Dear Heloise: I travel through Texas a lot with my husband. I notice most convenience stores we stop at while on the road have numerous pieces of chewing gum glued to the pavement outside the store. So, my hint is very simple: Every piece of gum comes in a wrapper, and since all men’s clothing has pockets and women tend to carry purses, you can keep the wrapper into your pocket or purse. Then you can later wrap the chewed gum into the stored wrapper and drop it into a waste can.

Just an aside for humor: I’ve imagined our country with a large DNA base of every citizen. If such a thing existed, I’d love to invent a way to shadow a spot of gum with my imaginary invention and pull up the owner of each piece. I’d then send each perpetrator a fine of $200 or give them a chance to clean up their very own spot of gum.

I must say the accumulation of gum on pavement began to really bother me when I was on a walker for several months. I had to constantly look where I was walking. Not littering is just being a good citizen. — Katherine H., in San Antonio

Katherine, I have to agree that throwing gum on the ground is a bad habit. One other problem with gum on our streets and grass is that birds can mistake it for food and won’t be able to digest it. It can easily kill them in time. So, readers, please dispose of gum, chewing tobacco, wrappers and cigarettes in the trash and not on the ground. — Heloise

SEND A GREAT HINT TO:

Heloise@Heloise.com

RAZOR BLADES

Dear Heloise: I have a tip that promotes razor blade longevity, but I have to give credit to the late Dr. Bill Wattenburg — a physicist, engineer, and longtime radio talk show host at KSFO. When asked about this issue, he stated, “What chance do whiskers have against steel?” He then added that “rust is the biggest killer of razor blades.”

For years now, I’ve been drying the blade as best as I can between shaves before storing it in a jar with a small amount of mineral oil. I now change the blades maybe once or twice a year. I find that it also helps to use your skin as a strop, keeping contact with the razor in both directions. Obviously the blades won’t stay good as new for the entire length of time, but I simply don’t change them out until I feel the need to.

I read your column in the Oregonian. — Fred, in Portland, Oregon

TIME CHANGE REMINDER

Dear Heloise: Despite driving from St. Louis to places like Louisville, Kentucky, and Indianapolis with some frequency, I still forget that I am losing an hour going into Eastern Standard Time from Central Standard Time. It always makes the first day in town hectic, often making me miss something.

Wouldn’t it be nice if highway mileage signs also provided the time zone? Instead of Indianapolis 114, it could read Indianapolis 114 EST. — Tom L., A St. Louis Post-Dispatch Reader

Tom, this is a really good hint. When I’m traveling, I will occasionally forget to change the time on my watch. Might I suggest that you write to your congressperson and make this recommendation to them? — Heloise