google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, September 18, 2015, Jeffrey Wechsler

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Sep 18, 2015

Friday, September 18, 2015, Jeffrey Wechsler

Theme: You need to get down on it! (5:11).

An add-a-word puzzle, with a great reveal. JW is back again with a passel of theme words and a really wonderfully amusing reveal. 34A. Annoyed moviegoer's shout ... or what's needed to make sense of the answers to starred clues : DOWN IN FRONT which tells you that DOWN is added to the front of each theme fill to solve the clue. A true Friday theme with added twist of 1A beginning the fun. This is as close as Rich gets to a rebus (multi-letter in a block) puzzle, only the letters are not anywhere but in your mind. Because of the asterisks the puzzle became very doable once you see your first "down" word. If you did not catch on when you finished the top row you were in for a long solve.  The NW corner with two 7s and an 8 make starting slow. But this does give us some fun fill like AMOROSO, CAREFUL, CORRECT, DATA SET, FORESEE, NICOSIA, OVERPAY, SPUTTER, SIDE ROAD and TIRESOME.

1A. *Dejected : DOWNCAST (4). I guess the expression comes from tilting the eyes and head down.

5A. *Sledding spot : DOWNGRADE (5). Visual.

10A. *Waterloo : DOWNFALL (4). Fall again but totally different meaning, don't you love English.

31A. *Data transfer : DOWNLOAD (4). A word that did not exist when I started doing puzzles.

40A. *Faster way to fly : DOWNWIND (4). On the par 5s....

63A. *1964 Grammy-winning rock 'n' roll song : DOWNTOWN(4). What else...

64A. *Decrease : DOWNSWING (5). Back on the par 5....

65A. *Musical starting point : DOWNBEAT (4). Downbeat, the first beat of a measure in music.


Across:

14. Enclosed in : AMID.

15. Electrical component : RELAY. Not a RACE.

16. Seaman's direction : ALEE.

17. 9-Down sensors : RODS. Eyes have rods and CONES.

18. Midwestern tribe : OSAGE.

19. Show appreciation, in a way : CLAP.

20. "You shall hear more __ morning": "Measure for Measure" : ERE. Ah, the Shakespeare appearance; this did not require knowing the play. Not my favorite play.

21. Shows a preference : OPTS.

22. Amethyst source : GEODE.

23. Prognosticate : FORESEE.

25. Struggling engine sound : SPUTTER.

27. Me.-to-Fla. highway : US ONE. I live 33 steps from this highway.

28. Freudian subject : DREAM.

30. '60s radical gp. : SDS. A fun group from college.

32. Crockett's Waterloo : ALAMO. A clecho to 10A.

39. Onetime Silly String maker : WHAMO.
43. Seafarer : TAR.

46. Bygone dentifrice : IPANA. Bucky beaver lives on.

48. "Twelfth Night" servant : MARIA. More Shakespeare, Maria is Olivia's lady in waiting and a central character.

49. Deserve credit, perhaps : OVERPAY.

51. "Yes" : CORRECT.

53. Ancient Iranians : MEDES. You want to READ?

54. Thing on a bob : LURE.

55. "__ guy walks into ... " : SO A. Guy walks into a bar and sits at a table. Tells the waitress, "I'll have a Bloody Mary and a menu." When she returns with his drink, he asks "Still servin' breakfast?" When she says Yes, he replies, "Then I'll have two eggs-runny on top and burnt on the bottom, five strips of bacon ON END-well done on one end and still raw on the other, two pieces of burnt toast and a cold cup of coffee." Indignantly the waitress says, "We don't serve that kinda stuff in here!" Guy says, "Funny... that's what I had in here yesterday..."

56. Actress Russell : KERI.

57. Dinnertime attraction : AROMA.

59. __ stick: incense : JOSS. Did you see this PRACTICE growing up C.C. ? (From C.C.: Indeed. Burning incense (and fake paper money) for the dead is quite common.)

60. Rare blood type, briefly : A-NEG.

61. Memento : TOKEN.

62. Fifi's BFF : AMIE. French for friend, with E because it is a feminine friend.

Down:

1. "Watch out!" : CAREFUL.

