google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, November 23, 2015 Clement McKay

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Nov 23, 2015

Monday, November 23, 2015 Clement McKay

Theme: Just a Theory - Tribute puzzle.

17A. Online matchmaker : eHARMONY

22A. = : EQUALS SIGN

34A. "U Can't Touch This" rapper : MC HAMMER

46A. Looked ready to fight : SQUARED OFF

53A. See 42-Down : EINSTEIN

42D. With 53-Across, physics Nobelist who devised the formula that begins 17-, 22-, 34- and 46-Across : ALBERT

Argyle here. Rows: 15, Columns: 14, Words: 73; did you notice? A bit more serious than Clement's first puzzle. link here.

Albert Einstein's paper “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?” was published in the journal "Annalen der Physik" on November 21, 1905.

Across:

1. Popeye's nemesis : BLUTO

6. Electrolux, briefly : VAC. (vacuum cleaner)

9. Nos. on beach lotion labels : SPFs. (Sun Protection Factor)

13. Pachelbel composition : CANON



14. Tel Aviv's country: Abbr. : ISR. (Israel)

15. Opera highlight : ARIA

16. Small thicket : COPSE

19. "Look before you __" : LEAP

21. School course with slides : BIOLOGY

25. Lawyer's charge : FEE

26. Carry with effort : LUG

27. Partner of hither : YON

28. For the lady : HERS

29. Inlaid designs : MOSAICS

32. Apple music players : iPODS

36. Web destinations : SITES

38. Worded : PHRASED

42. They're usually divided into scenes : ACTS

43. Wisecracking West : MAE

44. MLB's Indians, on scoreboards : CLE. (Cleveland Indians)

45. __ Vegas : LAS

50. Obscure from view, as in an eclipse : BLOT OUT. or Wite-Out, as in ....

52. Continually : EVER

55. Vacant : EMPTY

58. San __: Riviera resort : REMO

59. Ambient music pioneer Brian : ENO

60. Bete __ : NOIRE. French: literally, black beast (a person or thing strongly detested)

61. Tijuana three : TRES

62. Athletic center : GYM

63. Pig's sniffer : SNOUT. Ever had them pickled?

Down

1. Secretly keep in the email loop, for short : BCC. Blind carbon copy; semi-CSO to our leader.

2. Philosopher __-tzu : LAO

3. Disconnects from the outlet : UNPLUGS

4. Where sailors go : TO SEA

5. Ryan or Tatum : O'NEAL. Father and daughter actors.

6. Compete : VIE

7. Hearth receptacle : ASH BIN

8. Online guy with a list : CRAIG. Started in 1995.

9. O.T. prophet : SAML. (Samuel)

10. Reviewed for errors : PROOFED

11. Piano players? : FINGERS. Cute one.

12. Make a proposer smile : SAY YES. Crosses eHarmony. Also cute.

18. Director Howard : RON. Little Opie all grown up.

20. Gives a pep talk, with "up" : PSYCHS

22. Stately tree : ELM

23. Status __ : QUO

24. Slugger Sammy : SOSA

28. Bar mitzvah dance : HORA

30. Bill totals: Abbr. : AMTS. (amount)

31. Cocktail rocks : ICE

32. Announcement upon arrival : "I'M HERE!". No ice at Tinbeni's.

33. For each : PER

35. Movie-rating org. : MPAA. (Motion Picture Association of America)

36. Like large reptiles, compared to smaller ones : SCALIER

37. "My treat" : "IT'S ON ME"

39. Many a November birth, to astrologers : SCORPIO

40. Helper for Santa : ELF. I had to let this little guy go.

41. Dict. entry : DEF. (definition)

43. Problem on the Caine : MUTINY

46. Drunkard : SOT

47. Captain of the Caine : QUEEG. He was the real problem but not a sot.

48. Coin toss call : EVENS. I'd say "TAILS".

49. Exorcism target : DEMON

51. General __ chicken : TSO'S

54. __ de plume : NOM. Pseudonym adopted by an author

56. Capote nickname : TRU. Real name, Truman Streckfus Persons. Bio

57. To this point : YET

Argyle


53 comments:

OwenKL said...

A nice easy grid to start out the week! Ran across the reveal before I'd even started to look for the theme, so I'm frustrated wondering if I would have seen it or not.

Interesting that 2 of today's entries were in yesterday's limericks: NOM (de guerre) and NOIRE! I swear I didn't cheat!

Stained glass or tiles, Moe had some tricks!
He could turn shards into translucent pics;
His favorites, no question,
His "Red SEA" collection,
Or to hear Moe say it, his "Mosaic MOSAICS"!

The book was finished, all carefully PHRASED,
The editing done, and the printer's FEE paid.
But the author had goofed
With the copy he'd PROOFED --
Yet the erroneous chapter was the one the most praised!

MAE-Belle could perform some very lewd ACTS,
She'd had all the vice squad boys on their backs.
There was a rumor up for belief
That she had even performed for the chief.
She'd been safe till she fudged on her income tax!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Mostly smooth Monday-level solve, but I had a couple of brain farts. The main one was when I could only think of EQUAL SIGN for "=" and couldn't figure out why I was a letter short. I even had EQUAL_SIGN and still couldn't come up with the missing S until I finally got PSYCHS. Second brain fart was when I went with SAUL instead of SAML. It took me awhile to realize that EHARUONY probably wasn't correct...

HowardW said...

