#1216 – Measured
Posted on February 8, 2011 at 12:00 am by Chris
Chapter: Comics
My dad was an electrician so he had a couple very large heavy duty tape measures in his toolbox. At least that’s where they were supposed to be if the dang kids would leave his stuff alone. I liked to see how far I could extend it before gravity took hold and caused it to come crashing to the ground. We also liked to pull the tape out as far as it would go, lay the whole thing down on its side and then hit the retract switch. It was fun to watch that thing spin when the end of the tape hit.
Tags: tools
Tape Measures: Lengthy invention or a Measure of hell?
I did the same thing (pull it out to the full length and hit the retract switch), but with a vacuum cleaner’s cord. If I used a tape measure, it usually ended up hitting me which ended in crying (hey, I was five).
~Gwid
Perspective, like gravity, does weigh heavily.
Depending, that is.
Nooooo! Never do that, no matter how much fun it is… you’ll mess up the tape measure!
I used to do the same when I was a kid. I was always worried about losing an arm or hand to it on super fast retract
Don’t be such a baby, Biff. You lose arms, like, eight times a day.
What I read in the comments there: “My dad was an electrician…this is why I know it’s called a retract switch”
It’s all fun and games until somebody loses a limb. Then it’s a reality show.
We had both kinds of tape measure. The 25′ with retract switch and the 100′ one with manual retract. You can guess which one was more fun.
I used to have a blast with those.
Baughbe,
“It’s all fun and games until somebody loses a limb. Then it’s a reality show.”
LOL! Sig worthy!
You need two of them; then you can have races.
Yeah I have to be one of those people too 😛
You’ll wreck the accuracy of the measuring tape!
Somewhere on Biff’s body is a secret button. If someone were to find and push it, his eyebrows would retract like that tape measure.
DON’T be standing nearby when that happens! 😮
i retract tape measures like that too but i wrap the metal around the tape measures body then let it go or pull it all out then make a weird triangle web thing then the tape measure turns into a laser grid when it retracts
I guess everyone liked the measure tape!
PS: http://xkcd.com/284/
hit it and run!
Tape measures are surprisingly strong, I’ve seen a 120+ pound robot suspended from a tape measure.
Heh. When I worked as a stage hand, my co-workers and I would occasionally pull out tape measures, point them straight up and see who could extend one the longest before it collapsed under its own weight. …with plenty of penile references and juvenile humor, of course.
…indeed.
We used to pull them out only a few inches, and click the ‘lock’ button, then use them like walkie-talkies.
We had real walkie-talkies, but it was more fun to use fake ones!