# I'm hiding my expensive purchases from my husband - tee hee!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 2, 2006, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120 "2006-06-02T07:36:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2006, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/101 "2006-06-03T11:57:53Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] So we each, from our different perspectives, agree this commercial should be beaten to a bloody pulp with a shovel and then incinerated? I’ll fetch the shovel. You bring the kerosene and matches. [/QUOTE] Excellent. Then the next stop will be bombarding the Jared radio spots where the woman stupidily says, " I don’t know anything about wrenchs, so I would go to a wrench expert. …blah blah blah…Honey, just go to Jared’s." They should all die in a fire. Oh, and to amuse you all. For my birthday a couple of years ago, during a material-non practical phase ( which lasted about one month in my entire life.) I decided I needed a right hand ring Fuck you, DeBeers. Fuck you in a hard way! After looking for a long time I realized I loved [this ring](http://www.orleansjewels.com/righthandrings.html) (top left) and it met all my standards ( American Made. No cartel on the stone - it’s fake. No near slave labor involved. Suck it DeBeers!) I printed out the picture with the webaddress and price and said, " This exact one. Go to this address and buy it for me." ( In the past I’ve received a rototiller, uggage, a hockey stick. All well received, but I wanted something girly, dammit.) He went to Jerrods. Picked out something that was nothing like the ring shown. Before I opened the box I knew it was not going to be what I had asked for. ( It was yellow gold and regular set diamonds. I wanted bezel set and white gold.) So, I returned it the next day for a refund and the sales lady chuckled. She knew I would be coming back. Oh, and the ring cost about $300 more than what I had picked out. My husband pouted about it for a good week and tried to make me feel guilty about actually having the nerve to not like what he picked out and returning it. As opposed to me wearing a ring that I didn’t like the style, the color or the price out of sheer guilt for the rest of my life because I shouldn’t hurt his feelings. But it is ok for my feelings to be hurt that he didn’t get what was cheaper and exactly what I wanted. Offsetting Penalties. No loss of yards. Game Resumes. Marriage: It’s not about love. It’s a competition. ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2006, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/102 "2006-06-03T12:22:28Z")
> [@](#): > > **matt\_mcl** said: > Just for the sake of rigour, how is this misandrist? The wife is the one putting one over on the husband. ‘He doesn’t need to know where huge chunks of the family assets are going because he’s a man and men don’t deserve to be treated as fully informed equals.’ That’s the message I get. > [@](#): > > **5que** said: > [Ron White] Diamonds. That’ll shut her up. [/Ron White] [Ron White]For a while.[/Ron White] > [@](#): > > **jsgoddess** said: > Oh, and why does everyone seem to be assuming that she’s spending his money, that she’s an irresponsible spender, and that he actually has any right to know what she bought? Because when I spend my own money, even a shitload of it, I do so with the guilt free feeling that I don’t need to hide the packages. > [@](#): > > **jsgoddess** said: > 4. The man was surprised she didn’t seem to have anything because he knew she was going shopping. > 5. She was amused. Because he’s too stupid to know that a van the family owns has all these compartments? (I will be only sporadically here since my mum broke her leg and I gotta go prevent my dad from taking care of her until she kills him. He’s seriously up her ass right now, and she’s taking out all her pain on him.) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2006, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/103 "2006-06-03T13:23:16Z")
You do realize this didn’t really happen, don’t you **jsgoddess**? It’s a commercial meant to convey the the dated sterotypical roles that most here infer from it. Most Dopers, however, are not the demographic targeted and are thus offended. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/104 "2006-06-03T17:48:46Z")
[QUOTE=Shirley Ujest] For my birthday a couple of years ago, during a material-non practical phase ( which lasted about one month in my entire life.) I decided I needed a right hand ring Fuck you, DeBeers. Fuck you in a hard way! After looking for a long time I realized I loved [this ring](http://www.orleansjewels.com/righthandrings.html) (top left) and it met all my standards ( American Made. No cartel on the stone - it’s fake. No near slave labor involved. Suck it DeBeers!) I printed out the picture with the webaddress and price and said, " This exact one. Go to this address and buy it for me." ( In the past I’ve received a rototiller, uggage, a hockey stick. All well received, but I wanted something girly, dammit.) He went to Jerrods. Picked out something that was nothing like the ring shown. Before I opened the box I knew it was not going to be what I had asked for. ( It was yellow gold and regular set diamonds. I wanted bezel set and white gold.) So, I returned it the next day for a refund and the sales lady chuckled. She knew I would be coming back. Oh, and the ring cost about $300 more than what I had picked out. My husband pouted about it for a good week and tried to make me feel guilty about actually having the nerve to not like what he picked out and returning it. As opposed to me wearing a ring that I didn’t like the style, the color or the price out of sheer guilt for the rest of my life because I shouldn’t hurt his feelings. But it is ok for my feelings to be hurt that he didn’t get what was cheaper and exactly what I wanted. Offsetting Penalties. No loss of yards. Game Resumes. Marriage: It’s not about love. It’s a competition. [/QUOTE] I have to ask – did your husband ever come to understand what the issue was? And did you ever learn why he got you something different than what you’d asked for? Was he trying to make it so that there was still an element of surprise for you? Just curious. