Rescuing Rafael

I was still working for The Indianapolis Star at the Metro North Bureau back in the spring of 2000. Scott Miley and maybe Art Harris and Diane Frederick were on our lunch break when we noticed a local party store was blowing out costumes at a huge discount.

Among the items was the complete set of Teenage Ninja Turtle costumes - really deluxe versions, the kind you'd expect to see in a parade or at a theme park. So I plunked down about $25 for a Rafael costume, which I later modeled at the office (see photo).

It had a really nasty stain on the yellow underbelly that doesn't show up very well in this photo. But it detracted from the appearance.

Now that we're in somewhat tighter quarters here in Arkansas, we're scrutinizing our mountain of stuff with an eye to selling what we can on Ebay. I'm ready to part with Rafael, but I was concerned that the stain would make it hard, or even impossible, to sell on Ebay.

So I tried a stain-removing combination that Maria discovered recently - Zout foam and Dawn Power Dissolver. Maria used it as a last-ditch effort to rescue a new yellow blouse that was ruined by an ink stain. The ink had dried and maybe even gone through the wash once. She soaked the stain with a combination of Zout and Dawn, then laundered normally and was amazed to find the stain was gone and the blouse was like new.

So I decided to try it on the Ninja Turtle suit. Keep in mind, this is a stain that's had at least eight years to set, alternately baking and freezing in the attic of our Thorntown house.

When I pulled the suit from the dryer the other night, I was astonished to find all traces of the stain were gone. A-freaking-mazing!

This is too cool to keep secret. We have yet to find a stain that this combination can't handle and it has yet to harm or discolor the fabric to which it was applied.