Wasilliness and the Duct Tape Connection

There's been a lot of talk about Sarah Palin lately (and don't think she hasn't enjoyed every minute of it). There was news of ethics violations what was quickly hushed by leaking the news of her impending resignation as governor. Then there was her snarky resignation speech that has been playing on 24 hour news almost as much as Michael Jackson tributes. The best two bits that we've seen are the Tonight Show with Conan Obrien and William Shatner performing selections of her convoluted resignation speech as beat poetry (complete with upright bass and bongos), followed the next night by poetry made from her equally confusing Twitter tweets. Check them both out on the Tonight Show site: palin resignation speech poetry and palin twitter poetry.

But what does this Sarah Palin have to do with Duct Tape you ask? Oh, yes, there is a connection (other than arguably the best use for duct tape which is shown on the left). Sarah hails from Wasilla, Alaska. And, if you have been with us for a while, you'll remember back to 2003 when Wasilla, Alaska was named the Duct Tape Capitol of the World. This is based on their sheer consumption of duct tape - most duct tape sold per capita in the world (based on Wal-Mart sales. You can read about Wasilla and our appearance at the award ceremony/celebration here.

One of the reasons why Wasilla sells so much duct tape is that it's the last supply stop before you head into the Alaskan wilderness. And, anyone reading this will understand why you must have duct tape with you for emergency repairs. In fact, did you know that no private plane in Alaska is allowed to leave the ground without a roll of duct tape on board (just like every NASA flight). If you land on the tundra and a bear comes up and claws a hole in your plane's fusilage, you need to duct tape the hole or the plane won't fly.

So, there's the duct tape and Sarah Palin/Wasilla connection.

One such story was an older plane that was experiencing some particularily turbulent weather and the ceiling panels kept popping out of their track. The flight attendant came back with a roll of duct tape, stood on the seats and duct tape the ceiling panels back into place.

Another? A commercial airliner was about to take off from a South American air field when a large bird landed on the plane's wing and punctured holes in the wing with its talons. Not being able to fly in this condition, passengers saw the ground crew come out and put duct tape over the holes. The plane took off and flew safely to its destination.

Okay, one more. This one a helecopter story. During the Vietnam war a helecopter was forced to land because it had a bullet hole through one of the rotor blades making it imbalanced. The pilot got out his gun and shot a matching hole in the opposite rotor, duct taped over both holes and flew the chopper that way the rest of his tour of duty.

Stuck at Prom 2009 Winners
(on the left - the 2009 Grand prize winners)
The 9th annual Duck brand Stuck at Prom contest is over. The votes are in and the winners are...

Izzy Bristow and John Dyer of Golden, Colorado, who created this peacocky gown and tux. All Jim and I can say is WOW, beautiful (and her gown isn't that bad either)!

Being an old Alice in Wonderland fan, Tim wanted to show you the second place winners as well (above right). This is Maris Blanchard as the Queen of Hearts and Zane Blanchard as the Mad Hatter, both from Bixby, Ohio. Fabulous job. Maybe you can get jobs as costume designers for Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland movie.

You can see the rest of the 2009 winners (all quite impressive) at StuckAtProm.com - browse through our massive collection of prom gowns and tuxes here.

10. Backpack reinforcement - help that old backpack make it through one more year of school - reinforce the bottom and seams with duct tape.

9. Contruct your own backpack! Cover a grocery bag entirely in Duct Tape, then duct tape the bag onto your kid's back (over clothing to avoid back skin and neck hair loss).

8. Book covers: Cover your books in paper, then cover the paper with duct tape. Don't tape right onto the book (school administrators are not real duct tape friendly, and will probably fine you for duct tape stickem all over your returned books).

7. Lunch money clip: Duct tape your kid's lunch money to the back of their leg so they don't loose it or have it stolen by the school bully.

6. Note from home security: Tape those notes from home onto your kid's forehead so they don't forget to give them to the teacher.

5. Reusable lunch bag: Don't waste your money purchasing a nylon reusable lunch bag... simply duct tape over a paper lunch bag - your kid will be the envy of the classroom, and this bag will last them right through to college!

4. Sandwich safety belt. Avoid the stain and embarrassment of sandwich spills. Duct tape around the sandwich holds the fillings in place. You just eat down to the duct tape - then squeeze the contents out.