2. Spanish sherry : AMOROSO.

3. Rush hour timesaver, hopefully : SIDE ROAD. How often do I get lost on my shortcuts?

4. QB's stats : TDSTouchDowns are back! Every AFC East team won.

5. Feel one's way : GROPE. I got slapped over that one.

6. Took it easy : RESTED.

7. "Fate is so cruel!" : ALAS.

8. Peer of Trygve and Kofi : DAG. He died young. LINK.

9. Looker? : EYE.

10. Aspect : FACET.

11. Metes out : ALLOTS.

12. Bygone pump word : LEADED.

13. Middle Ages colony residents : LEPERS.

21. Sugar suffix : OSE.

22. Marx of lesser repute : GUMMO. He was replaced by Zeppo in 1915.  The brothers, can you name them?

24. Provide, as with talent : ENDOW.

25. Lifestyle magazine : SELF.

26. Host noted for a 1960 on-air resignation : PAAR.

29. Was loquacious : RAN ON. Yeah, that's it- loquacious!

33. Classic military text by Carl von Clausewitz : ON WAR. The SUMMARY.

35. Legislative VIPs : WHIPS.

36. Touristy viticultural valley : NAPA.

37. Indecisive comment : I MAY. I may not.

38. Hardly fascinating : TIRESOME.

41. Capital of Cyprus : NICOSIA. The city has a HISTORY.

42. Statistical matrix, e.g. : DATA SET.

43. Cruise partnership nickname : TOMKAT. I mention Tom and his ex Ms. Holmes in another JW; a crush?

44. L'OrĂ©al competitor : AVEENO. This time of year this comes to mind for me
45. Altered, as a map : REDREW.

47. Mental wherewithal : ACUMEN.

48. GI grub : MREMeals Ready to Eat.

50. Wield power : REIGN.

52. Endangered Sumatran : ORANG.

54. Mythical troublemaker : LOKI.

57. Compact Cadillac sedan : ATS. This car.

58. Dustup : ROW. A common term across the pond.

59. Hook relative : JAB. Boxing terms.

Well we  were treated to another JW that made us work and use our imaginations and I enjoyed it. Happy holidays to all and Lemonade out.

55 comments:

OwenKL said...

Another FIW. Everything filled, no ta-da, so hit the check button. Two cells both in the SW. Rosalind and Lillian wouldn't fit, so I had wagged jERI, I guessed the blood type as O- instead of A-, and I had no idea on Tom's latest squeeze.
Also didn't get the theme until the reveal, but once I had that, FAIL>FALL, LINK>LOAD, GRADE was okay as is, and the rest of them were blanks that filled right in.

Prepositions
------------
Turn left or turn right, is the choice a SIDEROAD?
When you look to the future, do you FORESEE what is bode?
Rent a crane for a day,
Is the fee OVERPAY?
Was the weight-watchers DOWNFALL the A LA MOde?

There's a sequel in store for a movie, at last,
Which everyone thought the first time was a blast!
"Up" was the picture,
A triumph for Pixar!
They'll get started as soon as they select the "DOWN" CAST!

Once in a while, when I'm feeling DOWN,
With a face as sad as a circus clown,
I remedy it
With a sewing kit
And patch up my pillow, 'fore in feathers I drown!

Hungry Mother said...

Got the theme immediately, but had quite a slog to finish it. Very nice Friday puzzle.

HowardW said...

Wow, that was a toughie, even for a Friday! Lots of mis-steps, such as bAn rather than DAG, olOROSO before AMOROSO, oNEG before ANEG, TOMcAT for TOMKAT. Couldn't clear up the confusion in the "north", without the theme. Didn't know KERI Russell, AMOROSO, AVEENO, MARIA, ATS.

Thanks for the challenge, JW. Lemonade, thanks for the great links -- I hadn't seen those clips of Jack Paar before, and a great picture of the Marx brothers "in street clothes". For those still guessing, L to R: Harpo, Zeppo, Chico, Groucho, Gummo.

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Enjoyable puzzle today. I got the theme after awhile, which helped a lot. I still struggled to get [DOWN] GRADE, however, since I really wanted some form of HILL and usually only think of DOWNGRADE as a verb.

NICOSIA was a complete unknown that took all the perps to get, and I got a bit worried since MARIA was also unknown (as clued). I guessed at MARIA since (a) it was at least a real name and (b) NICOSIA looked more likely than, say, NTCOSIA.

