> >And of course, Brunnen-G's presumably awesome knowledge of duct tape trivia helps, too.
>
> You see Brunnen-G, thats why we think your a guy, I don't know many women who know duct tape trivia, and I used to live very near the Canadian border (any one else ever watch the Red Green Show?). Trivia about shinny metal tape is just a mascuilin thing.
>
> Spider-keepyourstickontheice-Boy

(Alarmed) Oh no, my forum-cred is at risk! OK, duct tape trivia. It's shiny on one side. It's dark and sticky on the other side. Unlike many lesser species of tape, it comes in rolls which are heavy enough to hold things down if you're working outside and it's windy. But you can't tear it off with your teeth like masking tape if both hands are full.

However, it's better than masking tape because masking tape can only be left on a surface in the sun for maybe a day or two before becoming a permanent part of the surface. I know this because there was 30-year-old masking tape stuck all over my boat's interior walls when I bought it, and it took six months with sandpaper and a chisel trying to get it off. In the end I just painted over it and tried to ignore it. If there is ever a nuclear war, a bomb shelter built entirely out of masking tape will be our only hope for survival. Curse you, masking tape!

Actually, they now make a kind of vinyl-based masking tape which is much better and you can leave it on for several days or more. I used it to mask the line around the bottom of my boat hull when I repainted the antifouling. The thrill to the soul when you slowly pull off the masking tape to reveal a perfectly straight border of paint is truly one of the finest things in life, and you can't get that with duct tape. Also, you can write on masking tape. I've never actually needed to, but the possibility exists.

On the other hand, duct tape has far more uses. If you have sneakers which are really shot to hell, you can wind duct tape around them and they last a good month more.

And last but not least, you can always buy duct tape when you need it. At every hardware store I know, duct tape is never, ever out of stock. It's just one of those universal mysteries.

So there you are, duct tape rules. And yes, it has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

Brunnen-"still trying to work out what the Canadian border has to do with anything, though"G