HELOISE: Icepick idea tickles reader

Dear Heloise: I enjoy your column in the San Antonio Express-News and read it every day. Today you gave me a big laugh when you suggested that you “just punch a hole in the bottom of the can with an icepick.”

Seriously, Heloise, how many households these days have an ice pick in the silverware drawer? How many households these days even have the slightest idea what an ice pick is and what on earth you’d do with it?

Anyway, it was good for a big laugh and a yearning for the old days!

Ellen, San Antonio

Ice picks aren’t that outdated, are they? We took a straw poll and found there were some ice picks in utensil drawers. So, readers, drop us a line if you have an ice pick and tell us what you use it for.

We found it handy:

To widen a hole in a belt or shirt.

To poke a hole through a dog collar for a better fit.

To poke holes in cans for easy removal of contents (releases the suction).

Dear Heloise: You advised a reader with a smelly milk spill in the car to try vinegar. I accidentally left a gallon of milk in my car trunk after a grocery trip. Days later, it exploded from the summer heat. It was so bad, you couldn’t get into the car. Absolutely nothing worked. I was actually going to trade in the car for a new one.

My neighbor told me that barbecue charcoal briquettes (the type that doesn’t have starter fluid — Heloise) absorb odors. I took a bag, split it wide open and placed it in the trunk. Within days, the entire smell was gone. It was an absolute miracle. The charcoal absorbed every bit of the odor and saved my car.

I now keep small plastic containers of it in my kitchen, bathrooms, litter-box area and anywhere else that odors are a problem. They are the best!

Kathy in Ohio

Dear Heloise: I was reading about a reader who didn’t like getting a new glass of beverage instead of refills at a restaurant.

By the time I get half of my iced tea finished, the ice has melted, and all I have is watered-down tea. If the waitress stops by to refill the half that’s left, I still have watered-down tea!

W.T. Adams, in Alabama

King Features Syndicate