3. Book straps: Some schools are forbidding backpacks because of security issues. The Duct Tape Guys suggest making a book strap out of duct tape (like grandpa and grandma used as kids). To avoid books from spilling out of the strap, duct tape the spines of the books to the strap.

2. Duct tape fashion: Save HUGE bucks... instead of purchasing expensive brand name clothing, cover your last year's outfits entirely in duct tape. Go with silver for the heavy metal look, black for a mysterious/artsy look, or try one of Duck® brand duct tape’s NEW Xtreme Tape® - it's duct tape in dayglo colors: hot pink, lime green, citron yellow, and blaze orange. The same colors that are so trendy with the Xtreme Sports participants.

1. Make a knowledge magnet. Duct tape around your head sticky-side-out, and every word that your teachers say will stick to the tape and soak into your brain. (This has not been fully tested, it's just a theory at this point)..

Duck Tape Business News
Henkel Announces Sale of Duck®, Painter’s Mate Green® and Easy Liner® Brands in U.S. and Canada

Rocky Hill, Conn., June 2, 2009 - Henkel Corporation today announced the sale of its business conducted under the Duck®, Painter’s Mate Green® and Easy Liner® brands in the U.S. and Canada to Shurtape Technologies, LLC or one of Shurtape’s affiliates. Shurtape is based in Hickory, North Carolina, and has been a long-term supplier to Henkel. The brands sold are the do-it-yourself (DIY) line of tapes, office and houseware products, including Duck® brand duct tape and stationery, mailing and shipping, and kitchen and bath products. Included in the sale are certain worldwide rights to these brands as well as Henkel’s Avon, Ohio, facility.

“This sale fits our strategic direction, which is to focus on our core adhesives businesses. We’re proud of the achievements of these brands and the dedicated employees who have worked hard to make them successful,” said Julian Colquitt, President of Henkel Adhesive Technologies, North America.

“This transaction is a logical step in formalizing a 40-year relationship with Henkel Corporation. The combination of Henkel’s strong consumer brands with Shurtape’s professional brands and manufacturing base will drive innovation and value for our retail partners,” said Jim Shuford, President & CEO, Shurtape Technologies LLC. Henkel’s Avon location, which markets and distributes the Duck®, Painter’s Mate Green® and Easy Liner® brands, includes a staff of 350 employees.

Henkel’s Pritt®, Loctite®, LePage®, Pro-Series®, PL®, and Polyseamseal® brands and the corresponding construction adhesives, sealants, and general adhesives businesses are not part of this sale.

Shurtape Technologies, LLC, headquartered in Hickory, North Carolina, is an industry-leading producer of pressure sensitive masking, duct, packaging and specialty tape products, with facilities in the United States, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Peru, United Arab Emirates and China. The company services numerous markets including industrial, packaging, HVAC, professional paint, auto, marine, aerospace, arts and entertainment, and retail. www.shurtape.com

I was very happy when I finally got all my accounts down to a zero balance. Then I found out that you are supposed to do that with credit card balances, not checking accounts.

My daughter got her report card last year and she did really well in most of her subjects. She did seem to get another "F" in gender though.

I read that 72% of all divorces are the result of arguments over money. Apparently wives are upset about the money their husbands are spending on other women.

We had lots of house guests this summer and I had to go to the airport quite a bit. One good thing though is that I now have quite the supply of free Zip Lock bags.

Why can't you compare apples to oranges? I can see all kinds of differences.

My cheese is usually where it goes. I do find, however, that people are always moving my keys, my remote, my pens...

Is it just me, or have other people caught themselves rinsing out a water bottle before putting it into the recycle?

I learn a lot from movies. For example, if you are a film producer and someone from the mob wants a favor, never show them your prize horse before you say no.

Speaking of that, what if the producer had an expensive car instead of the horse? Would he have woken up with a carburetor next to him in his bed?

Dale's Website Discoveries

This is a pretty cool site if you are a math nerd or just want to see some cool visual representations of math: click here

Admit it, you would be doing the same thing as these people: click here

And, while we are on the subject, you know that you are going to be doing this too: click here

In high school we used to play "celebrity cross-between" to pass the time (eg. that person looks like a cross between Jack Nicholson and Phylis Diller). I enjoyed the stretching of the imagination that our "game" required, but still find basic look-alikes amusing. Here's a good collection:
http://www.millionface.com/l/lookalikes-pics/  (This is a harvested, Reader's Digest version of the original site)

Speaking of high school... what would your yearbook photo have looked like if you graduated in 1950? 1960? 2000? You can find out for yourself when you use the "yearbookyourself" application on this cool web site. Here's Tim (who actually graduated in 1971 - yeah, he's old) as if he graduated in 1988 - and sporting a mullet.

