Glue is a funny thing. It's absolutely familiar -- you do remember Elmer's, with Bessie the Cow on the bottle, from elementary school, right? -- and absolutely overlooked at the same time. Consider it for a minute and make your own list of what you'd use to fasten things together. I come up with zippers, nails, tacks, hook-and-eye door latches, bungee cords, twine, and rope. Where's glue?
Modern adhesives, which we genericize as "glue", are used by craftsmen and builders far more than most people realize. Glue is designed to dry both colorless and odorless, and to often be stronger than the material it's bonding. But unless the person applying the glue has been sloppy and has not cleaned up, we don't see it. It's just there, doing it's job, holding things together.
I've had my brief flirtation with fame. It's fun, for a while, to be recognized and to hear a touch of envy in others' voices. But it doesn't get anything done. I'm rather tired of the one account manager at work who calls me "the celebrity" every time she sees me. No, I prefer to be recognized, if at all, as the guy who gets the job, whatever it may be, done.
I used to frequent the rec.arts.sf.written, and I remember a regular there, one Mark Atwood, whose posting signature was "If you do things right, people will think you haven't done anything at all." I've lived with that, since I was an IT professional through the Y2K scare.
I'm a glue guy.
