Article: Silk is a delicate fabric, so you need to take special care. Use a detergent that is designed for silk. Choose a gentle, cold water cycle and avoid washing silks with heavier fabrics. Dry your silk sheets on a clothes line. If you must use a dryer, choose a no-heat setting. To clean your satin sheets, you should machine wash at 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). You can use a fabric conditioner in the final cycle to help keep the sheets soft. Avoid using bleach. Using bleach frequently will eventually damage your sheets. Dry on a clothes line or tumble dry. Linen is a durable, but tricky fabric. With linen sheets, you should use colder temperatures. Try to use natural detergents and use less detergent than normal. For example, if you usually use 1 cup (236 ml), try only using 3/4 of that amount. You can always wash the sheets again later if they are not clean. Soak the sheets prior to the wash. Soak the sheets in the washing machine with 3 squirts of dishwashing soap, 1/4 cup (59 milliliters) of borax and 1/3 cup (80 milliliters) of white vinegar. Let the sheets soak in these ingredients for 30 minutes. Then, wash the sheets on a hot water cycle.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Clean silk and satin sheets with gentle detergents. Wash your linen sheets on a cold cycle with minimal detergent. Pre-soak sheets to remove body oil stains.

Problem: Article: Chances are your bottle of unopened vodka is fine to drink after storing it for an extended period of time. If you've already opened the bottle and it's been a long time since you drank it, check the vodka before mixing up a drink. Throw out the vodka if: You notice a strange smell It has an unusual or noticeably bad taste It looks different (cloudy or simply looks different than when you bought it) Pure vodka will last for years if stored properly. But if you have vodka that's flavored with natural ingredients, you should be checking it periodically to make sure it's not going bad. It's a good idea to clean through your entire liquor cabinet every 6 months or so. This will encourage you to use up alcohol that has a limited shelf life or throw out alcohol that's no longer good. Liquors with dairy or natural flavorings often have an expiration date listed on the bottle. Some of these may even benefit from being stored in the refrigerator instead of in the cabinet. If you have young children in your house, you should take extra care to make sure your vodka is out of their reach. Although your children might not go looking for your alcohol, young children are curious and may find it. To prevent accidents, keep alcohol in a high up place and lock the storage container or liquor cabinet. Even if you trust your older children, locking the liquor cabinet is a good idea. If your teen is being pressured by a friend to take your alcohol, a locked cabinet gives your child a good excuse for not giving in to the pressure. If you have teenagers in your house, you should be monitoring how much alcohol you have on hand. While you should be able to trust your children, studies suggest that monitoring alcohol in the household sends a message to your children that underage drinking is not acceptable. To monitor alcohol in your house, try: Marking the sides of liquor bottles to track the levels Writing down how many bottles of each alcohol you have Making note of when you open a bottle of spirits or liquor
Summary: Check the vodka before drinking it again. Clean out your alcohol cabinet periodically. Keep beyond the reach of children. Monitor how much alcohol you have.

INPUT ARTICLE: Article: Working with someone who has a serious mental illness like bipolar disorder can be challenging. Share your thoughts and feelings with someone close to you, like a partner, best friend, or counselor. Try to avoid venting to someone who knows the person or who works with you. Choose someone who is unbiased, but who can offer support and compassion. For example, you might tell your significant other, "Babe, I could really use someone to talk to about my coworker. He has bipolar disorder and I'm finding it hard to work with him." Have you noticed someone who is especially gifted at interacting with your bipolar coworker? Ask this person for pointers and share a few of your own. You might say, "Hey, you really sidestepped a meltdown there. What's your strategy?" Resist the urge to come off like you need help dealing with the person because of their mental illness. Simply say you'd like to interact with them more effectively. If working with the bipolar person presents challenges, have a conversation with your supervisor. Ask for help improving work conditions and make suggestions regarding accommodations you think could help you or your coworker. Your boss may not have noticed any issues or may not work as closely with the person to be able to determine what they need. If you work closely with a bipolar colleague or this person is a friend of yours, you may want suggestions from people who understand where you're coming from. A support group will allow you to get feedback from those with bipolar disorder and their caregivers. Contact local mental health agencies or clinics to find a support group in your area. If you find the group helpful, you may even invite your coworker to join you at meetings. However, only suggest this if you have good rapport with the person and they have disclosed their condition to you.

SUMMARY: Confide in someone you trust. Exchange pointers with another coworker. Talk to your supervisor. Consider attending a bipolar support group.

Claims that you can learn shorthand in a few hours should be taken with a dose of skepticism. The time it will take you depends on how often you practice, the difficulty of the system, and your goal speed. It may take as long as a year of hard work to really master a useful shorthand. You need to fully absorb the word-building principles first; speed comes from them. Try for at least 45 minutes to an hour, if you can. Remember, though, that even daily short sessions are better than one or two longer ones per week. Start with the alphabet, filling each line of a piece of notebook paper with one letter. Next, you'll move on to words, doing the same thing. When you're ready, you'll move on to common groups of words. Saying the words aloud as you write them helps your brain make the connection between the phonemic sound and the symbol. Shorthand dictations come in different speeds (words per minute), so you can work your way to an increasingly rapid pace. Practice each speed (30, 40, 50, 60, etc.) until you're comfortable, then move on. If you want to practice as much as possible, put dictations on your MP3 player and practice whenever you have a few extra minutes.
++++++++++
One-sentence summary --
Start off with realistic expectations. Prioritize mastery over speed. Practice every day. Drill in stages. Increase speed with dictation exercises.