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Duct Tape
Saturday, May 29, 2004
Listen
GK: .....and now, here with a word for Duct Tape, is newscaster Bob Edwards.
BE: This is Bob Edwards. For the past 25 years, as the host of NPR's Morning Edition, I had to go to bed in the late afternoon so I could go to work at 1 a.m. ------ so I never got to see Friends -----the TV show, that is ----- I missed 25 years of television ---- and the only movies I saw were at the Saturday matinee ---- mostly Tom Mix westerns (TV HORSE GALLOP, GUNFIRE) ----- now I've left Morning Edition to become a senior correspondent at NPR which means I'll be covering seniors (TR GEEZER: What'd you say?). I get to the office at 10 every morning, which means I can stay up late, go to dinner, attend theater (TR BRIT ACTOR OFF: Once more unto the breach my friends! SWORDPLAY), go to the opera (TR TENOR), and attend grown up movies (TR & SS MOVIE SIGHING, EROTIC). I'm like Rip Van Winkle, awakening from a deep sleep. Finally, I'm able to eat a real breakfast in the morning and listen to somebody read the news on the radio. (TR VOICE ON RADIO) And I can reach over and turn the radio off. Something you can't do when you're on the radio. (CLICK, TR STOPS) Silence. It's a whole new concept for me. I pour myself a cup of coffee (SFX, POURING) in the morning and I enjoy silence. Life is good. Normal life. (DRIPS. MORE DRIPPING) Until something goes wrong..
( DRIP CONTINUES.) And then I just reach for duct tape. Nine time out of ten, a short-term solution is good enough, and for anything that breaks or comes loose, one good strip of duct tape will hold it until you learn how to get along without it. (RIP OF DUCT TAPE, SLAP ON, DRIPS STOP) There. Duct Tape: it's almost the only thing that really works sometimes.
GK: ......a message from the American Duct Tape council. (DUCKS)

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