addition, we heard from a Whittier reader who is willing to make short shrift of an unopened box of these shorts.
For Saundra Felker of Cerritos, who wanted to remove rust from a concrete driveway, we have some concrete suggestions: Rollen Rice of La Habra says to look on Page 84 of the April 1987 Handyman magazine. Blanche Thoma says she got a cleaning concentrate called Quick Job. She diluted and sprinkled it lightly on the driveway, put old shoes on her family members and had them dance the stains off with a circular motion.
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 Pages, The Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.