Hi Sars. I have a mystery that has been plaguing me for 25 years: when I was a small child I visited friends in Long Island. I was always an early riser, so one morning I crept through the sleeping house and turned on the TV. I stumbled onto a game show that seemed fairly standard — I think three groups of two people (not necessarily romantic couples, there was a mother-son team) competing in standard games to advance towards the finale. It was the finale that has nagged at me for decades, now — my little five-year-old brain remembers that the mother from the mother-son team (who had made it to the climax) was handed a gun with one loaded chamber and had to play Russian Roulette with her son. I vividly remember the show wheeling out a casket and making the mother sign some sort of waiver before she pulled the trigger. Of course, everything was fine and the son survived.

The whole thing blew my mind. I couldn’t believe they’d air something like that on TV. I excitedly told my mother and sister all about it, of course, but they didn’t believe me! We left Long Island the next day, and I’ve never seen this show again.

Now, in the intervening years I had managed to convince myself that this was not a real game show, and I had probably seen a movie or TV show or something, which I had mistakenly thought was a real game show. EXCEPT I told this story a few years ago to a big group of people and someone else remembered the show and even knew its name. Unfortunately there was a lot of beer being consumed and I can’t remember the game’s name, nor can I remember who bloody well told me. (There was a big group of us there — lots of friends of friends.) I’ve Googled every possible permutation of the stupid thing and come up empty.

So my question: A TV show/movie/game show featuring a game of Russian Roulette as its climax. It aired in NY in the late ’70s, early ’80s.

Signed,
I really did see it!

Dear Really,

It doesn’t ring a bell with me, but we’ll put the readers on it.

Anyone? Email subject line: “Russian roulette.”

I have a question about belts, specifically nickel-free belts. I have an allergy to nickel which isn’t too hard to deal with regards to jewelery: I just wear my grandmother’s lovely antiques for fancy occasions and nickel-free stuff from H&M when I want to go trendy. But I can’t for the life of me figure out what do about belts.

A high-quality brown leather belt (which I scored for the equivalent of $10 on a trip to Poland) promptly gave me contact dermatitis on my stomach that lasted for over a year. Any belt that I’ve tried since just brings it back. Even most cloth belts have metal buckles and I’m afraid of getting a blotchy stomach again.

Do you (or any of the readers) know of retailers, preferably in Canada or online, that sell belts sans nickel? Or how to tell before buying whether a belt buckle is made of nickel? I’d just use some fancy scarves and call it a day but I’m a little hippy, and scarves tend to make my ass look a little more like Kathy Bates than Shakira.

Signed,
In a pinch without a cinch

Dear Cinch,

I have the same problem — and if I have a patch of dermatitis in one place, like on my leg from a boot zipper, wearing nickel anywhere else will set it off again. So annoying.

My current favorite belt is a $10 jobbie I bought from a street vendor, but the buckle is covered/wrapped in the same leather strips as the belt, so it hasn’t given me any problems. My favorite belt from back in the day was one of those seatbelt-buckle ones you see at Yellow Rat Bastard; you’d think those would have nickel, but it never bothered me. (Well, until it got lost in a move. Grr.)

Your best move is probably to phone up various retailers when you see a belt you like on their websites, and ask the customer service rep if s/he knows whether the buckle is nickel; failing that, let’s see what the readers have to add.

Readers, we need nickel-free belt options. Please be as brand-/link-specific as possible; email subject line: “belts.”

Sars:

I was wondering if you, or your readers, knew anything about good stuffed animal repair services in the NYC area? I’ve been looking for a place that will restore my stuffed animals as perfectly as they possibly can be restored, and so far I’ve been striking out.

Thanks,
Scary Overprotective

Dear Scary,

I use a service known as “my sewing kit,” but that’s more like “barely adequate stuffed animal repair services.”

A quick Google turned up the New York Doll Hospital, Lex at 61st; www.teddybearrepair.com (this looks like a mail-in service, but check the FAQ at the link for more info); and a list of teddy-bear restorers here (some aren’t local, and may only repair bears, but it’s worth a look).

Readers, if you have any practical knowledge to add, please do. Email subject line: “stuffed animals.”

[10/6/06]

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