cheerfulmonk.com

April 11, 2025

If you’ve been rolling your eyes at people who say “duck tape” adhesive, prepare some apologies. The durable cloth-backed tape first appeared during World War II, when Johnson & Johnson developed an olive drab version as a handy way for American soldiers to waterproof their ammo cans. According to the company, soldiers dubbed the product “duck tape” because it forced moisture to flee “like water off a duck’s back.”

Troops realized that the tape was good for more than just keeping their powder dry, and after the war, it caught on as an easy and effective way to seal, among other things, heating ducts. Johnson & Johnson even began offering a silver version of the tape specifically for this purpose, giving rise to “duct tape.”

So which is correct? “Duck tape” has the chronological upper hand, but “duct tape” is a more accurate description of the product’s historical use. To make things even more complicated, though, it’s no longer used to seal ducts! You could always just hedge your bets the way the leading manufacturer does when it bills itself as “Duck brand duct tape.”
—Mental Floss

I always called it duck tape, and Andy used to protest until we started to use the Duck Tape brand. Now it’s hard for him to argue. Why am I thinking of that now? Because I just read a review of the best duct tapes and Duck Tape was the winner. Hurray for Duck Tape! Do you ever use it?

April 10, 2025

April 9, 2025

This was Facebook video, and I’m afraid clicking on the picture to see the video won’t work if you aren’t logged in. (I like Instagram better!).

Anyway the dog chases the fellow’s brother until he corners him, then shakes all the water off his fur.

It’s a great illustration of how Americans sometimes like mischievous dogs.

April 8, 2025

Zoe Keziah Mendelson

I just wanted to tell you all that in various parks in Mexico City you can find lines of dogs sitting next to each other with their leashes on the ground next to them. This is a form of doggy daycare/school. The people who train and care for these dogs are as skilled at this as anyone is skilled at anything. What you see in this picture is not a moment. This goes on and on for hours and hours.
….
In Mexico, people have higher expectations of dogs. I think in the US, we set the dog bar too low and they trip over it.
—-20 dogs sitting in a row with their leashes on the ground next to them

Hmm. That’s impressive, but would it take the fun out of having a dog? See tomorrow’s post for a happy, mischievous pup.

April 7, 2025

And he will do it again today. This was yesterday’s weather forecast:

Click on the photo for higher resolution.

One of our neighbors wrote yesterday morning to say there was already about six inches of snow and it was still coming down, so it makes sense to wait until it melts. We had only about an inch or two down here, and it was almost all gone by the late afternoon.

We were happy to see the moisture! We could use a lot more…fingers crossed for the fire season. And fingers crossed for the areas in other parts of the country that are battling floods.

April 6, 2025

Parade

We don’t need canes, but we do walk more slowly than we used to.

April 5, 2025

Click on the picture for the video, and turn on the sound if you want to hear it.

April 4, 2025

Click on the picture for the video. Pardon the kitty’s language! Poor baby.

April 3, 2025

That was Andy and me last night. He wrote a check for our estimated state tax and instead of the next check it said we had to reorder. So we went to where we store our checkbooks and there were two books left. No problem, we didn’t have to reorder now. But there was a gap between the check we had just used and the starting number of the next checkbook. How could we have lost a book of checks?

It was pathetic how long it took us to figure out there were thirty more checks behind the warning that we had to reorder. I’m still shaking my head and laughing about it. In fairness, we don’t write that many checks, we mostly use ACH and credit cards, but still…. Anyway, another example of always check your assumptions. We were happy it was just our cluelessness instead of lost checks, and it was good for a laugh. It reminded me of poor old Jonathon Bing:

Jonathan Bing
by Beatrice Curtis Brown

Poor old Jonathan Bing.
He went out in his carriage to visit the king.
But everyone pointed and said,
“Look at that!
Jonathan Bing has forgotten his hat!”
He’d forgotten his hat.

Poor old Jonathan Bing
went home and put on his best hat for the king.
But up by the palace,
a soldier said,
“Hi! You can’t see the king!
You’ve forgotten your tie!”
He’d forgotten his tie.

Poor old Jonathan Bing,
Went home and put on a beautiful tie for the king.
But when he arrived, an archbishop said,
“Ho! You can’t come to court in pajamas, you know!
You can’t come to court in pajamas, you know!”

Poor old Jonathan Bing,
Went home and addressed a short note to the king:
“If you please will excuse me, I won’t come to tea.
Cause home’s the best place for all people like me.”

Yep, that’s Andy and me! (Should I have used “I” instead of “me”? Merriam Webster says either is fine. “Me” is more informal, which is why I like it.)

April 2, 2025