google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, March 24, 2015 John R. O'Brien

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Mar 24, 2015

Tuesday, March 24, 2015 John R. O'Brien

Theme: Masquerade - All set for the masquerade ball.

17A. *One harvesting honey : BEEKEEPER

25A. *One planning a job : BANK ROBBER

40A. *One calling strikes : HOME PLATE UMPIRE

50A. *One working at a low level : SCUBA DIVER

64A. Lone Ranger epithet, or what each answer to a starred clue often is : MASKED MAN

Argyle unmasked. A definite chuckle when I got the unifier. And some other chuckles in there too but your results might vary. It's been a little over a year since John's last visit, I hope the next one is sooner.

Across:

1. Mythical bird : ROC. Off to a roc[k]y start.

4. Spanish hero played by Heston : EL CID

9. Bush successor : OBAMA

14. Oktoberfest gripe : "ACH!"

15. Protest sign word : PEACE

16. Purple Heart, e.g. : MEDAL

19. Freezing cold : GELID

20. Count in music : BASIE. (Count Basie)

21. Nothing, in Normandy : RIEN

23. Floor cleaner scent : PINE

24. MIT part: Abbr. : INST. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

27. Words before grip or life : GET A

29. Pub offering : ALE

30. Mom-and-pop org. : PTA. (parent-teacher association) I was leaning towards IGA.

32. Havens : OASES

36. Exorcism target : DEMON

43. Cara or Castle : IRENE. Irene Cara sang about dancing ("Flashdance") and Irene Castle did it with hubby, Vernon.

44. Pursue : CHASE

45. Pop : DAD Father figure.

46. Westminster show org. : AKC. (American Kennel Club)


Miss P, Westminster's 2015 Best in Show Winner
48. Wraps up : ENDS

56. Dench of "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" : JUDI. Fabulous.

59. Biceps exercise : CURL

60. Genesis brother : CAIN

61. Surround : HEM IN

62. Bird that lays blue eggs : ROBIN. They're back.

66. Muscat resident : OMANI

67. Not as happy : BLUER

68. Yale Bowl rooter : ELI

69. Class-ending sounds : DONGs

70. River to the Rhone : ISERE

71. Fish eggs : ROE

Down:

1. Synagogue official : RABBI

2. It has a floor but no ceiling : OCEAN. Might have some scuba divers.

3. Competition with knights : CHESS GAME

4. Olympian's blade : EPEE

5. Novelist Harper : LEE. Harper Lee has been in the news recently.

6. "It's a Wonderful Life" director : CAPRA. Frank Capra

7. Strand during a blizzard, say : ICE IN

8. Yankee shortstop Jeter : DEREK

9. Online "Wow!" : "OMG!". (Oh My G**)

10. "Hey, the light is green!" : [BEEP!BEEP!]

11. Wing it at the lectern : AD LIB

12. Augusta's home : MAINE. Every golfer knows it's Augusta, Georgia. The Masters will be held there April 9–12.

13. Birch family tree : ALDER

18. Flier usually shorter than its tail : KITE. Old punch line, "She said go fly a kite."

22. Gun lobby gp. : NRA. (National Rifle Association)

25. False idol : BAAL

26. "Grumpy" movie heroes : OLD MEN. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.(1993) sequel "Grumpier Old Men" (1995) But Burgess Meredith upstaged them both.



28. Sunflower State capital : TOPEKA, Kansas.

30. __ Beta Kappa : PHI

31. A.L. East team : TOR. (Toronto Blue Jays) Big CSO to CanadianEh!

33. Cul-de-__ : SAC

34. Biblical suffix : ETH

35. 50-Across milieu : SEA. The scuba diver.

37. Season in a Shakespeare title : MIDSUMMER. (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

38. "Chopsticks __ fork?" : OR A

39. "Game of Thrones" patriarch Stark : NED. No idea. Anyone?

41. Making possible : ENABLING

42. __-friendly : USER

47. Epidemic-fighting agcy. : CDC. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

49. Kept the party hopping, briefly : DJed. What will they be called when all the music has gone digital?

50. Cape Cod catch : SCROD

51. New York governor Andrew : CUOMO

52. Like city folk : URBAN

53. Poetic feet : IAMBI

54. Lab containers : VIALS

55. Follow : ENSUE

57. Way to get info, on retro phones : DIAL 'O'

58. Kind of navel : INNIE

61. "Present!" : "HERE!"

