Comments on: Spackle befuddlement

By: Ian J

Ian J — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:47:53 +0000

This is one of those bits of common sense advice which actually contains zero common sense. Hooray!

For instance, spackle can be had in a small yogurt container, albeit a heavily-built one. It costs less than $5. That small spackle container, used to fill nail holes and the like, will last for years if resealed, and there’s no more advanced clean-up involved than washing off your putty knife, or chipping it off, if you wait too long.

By: Joy

Joy — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:54:13 +0000

What Ben said. But it is an interesting example of what different people consider the mental category “normal things lying around the household” to contain.

By: Cam Sculpin

Cam Sculpin — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 07:22:21 +0000

Hm. Lisa, I think that may count as another point in favor of the DANGER! hypothesis.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 01:13:39 +0000

All I see is a half of a tennis ball with a tool stuck in it, full of wet spackle being tossed over the shoulder onto the living room carpet. Then the retriver gets up and grabs the ball, shaking it to get the tool out. The spackle must not taste good as the dog starts drooling and spits out the ball, again on the living room carpet. Now you have little puddles of spackle, dog drool, and blood from the finger you cut while trying to saw the tennis ball in half ground into the carpet that the dog is now rolling on.

By: naomi

naomi — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 22:56:28 +0000

I think the person was omitting crucial information about why the spackling was needed in the first place. Perhaps someone, in one’s brief fit of passion, slammed a door open too hard, a door that did not have a door stop that would prevent the knob from gouging the wall. And thus, a hole in the wall was made. This hole is what needed patching. And voila, my friends: One half of the tennis ball can be used for spackle, while the other half can be affixed to the wall to act as a protector.

By: Cam Sculpin

Cam Sculpin — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:30:56 +0000

DANGER!

Heh. Makes as much sense as anything.

By: cissa

cissa — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:44:28 +0000

But- using a yogurt cup would not involve DANGER! while cutting a tenis ball in half gives you the chance of cutting off fingers!

I think I’d use a cheapie sandwich bag, and grab a handful of spackle with my hand in it, and when done invert it over the spackle. But that too lacks DANGER!

By: surlyben

surlyben — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:00:17 +0000

First, I’d need to buy a tennis ball. Who has tennis balls just lying around? No one I know that doesn’t also have a dog. Is tennis even that big of a sport in Seattle? It was where I grew up, but it didn’t rain 250 days a year there…

By: Wim L

Wim L — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 17:48:10 +0000

Maybe the halved tennis ball is to be salvaged from one that’s already been torn apart by the retriever?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:52:53 +0000

This is similiar, in my mind, of a set tricks to get around a bad haircut, and at then end you realize they never say “Wear a hat”.