From some site called Answerbag:
The origin of jury rig is nautical and dates to 1788. It is from the nautical term jury mast. This term dates to at least 1616 and refers to a temporary mast erected to hold sail when the normal mast has been lost due to storm or battle. It is commonly thought that this sense of the word is a clipped form of injury mast, but no evidence of this longer term has been found. This form of jury is etymologically unrelated to the jury that sits in judgment at a trial.
I had to replace a strip of veneer that fell (or was pried, perhaps?) off the front of a desk.
I have tools. I have wood glue, and if that won't do the job I have duct tape.
I squished the glue on the veneer and placed the veneer on the desk and held it there and held it there. When I moved my hands to the center, the ends sagged. When I moved my hands to the ends, the center bowed out. When glue bubbled from the edge I swiped it with my finger and wiped it on my leg, the only readily accessible washable surface.
I don't have the attention span to stand in the same place for hours holding a piece of veneer until the glue dries.
I don't have clamps wide enough for a desk. I doubt clamps of that width even exist.
Trying to hold on the veneer with strategically placed bungee cords seemed to have calamity written all over it.
Fortunately, we are a family that reads.
After turning the desk on its back and replacing the veneer, I painstakingly balanced approximately twenty dictionaries and coffee table books on the edge and tiptoed out of the room. By the next morning the veneer was firmly fixed to the front of the desk.
But I added a few nails, just in case.
