Lux et Veritas et Veritas

I'm playing in an office Oscars pool, but I'm no movie expert. One tiebreaker question is what time the Oscars will end (closest WITHOUT going over wins). Can some movies/Oscars aficionados tell me what you think would be the best guess to write? And when Oscars ceremonies have ended in recent years?

(And the other tiebreaker is what movie will win the most awards. Is Avatar a good guess for that?)

I have some wool and cashmere sweaters that I have been hand-washing in cold water, as the care directions say to do. The directions then say "reshape and dry flat."

I have a flat drying rack that i use to dry the sweaters. But I find that the sweaters tend to contract/shrink a bit, especially around the collar, when they are wet. So I stretch them out gently when drying them, and I was using cans and jars to "block" them out and keep the shape while drying.

But it occured to me that I could use pins (safety pins, embroidery pins) to pin the sweaters directly to the drying rack, and keep them in the right shape more effectively that way as they dry.

My question is: is it safe to pin the sweater in position when drying, after every wash? Or will doing this repeatedly leave permanent holes in the sweater, and ruin it? The pins I would use are the safety pins and little pins (with a ball on one end) that came in a sewing kit.

Hi all! In past winters, I used to wear a lot of hoodies and cotton sweaters to keep warm...I washed them once a week just dropping them in with my other laundry with no problem.

However, this winter I bought several wool, cashmere, and silk/cashmere blend sweaters during the Black Friday sales as well as other big sales.

So my first question is: how often do I actually need to wash these sweaters (e.g. after wearing them how many times?). I heard that washing sweaters too often can alter the size and shape, and that even using *dry cleaning* too often can damage the fabric because of the chemicals used.

So, If I get a stain on them or something I will wash them right away, but assuming that there are no stains, how often do I need to wash them? So, like, one wash after X number of times wearing it? Or one wash every X days/weeks? etc... (Is there a different answer for wool sweaters vs. cashmere sweaters?)

When I do wear a sweater, I usually wear it for a whole day at a time.

My second question is, which of the following options I'm considering would you recommend?

(1) machine wash cold, on gentle cycle, in a mesh bag with gentle detergent.

(2) hand wash

(3) dry clean.

Is the machine option (1) safe if I do it carefully? I'm leaning towards that because I'm really busy at school & work so I don't know if I have the energy to hand wash, whereas dry cleaning is the most expensive and apparently the chemicals are bad for the clothes?

If there's a little risk--since I bought all these sweaters on sale at more than 50% off anyhow, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I accidentally wrecked one of them, but of course I would prefer not to wreck anything since these are nice sweaters even though I bought them on sale.

Can anyone experienced with these kinds of fabrics advise me please? Thank you!!!

Growing up, I was told to use hot water for whites to get them cleaner, and warm/cold water for colors to keep them from fading or running.

But my building's landlord has recently placed environmental stickers on our washing machines. The hot water button has a red border that says "Avoid." The warm water button says "Use for HEAVILY soiled loads." And the cold water button has a planet Earth (environmental) picture next to it.

The sticker says that cold water is enough to get regular laundry clean, and that we should avoid using hot water.

Is that true? Will using cold water for laundry get it clean enough? Is using hot water no better? Or is my landlord just being cheap and using the "environmental" stickers to save money on heating?

Hi all. Before I rented my apartment, I checked each faucet to make sure the water pressure was adequate. But after I paid my first month's rent, the landlord sent someone to CHANGE all the faucets and install those cheap flow constrictors, which in the bathroom sink reduces the waterflow by 3/4 and makes it into tiny squirting streams. Which means it now takes me 4x as long to wash my hands, and I hate that.

How do I remove his flow constrictor and put back whatever faucet tip was there? I assume I can buy a real faucet tip (that doesn't cut the water flow) from a hardware store, but how do I get off the thing that my landlord installed? I tried turning the attachment on the faucet head, but I can turn it around and around in circles and it doesn't come loose. How do I get it off?

Seriously, my bathroom sink now gives as little water as an airplane sink does.

I bought a belt online today at Banana Republic because they were having a one-day 30% off sale.

However, the only size of this belt they had in stock was a 44, and my waist size is a 31. This is a plaque belt, and the belt strap can be easily released by lifting the lever on the plaque. So I figured that it would be easy to cut the belt down to size.

Would I be able to cut it down to size using kitchen scissors? Or are they not sharp enough? Would it damage the leather? (I don't care about damaging the part that I'm cutting off, but I don't want to damage the part that stays on.)

Should I take it to a shoemaker and have him cut the belt down for me, or is this simple enough that I can just cut it at home? No stitching is required, just cutting to the right size.

Is it just me? Or do the minerals (crystals) look bigger today? They look much bigger than an SCV. And there wasn't a patch today...so did it change somehow?

My old digital camera recently disappeared, and I don't know much about the models on the market these days, so I figured this would be a great first question to ask on Y! Answers.

I am looking for a camera that is:

1. Lightweight

2. Small

3. Not TOO fragile. I will handle it carefully, but I would like to be able to carry it around, and not always in its box/protective case.

4. Easy to download pictures off of.

5. In the "under $400" price range.

Can anyone recommend some model(s) with these features? If you have a camera like this which you like, please let me know. Or, if you recently bought a camera that you DON'T like, please also feel free to warn me against it!

Thanks all.