Duck and Duct tape

It was again a story from my days in Florida, I was reading articles on sticky tape shortages after the Homeland security ‘Orange alert’ announcements and I wondered, ‘what a situation this is, are people really thinking these days or being paranoid’? I was in warm South Florida, and thinking of the events in 1991, of chemical attacks, missiles and tape. I remembered the time when packing & industrial tape sales were brisk in Riyadh and everybody sealed all home openings and windows with tape, to escape potential gas tipped missile attacks from Iraq, including yours faithfully…and then I remembered Abi’s college list…

Abishek had come home from college for his annual vacation; he had his usual list of things to take back. One of the items was Duck tape. I called him and ridiculed him for misspelling ‘Duct’ tape and explained that it was duct tape since it was originally used for taping AC ducts. He did not say anything, just humored the old man with a wry smile. At home depot, I was in for a surprise, the tapes were indeed called ‘Duck’ tapes.

I was flabbergasted and mystified, till my friend Ollie explained to me that the original ‘duck tape’ was made by J & J in 1927 during WW II to seal ammunition cases. Later on, I decided to check around a bit and found that what started as an olive green colored tape, morphed into the grey Duct tape after it became popular post WW II in the building business. Over the years, it has become so popular, there is even an active fans club and competitions on using it cleverly..

So why were they called duck tapes? Because they were as waterproof as a ducks back!
Do you know that Swedes (apparently) call them Jesus tape (as miraculous as..). It is also called 100, 200 and 1000-mile tapes. And even as missile tape (no! that is not the reason why the shuttle failed!!) Another story is that the original duck tape got its name from the Duck cotton used to make it…. whatever that was.

Amazingly it has many medical applications, like wart removal, temporary bandage, wrist support etc.. is a popular bust lifter at beauty pageants (believe me, I understand it was demonstrated in Oprah & I have seen pictures of models applying it before dressing!!) and a cheek separator as I read, during hemorrhoid operations. They had hundreds of ideas like this documented and illustrated in some of the duct tape clubs.

One guy Jim suggested…

Use Duck tape for belly removal - To remove that hideous middle-aged gut, simply apply a strip of duct tape over your mouth for six days to two months.