Why we shop at Pete's Hardware

Your Boulevardier visited the wonderful Pete's Hardware store on the Boulevard today. He needed rubber tips for Madame Boulevardier's Sport Seat -- combination cane and seat that has tubular metal legs. The legs had, over time, cut through the rubber tips.

Your Boulevardier explained the situation to the salesperson, and he made a simple yet brilliant suggestion: slip a penny into each rubber tip before slipping the tip onto the cane leg. It will distribute the pressure, and the metal won't be able to cut through the rubber and destroy the foot before its time. (Your Boulevardier could have bought washers from Pete's -- for a dime apiece -- to accomplish the same thing, but the pennies only cost a cent each.)

While mentioning Pete's, Your Bouelvardier will give a plug for an event at the store: a bat display on June 10, 2006, with live bats for viewing and bat-house-making workshops for children. The reason for the display: bats, it turns out, are great at hunting mosquitoes. The event will be held from 10:00 until 12:00 (a.m., Your Boulevardier assumes).