I was very glad that I knew some of the obscure stuff, like JOSS and MEDES and (eventually) DAG. I also appreciated the tricky cluing on stuff like TOMKAT, although it certainly slowed me down a bit.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Another crisp Jeff Wex project - love the theme placement. Not too many unknowns, but a few needed memory jogging, such as Joss. Fast solve for a Friday.

Didn't have time to post yesterday, but the super symmetry of that puzzle seemed outstanding.

Lemonade714 said...

I thinking slowing you down is the goal of a Friday puzzle. Anyone trying the new daily WSJ puzzles?

Big Easy said...

I didn't catch on in the first row and I was in for a long solve, NOT. I filled DOWN IN FRONT and worked my way from there but could never fill the SE. NICOSIA, WIND and BEAT were the only ones I did. MARIA and JOSS were complete unknowns. Originally tried TIMEWORN & MAMIE for TIRESOME & MARIA. But it would have been a DNF anyway because I filled TOMCAT & CERI for TOM-KAT & KERI. I know KERI lotion but KERI Russell draws a blank.

L'Oreal and AVEENO may have a few overlapping competing items these days but after running a wholesale drug company for 29 years, I couldn't see it. L'Oreal is a hair care company and AVEENO (division of Johnson & Johnson) has skin care products.

Endangered Sumatran- I filled TIGER before ORANG because I saw that one killed his keeper this week in Poland.

OVERPAY- I filled it but I don't think it fits. Someone who 'deserves credit' is usually UNDERPAID, not overpaid.

A-NEG- not rare to me as it is my blood type. And I have competing blood banks calling me regularly for donations.

Wechsler took my lunch money today but I'm off to play golf on a PGA Tour course (TPC) at 8:00. Hope to break 100.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Got a slow start. My very first "certain" entry was PREDICT, which turned out to be wrong. Got the theme with GRADE, and that certainly helped with the rest of the puzzle. Hand up for TIMEWORN and MAMIE, but that sorted itself out. My "Waterloo" was the K in TOMKAT/KERI. Had no idea. DNF. So much for my Hollywood ACUMEN!

B-E, if you OVERPAY for something you are due either a refund or a "credit."

I'm A-NEG. The blood bank seldom wants whole blood from me. They'd rather have packed cells. The Navy got it wrong on my dogtags; they listed me as A-POS.

There was a discussion of Von Clausewitz in the movie Crimson Tide (1:27).

unclefred said...

DNF. 'nuff said.

Avg Joe said...

Good puzzle. It kicked my ass. But enjoyed it nonetheless. The theme helped a lot, but didnt come until about half way through. In the end, 'twas the SE corner that did me in. Had all but 4 cells and threw it in and googled the Cyprus Capital to get the S and A. That gave me Beat, but I had no clue on Joss, and Jab never dawned (please note obligatory Oxford comma). Tally: one cheat, one blank = DNF.

Still, lots of good stuff and a fun ride. Especially liked the TomKat clue.

Barry G. said...

For Bolder in Utah from yesterday... I decided to just pull a "Thumper" and not say anything at all about yesterday's puzzle, since I couldn't say anything nice about it.

TTP said...


Good morning all.

Yay ! I got the theme early and added DOWN to make sense of some the answers. But IMO, some of the answers could stand on their own merit with the clue. eg, FALL, GRADE, and LOAD.

Still, a little DOWNBEAT and dejected because I SUTTERed in a couple of places.

Not so with WHAM-O. Nailed it. Loved that silly string stuff. WHAM-O was big with toys that inluded Hula Hoops, Frisbees, and Super Balls. Toys that were fun for kids of any age.

Not so with TOMKAT. Nailed that, and it ruled out Jane Russell, but not KuRt, which fit so well with REDREW. That was my Waterloo, er, um, DOWNFALL.

Thought of Abejo at RELAY.
AMOROSO or Omarosa ? Remember her ?
Chances are that FORESEE has tried to survey you for user satisfaction.
There's an I DREAM of Jeannie marathon on Antenna TV this weekend. Celebrating the 50 year anniversary.
I never had MREs. They hadn't come into service yet. We ate Meals, Combat Individual (MCIs) that came after C-RATs. Everyone still called them C-RATs until MREs came around.

