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an important lesson about glue

December 8, 2005

I have just this minute realised that you should be careful with powerful liquid glue, because when you puncture the foil that keeps it in the tube it might respond to the sudden change in pressure by squirting out onto your hand, and if that should happen, it will have set before you can even reach the sink to run your hand under the tap (as if it was even going to be water-soluble anyway!) leaving the first joint of one finger and the tips of a couple of others coated with a plastic-y substance with the texture of concrete which you will then have to choose whether to spend the next few hours scraping off, or alternatively leaving for whatever almost certainly hellishly long time it takes to peel off naturally.

I have learnt also that there are compelling reasons not to buy the cheapest glue in the shop, and that it is tempting fate to say to a friend as you choose it from amongst the various available glues that you are buying the liquid one for the express purpose of seamlessly gluing your fingers together. Because you were not buying it for that purpose — you were buying it to repair the clip that snapped off your walkman.

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