Living with the Clapper

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:28:13 -0800

And please note, I mean the Clapper not the Clap.

Drake and I have a sort of on-going joke about the Clapper, the device that lets you turn lights on or off by clapping your hands. I don't know why we found this product so funny, but we did. And every Christmas, there was some joke about getting a Clapper. This year, it was no joke. I bought Drake a Clapper.

Clapper

The reason is that this year he actually mentioned he thought a Clapper might be handy. We recently re-arranged some lighting; the main light in our living room is behind the couch - and it's a bit hard to reach the switch. So I zipped out to our neighborhood drug store (which I noticed had a large display of Clappers this holiday season--I suspect people use them for Christmas lights), bought a Clapper, wrapped it up, and put it under the tree. The hint on the package was "this present is sure to generate some applause." I thought the hint was a dead give-away, but Drake thought it must be concert tickets.

Back to the idea of applause. Little did I know how much applause (i.e. clapping) the Clapper would entail. First, it took me quite a bit of trying to clap in a way that the Clapper recognized it. The trick (for me at least) is to cup you hands slightly when you clap, to get a deeper-toned clap.

So that evening we are sitting on the couch, with the light on, listening to some music (Drake was also reading; I was knitting). The light suddenly goes off for no apparent reason. *Clap* *Clap* I turn it back on again. Several minutes go by, and the light goes off again. *Clap* *Clap* I turn it back on again. We figured there was something in the music that was triggering it.

The next day, I notice that the light has turned itself on (with nice south-facing glass doors there is no need for us to use the light during the day). *Clap* *Clap* I turn it off.

Well, you can see the pattern here. Life with the Clapper involves a lot of clapping. There is a setting to make it less sensitive to sounds, so maybe we'll try that, but I had enough trouble getting my clapping to work on the normal setting.

So we may return the Clapper. For some reason I'm slightly embarrassed to return the Clapper saying it doesn't really work. I mean, this is a product that was displayed right next to the Chia Pets. Shouldn't that have set my expectations accordingly? Probably.

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Living with the Clapper