What built the country and

made it great weren't the great inventers of our time like Benjamin

Franklin, Einstein, or Bill Gates. It wasn't the founding fathers

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, or even George Washington. (Side note: The

Wife informs me that good old George never did chop down a cherry tree.

I also heard that Martha Washington made one mean cherry pie. Guess I

was wrong with that also.)

So if it wasn't the founding

fathers that made this country great, just what was it? Was it the huddled

masses fleeing from high taxes and religious persecution abroad? Nope.

What built this country and made it great are none other than duct tape

and WD-40! Yes, duct tape, that mighty sticky, waterproof, silver-backed

tape. Originally a waterproof tape invented during WWII to keep ammunition

boxes dry, duct tape has unrolled itself and stuck to Americans like,

well, like the sticky tape that it is.

To be an expert with duct tape

and WD-40, you need only to remember the two simple rules my grandfather

passed down to my dad, who then passed down to me, and I've passed

down to The Boy. Rule number one: If it moves and it shouldn't, just

use duct tape.

Back in the day, the only color

duct tape came in was silver. This is not so anymore. The local hardware

store with the orange roof not only has silver duct tape, but also green,

orange, and black. Just in time for my new Halloween yard display! (Side

note: You know it's just six short weeks till you'll see giant,

inflatable yard spiders once again crawling around the county. Can't

wait till the Wife sees what I've got in store for the yard decorations

this year; but this article is about duct tape and WD-40. The scary Halloween

article will be creeping around soon.)

Duct tape is so popular that

now it even comes in designer colors like clear and pink! Wandering up

and down the aisles of our local book store/coffee shop the other day

while I was waiting for The Wife to get her Mocha-choka-latta-thingie,

I spotted a little round silver book. An entire book on duct tape - cool!

The two authors said that this was their fourth book on the subject. They

missed some of the uses of that famous silver tape, but have no fear faithful

reader, so you'll not be deprived - I've listed them below.

Pull off several pieces of

tape about three feet long and hang them down from the ceiling. When bugs

fly into them, they'll get stuck. At the end of the day, just dispose

of the fly-filled strips. If you hang strips outside, just think of how

many mosquitoes you could catch on just one roll. West Nile cured in one

afternoon by duct tape!

Duct tape can make a fashion

statement and make your clothes last longer. When your kids get holes

in their blue jeans, just do what my dad did and cover them up with duct

tape. Your kids will be on the cutting edge of fashion. To make those

shoes last longer when the soles wears out, don't throw them away;

just duct-tape them