On Jul 27, 10:33 pm, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:
"Shaun Eli" wrote in message
Anyway, I stopped believing in trusting advice given in mom & pop
hardware stores. The first time the clerk told me, when I was buying
lamp cord, which color was for positive and which for negative... it
took me ten minutes to explain alternating current to him.

Uh, take a good look at some of your cords; note the subtle difference.
Take a look at the plugs for polarity. If you don't see the differences,
go to a good hardware store and ask the guy about it.

I know the difference between hot, neutral and ground, and about
polarized plugs.

I also know that positive and negative don't apply to alternating
current (or apply to it differently around 120 times each second). So
when he said that one was positive and the other was negative, and
that "This cord will give you a good current" I knew to shop
elsewhere.

Sure, the guy in the plumbing department of Home Depot may not know
about plumbing (although my last trip to the plumbing aisle of HD
revealed an employee who's a plumber working at HD on one of his days
off), but at least they're trying to specialize. I can't expect even
the most experienced hardware store guy to be an expert in plumbing,
painting, electrical, roofing...