Yellowrocks said...

This was a toughie for a long time until I figured out DOWN GRADE. Then it became easier. Like DO, my WATERLOO was TOMKAT/KERI. I thought I knew CARI, but AVEENO nixed that. I had TOM CAT so didn't think of KERI. But the puzzle was clever, challenging and fun, nevertheless.
AVEENO sells skin and hair care products. L'oreal sells skin and hair care products among other things. So, no harm, no foul.
I overpaid my electric bill a few months ago and deserved credit.

My remodeller for my bathroom has a serious arm injury and cannot lift much, delaying my job for several months. Also he fired his aide for being high on Oxycontin on the job. He had no prescription. My garage is full of fixtures and tile. I will not be able to get my car inside this winter. Do any of you who keep your cars outside in the winter have a solution for preventing ice build up?

Lemonade714 said...

TTP, I almost linked this "reality" "star" OMAROSA but her tie to candidate Trump made me leary of any political implications, but since you opened the door....

We (my youngest son who was then still in high school and I)ate MREs post hurricane Wilma in 2005.No electricity for 3 weeks made them palatable

Lemonade714 said...

YR, Tinbeni, Chairman Moe and many others along with me park our cars in Florida to avoid the ice issue. It has worked well for 44 years

Yellowrocks said...

Lemon, HAHA! Thanks, but I could never take the long string of 90+ degree days. I find heat oppressive and would surely miss the change of seasons. Our weather just now is ideal for me. October with the lovely autumn foliage will be even better.

desper-otto said...

YR, when I lived up north we'd put a flattened cardboard box on the windshield when there was sleet in the forecast. That would keep the ice off most of the windshield.

Anonymous said...

YR: You might want to at least raise your windshield wipers so they don't freeze to the windshield overnight. Other than that, ice shouldn't be too much of a problem (that's what the defroster and ice scrapers are for). I think removing (and moving) a foot of snow from the car is more of a problem.

Avg Joe said...

One other idea that's worth a thought is short term storage for the things in the garage that are keeping the car outside. It wouldn't be cheap, but it might be worth it.

Husker Gary said...

A wonderful puzzle and elegant theme. I’d be carrying coals to Newcastle to expand on Lemon’s excellent summative paragraph. I declined subbing to play golf and now we are getting a rainstorm.

Musings
-SLOPE/DOWN SLOPE kept me in a “Dither” (from yesterday) until I saw the light
-If you sit in a student section at a game, yelling “DOWN IN FRONT” won’t do you any good
-The Pet Clark song DOWNTOWN on Seinfeld (2:28)
-OSAGE not OMAHA, SIDE ROAD not SHORT CUT, SELF not ELLE, MRE not SOS
-Freud DREAM dialogue, “Hmmm… a hot dog going into a tunnel, you say”
-Silly String used to be a staple of the last day at our school but custodians nixed that
-On Monday, Maria is a Sound Of Music novitiate, on Friday she’s a Twelfth Night servant
-LURE sensation
-Oliva inviting John to “feel your way”
-Of course Jefferson wrote, “that they are ENDOWED by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”
-NAPA is on fire

Mr. Google said...

It looks like Jefferson, in the so-called Rough Draft, wrote "inalienable".

Steve said...

Great puzzle. Took some figuring out but very much worth the effort.

So a priest, a rabbi and an imam walk into a bar. The bartender says "This is a joke, right"?

or ..

The bartender says "Hey, we don't serve faster than light particles in here!".

So two Higg's Bosons walk into a bar ..

Anonymous said...

Well I'll be down; fooled me!

Irish Miss said...

Hi Everyone:

Late again for the same reasons I was late Tuesday: doctor's appointment, farm stand stop, and the good old grocery store.

This was almost a DNF because of the SE corner but after much hair-pulling and teeth gnashing, it fell into place for the much-desired tada. My major hang up was thinking (for far too long) that Fifi's BFF was Pepe (LePew). Why would I make that association, you might ask? My answer would be "I have no idea." In any case, I enjoyed the challenge, although I do think Mr. W has a devilish mind with some of the cluing.

Thanks, Jeffrey, for a real workout and thanks, Lemony, for the usual spot-on review.

