Southlander Searches for Texas Chili

D. Richey of Monrovia would like to get her hands on some Shotgun Willie chili mix , which is made in Texas. Can you help by firing away with a source or two, or will Richey never hit the target, because she knows she’s bucking a trend, even though she may have taken her best shot?

Gail Munro of Camarillo saw a woman wear a jacket that had been made from a mink stole and had knitted sleeves , and now she would like one also. Can you help with a source fur Munro that you might have up your sleeve, or are we (k)nit-picking over a design that somebody perhaps stole?

June Hughes of Laguna Hills needs replacement filters for a Bionaire 500 air cleaner and ionizer but has been unable to find a local source. Can you help Hughes come clean before she’s out of breath from running around, or will she be convinced that everybody out there is full of hot air?

Joan Scott of Los Angeles would like to find a four-inch flashlight that has no batteries and that you operate by squeezing a trigger in the handle. Can you help in a flash, or at least before Scott gets into a really tight squeeze, or will this be a situation she can’t handle because she hasn’t seen the light?

Reader-to Reader-Help Line: Anna at (714) 951-7880 would like to get a copy of “Recollections of Christmas” by John Henry Fox ; it is no longer in print. Please be real foxy and be the first to send Anna a Christmas present for 1988. . . . For a teacher’s visual-aids projects, Pat at (805) 484-1954 needs 35mm slides of comedy figures , including those in Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang and the Three Stooges films ; please provide some comic relief in the classroom before this teacher’s presentations go straight downhill. . . . In order to remodel her kitchen correctly, Mary at (213) 934-0336 requires a sink that is no longer made; the dimensions are 34x20 inches and the deep part has a depth of 12 or 13 inches. Please help, so that Mary won’t get that sinking feeling when she steps into her kitchen. . . . Margaret at (213) 472-0566 needs special Recordio reed needles to play back some programs she recorded many years ago on a home Recordio machine; that firm is long out of business. Please don’t keep Margaret sitting on pins and needles, but make sure she hears her master’s voice again.

Note: The Reader-to-Reader Help Line is only for one-time items or 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.

For Mrs. R. C. Jones of Arcadia, who needed a playing-card holder, we have some help, but perhaps not quite what she was looking for (most of them are disks, and she wanted a two-row holder). Right in Arcadia, Gabrielle Lewis of the Collectable Corner, 140 E. Live Oak Ave., might still have four cardholders in a box. Abe Wolfson of Venice says he found some disks at the Game Keeper, Santa Monica Place. Richard Sweet, president of Goodtime Products International, 2659 Townsgate Road, Suite 101, Westlake Village, Calif. 91361, says his firm manufactures a patented playing-card holder that arthritics find most useful; it sells for $9.95 plus tax, postpaid. Janice Zelnekoff, an educational consultant at 14450 Hayward Ave., Whittier, Calif. 90603, enclosed a disk-type holder for Jones and said anyone else interested should contact her; they normally sell for $2.98 a pair plus tax and shipping. Another disk (H71254) was featured in a catalogue by Handy-Aid Co., 2907 W. Warner Ave., Santa Ana, Calif. 92704, sent by office manager Debra King.

We have had many requests lately for discontinued and difficult-to-find kitchen items, such as pot handles, pans and attachments. A good source for these is Phyllis Stevenson of the Don Stevenson Co., 2727 E. Dutch Ave., Anaheim, Calif. 92806, telephone (714) 630-0706.

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.