Wife of CIA Boss reveals secrets of home repair

December 11, 2002| Melissa Grade | New York Daily News

“Wearing work boots, sweatpants and pink lipstick, the wife of the nation's top spy showed Bedford-Stuyvesant homeowners how to clear a blocked toilet with an auger.

“You put the corkscrew end in the drain hole and rotate the handle clockwise,“ said Stephanie Glakas-Tenet as she worked the snake-like wire tool for a class of 10 students.

Looking up, the 46-year old wife of CIA Director George Tenet said with a wide grin, "It's ten blucks [to buy an auger] instead of an $80 plumbing bill!"

Promoting the book "Dare to Repair: A Do-It-Herself Guide to Fixing (Almost) Anything in the Home", which Glakas-Tenet co-authored with Julie Sussman, the wife of an 18-year CIA agent, the women spent two hours yesterday with home repair students at the Gates Ave. branch of Roslyn Saings Bank.

As part of its community outrech efforts and together with the nonprofit Neighborhood Housing Services of Bedford-Stuyvesant Inc, the bank offers a 10-week, $125, night home-repair course to homeowners-mostly women-and