And, speaking of mullets... Tim's son, Jake, has created a humor blog based on the mullet. Check out MulletLikeMe.com (a parody of the 1950's social experiment book, "Black Like Me.")

Meet us at The Duct Tape Diner. We’ve had some great stories over the counter at the Duct Tape Diner recently. If you haven’t yet read the Diner contributions, stop by! This is where we invite our visitors to share their own duct tape stories. Just like these people did:

EMT on a Roll
My son had foot surgery and had full legs casts put on both legs to keep him from trying to stand. About a month after the casts were put on my wife discovered that his left cast had broken just below the knee. With three 8" pieces of broken yard stick and several wraps of duct tape, the cast was more than secure. When we took him the next day to the hospital, the cast technician said she had seen a lot of home repairs but this was the best she had ever seen! -Jim B.

Rower’s Companion I work a lot with a local high school rowing team. We have used Duct Tape for a miriad of things, but the most unique was when that tiny seat mounted on the carriage of one of the positions in the Men's Varsity Eight (eight rowers and a coxwain) broke in two just prior to the race and 11/2 miles from any maintenance facility, we duct taped a flatbladed screwdriver under the seat and it held good enough for the boat not only to finish, but win the race. The hardest part was getting the screwdriver back off the seat so that I could put it back in my tool kit. -Greg H,

Smart Car wannabes:

High gas prices and a new awareness of global warming, ecology and fossil fuel shortages have stirred people's thinking about driving small vehicles. Smart cars are just one of the leaders in smaller car technologies (only we get better mileage in our 2005 Prius). Not to be outdone or left behind, here are the proposed versions of other carmaker brands which are designed to complete with the Smart car.

Nab all the cool, original Duct Tape Pro™ Duct Tape Apparel you want at the Pro Shop
The Duct Tape Pro Shop is the only place in the universe to get Genuine Duct Tape Guys Originals. There are many rip-offs available - some at major department stores, but they're illegal copyright infringements. Please don't buy them. Anything that you see on our site are our original designs and slogans.

And remember, when it comes time to buy our BOOKS - including the WD-40 Book and the entire Duct Tape genre for your dad, grandpa... friends and relatives (or yourself) there's no better place than the Pro Shop - that's because we autograph everything that we ship. And, we've got GREAT deals that you won't find anywhere else - in the world! So stop by the Duct Tape Pro Shop and see what's in store for you! Thanks for your patronage! - The Duct Tape Guys

Well, that’s it for now. Remember that you can share this FREE duct tape and humor newsletter with your friends. Just send them this address: http://www.ducttapeguys.com/list so they can SUBSCRIBE to our email notification list.

If you want OFF of our email list at any time, that’s fine with us, we don’t want to bother anyone with stuff they don't want. Just click the list link above and follow the unsubscribe instructions - don't send us an email asking us to remove you - we have no control over the list - you must click the link above or on your email notification to unsubscribe. Thanks.

May the Tape be with you!
- Jim and Tim - The Duct Tape Guys

Click here for archived On a Roll Newsletters: 1/02, 2/02, 3/02, 03/19/02, 4/02, 5/02, 6/02, 7/02, 08/02, 09/02. 10/02, 11/02, 12/02, 01/03, 02/03, 03/03, 4/03, 05/03. 06/03 07/03 8/03 9/03 10/03 11/03, 12/03, 1/04, 2/04, 3/04, 4/04, 5/04, 6/04, 7/04, 8/04, 9/04, 10/04, election issue, 11/04, 12/04, 01/05, 2/05, 3/05, 4/05, 5/05, 06/05, 7/05, 08/05, 09/05, 10/05, 11/05, 12/05, 01/06, 2/06, 3/06, 4/06, 5/06, 6/06, 7/06, 8/06, 9/06,10/06,11/06, 12/06, 1/07, 2/07, 3/07. 4/07, 5/07, 6/07. 7/07, 8-9/07, 10-11/07, 12/07, 01/08, 02-03/08,4-5/08, 6-7/08, 8-9/08, 10-11/08, 12/08 and 1/09, 2-3/09, 4-5/09, 6-7/09, 8/09,