He Wants to Revert to Type--Reely

For her 86-year-old husband, Hazel Fearing of San Clemente would like to locate some cotton ribbons to fit an old Underwood portable typewriter. She says her husband’s only hobby is to type letters to his friends, but the print from nylon ribbons is so light that it can’t be read. Can you rattle a few keys for Fearing, or will any future letters to her husband’s friends never see the light of day?

Patti Garrity of Manhattan Beach is disappointed because she has been unable to find a place that sells brass license plate frames and engraves them to customer specifications. Can you put Garrity into a better frame of mind, or will you dodge the issue until she raises a storm, perhaps even a Toronado, over this matter?

Jean Olson of Ventura, who travels a lot, needs small bottles of sterile saline solution for cleansing her contact lenses; all she has been able to find are 12-ounce bottles, which she considers too large for her needs. Can you put her in contact with a nearby source, or will, for Olson, the “small but beautiful” concept never be a sight for sore eyes?

Reader-to-Reader-Help Line: Amy at (213) 431-3771 would like to obtain a B1 TB-9-2 GE two-mode toothbrush (up and down or back and forth) that evidently is no longer being produced. Please put a smile back into Amy’s life before she starts gnashing her teeth. . . . Al at (714) 661-0953 needs the mixing bowls for a Model 9 Sunbeam Mixmaster ; replacements are no longer being made. How about seeing to it that Al really gets bowled over, instead of being mixed up, in his kitchen? . . . Max at (818) 349-8777 would like a 35mm stack loader for a Series 600 Honeywell Preview slide projector that has long been out of production; can you project a situation that will enable Max to get back into the picture? . . . Jill at (213) 822-0012 is searching for two Farberware items no longer on the market: a large crock pot with an ivory background and a big orange flower on the front, and a country-style coffee maker with a brown wood-tone case with a floral border. Please see to it that there is again a splash of flower, instead of just flour, in Jill’s kitchen.

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 George Meyer of Los Angeles, who spends much time in a wheelchair and, therefore, needs trousers such as those made by Copper Cove (knit cotton or polyester but constructed like dress pants), we have only only source. Rhuba Boutin of Los Angeles told us about a mail-order firm called Haband, 265 North 9th St., Paterson, N.J. 07530, that sells flannel-lined polyester gabardine winter slacks for $19.95.

For Estelle Goldstein of Los Angeles, who was searching for those plastic keys that are used to roll up the bottom of toothpaste tubes, we have something she can easily sink her teeth into. Mabel Shore of Harbor City says she saw these keys at Fox drugstore in downtown Torrance; the price was $1.19 for four. On the other hand, Hans Stern of West Los Angeles says such keys are not necessary. He prefers using a large-size paper clip, available at all stationery stores. He says to keep the narrow end of the clip on the inside and slide the wide part of the clip over the empty part of the tube; it seemed to work for him. We also heard from three readers who have some toothpaste keys they no longer need, and we forwarded their names to Goldstein.