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/105 "2006-06-03T17:49:50Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] It’s true though (at least it’s true of me) that a male reluctance to shop does not include a reluctance to _tool_ shop. Whenever I drop into my local DIY store (most recently, for some pipe lagging and duck tape for the kids to make light-sabres out of, ISYN) it takes an act of willpower for me not to pick up something new, shiny and potentially useful every once in a while. (Well, I did buy a new set of drill bits. But the old ones were really cruddy.) [/QUOTE] I’m not a DIY guy at all, but that’s _precisely_ how I act in a Best Buy or any electronics store. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/106 "2006-06-04T05:11:08Z")
[QUOTE=Asimovian] I’d forgotten about this commercial – I found it offensive to both sexes. The wife, being portrayed as so naive as to not know that her husband is a completely selfish jackass, and the husband being cruel enough to tie the “female bad driver” stereotype to her, as well as being so selfish as to find his desire of a new tool to be more important than humiliating his wife. [/QUOTE] That commercial I have seen. And all you said, plus the husband trashed a good set of tools to waste money on a new set, no doubt running up a credit card bill like a good American should. And I still don’t think the husband in the original ad is an idiot. Maybe he does know about the compartments, but doesn’t think that his wife is pulling a fast one. I bet they have a kid who doesn’t look like him either. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/107 "2006-06-04T21:29:40Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] Whenever I drop into my local DIY store (most recently, for some pipe lagging and **duck** tape for the kids to make light-sabres out of, ISYN) it takes an act of willpower for me not to pick up something new, shiny and potentially useful every once in a while. [/QUOTE] bolding mine Sweet. A gay guy gets to punch your man card for calling **Duct** tape a waterfowl. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/108 "2006-06-04T21:45:14Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] I bet they have a kid who doesn’t look like him either. 😃 [/QUOTE] Damn recessive genes. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![slumtrimpet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@slumtrimpet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slumtrimpet)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/109 "2006-06-04T22:42:30Z")
Oh dear…and a woman gets to correct a gay guy about a guy thing > **[Duct Tape, Packaging Tape, Moving, Shipping](https://www.duckbrand.com/)** > > Homepage ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/110 "2006-06-04T22:55:28Z")
[QUOTE=slumtrimpet] Oh dear…and a woman gets to correct a gay guy about a guy thing > **[Duct Tape, Packaging Tape, Moving, Shipping](https://www.duckbrand.com/)** > > Homepage [/QUOTE] Sorry, no. That would have a _capital_D\*, not lowercase. Plus Duck Brand duct tape is a North American product and **Malacandra** is in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/111 "2006-06-04T23:14:50Z")
[QUOTE=Biggirl] My “great and biting reply” was for everyone here who assumed she was stealing from her husband because she giggled and didn’t immediately offer her bags for inspection. Especially for those who assume she’s a liar and a thief and would rip their wives earrings off if she tried a stunt like that. [/QUOTE] The ripping off the wife’s earrings crack was made in response to a commercial for Jared jewelers where the wife was apparently all fine and dandy about her jewelry present from her husband until she hears her friends gushing about their lovely men and how they went to Jared, upon which she gets pissed off and drops her new present into his drink. If I were married to such an ungrateful bitch (though I happen to be female) I’d temporarily consider violence as well. ---
**Author:** ![Mandarax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Mandarax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mandarax)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/112 "2006-06-05T03:31:18Z")
[QUOTE=Homebrew] Sorry, no. That would have a _capital_D, not lowercase. Plus Duck Brand duct tape is a North American product and **Malacandra** is in the UK. [/QUOTE] Not according to [the Duck/Duct Tape Guys](http://www.octanecreative.com/ducttape/duckvsduct.html): > [@](#): > > Is it Duc **t** or Duc **k**? We don’t want you to be confused, so we will explain. The first name for Duct Tape was DUCK. During World War II the U.S. Military needed a waterproof tape to keep the moisture out of ammunition cases. So, they enlisted the Johnson and Johnson Permacel Division to manufacture the tape. Because it was waterproof, everyone referred to it as “duck” tape (like water off a duck’s back). ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/113 "2006-06-05T04:03:20Z")
You know, I’ve always thought it was called Duct Tape because of it’s uses in electrical and air conditioning ducts. And in the UK, it’s also known as “[Gaffer Tape](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaffer_Tape)”, presumably from electricians etc as well… ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/114 "2006-06-05T04:35:54Z")
