The comedy gods smiled upon me today.
One of our toilets started running and the plumber came this morning. He's been here before and is a pretty affable guy. He rooted around in the tank for a while, and seemed to have fixed the problem, but he kept standing there looking at it and shaking his head ruefully.
"Problem?" I asked.
"How long have you had this toilet?"
"Um, we've lived here 8 years—I have no idea how long it was here before that."
He sighed. "Do you have issues with it? Like, you know, stuff not going down?"
"Oh yeah, all the time."
"Well, technically, it's fixed, but I've gotta tell you—you've got an inadequate flapper."
Dear Reader, I lost it. Just cracked up. And if you know me, you know that I'm actually quite shy in real life and I don't joke around with people I don't know. But I couldn't help myself.
"Dude! I can't believe you just called my flapper inadequate. That's a hell of a thing to say to a lady. Didn't your momma raise you better?"
Now he's laughing, but trying to explain why this particular brand and model toilet sucks, and what we should get instead if we ever need to replace it, but all I can do is think about the phrase "inadequate flapper." Finally, he leaves and tells me to have a real nice day.
"I will! Well, you know, as much as I can with an inadequate flapper." I watch him laugh and shake his head at the strange lady as he walks back out to his truck.
I tell you all this just to warn you that this phrase may pop up again here and there.
"Dammit, my machine isn't working right." "Yeah, it's probably an inadequate flapper."
"When you're paper piecing, shorten your stitch length and make sure your flapper is nice and adequate."
"Did you hear about the 20s-era woman who couldn't make it as a party girl? She was just an inadequate flapper."
And, of course:
"Thanks for the unsolicited dick pic, dude, but it looks to me like you've got yourself an inadequate flapper there."
So, now you have been duly warned. And you'll know what the hell I'm talking about if it comes up again.
Which it will.
Oh, yes. It will.
