Scouting Locations for Viewer-Splicer

Albert Resnick of San Diego would like to locate an 8mm viewer-splicer for editing movie film. Can you help keep Resnick in the picture, or might he just as well split because the entire scenario is merely another case of deja view?

Ethel Evans of Venice needs to get her fingers on the small metal gadget that resets off-the-track zippers ; she hasn’t seen one in years. Can you help put the zip back in Evans’ hands, or will she come completely untracked over this little back problem?

For a Christmas gag gift, Edith Land of Burbank is looking for a place that converts pictures into jigsaw puzzles ; she has seen these in the past. Can you help solve this puzzle for Land, or will she fall to pieces because she’s lost her gift of gag?

Judy Pitt is in the market for some Proganics facial soap , a product that she encountered in the Virgin Islands and that she considers the mildest, creamiest soap she has ever used. Can you come clean with a Southland source, or will Pitt have to face up to the fact that her problem is no skin off anybody’s back?

Reader-to-Reader Help Line: Hallie at (805) 647-8639 has been unable to find the gravy boat and small platter in Sango’s Chapel Rose china. Please help so that Hallie won’t need to take a boat to China before her next dinner party. . . . Chuck Barragan at (415) 981-1300, Ext. 273, would love to replace a Winnie the Pooh cookie jar that he bought a decade ago from Sears and which, unfortunately, was broken recently. Please help Chuck bear this jarring loss and convince him that this is not necessarily the way the cookie crumbles. . . . For her daughter’s bedroom, Linell at (714) 776-8412 needs several pieces of discontinued furniture formerly manufactured by Burlington under the name of Sugar and Spice 504; the pieces are ivory-colored with yellow-and-green pastel flowers painted on. Please spice up Linell’s life again and see to it that her daughter has sweet dreams.

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 Patti Garrity of Manhattan Beach, who was looking for Maybelline cake mascara in black, we have little solace. The product isn’t available any longer, but Dorothy Myers of Visalia writes that some small-town drugstores might still carry the item. She says she picked up five packages that way.

Eileen Smith of Fullerton and several other readers looking for dolls from years back might do well to advertise in either of two publications: Doll Reader, put out by Hobby House Press, 900 Frederick St., Cumberland, Md. 21502; and National Doll World, put out by House of White Birches, 306 E. Parr Road, Berne, Ind. 46711. This information came from Donna of Mini-Magic, a good resource for hard-to-find items for doll dresses and miniatures, 3675 Reed Road, Columbus, Ohio 43220.

Things are looking a bit brighter for Maria Melgar of Agoura Hills, who was looking for black 18-inch tapers. Leslie Tryon of Carmel Valley says she saw these candles at the Pottery Barn, Woodland Hills; she buys her black candles at Crate & Barrel in San Francisco. Shorter-length candles are available from Geary’s 1988 catalogue (from Kay Rios), Pier 1 Imports (from Lois Jenks and Virginia Britton) and Bullock’s (from Bonnie Blitzstein).

More on hand-operated meat grinders. Corinne Franks of Cathedral City suggests Walter Drake & Sons, 68 Drake Building, Colorado Springs, Colo. 80940. And Patricia Polzine of Anaheim says that the U.S. Purchasing Exchange, U.S. Purchasing Exchange Building, North Hollywood, Calif. 91611, sells a meat grinder with five grinding attachments (No. 21042) for $29.97. In addition, many readers wrote, saying they have meat grinders they are willing to part with; some of the grinders are new and still in their original boxes. If you send us a stamped, self-addressed envelope, we’ll meat you halfway and send you the names.

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.