At End of His Rope Over String Painting

R. Kutner of West Hollywood wants to know where he can get a restringing for a string painting that has loosened. Can you help before Kutner feels completely at loose ends, or will he wind up being so strung out he’ll never be in the picture again?

Muriel Arnold of Pasadena has two domestic difficulties. She needs to find an Englander mattress , and she wants to get hold of some System Royal walnut shelves. Can you help before Arnold has to shelve her dreams, or might she just as well bed down with a good book because there may not always be an Englander?

Louise Hauter of La Canada would love to get her hands on some Magic Turban netting, which clings to curlers and to hair and keeps it in place overnight. Can you help before Hauter is ready to curl up, or should she cling a bit longer to the hope that she’ll have a chance to let her hair down someday?

Even though it is a bit early for Christmas, M. Lewes of West Covina would like to find the old-fashioned Yuletide chocolate drops ; she has been unable to locate them for several years. Can you help at the drop of a hat, or will it not be a jolly season for Lewes?

Reader-to-Reader Help Line: Mrs. Nerone of (213) 377-4674 would love to have a copy of an old Wayne King record, “Why Do I Love You.” None of the record stores she has visited has the record. Please help, so Nerone won’t set a record by hating all of us.

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.

For Hans Stern, who was trying to remove water stains from inside a crystal flower vase, we have a blooming lot of suggestions. Myrtis Betts says to use aquarium-size gravel and water and shake vigorously. Julius Weiss suggests putting two crushed eggshells in soapy water and then shaking. Michele Hart recommends a solution of half window cleaner and half water; let it stand in the vase for a day, then add some raw white rice and shake the solution. Dorothy Thompson, Rosalie Nisser and a Palm Springs reader named Mary Lou use full-strength Lime Away (which is used mainly to get soap off bathroom tiles) and then rinse with glycerin.

Jean Menzies, Richard Black, Lois Krimm and Elizabeth Kester all suggest vinegar, either full-strength or diluted; Kester recommends adding a few BBs and shaking gently. But most of the responses recommended a denture cleaner such as Efferdent or Polident. This teeth-rattling news came from Louise Cornell, Mrs. J. Latif, Lauretta Hill, Mrs. Jorg E. Raue, Deborah P. Smith and Joyce Forslund.

Lori Gaskin of the San Bernardino area, who wanted her cuckoo clock repaired, did not lay an egg with her request. According to Ruth Rehkopf of Hemet, we have a source just down the road a piece: Ben Little’s Time & Decor, 4761 Holt Ave., Montclair, Calif. 91763, (714) 626-9818; the firm did an excellent job in cleaning her clock, says Rehkopf. The other places we heard people chirping about are a little bit farther away as the cuckoo flies. Mable Burbank of Los Angeles suggests Fred W. Coe, 2418 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (213) 828-3772 (he’s the greatest, she says). Another reader recommends Jack Verhaggen, 2640 Butler Ave., West Los Angeles. And Gloria Litt of Tarzana says to take the cuckoo to the House of Clocks on 7th and Hill streets in Downtown Los Angeles.

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.