Another gorgeous Fall day, with more of the same for the next several days. YR, I agree with your weather preferences. (If you were close by, you could use my 1500 sq. ft. basement for storage; it is completely empty except for a filing cabinet.)

Have a great day.

Lucina said...

Greetings, friends!

Aha, a Friday feast from JW. It took a while to suss the theme but knowing it did facilitate some of the fill. However, the top center and east flowed in quickly without it, though hand up for OMAHA before OSAGE. Knew KERI right away but slogged with the remaining SW. REDRAW stayed, again, because I failed to check. Drat!

AMOROSO means romantic one and that's an intriguing name for a sherry.

Thank you, Jeffrey and Lemonade. Today was a good challenge with an elucidating post from L714.

I'm surprised Barry didn't like yesterday's puzzle. I thought it was excellent.

Have a great day, everyone!

AnonymousPVX said...

Garages are for cars. Rent storage. Or move. Or have your guy rent storage. Garages keep cars young, they do nothing for tile.

Just because I finished this puzzle doesn't mean I enjoyed it. Quite the slog.

Lemonade714 said...

PVX why did you not enjoy it?

VirginiaSycamore said...

Thanks Jeff for a fun puzzle and Lemonade for an informative writeup.

A doable but slow solve until I got the DOWN theme about my 2nd run through. I knew enough not to even guess the asterisk answers until I saw it. SW had some red letters when I turned it on, but hey, 5 bad letters is not bad for a Friday. I also looked up the capital of Cyprus.

One question, would the Medes live on the Median strip? [bad pun]
Between the puzzle and the comments I figure I learned a lot today.

VS

Yellowrocks said...

Thanks for all the suggestions. DO, a flattened cardboard box might be good, but what keeps it from blowing away?
Avg Joe and Anon PVX. I thought of renting a storage unit like PODS. They are not allowed by our condo assoc. Besides I can't manhandle or(woman handle?) a bathtub into a storage unit. And I would need a truck to go off site. Move? Sell this place and buy a new one before frost ? More hassle than scraping ice. Charge the contractor? This situation is costing the contractor many jobs. I'd be a heel. And if he goes bankrupt I would lose a substantial down payment.
Now I remember that a few years ago repairs to our street forced us to park around the corner during an ice storm. The locks even froze. A neighbor gave me her deicing spray. It worked well on the windows and locks. I will try that first.

CrossEyedDave said...

Wees, DNF... ( I really thought it was O-Neg...)
Downslope before downgrade was a real downer...

Oh well, I always bounce back up, usually in front of someone yelling at me.

So, onward!

From Yest, Thank OwenKL for the Pickles. (I could get into this...)

& I saw this, & thought Manac would like it...

If it is too early for risque walks into a bar jokes, then don't click on:
Joke #1

Joke #2

Learning moment: Amethysts come from Geodes?
The best ones maybe, but they can also be found in veins.

& from Wiki: The name comes from the Ancient Greek á¼€ a- ("not") and μέθυστος mĂ©thystos ("intoxicated"), a reference to the belief that the stone protected its owner from drunkenness. (Tinbeni, you should toss some in your scotch instead of ice cubes:)

& finally...

Anonymous said...

I think it's rude to post mysterious links.

& finally... is a prime example.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle very much, and solved it surprisingly quickly, probably because I got the reveal right away. Loved the TOMKAT clue. I'm pretty sure GUMMO Marx would not appreciate being described as of "lesser repute."

Yellowrocks, when I lived in Montana I had no garage and had to park my car outside. I would cover the windshield with cardboard, as desper-otto mentioned, and hold the cardboard in place with the windshield wipers. This also served to prevent the wipers from freezing to the glass, as Anonymous suggested. If the ice was really bad, I would melt the ice off with a stream of water from the garden hose. (Never use warm or hot water; you'll crack the glass.) The puddle of water would often freeze into an ice sheet on the ground, but I didn't mind; I'd just park on top of it. One time, though, I did freeze my tires to the ground, rendering the car unuseable until the next thaw. That taught me never to park on a wet spot.

Best wishes to you all.

Tinbeni said...

D N F ... after putting it DOWN and then picking it back up three times ...
it was apparent that I was NOT on the Constructor's Wave-Length ...
and that this puzzle was better for the bottom on the bird-cage. (They liked it, lol!)