63. Grafton's "__ for Noose" : N IS. Go to this site for the list.

65. Lead-in for plunk or flooey : KER. There, another kerfuffle done.


Argyle

Notes from C.C.:

1) Welcome back, real PK. You had us worried. Belated "Happy Birthday!".

2) Happy Birthday to Ray (Rainman)! So glad you can play tennis again soon after the operation. Any special plan today?

66 comments:

Rainman said...

Thanks, C.C. And why did I ever give you that photo.... ACH. It's good of Linda, though. No, no special plans... tennis in the morning. Lunch with some old friends in a private room at Urricchio's, a special restaurant here.

Today's Tuesday offering by John R. O'Brien might have been even easier than Monday's. I didn't have to get the theme to finish and not sure if it would have helped anyway. Some mild misdirection ('Count in music' was clever = BASIE) here and there.

Some might be able to finish this one without the Downs... I almost did. The IAMBI/ISERE crossing held me back until my little brain clicked in.

Hope the rest of our day goes as well. Thanxagain.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all (and welcome back to PK and Happy Birthday to Rainman)!

I appreciated the theme on today's offering, but not much else about the puzzle I'm afraid. Nothing horrible, but stuff like DIALO, ORA, KER and BEEPBEEP didn't really ring my bell today.

And speaking of ringing my bell,
DONGS? Bad enough on its own, but clued as "Class-ending sounds"? Maybe it's a lack of imagination on my part, but I can only imagine DONG as the second half of a doorbell chime. Well, there is another thing I can imagine it being, but this is a family-friendly blog so I'll let that one slide...

Barry G. said...

Oh -- and to answer Rainman's comment from yesterday, Moot Court was actually a competition. You could even try out for the Moot Court team and travel to other schools to compete, sort of like debate team in high school.

Rainman said...

Barry, I like your new photo avatar... you're looking happy. Very nice.

Lemonade714 said...

HBDTY Rainman, welcome back PK nice avatars BG and nice puzzle Mr. O'Brien and another Argyle special.

Liked seeing BEEP BEEP and MIDSUMMER and the reminder of the recent dog show.

Time to GET A move on.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

What Argyle said. Today's puzzle was good for a smile. I did have a brain glitch at Roc, which I filled as Orc first. It didn't last long.

Welcome back, PK! I enjoy your posts. Happy Birthday Rainman, and many more.

Husker from yesterday - that lioness & cubs video was so endearing, it led to a lot more time on YouTube...who knew there were so many videos of cute little lions?

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Much easier than yesterday. Only write-over was changing IAMBS to IAMBI. Never got the theme until the reveal. And without further delay, here's a tribute to 10D.

PK, good to see you back. I thought you'd either joined the Peace Corps or gone into witness protection. Good to hear it was only a sick computer.

HBD, Rainman, hope it doesn't rain on your party.

Dudley, from yesterday, here's one vote in favor of Firefly. Too bad, it had such a short run. Fun stuff!

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Argyle and friends. Fun puzzle. I immediately got the BEE KEEPER, and finding the other MASKED MeN wasn't hard.

I learned of the ROC from doing the puzzles, but NED Stark was a guess.

I toyed with the IGA/PTA issue for the Mom and Pop, org., but let the perps give me the first letter.

The Genesis Brother also had to wait for a letter so I could determine if we were looking for Abel, CAIN, Esau, or Seth, to name just a few 4-letter Genesis brothers.

JUDI Dench was also good in the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

I once worked for a very absent-minded professor. He has a conference in Augusta, Georgia, but his secretary booked a flight to Augusta, MAINE. He didn't catch the mistake until after he got off the plane.

Happy Birthday, Rainman. Hope you have a special day.

PK ~ Soooo glad to have you back. I was getting worried, since we hadn't heard from you in so long.

Anonymous T from last night: Shaquille O'Neal is actual an LSU graduate. He left after 3 years to join the NBA, but later returned and completed his degree.

