Duct tape time machine hack

[Buzz McCool]

My barbecue grill cover was starting to fall apart at the corners due to
the intense sunlight in my part of the world making the fabric become
increasing friable and easy to tear at the areas of most contact with
the grill. The obvious solution was to use some duct tape on those
corners and eek out another season with the existing cover as it was
mostly OK. Well I bought a new roll of duct tape (famous well known
quack quack brand) and taped the ripped portions of the fabric together
from the inside to make sure it had a good surface to adhere to. Well it
didn't work. The next time I used the cover, the tape fell off. This is
not supposed to happen with duct tape!

Obhack:
Instead of using 21st century duct tape, I fixed the problem with 20th
century duct tape. I've kept a roll of duct tape in my car for emergency
repairs since I've been driving and never remember it becoming unstuck.
I grabbed the duct tape out of the time machine (car trunk/boot) and
examined it closely. It was from the same famous well known brand except
slightly larger in width (2 inches wide instead of 1.88 inches). The big
difference was the adhesive. The 21st century tape has a well behaved
clear adhesive on its backing; the 20th century version has a dark
mustard colored rather viscous adhesive that seemed to be aggressively
oozing from the roll's edges, desperate to stick to anything after its
long sojourn in captivity.

Buzz