YR You probably had as many "90 degree days" where you live this summer as I experienced here in Tarpon Springs ...
And "I NEVER" have to experience "_ _ _" on my auto.
(Irish Miss knows what "3-letter" word I can NEVER type here).

Though I will admit during the winter I sometimes have to use my "Humidity-Shovel" to dig-out-my-car.

Cheers!

CrossEyedDave said...

Anon @ 3:54

Your post made me smile, mysterious?

If that was mysterious, how do you ever get through a crossword puzzle?

True, there may be more than one interpretation.

Perhaps, if you "SIT DOWN," we can get some of the other regulars
to provide their interpretations...

Anyone?

SwampCat said...


LOL....CED, I loved all of your "rude" links!!!

Anon @ 3:54... Get a life!

Tin.... I agree. Scraping - - - off a car would be more than a nuisance. 90 degree days are nothing compared to that. But, each to his (or her) own. We all have different tolerances...and thank goodness for that!!


The State of Denmark said...

Since when has a dislike for a puzzle ever stopped Barry G from talking about it?

Irish Miss said...

CED @ 5:15 - Fin is French for The End, but I don't think those finned fish know that. Loved the kitty links! đŸ˜»

Jerome said...

Yellowrocks- I could be very, very wrong, but something smells rotten in Denmark. I was a union carpenter and general contractor for over thirty years. I've never heard of giving a contractor a down payment. You've probably paid him for the material delivered on site and that's fine, but he shouldn't have asked for or received any funds beyond that. Zero, zilch, nada. And his helper was abusing drugs... his arm is going to be useless for months? Is this guy licensed? If so, have you checked him out on line at your state contractor's licensing board?
I,m quite sure your kind hearted, but this character is causing you a major inconvenience. And, I suspect he's on another job site that is paying him more... or that he's a gone Johnson.

OwenKL said...

•I knew JOSS sticks, but trying to remember it I came up with punji sticks first. Ouch!
•Lemonade, LOLed at your Fla. solution!
•HG: LOLed at your Freudian dream!
•Mr.Google: Found your inalienable link, uh, unalienable!
•Steve: LOLed at your boson! So a Brit walks into a bar. The blond he's with ducks under it.
•Virginia: LOLed at your median Medes!
•CED: your links always make me LOL! But I don't think Pickles nor Prickly City probably appreciate getting mixed up.
•It's a good day for Laughing Out Loud!

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Enjoyed the puzzle, Jeff! Nice expo, Lemon!

Theme cool.

Knew Keri Russell from The Americans. (Lots of her nude scenes in this show.) The KAT comes from KATie Holmes. JOSS was a WAG. So was NO WAR. ATS perped.

L'Oreal has tested out there products using live baby bunnies wrapped in foil. I will not use their products.

Have a pleasant weekend!



Jerome: check your English! (Unusual thing to say!)

Argyle said...

Looks like I'm alone with "Kurt" Russell.

Barry G. said...

Since when has a dislike for a puzzle ever stopped Barry G from talking about it?

Errrr.... Since yesterday, apparently.

TTP said...

Spent some time today installing a 3 stage water purifier under the kitchen sink. Found out that I am not as limber as I once was, and that I seemed to have developed claustrophobia.

Lemonade, yep, just swap the leading and trailing letters to go from AMOROSO to OMAROSA. She was portrayed as quite the villain, and probably was. Regardless, anyone that made it out of Youngstown... Kudos !

Argyle, no, you are not alone. KURT was my Waterloo. See 8:23 AM. Birds of a feather ? Great minds ? KERI Russell ? No idea.

OwenKL, I'm going to have to lift that " A Brit walks into a bar..." line and adapt it as needed. Never heard that one before, but I can get some of my joke telling buddies on it.

Anon-T, I am looking for an SSID sniffer. A free one. Was (and am) using inSSIDer on my XP, but need a free one on my Win 7 'puters. Been having issues with my wifi dropping, and discovered that my ISP (Comcast) has been using an auto setting to put everyone on channel 11. Seems to be part of their open network hotspot effort. Any suggestions on a good (free) sniffer ?

Flashback to CED... It IS a dark and stormy night here in the Windy City. 'Twas last night as well. Thunder and lightning most of the night. My Boy woke me up at 3 AM. Sometimes it is hell being the alpha male. Thanks for the pics.