QOD: If you cannot learn to love real art, at least learn to hate sham art and reject it. ~ William Morris (Mar. 24, 1834 ~ Oct. 3, 1896)

Barry G. said...

Glad you like the "new" avatar, Ray! I thought of keeping my old avatar as a memorial to my cat, Hobbes, but I found myself getting weepy whenever I looked at it...

CrossEyedDave said...

Hmm, the theme has funny link potential (unlike yesterday) but I have to go WBS (re:Dongs.)

I must be getting old, the last empty box was the crossing of iambi/isere. I WAGed an A simply because I was too tired to bother with the other 25 letters on this Natick...

I would go looking for Birthday Cakes, but I have to wait. I am REALLY starting to hate this McAfee Antivirus Software! Right now the (ding) DANG (dong) thingie is locked in a scan that I cannot shut off, or change the start time! The hard drive is clacking away like a steam locomotive!

( Actually it sounds more like a Lionel Electric Toy Train )

Hmm, if it starts smoking, I'm gonna really worry!

(I'll be back after I get a new antivirus...)

inanehiker said...

Happy Birthday to Rainman and welcome back to PK

Speed run - even without getting the reveal without the clue. At first I thought all the answers were going to have 4 e's.
I always have trouble remembering whether it is MIDSUMMER night's dream or MIDSUMMER's night dream when I play Shakespeare quizzes on Sporcle.com.
Spring has arrived here-- hope it will stay. Happy Tuesday!

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning,
Yesterday's 4 inches of you-know-what should melt today and tomorrow.

I ran amok in the NW corner, pretty sure tempo was correct for BASIE. Love that one. Initially, I had rok for ROC which really set me afar from CHESS.

John, I liked the theme--especially strike caller since I was thinking of someone to go along with the protest signs. Thank you.

Thanks, Argyle. Happy Birthday, Rainman! Welcome back PK. Nice avatar, Barry. You look as though you've been an energetic early riser for a long time.

We've passed Meteorological and Astronomical Spring. The robins are here, and all that's left to make it official is baseball, which looks to be another SNAFU in Chicago; no Wrigley bleachers, the least of it.

Holding out for daffodils. ;-)

Tinbeni said...

Argyle: That "Words of Wisdom" link had me LMAOROTF!

Happy Birthday Rainman!

John R. O'Brien: Thank you for a FUN Tuesday puzzle with a great theme.

Geez, this "should-have" been a DNF due to my aversion to a certain 3-letter word I NEVER type in ... but then I read the write-up and saw the "perps" took care of 7-d. OMG!

Fave was the clue/answer for DIAL-O though "BEEP-BEEP" was a close second.

A "Toast-to-ALL" at Sunset.
Cheers!

kazie said...

Nice CW today, with no problems.

HBTY, Rainman! And good to see that PK is back too.

I can relate to the DONG as a class ending sound. When we moved from the old high school building here where classes ended with a continuous ringing shrill screech, the new comparatively gentle donging gong was much more subtle and calming to the nerves.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a fun, easy romp. Thanks, Mr. O'Brien, and thanks, Argyle.

Happy Birthday to Rainman and a Belated Happy Birthday to PK. Hope your special day was/is special!

I just bought a new printer thinking (foolishly!) that I just had to take it out of the box, hook-up some wires and plug it in, and Presto! Wrong, wrong, wrong. It has to be assembled and, judging by the headache-inducing Instruction Manual, not by me. ACK!

Have a great day.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Happy Birthday, Rainman, and belatedly to PK.

Easy solve today. Moved frontally from NW to SE so, naturally, got to MASKED MAN, the unifier, near the end. Sigh. I liked the mix of fill, and the range of masks in the theme words. No searches or strikethroughs today.
32a Havens - Haven in Low German is spelled exactly the same but pronounced with a short a sound like in Ha Ha. It means 'port' (which would be a haven.) Think Bremerhaven or Cuxhaven, major North Sea ports.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

HBD, Ray.

Welcome back, PK.

Great theme. I didn't get it until the reveal. Nice grid layout, and the long downs are terrific.

The Count in Music.

A sadder BEEP BEEP.

Cool regards!
JzB

CanadianEh! said...

Faster time than yesterday to finish. Thanks John & Argyle for the fun.

HBD to Rainman and welcome back to PK.

