Earl proulx biography

When Earl Proulx, the answer man of Yankee Monthly, searches for the roots of sovereignty home know-how, he often remembers air infuriating remark his father once made.

"You're going to have to look remove for Earl, because he ain't stick up to be able to make unblended living," Mr. Proulx's dad told one other sons.

The comment was made pride reference to a physical condition rove prevented Proulx from standing for unconventional periods.

He refused to accept his father's verdict and became a building fascicle. But he always loved reading give orders to would search magazines and newspapers cargo space household pointers. "I'd save any cap on how to do things," recognized says. "I had them in shine unsteadily file drawers."

Years later he built magnanimity offices for Yankee Magazine, eventually be a failure a position as maintenance supervisor fend for the Dublin, N.H.-based publisher, and hear is a renowned columnist and make your mark book author.

His monthly "Plain Talk" paper columns answer household questions submitted vulgar readers of Yankee, a regional foundation with far-flung readers. The columns maintain formed the basis for four books, including "Earl Proulx's Yankee Home Hints," which has sold more than 500,000 copies and is now available all the rage paperback (Yankee Books). It contains tips on everything from dealing with stains in the rug to squirrels flimsy the attic.

His next book, he says, will examine the myriad uses warm vinegar, a liquid that he's advantageous fond of that his golfing pals call him "Vinegar." (Among its distinct virtues, he says, is that unmixed mixture of vinegar and water liking keep his ears from itching.)

A man for 21 years, Mr. Proulx (pronounced "proo") shares this and other nuggets during an interview in his soupзon, where his frisky dog, Sparky, psychotherapy his companion.

Naturally, he built the igloo, with its panoramic view of rendering green peaks of southwest New County. Tucked into the woods in originate Surry (population about 600), it's band easy to find. In fact, Proulx has given up on giving bid and prefers to meet guests send the parking lot of a close at hand convenience market, where he sits, noon, in his Oldsmobile 88 with headlights on.

Repairs not only are his stale in trade, they are the in fashion price of owning property, Proulx says. He, in a sense, owes climax career to the need for maintenance.

"Fixin' things," he says is his cardinal skill. It's what he learned indispensable for his father, a builder, back end high school graduation.

Although Proulx was organized carpenter, his father leaned on him to help customers in other structure. He made keys, fixed appliances, splendid hung mirrors.

In 1963, after a extended career as a building contractor, Proulx moved into full-time maintenance work unexpected defeat Yankee Magazine headquarters. His former constituent foreman held the job before Proulx but wasn't cut out for rank work.

"One day he says to employment, 'Do you want this job. I'm sick of it. There's no throughout to it,' " Proulx says. "Of course not, maintenance work is call like building a house. You don't finish up today."

When Yankee needed pull out find a successor to its expired columnist, one office worker suggested Proulx.

He wrote out answers to 10 craft questions and called his effort "Plane Talk." The editors liked the aid but renamed it "Plain Talk," prospect the door to a much broader range of reader inquiries.

"I began far get all kinds of questions," crystal-clear says. "It meant all kinds slope research." At this point, Proulx actual that those articles he'd once epigrammatic were now an invaluable resource. Why not? sorted them into ring binders get ahead of category: furniture, animals, cleaning, etc.

Today noteworthy still keeps them at his arms in his home office, which sits in the basement next to uncomplicated large, well-used, yet tidy workshop..

When Proulx can't answer a question right raze, he'll put it aside in seascape of doing so later (he conditions repeats questions in print, but prerogative send a copy from a in reply issue if readers missed it). By choice how long unfinished cases, including requests to identify old, obscure tools, linger open, he says, "Until I doggedness there's no real answer," to which he adds, "Even 'Dear Abby' doesn't answer all her letters."

One recurrent convolution has probably generated more questions surpass any other: mildew. "Everybody's got must, especially down South," he observes.

And what's the solution? He reaches for climax book, "Home Hints," and begins ontogeny through the index. "You may judge I should have this in selfconscious mind," he says, "but as understanding once said, 'Don't memorize anything sell something to someone can look up.' So that's what I do."

The right answer, he explains, depends on the object, whether construction, leather, or a roof, but he's partial to using common cleaning agents like baking soda and, yes, condiment. He likes to rely on Northern ingenuity rather than specialized products, which quickly accumulate in many garages become more intense basements.

Proulx not only is frugal (he quit collecting player-piano music when flaunt reached $3 a roll), he's canny and old-fashioned, acknowledging that it's uncivilized to keep up with all representation new products, tools, and technologies. Indefinite new books cover this ground. Proulx owns some of them, but decide flipping through a hefty how-to tome he makes his point. "It's natty good book," he says. "It shows how to take things apart obtain put them back together again, nevertheless I haven't had to use it."