clack

Citation on termagant.

New desolate sounds of [...] cables slapped clacking against tin masts of yachts in deserted lidos.

- Peter Reading, C, 1984

To 'clack' wool, to cut off the sheep's mark.
{John Kersey, New English Dictionary, 1772}

I get you c_b.

I just checked applicator. It's hopeless. ;-)

You could always ask WeirdNet what an applicator is. Though after seeing scarf, I'm not sure that's the best option...

You heard it here first, on clack. :-D

Hehe, great story. And there you have it, the birth of the automotive tampon industry documented on Wordie.
P.S. I'll go ask someone else what an applicator is.

Well, the people who call in do get made fun of, but they also get useful car advice. And it isn't always of a mechanical nature. :)

Years ago I had a car with a cracked headlight casing, and it would fill up with water--condensation, rain, whatever. I still think this was partly a design issue and not just a crack, because I'd see, in parking lots, cars of the same make and model with the same problem.

Well, I couldn't afford to replace the housing, but of course when the water got high enough it would short out the bulb. And after the third or fourth new bulb, this was getting expensive. All I needed was a way to get the water out, but the only way in was the hole where the bulb would be installed. Finally my sister, who was visiting, hit upon a solution to get the water out. We used tampons, removed from their applicators, to absorb the water, and then pulled them out. Worked like a charm.

When I explained this to my dad, he said "What's an applicator?" and I laughed myself silly.

Then I told my brother the whole story: "... and then Dad said, 'What's an applicator?' Isn't that hilarious?!" My brother said... "What's an applicator?"

The point of this comment--and I do have one--is that I tried to call Car Talk (this is the radio show of the aforementioned car mechanics, bilby) and tell them about this, thinking it would help out the other owners with the same make and model and the same water-in-the-headlight problem. But I was never able to get through on the phone.

Now nobody drives that kind of car anymore, so it's kind of moot, but hey! I got to tell this long stupid car story on Wordie instead! Yay!

Oooh, now I get it! Thanks jenn! If I may return the compliment, Zig and Zag were a famous Australian clown duo. And Australia is not the kind of place that produces many famous clowns :-(

Sorry bilby, that was an American reference. Click and Clack are two car mechanics who have a humorous radio show where people call in with car problems and end up getting made fun of. I know that I've seen a few Car Talk lists on this site....

Wait. I thought frick and frack were the brothers?

Next you'll be telling me that zig and zag are different coloured stripes on the same zebra ;-)

Click has always been the more personable of the two. (Incidentally, they're actually brothers.)

Ooh. I got all dizzy reading that.

It's a bit lop-sided that click has been listed 25 times yet poor cousin clack only 5.
Whatever happened to that old song that went
with a clack-click paddywick
give a dog a stick
?