Hand up for IGA before PTA. I went through Bells, Rings and Dings before I got DONGS!
VIALS in the lab today, not PETRI.

Hopefully the ROBINS that I hear (but haven't seen yet) indicate that our ICIER, GELID winter is finally over.

Who has seen the new Marigold Hotel? Recommendations??

We chose the Fork over the Chopsticks when we ate at the Japanese restaurant in Punta Cana. Otherwise, we might still be there trying to pick up the rice!

Yes, I smiled as I filled in TOR. Perhaps our Blue Jays will do better than our Maple Leafs and give local fans something to cheer about!

Have a great day.

Dudley said...

D Otto 6:44 - so true, Firefly had a lot of potential! The network should have given it more time. The full length movie Serenity was good too.

Northwest Runner said...

Sigh, Midsummer is not a season. (And wherefore is not directional.)

Avg Joe said...

Pleasant romp today. My vials started as flask, Judi ended in Y and Isere started with a Y at first. That's why the pencil has the other end, and it all worked out.

A very happy birthday, Ray. And again, welcome back PK.

HeartRx said...

Happy Birthday, Rainman! I hope you have a blast today.
¸¸¸.•*¨*♫♥♫¸¸¸.•*¨*♫♥♫¸¸¸.•*¨*♫♥♫¸¸¸.•*¨*♫♥♫

I wasn't a big fan of this one. So there you have it. I'm not sure if it was the male bias in the reveal or some of the clunky fill. Like Barry, I questioned DONG. And GET A, OR A, N IS kinda fell flat. KERplop.

Husker Gary said...

Couldn’t see the forest theme because I was looking at the word trees in this fun puzzle.

Musings
-IAMB_/_SSER and I erased the I for a Y. Got the Natick yesterday but not today.
-Batter is called out on strikes although Fox Trax shows no ball was in the “strike zone”
-Class ending sounds now are electronic beeps, not DONGS
-My BEEP BEEP thought! (3:17)
-Unlike JFK, most pols do not have AD LIB talent and should stick to the teleprompter
-Augusta, GA is praying Tiger comes back. Love or hate him, he puts butts in the seats
-Yeah, foxy Ann Margaret would choose him
-I always give those chopsticks a whirl but bail quickly
-I wonder if my grandchildren have ever seen/used a rotary phone
-In high school history, we conducted a MOOT (mock?) court on Three Bears v. Goldilocks
-I agree Dudley, but that mama lion still has primal instincts that could “go south” in a heartbeat
-My MacBook Pro has no moving parts like a mechanical hard drive and I like that.
-HBD Ray and welcome back PK!

C6D6 Peg said...

Very easy solve today, with a cute theme. Thank you John.

Argyle, loved the outtakes from Grumpier Old Men. Burgess was the star of that movie.

Husker Gary said...

GET A LIFE/GRIP? In 1957, what did the Silhouettes advise you should GET?

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, John R. O'Brien, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.

Well, cruciverb worked this morning, so I was off and running.

Pretty much worked my way from top to bottom. No big hangups.

Theme was fine. Remember the Lone Ranger well. And Silver. And Tonto.

Liked BANK ROBBER with the clue "one planning a job."

DIAL O was good. Being an old telephone man brings back memories. I installed a few toll boards, and added to existing ones. That is where the operators sat who answered those calls.

Was 20 degrees when I got up this morning. The sun is shining and the temperature has risen to where some of the snow is melting.

Heading back to Chicago tonight.

Happy Birthday, Rainman, and many more.

Abejo

( )

SwampCat said...

What a pleasant, easy romp after yesterday's slog! Thanks, mr. O'Brien and Argyle.

Some fun fill like BeepBeep, and I liked IceIn and Hem In. Only unknown was Gelid, but perps to the rescue.

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

A nice, easy sashay today and was finished before even pouring coffee. Thank you, Mr. O'Brien. And thank you, Argyle.

Happy birthday, Rainman!

PK, it's good to see you back!

The Second Marigold Hotel is fabulous!

Everyone, have a happy Tuesday!

Argyle said...

English version of "Beep! Beep!" uses a limo and a 'bubble' car because the BBC doesn't allow commercial names. Link(2:47)

Argyle said...

