Library Notes
January 21, 2004
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
There are very few women in the world, I think, who like to iron. Well, this one does. I do not want even one little wrinkle in that shirt or blouse when I get through with it.
Years ago, when my oldest children were young, I ironed for the public at about ten cents a garment, because I wanted to stay at home with my children. One of my regular customers liked my ironing so much, when I moved from Love Field to Carrollton, she continued to bring me ironing from Dallas for a long time.
Of course, that means, if I like to iron, then I want an iron that does exactly what I want it to do. Don’t want any scorching or getting too hot or not getting hot enough. I want that thing to work.
My steam iron that I had used for I don’t know how long, all at once decided that when I barely turned it on it got hot, hot and wanted to scorch if I wasn’t very careful. Well, I couldn’t have that. So, I started keeping my eyes open for an iron on sale. I buy everything on sale, if I have time to shop and wait when something breaks or wears out.
Well, this time it paid off. I looked at a store I shall not name and they had on a clearance table, a very expensive iron, whose brand I shall not name either. This was a $50.00 iron that was marked $10.00 (Who in the world would give $50.00 for an iron? Certainly not me.) I purchased that $10.00 iron, got an instruction booklet off the computer (can you believe it?) and felt proud of my pretty, fancy iron. That is, until I’d used it a couple of times. When I use a steam iron, I expect it to steam all the time, unless I push a button and tell it not to. Well, that silly iron would only steam at very low settings and what if I wanted to iron a pair of blue jeans?
I fooled around with that disappointing, expensive, iron for a few times and when it almost ruined one of my favorite polyester blouses, its’ death knell sounded. I’d turn that silly thing off and go get my old iron to finish what I was doing.
I boxed that thing up one day when I was going to the store where I bought it, thinking it would have to go back to the manufacturer and all that troublesome stuff.
I went to the service desk and asked the lady there what their return policy was. She told me to just bring it in for a refund. Well, I said to her that I would be right back, I had it in the car.
She refunded my money, for which I thanked her profusely and left the store, to continue my hunt for another, different, better iron. And I found it too, for about $12.00. It steams like a locomotive, irons just as it is supposed to and has not threatened to scorch my blouse either.
I think Suzanne has the right idea. She says to buy you an iron for $10.00, use it ‘til it wears out, throw it away and go buy another one. Of course, this advice comes for a gal who had just as soon take a beating as iron. She’ll hand me something to iron and say, "Now, it doesn’t have to be perfect." But I tell her, and she already knows, I can’t iron like that.
I like to iron, but I won’t even get into my opinion of all these 100% cotton garments that have hit the market. What happened to the miraculous polyester that was discovered years ago, I ask you?
Oh, let’s just iron – er – read a book. Lookee there, if books on tape had been discovered years earlier, I could have read a book as I ironed. Let’s look at Dean Koontz and "The Face", if you are ready for this.
"He’s Hollywood’s most dazzling star, whose flawless countenance inspires the worship of millions and fires the hatred of one twisted soul. His perfectly ordered existence is under siege as a series of terrifying, enigmatic "messages" breaches the exquisitely calibrated security systems of his legendary Bel Air estate.
The boxes arrive mysteriously, one by one, at Channing Manheim’s fortified compound. The threat implicit in their bizarre, disturbing contents seems to escalate with each new delivery. Manheim;s security chief, ex-cop Ethan Truman, is used to looking beneath the surface of things. But until he entered the orbit of a Hollywood icon, he had no idea just how slippery reality could be. Now this good man is all that stands in the way of an insidious killer – and forces that eclipse the most fevered fantasies of a city where dreams and nightmares are the stuff of daily life. As a seemingly endless and ominous rain falls over southern California. Ethan will test the limits of perception and endurance in a world where the truth is as thin as celluloid and answers can be found only in the illusory intersection of shadow and light.
Enter a world of marvelous invention, enchantment, and implacable intent, populated by murderous actors and the walking dead, hit men and heroes, long-buried dreams and never-dying hope. Here a magnificent mansion is presided over by a Scottish force of nature known as Mrs. McBee, before whom all men tremble. A mad French chef concocts feasts for the mighty and the malicious. Ming du Lac, spiritual adviser to the stars, has a direct line to the dead. An aptly named cop called Hazard will become Ethan’s ally, an anarchist will sow discord and despair, and a young boy named Fric, imprisoned by celebrity and loneliness, will hear a voice telling him of the approach of something unimaginably evil. Traversing this extraordinary landscape, Ethan will face the secrets of his own tragic past and the unmistakable premonition of his impending violent death as he races against time to solve the macabre riddles of a modern-day beast."
Well, I asked you if you were ready for this, remember that as you read it.