Dear Heloise:
I recently attended a safety meeting and was shown photos of a lawn-mower accident. A man was wearing steel-toe safety shoes, and he accidentally caught his foot in a running lawn mower. The shoe was cut in half, but the steel toe protected the foot.
Steel-toe safety shoes are available at discount stores. They are inexpensive and come in both tennis-shoe and work-boot styles. Wear them when mowing, along with safety glasses (not sunglasses). Your body is too important to risk an injury.
— Ralph O., Sugar Land, Texas
Great hint, Ralph! So many people mow the lawn wearing sandals, flip-flops or even barefoot, which is dangerous! Thanks for reminding everyone: safety first!
Heloise Armrest covers Dear Heloise: —
We live in Texas, and the temperatures are high in the summer. The armrests on our patio furniture get so hot in the sun that you cannot put your arm on them.
I bought several pool noodles and cut them to fit the length of the armrests.
I cut through one side of the noodle, opened it up and slipped it over the armrest. My husband used a clear fishing line and tied them to the rests. Now we can sit outside and enjoy our chairs!
— Deborah D., Heath, Texas Flower arrangements Dear Heloise:
I recently received a flower arrangement in a lovely, but heavy, glass vase. In order to keep Today is Tuesday, Aug. 23.
legendary silent film star Rudolph Valentino died in New York at age 31.
Scottish rebel leader Sir William Wallace was executed by the English for treason.
Britain’s King George III proclaimed the American colonies to be in a state of “open and avowed rebellion.”
“Ten Nights in a Barroom,” a play by Timothy Shay Arthur about the perils of alcohol, opened in New York.
Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid statue, inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen story, was unveiled in the harbor of the Danish capital.
Japan declared war against Germany in World War I.
amid protests, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery.
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, in Moscow.
Romanian Prime Minister Ion Antonescu was dismissed by King Michael, paving the way for Romania to abandon the Axis in favor of the Allies.
Broadway librettist Oscar Hammerstein II, 65, died in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Lebanon’s parliament elected Christian militia leader Bashir Gemayel president. (However, Gemayel was assassinated some three weeks later.)
in a case that inflamed racial tensions in New York, Yusuf Hawkins, a 16-year-old black teen, was them as long and as fresh as possible, I change the water daily and move it to a cool area of the house at night.
To keep from spilling water or dropping the entire arrangement, I carry it to the sink and take a 2-foot-or-so length of heavy yarn or string and tie it around the flower stems (do not tie the string too tight, as you do not want to cut the flower stems) just above the top of the vase. Then I take the flowers out of the vase, dump out the old water, relocate the vase refilled with water and place the flowers back in it. —
in Pennsylvania Starch support Dear Heloise:
As you know, ironing boards are inherently unstable, allowing your spray-starch container to easily topple over. And of course, when it falls it usually falls “nozzle first,” breaking off and ren- dering it unusable.
Use the bottom half of an 18-pack egg carton to support the horizontally positioned spraystarch can. (Heloise here: Lay the can on its side.)
Not only does it support the can, but it also provides a place for the “last drop” of starch to fall. This has worked for me for many years. —
My hint: H.B., Lake Isabella, Calif. Clean nozzles Dear Heloise:
I use interdental brushes to clean my kitchen and bath spray-cleaner nozzles. The small tree-shaped brushes (that are normally used to clean between the teeth) easily remove the buildup in the spray nozzle.
P., via email Fran — Joe
shot dead after he and his friends were confronted by a group of white youths in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. (Gunman Joey Fama was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison; he will be eligible for parole in 2022.)
A previously unknown militant group released the first video of two Fox News journalists who’d been kidnapped in Gaza. (Reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig were later freed.)
A pair of judges in New York put an end to the sensational sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, setting him free after prosecutors questioned the credibility of the hotel housekeeper who’d accused the French diplomat. A magnitude 5.8 earthquake centered near Mineral, Virginia, the strongest on the East Coast since 1944, caused cracks in the Washington Monument and damaged Washington National Cathedral.
Islamic State militants destroyed a temple at ancient ruins of Palmyra in Syria, realizing the worst fears of archaeologists had for the fate of the 2,000-year-old Roman-era city after the extremists seized it and beheaded a local scholar. The United Arab Emirates said its military had freed a British hostage, Robert Douglas Semple, who was kidnapped 18 months earlier ago by alQaida in Yemen. Ohio State became the first unanimous preseason No. 1 in The Associated Press poll. “A wise man without a book is like a workman with no tools.” — Moroccan proverb.