Being a humor website, I’d take their claims with a grain of salt. That sounds like a folk etomolgy to me. Although I can’t find where Cecil has addressed the issue, [url=“[Duct Tape vs Duck Tape: The True Origin Story](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-duc4.htm)”]Michael Quinion, writer who writes and edits the website World Wide Words and provids citations and advice for the Oxford English Dictionary, has studied the topic. > [@](#): > > Apart from a one-off instance in the Oxford English Dictionary of duck tape from 1971 (which looks like a case of the duct—duck elision), I can’t find duck tape in the adhesive sense until the 1980s. > > My view is that the original name was duct tape, given informally to it by heating engineers post-war, and that the duck tape version is elision in rapid speech, later capitalised on by a manufacturer. But, as things stand, nobody knows for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/115 "2006-06-05T04:37:44Z")
Or folk etymology. Jeez PREVIEW dummy. And close the URL tag, too. [link](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-duc4.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Mandarax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Mandarax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mandarax)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/116 "2006-06-05T05:11:33Z")
[QUOTE=Homebrew] Or folk etymology. … [link](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-duc4.htm) [/QUOTE] Interestingly, your link says this: > [@Michael Quinion](#): > > There’s nothing in any records of usage in historic databases or in the entries for both terms in the Oxford English Dictionary that suggests what the original name of the adhesive-backed material might have been. From here on I can do no more than relay and comment on accounts that have appeared on various Web pages and in a column by William Safire in the New York Times in March 2003. The [March 2003 article by William Safire](http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/magazine/02ONLANGUAGE.html?ex=1149652800&en=157c7ab5b2892b71&ei=5070) (registration required) says > [@William Safire](#): > > Most people believe that the waterproof adhesive product is properly called duct tape for two reasons. First, [t]he wide waterproof tape is used to patch, or to hold together sections of, these conductors of cooled or heated air… Pursuant to this theory, the second reason that some speakers spell it duck tape is that the ending of duct and the beginning of tape elide and sound more like a k than a t. > > People entranced with the logic of the preceding two paragraphs are mistaken. The original name of the cloth-backed, waterproof adhesive product was duck tape, developed for the United States Army by the Permacel division of Johnson & Johnson to keep moisture out of ammunition cases. The earliest civilian use I can find is in an advertisement by Gimbels department store in June 1942 (antedating the O.E.D. entry by three decades – nobody but nobody beats this column)… By the way, has anyone here seen the commercial for that new minivan? Wow, that thing has lots of little hidden places to store your duck tape! ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/117 "2006-06-05T08:20:12Z")
[QUOTE=Homebrew] bolding mine Sweet. A gay guy gets to punch your man card for calling **Duct** tape a waterfowl. [/QUOTE] Get your gay cooties off my man card, **Homebrew**! 😛 _wanders off resolving not to try to speak American again_ ---
**Author:** ![slumtrimpet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@slumtrimpet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slumtrimpet)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/118 "2006-06-05T08:35:13Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] Get your gay cooties off my man card, **Homebrew**! 😛 _wanders off resolving not to try to speak American again_ [/QUOTE] Yah, no kidding :smack: (or in my case, make a lighthearted quip in the pit) (now explain “gaffer” tape to those of us who are still trying to learn proper English … please?) ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/119 "2006-06-05T09:17:13Z")
[QUOTE=slumtrimpet] Yah, no kidding :smack: (or in my case, make a lighthearted quip in the pit) (now explain “gaffer” tape to those of us who are still trying to learn proper English … please?) [/QUOTE] Why, certainly. Gaffer tape is duck tape or duct tape, call it what you will - strong cloth-based adhesive tape that is somewhat water-repellent. Why “gaffer”? I’ve not the least idea. Normally “gaffer” means “boss”, “foreman”, “man in charge” and should not under any circumstances be used by a white man in the hearing of a black in Africa lest it be mistaken for an _extremely_ insulting term. ---
**Author:** ![slumtrimpet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@slumtrimpet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slumtrimpet)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2006, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120/120 "2006-06-05T11:12:38Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] Why, certainly. Gaffer tape is duck tape or duct tape, call it what you will - strong cloth-based adhesive tape that is somewhat water-repellent. Why “gaffer”? I’ve not the least idea. Normally “gaffer” means “boss”, “foreman”, “man in charge” and should not under any circumstances be used by a white man in the hearing of a black in Africa lest it be mistaken for an _extremely_ insulting term. [/QUOTE] Yep, just as I thought - makes no sense to me. 😉 Just for the heck of it I had a look around to see if I could find anything on “gaffer” besides your definition. Nothing [here](http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml) and [this place](http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary/dictionary/dictionary.php) confirms you. Fortunately (for us ex-pats) “American” has infiltrated enough that if I were to ask for duct/duck tape at B&Q I might be understood chances are I wouldn’t understand the reply though…sigh [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-hiding-my-expensive-purchases-from-my-husband-tee-hee/359120.md?page=7)