[lfjokes] teflon tape (a modern proverb)

[Adam Shand]

From: Royce Williams <royce at alaska.net>
URL:  http://perl.plover.com/yak/hw1/Hardware-notes.html#Teflon_Tape

Teflon Tape

A few months ago, I had a leaky shower head, so I went to the hardware
store to get some putty or caulk or something to fix the leak. But when
they found out what I wanted it for, they sold me teflon pipe thread tape
instead. The tape fills up the gap between the head and the pipe just
fine, it's waterproof, and it's very slippery, so it's easy to put the
shower head on and take it off again. Also you can remove it easily, even
years later. I had never heard of teflon pipe thread tape, but it was just
what I needed, and much better than the caulk would have been.

I get two reactions from people I tell this story to. Some people say
"Teflon pipe thread tape! Wow, I never heard of that before; I'll have to
remember it." And some people interrupt me right at the beginning and say
"You should use teflon tape for that, you know."

This talk is about teflon pipe thread tape. It's also about hose clamps,
self-chalking plumb lines, mending plates, WD-40 in a spray can, and a
whole bunch of other stuff.  None of this stuff is specially magical;
that's the point. Each of these tools will make half the people in the
audience say "Well, of course! Everyone knows about that." But the other
half will say "Wow! I never heard of that before, but now I don't know
how I ever got along without it."