Mostly pluses and minuses: says Grandpa

Question

"You know, these little devils?" says Grandpa.

"Billions of them. Everywhere. Here, outside! Very useful..."

"...but their names get bad rap, you know", he sighed.

"They are mostly pluses and minuses. Well, some are stars, squares and polygons too. And, son, they always need help to enter. Without help, they cannot do their job."

I knew what he was talking about. Nothing microscopic.

Who are they? Who helps them?

@CodeCaster That rocked my world. I thought "bad rap" was for having bad rapport — Stian, Nov 14 '19 at 08:47

score 39 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 13 '19 at 13:07

39

I think Grandpa is talking about

Screws

And the shapes are

The different shapes of the cavity on a screw head (Philips head is a plus, flat head is a minus. These are the most common but there are more unusual ones too)

They are helped to gain entry by

Screwdrivers

answered Nov 13 '19 at 13:07

hexomino

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And I think the "bad rap" refers to rot13(trggvat fperjrq). – Egor Hans Mar 25 '20 at 10:05

Mostly pluses and minuses: says Grandpa

1 Answers1