Jayce, I transferred from Houston to Chicago in late 87. Bought a house and moved in Jan 1, '88. Two other guys from Houston followed me. The guy that was originally from Detroit knew enough to change his oil in his pickup. The other guy was ill-prepared, and his block froze solid. We thawed it in my garage. That was the winter I bought my triple layered Polish-made trench coat. Most expensive outer coat I ever bought, and worth every penny for the daily commute from the 'burbs to downtown Chicago. All these years later, I'm inured, and could handle Wisconsin, but not so sure that I could handle Montana. DW wants to move to Texas, so D-O or Anon-T might get a neighbor...

Freond said...

I had exactly the same false starts as HowardW. This one was a slog ubtil I figured out the reveal. MUCH faster after that. Everything fell in place although having CTS for ATS held me up. And the Natick at TOMKAT & KERI. Actor names and tabloid couples draw about as much attention from me as rappers. Looked up Jeri Russell but only Keri came up, and ta-da!

Lucina said...

Fermatprime:
Do you think that their competitors spread information, possibly false, to ruin their brand? The bit about rabbits sounds like that unless you know positively that it's true.

Jerome said...

fermatprime... huh?

Anonymous said...

Barry G. @ 9:04 PM - you're kind of proving his point...

TTP @ 9:32 PM - the actual joke is: a Blonde walks into a bar. The brunette ducks...

OwenKL said...

Snopes on the L'Oreal Rabbit Hoax. Fermat', Lucina is correct. The circulated photo was not the result of cosmetic testing but of a parasite.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All:

Total DNF - Jeffrey BEAT the snot out of me; I kept looking at the calendar, but it assured me this was Friday. Oh well...

I did get A-POS though; I was a medical lab-tech in the Army. I liked MREs - the dehydrated pork was fav, it would snap-crackle-pop in your mouth like a Rice Krispy (if you hydrated it though, it was nasty-slimey). The "spaghetti," well, wasn't; absolutely awful.

CED - Listen not to Anon admonishment. I always click your links 'cuz I enjoy your sense of humour.

TTP - I've used NetStumbler in the past. I did find inSSIDer for win 7; maybe just get the update?

And, Com'on down to H-Town. I'm in South Sugar Land and D-O is north of Kingwood (I think). For the readers who don't know, we are really about 70 mi apart in the same city / metro area (and that's on the same freeway I-69). Everything is bigger in TX!

YR - I love the heat and don't miss the cold at all. I do miss the seasons though. FALL in IL was always my fav growing up; I'd EYE the girls wearing those tight soft-looking sweaters...

Cheers, -T

OwenKL said...

Anon@11:00 -- There is no such thing as "the actual joke"! If old jokes couldn't be reformatted and retold, I'd have to give up half my limericks! That joke probably once went "So a Median and a Persian once walked into a wine shop, while the Greek went around to the door."

Anonymous T said...

Oh, CED - That Downy link looks like it was from Whacky Packs (was it?). I had a folder with every WackyPack sticker on it (this was in '80) on it. My step-mom thought it was dumb and I had to throw it on the burn pile. I'm not DOWN BEAT, no, just bitter :-)

SO A time traveler walks into a bar and orders a Tab and a Pepsi Free.

Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

Good ones!

~ A horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks, "Say, why the long face?"

Anonymous T said...

OwenKL - yep, there's nothing new under the sun. The oldest joke recorded is a fart joke. I used to think it was Chauser's Miller's Tale, but 'tis bested by MMDC or so years.

I love watching good new comedians repurposing 'old' jokes w/ their twist and making something new-ish out of it. It will be years before we see someone do that w/ Carlin, but it will happen; ALAS, nothing new... C, -T

TTP said...


Anon-T, thanks. Looks like I'll have to shell out the $19.99 to Metageek to get the updated inSSIDer.

Freond said...

I had exactly the same false starts as HowardW. This one was a slog ubtil I figured out the reveal. MUCH faster after that. Everything fell in place although having CTS for ATS held me up. And the Natick at TOMKAT & KERI. Actor names and tabloid couples draw about as much attention from me as rappers. Looked up Jeri Russell but only Keri came up, and ta-da!