Is it necessary to see the first "Marigold Hotel" to 'get' the Second "Marigold Hotel"?

Misty said...


I too thought this puzzle was a lot of fun and especially enjoyed discovering the theme after the reveal. Many thanks, John--and you too, Argyle, as always.

Only hitch was the same as for others, the IAMBI/ISERE correction, but I got it worked out.

Happy Birthday, Rainman, and welcome back, PK.

And hope you get your printer set up, Irish Miss!

Have a great Tuesday, everybody!

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody. Count me in with the group who enjoyed the theme and the rest of the puzzle.

Happy birthday Rainman. Nice to see you PK!

SCROD and DONG in the same puzzle?

My grandmother lived 50 miles west in a little town called Upperville, Virginia. We had to go through two or three long distance operators to call her. She had a party line and her phone number was 71W.

coneyro said...

Monday level puzzle. 1..2..3 and done. Very simple theme. Accidentally spelled CAIN wrong, but fixed that quickly. Otherwise no look ups, as Perps filled in very minimal unknowns.

The phone reference at 57D made me realize how far telephone communication has come. I remember the 1964 World's Fair in NY. There was an exhibition that had pushbutton phones and examples of what we now call "video chatting". I was so amazed!. Just imagine(G-D willing) what we will call "ordinary" fifty years from now.

Florida weather continues to be wonderful. The beautiful and abundant feast my husband provides on our front tree for the birds brings numerous colorful AND HUNGRY species. So interesting to watch. My cats are loving it outside and if their food was was not inside, bet they'd never come in.

That's it for me today. L'Chaim


Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, A technical DNF for me today as I put in Oasis, rather than the plural Oases. That gave me ith for Biblical suffix. I hadn't even read the clue until I came here. That serves me right for not going back and checking my answers.

I have never watched Game of Thrones, and Baal escaped my memory bank until the surrounding answers filled that in for me.

Mom and Pop organization/PTA was a favorite today.

Happy, happy day, Rainman.

Have a great day, everyone.

Anoa Bob said...

Would not have got the theme w/o the reveal as I think of a BEE KEEPER as wearing a HOOD rather than a MASK.

Feliz cumpleaños, hombre de la lluvia.

Ol' Man Keith said...

A Happy Birthday to Ray!

I had the same problem as others. Never heard of IAMBI as an acceptable form of the IAMB root. SO I went with IAMBY-- 'tho I never heard of that either. It just seemed to make more sense to begin a European river with a "Y" than an "I." Oh, well....

HeartRx said...

HG @ 10:29 - A job?

Yellowrocks said...

I liked this quick little puzzle.
Happy birthday, Rainman, and a belated happy birthday, PK.
I remember when there was no dial on the phone. You turned the crank to ring the operator and asked to be connected to your party. Our number was 78. We had a candlestick phone like you see in the old movies.”
Season has other meanings than “one of the four equal periods of the year.” It can mean just a definite or indefinite period of time, like MIDSUMMER.
BEEKEEPER MASK, several sellers of beekeeping equipment call the veil a mask.
Link See fifth item

Avg Joe said...

Beep beep. Beep beep. His horn went beep beep beep.

Thanks a lot guys! Thanks a lot.

CrossEyedDave said...

HBD Rainman! (I hope you wash it down with something...)

Welcome back PK!

BeeKeeper?

BankRobber!

They may take off the masks, but...

Scuba Diver? I wonder if Manac would approve?

Remember this Masked,,, Uh, Man?

Anonymous T said...

Hi all!

Inkblot caused by AKa (assoc'n?) @ 46a leading to AMA @47d, ABLE (LE/EL) @60a -> flask @54d. Wait, the last one was supposed to be plural. SCUBA DIVER finally fixed everything (thanks theme!)

Oh, and then there's mom-and-pop inducing inkblot. sbA? sHI @30d. Nah, some frats have SHI-heads, but that's not Greek (to me).

Thanks John for the fun puzzle. Argyle, you deserve a MEDAL for your M/T effort. Always a treat.

Fav: BEEP BEEP (OMG! Cairo. traffic!)

Glad to e-see you again PK. Happy Birthday Rainman.

Cheers, -T

Husker Gary said...

