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Show ffiA Time We Have Glue That Will Mend Almost Anything? I STAND there quietly, frustration frus-tration and anger mounting. I look at the glue and I look at the broken radio and 1 look at my maimed fingers where the hide was donated to my Havi-land Havi-land plate. I consider my options: op-tions: scream, swear, write an angry letter or throw the whole mess away. I opt for the latter, carefully replacing the lid on the garbage can. And now I understand why small appliances are thrown away. Then, sheeplike. sheep-like. I go buy a new radio and order a new plate to fill out my set. Why fight it? sideboard is barely noticeable and the plate almost fits back together, and since the hide, newspaper and sideboard are ontheundersideoflheplate.it won't show. SINCE THE glue successfully success-fully repaired a plate. I am now-ready now-ready to tackle the on-off sw itch of the alarm clock radio which 1 received for Christmas and which has already ceased to function. It works fine with one little flaw. It won't turn off. 1 can see what is broken dow n in there. All I need to do is open the case and put a tiny bit of glue right there where the metal shaft hooks onto the gizmo giz-mo that turns. There are two Phillips style set screws in the bottom. I race eagerly for a Phillips screwdriver, screw-driver, not even boasting that I know what a Phillips is. I loosen the two set screws, and they fall out. Then what? Something is loose inside the case, but the case doesn't come apart. I pry and poke, but there is no opening to that case. I HAVE come across the miracle of this world. Working parts are encased in plastic which does not open. It dawns on me that the throw-away-society is not just a slogan. These things aren't made to be fixed: they're made to be thrown away and replaced. But I have this miracle glue, see. and all this appliance needs is just one drop down there inside. By FLORENCE BITTNER As everyone knows, we have glues now that can mend anything. Right? Well, almost anything. Then how come garbage gar-bage cans and DI bags are still filled w ith discarded small appliances ap-pliances and broken toys and practically new ladies handbags? hand-bags? Answer me that. Mr. Glue-it-all. ONE REASON, not admitted admit-ted in those interesting television televi-sion commercials, is a very simple reason. We see a car lifted by a crane, fasterned to the top of the car by a little bitty bit of glue. What I want to know is how did they get the cap off the glue? THE FIRST dab of glue out of the tube is easy: it's the second that's impossible. I've taken to cutting the tube with scissors. An old pair of scissors since they will be glued shut in the process. THE GLUE costs about the same as diamonds, ounce for ounce, and when you add to that the cost of a pair of scissors, scis-sors, it becomes the most precious pre-cious commodity in the house. This beautiful dish, part of my set of Haviland china, just slightly broken. One clean break right across the middle. Should be a cinch to repair with this miracle glue. Right? SURELY THE stuff that held the space challenger together, which replaced bits and pieces of a satellite, which held two locomotives together will repair my precious plate. I smear the stuff onto the two sides of the plate and, according to instructions. I press firmly. Very firmly. Then I carefully place it upon a piece of newspaper to dry. Then I find it has already dried to my hands. There we are, plate and I and newspaper. news-paper. FIVE MINUTES and half inch of hide later, I place the plate on the sideboard to dry. When I check it an hour later, la-ter, sure enough the glue has dried, the two halves of plate are firmly adhered to each other, and the newspaper and . the sideboard. I'll spare you the details, but the chip in the |