This is not a political blog, but...

...no matter what your politics are, go read this, including the comments:

Shakespeare's Sister responds to that horrible, demeaning, dismissive, abusive, and ultimately lazy expression, "Get a Life."

Thanks for the field trip, Ron.  It was most helpful.

Comments

[Ron Sullivan]

Hey, anytime. Networking is what it's all about, hey?

And I'm still looking for something that will clean Velc-, um, hookenlooper hooks. I'm in need of it myself, since I'm a slob about dropping my faithful walking sandals on the rugs.

[Sara]

Yes, networking. We cannot allow the heartless people to dismiss our passion or shut us up, and it's important to let other people know they don't have to take it, either.

I have tried Brilliant Engineer Boyfriend's hook-on-hook action. It works but indifferently. Basically, you take the hooky side of a separate piece of hookenlooper of the same approximate grade as piece you are trying to clean, then hook both together and pull them apart repeatedly. It may work better on small pieces or pieces that are not horribly becrudded yet, but for my suspension belt all it did was loosen up complexes that I could then pick off. It didn't clean the whole thing though, it took a long time to make any visible progress, and I think it weakened the hooks on both pieces.

I keep forgetting to check out wire brushes when I am in the hardware store, just like I keep forgetting to pick up long, skinny brushes to clean my bird feeders. (It's been raining here so much and for so long that the bird seed not only molds but sprouts in the tube feeders every week, making complexes of living and decaying matter which, except for the nutritious worms growing in one of them, sort of interfere with the point and are very difficult to scrape into the compost bin.) I will let you know if I find a method that works to clean the hookenlooper, though, and certainly look forward to hearing of any success you may find if you get there first.