HOW TO START A LAWN MOWER: Let your wife do it.

A bit of background to start: we have two lawn mowers; the first is a manly 42" riding lawn tractor, complete with electric start and lots of knobs, levers, buttons, switches and attachment points for all kinds of accessories. The second is a 21" pull-to-start push lawn mower with only the stop bar and a single primer button -- nothing else to push, pull, twist, or attach.
Late Sunday afternoon, I finished the major mowing with the big, manly machine, and went to the shed to get the push mower to finish up some trim and mow the ridiculously small patch of grass we laughingly call our back yard. An hour later, the sun was down, I was exhausted from pulling ... and pulling ... and pulling the start cord. The machine never uttered so much as a wheeze.

So the next morning I called my wife out, since she's always been able to get it started. We checked the oil (OK) and the gas (half a tank, but she wanted it filled anyway). Then she bent over, gave the primer bulb three long, careful pushes, grabbed the start cord and the safety bar, and pushed the lawn mower away from her rather than pulling on the cord. It fired up and was running smoothly before she stopped pushing.

Next time, she mows the yard.