h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Before it's replaced tonight, I'd just like to mention the Quote of the Week on the Front Page.

Nicolas Sarkozy likes football, while Jacques Chirac doesn't.

Going back to Trillian's Child's post:

<>

I've ascertained that it was
North: Eagle
South: Man
East: Ox/Bull
West: Lion

Argggh! That should be:

North: Eagle
South: Man
East: Lion
West: Ox/Bull


Furthermore the four points were each linked to one of the tribes of Israel:

North: Eagle, Dan
South: Man, Reuben
East: Lion, Judah
West: Ox/Bull, Ephraim

jwf contirbuted this little fact in the 'How Good is Terry Pratchett thread in Askh2g2

They [Terry Pratchett' books] contain more 'words' (5 million) than all of Shakespeare and the Bible combined.

Words have power, you understand?

What we now know as "duct" tape was originally called "duck" tape. It was green, not silver. It was developed in WWII and designed to keep moisture out of ammo cases. Following the war, returning soldiers brought the tape with them and used it for household repairs. Eventually it was used to join duct work and the name and color changed. However, duct tape should NOT be used for duct work as the heat in attics and crawl spaces can cause the tape to deteriorate and if it burns or smolders it can release toxic fumes [apologies for the useful info].

(from http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/02/duct-tape-was-originally-named-duck-tape-and-came-in-green-not-silver/ see article for more info.)

Info not to be found in the above article.

Duck/duct tape is officially known as "gray" tape by NASA to avoid trademarks and prohibitions against commercial endorsements by government personnel issues.

That sounds almost useful, Clive, so I won't mention that what many people think of as duct tape is actually gaffa.

Sorry, I mean Count Zero, of course. Don't know where I got Clive from.

I apologized for the "useful info" already.

But I'm glad you mentioned that. Now I need to listen to Suspended in Gaffa again since I never knew what gaffa was.

Gaffa tape is (usually) black on the outside and silver on the sticky side, with striations across the width of the tape. It tears across the width fairly easily and is much beloved by techies.

Nobody cares that Gaffa leaves dirt attracting sticky residue on leads when it is used to tape bundles together or to stage floors.

PP

Actually, we care very much that cheap, poor quality gaffa leaves floor-destroying residue.

But Gaffa isn't what it used to be. It used to be glossy black and stickier than a sticky thing. It could fix flats, tack tears in tabs, repair risers and attach actors to anything. Then, coinciding with the Major government, the shiny stuff began to be replaced by a matt, vaguely tacky Gaffa. The new stuff quite frankly couldn't stick in your throat. The shiny stuff became a prized possession, husbanded by stage managers the length and breadth of the country. Kept under lock and key, it was grudgingly doled out to ASMs in 1 inch strips which, even when used, re-used and re-used again was still stickier than the new PC Gaffa.

I have 3/4 of a roll in my shed, slowly congealing into a glutinous mass. It more closely resembles a WWII sticky bomb. In fact, I'm pretty sure I could stick a Challenger tank to the Thames Barrier if I used it like a blob of blu tac.

But the modern Gaffa - gah!

totally useless fact:

there were exacty 100 posts between this and my previous post (as long as someone didn't postwhile i was looking at them)

"Actually, we care very much that cheap, poor quality gaffa leaves floor-destroying residue"

See what I mean? Nobody cares that it leaves nasty sticky residue on my leads...

PP

Wait, wait, wait...

We have a translation problem. Gaffa tape is NOT duct/duck tape.

Gaffa (or as I would call it "gaffer" tape) is indeed the good stuff that does NOT leave residue but it is a matte surface. It is meant to tear easily, as mentioned. I worked as a photographers/film production assistant back in the early '90's and we lived on that stuff. If it left a residue we couldn't use it. I still have a couple of rolls in my grip kit in a closet. They're unusable now as they've aged and deteriorated. Duct/duck tape is absolutely messy stuff, cheap, glossy and not always easy to tear. It always leaves a residue.

A gaffer is the head of the lighting department on a set.

In French, gaffer tape is called 'gaffeur', which also means 'the one who blunders' (as in Gaston Lagaffe).

You probably know this already, Toybox, but in English, a gaffe is a (blundering) mistake, too. Totally at random, I found an example of it here: http://www.english-test.net/esl/learn/english/grammar/ii115/esl-test.php

In sailing, a gaff is the bar across the top of a trapezoid sail (as opposed to a triangular sail, which, of course, doesn't need a bar across the top)

In German, "gaffen" means "to stare, gawk or gape" and has negative connotations. A "gaffer" is a "looker-on" and is almost exclusively used to describe people who, upon driving past a scene of a car accident, slow down especially to have a look at the blood and gore.

Y.