Son of Musings
-Yup, Marti!
Sha na na na - sha na na na na
Sha na na na - sha na na na na
Sha na na na - sha na na na na
Sha na na na - sha na na na na
Dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip
Mum mum mum mum mum mum
GET A JOB
Sha na na na - sha na na na na

-BTW, this is something my sister has never had the nerve to say to her deadbeat son
-Ever heard of a DONGle? My MacBook Pro is so thin, I need this DONGLE to hook it up to a 15 pin VGA projector from a USB port to make my NASA presentations

desper-otto said...

Husker, I wouldn't call that gizmo a DONGLE -- just an adapter. A DONGLE usually has a software connection. For example, some software wouldn't run unless the appropriate DONGLE was attached to the computer. It was the software manufacturer's attempt to prevent license infringement.

For those of you just dying to sing along, here's Get A Job (1957) 2:46

Chairman Moe said...

"puzzling thoughts"

HB Rainman and welcome back PK

I guess this goes down officially as a FIW puzzle, as I misspelled ISERE/IAMBI

I started with DEVIL before DEMON in 36a; and had to guess about the CDC in 47d, even though I had a friend back in the 1980's who worked for them

I too, did not immediately come up with the "theme"; had to think about the meaning of the word "epithet" - not one that I use regularly! But a very clever misdirection and puzzle. Nicely challenging for a Tuesday.

HG - enjoyed the Playmates "BEEP BEEP" song; dittos, CED for your "El Kabong" (Quicksdraw McGraw) memory - loved that cartoon!

I'm feeling a limerick; may be a bit out there though:

Harper LEE had a gift, I have heard,
For depicting the odd and absurd.
Could her new sobriquet
Be a true EPITHET?
Would you call her a real "mocking bird"?

Fact Checker said...

MIDSUMMER is not a "season in a Shakespeare title". It's a night in a Shakespeare title (Midsummer Night or Midsummer Eve or St. John's Eve). The night before Midsummer (which is a day).

Anonymous T said...

D-O - I think what you said (re: licence-key DONGLES) complies with the original technical jargon of DONGle, but I recall the 3Com network laptop PCI cards had an external jack that DONGled. I figure anything that dangles from your rig is a DONGle.

I can hear the non-techies now saying GET A life! people.

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

Argyle:
No, it isn't necessary to see the first Hotel movie, but you would miss a lot of laughs. They are both very amusing.

Argyle said...

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Midsummer is not the night. Midsummer is the season in which the night in question occurred.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thank you all for the warm "welcome back" posts. I expected more: "I thought we got rid of that old bat!" LOL! And I even got a lovely cake from Dave! I missed everybody here.

D-O: The witness protection program sounds tempting. After the fiasco with my computer, I would probably qualify for the WITLESS protection program.

While y'all were worrying about me, I was worrying about all my blog friends with the mountains of snow. We had a relatively mild winter here. I remember slogging around in snow the dreary winter I lived in Massachusetts and how glorious the spring was when it arrived in late April.

I thought today's puzzle was easier than yesterday and the theme was fun. DONG was about the fifth try. Made me remember my dad calling us "DONGheads" when we goofed up. It was as close to cussing as he ever got. Later when I learned what some guys call DONGS, I sorta wondered...

I was so proud to come up with IAMBI & ISERE which I learned puzzle solving. The long hiatus didn't completely erase what puzzle vocabulary I had acquired.

CrossEyedDave said...

Anonymous T @ 2:44

I enjoyed that William Shatner link! I had thought I had seen them all, but recently came upon something I really enjoyed, but it is not for everybody.

It is 24:38, it is post STNG (you Trekkies will know what I mean.) & it is Will Wheaton performing William F*cking Shatner with Paul & Storm!

(I thought it was hilarious, but, well, you know,,, I am me...)

Bill G. said...

I just had a nice experience. I got a call yesterday from a parent, referred to me by a parent of another student I'm tutoring. They have the same teacher and I guess he's pretty incompetent at explaining math concepts in a way that makes sense to the students. I told her what time I had available but her daughter's lacrosse games interfered. So, her mother picked her up from school during a ceramics class and I tutored her from 11:30 to 12:30. It's not what I am used to and I felt a little disconcerted but it worked out well. It was as if I had lifted a curtain that was hanging between her brain and probability concepts. Very rewarding! I love experiences like that...

