<p>I was reading a <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/05/04/it_tolls_for_the_city/">newspaper story</a> about the bell on top of Faneuil Hall, a bell which basically sits smack in the heart of Boston, and how that bell sat quiet for decades because it was rusted.&#0160; According to the article, the best guess for when the bell was last rung is sometime around the end of WWII.<br />
So the city of Boston was quiet during the millenium celebrations, it didn&#39;t ring a bell when the Sox won the World Series.&#0160; It has only been sounded twice in recent memory - once to commemorate the victims of Sept. 11 and once to celebrate Boston&#39;s 375th anniversary, but in order to do it they had men strike the bell with mallets.&#0160; The historic bell (from 1866) now has dents from those mallets.</p>

<p>Finally, city crews decided to fix it.&#0160; All it took was a can of WD-40*.&#0160; And now it&#39;s good as new.</p>

<p>I&#39;ve got to remember that.&#0160; Sometimes simplest and cheapest works best.&#0160; Because sometimes we make things <a href="http://www.reluctanthousewife.com/2006/07/brat_sucks.html">more difficult than they need to be</a>, don&#39;t we?</p>

<p><em>*By the way, the name WD-40 itself is a great reminder that<a href="http://home.howstuffworks.com/question155.htm"> persistence pays off.&#0160; </a></em></p>