==========

A gorilla dies of old age at the zoo. The zoo is not very profitable. The gorilla was their most popular attraction so... The zoo owner asks one of the workers to wear a gorilla suit for $100 a day until they can afford to get another gorilla.

The new "gorilla" becomes very popular. The guy decides to show off and climbs over to the lions' den and hangs from the ceiling. But after a while, he looses his grip and slips to the floor of the lion cage. The man starts yelling, "Help! Help!"

The lion pounces on him from behind and whispers in his ear, "If you don't shut up, you're going to get us both fired!"

Madame Defarge said...

Bill G @4:21 Thanks for sharing your EUREKA! moment with us. That's the best part of teaching! My DH loved the tale of the "gorilla" and the "lion."

desper-otto said...

Yeah, and the guy/gorilla looks back at the lion and shouts, "Lahr, Lahr!"

Avg Joe said...

Well, PK, you may very well be an old bat, but you're our old bat.

And I hate to be Captain Obvious here, but considering how long you were absent, I feared the worst. I can't be alone in that...

I'm very pleased to learn that is not the case. Now don't do that again!

Lucina said...

AvgJoe@5:20:
Hear! Hear!

Rainman said...

Before it gets any later, I just wanted to thank everyone for the enriching birthday wishes. Thank you for the camaraderie and comments. Special thanks to Anoa Bob for his happy b-day to "hombre de la lluvia," man of the rain. LMAO.

Bill G, terrific ape story. Still laughing.

Lunch today at Uricchio's was terrific and always is. Bakersfield is blessed with so many exceptional eating establishments, such as Moo Creamery, Cafe Med, and a zillion others. So many, in fact, that someone tied YouTube video together to illustrate the point and how Bakersfield resident Hitler might have fallen in his last days. Some of you may have seen this before, but many of you have not, so...

Hitler Rants on Bakersfield

Chickie said...

Welcome back PK. We did miss your witty entries, and we all were hoping that your absence wasn't due to illness. Glad to see you are back in fitness and form.

Bill G. My DH loved the gorilla joke. We both had a good laugh.

The light bulb will go on with students when they finally understand something that has been a puzzle. This is THE best part of teaching. With first graders it is when they begin to read. It is truly rewarding.

Bill G. said...

Rainman, great rant! Where did you first stumble upon that?

I'm I the only one who both respects Alex Trebek and finds him annoying? Apparently he is philanthropic so that's a good thing.

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to John and Santa!

Nice, easy puzzle!

Happy Birthday Ray! (A trifle late.)

Cheers!

Rainman said...

Bill G, there used to be several versions of that movie scene, not just Bakersfield, and of various lengths. First learned of it by word of mouth. Was thinking the exercise was part of a film editing assignment maybe.
That actor who plays Hitler is Swiss, Bruno something, maybe. He's very good.

FermatPrime, thx so much.

PK said...

Rainman, I failed to wish you a happy birthday earlier. I hope your day was as happy as mine was on Sunday. We're almost "twins".

Actually, illness did delay getting the computer going again. I had some kind of flu I couldn't get rid of with debilitating dizziness that lasted six weeks. I had a big coughing spell after choking on water one day. After it was over, the dizziness was gone. Still don't know why, but who cares.

Lucina said...

Rainman:
Those Hitler rants are hilarious. Unfortunately I spent an inordinate amount of time on some others and just laughed out loud.
The one on Chuck Norris is really a riot.

Anonymous T said...

CED - Will F***ing Shatner was LOL. I never liked Westly, but as I learned more about Wil Wheaton, the more I like him; he's a smart & funny guy. Thanks for the link.

Rainman - Hitler clip is also LOL Funny; Lucina thanks for directing me to the Chuck Norris one too -- the nuclear bomb is based on Norris' BBQ!!! too much :-)

PEACE out.

Cheers, -T

Walt M. said...

To all who mentioned the Hitler clips:

Thankyouverymuch.

Too funny!

Anonymous T said...

And if you haven't had enough of Wil Wheaton; The best of on TBBT. Bill G. I know you'll like it - It ain't CHESS that he bests Sheldon in...

C, -T