I could be pedantic and point out that in that 1905 paper the symbols were different, with L for energy and V for the speed of light. Nice tribute to EINSTEIN. But EVENS for a coin toss? No, only for "bucking up", as we used to call it. On the other hand, I really liked QUEEG and MUTINY together.

Thanks Argyle! Sorry to hear about your elf

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

48D: That's a strange call for a coin toss selection. Bad clue.

inanehiker said...

Amusing, creative puzzle especially for a Monday. What Howard said about EVENS - since that area was open when I started HEADS and TAILS were certainly first two thoughts. I don't even know if you call EVENS before a coin toss which that is the head or the tail??

Have a nice short week of work - unless you work in retail/UPS etc.

Bill said...

Ditto on the coin toss clue - terrible. How would one know which side of the coin was "even"?

WBB said...

What the heck kind of coin do you use?

Anonymous said...

Help! I haven't been able to access the crossword for several days. I use the Across Lite app which lets me access L.A. Times crosswords online but only through that site. A page now appears titled "ubuntu" stating this is a new system and if one can readthe page the system is working, and if not you need to download something else. From this page you cannot navigate anywhere else. What has happened and how do I get back to solving?

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning,

Out of my league here with Physics, although E EQUALS MC SQUARED is generally part of common knowledge. My knowledge of Physics is pretty simple: every action has an opposite and equal reaction and Newton's idea that if you sit under an apple tree you might get hit in the head. Beyond that. . . ? I learned COPSE reading novels as a kid. Favorite clue: Piano players--came to FINGERS on the crosses. Originally wanted some musical term (?). . . .

My hand is up high on coin toss! Now the refs give directions that sound almost like the pharmaceutical disclaimers!! Never once does s/he say EVENS or odds!!

Thanks, Clement for a fun run. Argyle, love the Elf!

Have a good day!

Yellowrocks said...

My take on the coin toss was: You toss a coin twice. EVENS wins with HH or TT. ODDS wins with TH or HT. I didn't question it until you guys brought it up.
MC HAMMER used ESP. ASHCAN before ASH BIN.
Fun puzzle and write up. C U L8R.
I thought the intended question last night was, What were you doing on November 22, 1963? I was surprised one else answered it seriously.

Anonymous said...

This month also marks the 100th anniversary of Einstein's 1915 General Theory of Relativity which is about gravity and the warping of spacetime. The Specific Theory 1905 tells us that the speed of light is constant no matter how it is measured and it gives rise to equivalency of matter and energy as given by today's puzzle. A shoutout to the clue for Cleveland where the experiments of physics professors, Michelson and Morley, proved the absence of the ether that was proposed to serve as the medium for the transmission of light. This led Einstein in part to his Specific Theory.

Jinx said...

Anon - I use merriam-webster.com.

I'll pile on the "evens" critique. "Roulette bet" would have been a better clue.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Well done! An ambitious tribute puzzle to one of humankind's greatest thinkers. Solving was a breeze, but I resisted Evens for the reasons already posted.

During last month's cruise of the Danube, we sailed through Einstein's birth city of Ulm, but did not stop for a visit. I'd like to return some day.

Morning, Argyle, good help is hard to find. :-)

Tinbeni said...

Argyle: Good Job on the write-up!
Clement: Thank You for a FUN Monday puzzle with an excellent theme.

D N F (self-imposed ...)
C'mon ... at Villa Incognito there will NEVER be "Cocktail rocks" in ANY Cocktail ...
Sooooo, that certain 3-letter answer at 31-d could not be filled in ... LOL

As such, my fave today was the answer for 37-d, "My treat" ... ITS-ON-ME ... especially if you are the recipient of that statement.

Well it is "freezing" here in Tarpon Springs ... Yup! It was down to 51 degrees.
(And as any true Floridian will tell you (at that temperature):
"It's F***ing Freezing out there!!!")

Though the "High" will max out at 68 degrees by Noon.

Cheers!

Yellowrocks said...

Tinbeni, those are ideal temps in my book, refreshing. I am glad to be done with 80 something degree days for a longtime. I am tired of shorts and flip flops and walking in the heat outdoors. I have plenty of lovely sweaters and jackets that I now get to wear.

Jinx, I agree, roulette bet would have been better for a Monday.

Northwest Runner said...

I thought the evens/odds coin toss involved two players each tossing their own coin with (as Yellowrocks suggested) a call of evens meaning the two results match, and odds meaning they differ. It's a way (at least by impression) of giving the caller a reduced advantage. Solvers of a certain age may have an advantage with this as a Monday clue. (And the roulette bet is "even" not "evens", right?)

On a side note on the general nature of this clue, doesn't the editor have a call in cluing? Sometimes we tend to hold the constructor responsible for the obscurity, but if the editor thought this was too hard, couldn't he have changed it? To give this clue a case of the Mondays, I suppose it could have been something like "levels" instead.

Boo LuQuette AKA Boudreaux in Eunice, La. said...

Ditto on the COIN TOSS. Got hung up on HEART receptical didnt see see the H

Cold down here too 26 this morning that is rare ~!~!

Montana said...

ASHcan first, but BIOLOGY quickly fixed that.
Since Cruciverb wouldn't work on my iPad, I went to the LATimes game site. New format there. My first impression is that it's better than it was, but will take some getting used to. Can't see the whole puzzle in either portrait or landscape mode. That makes figuring out the theme hard for me. I'll see what I think tomorrow.

Have a good day, everybody. I am off to visit my daughter. 210 mile drive, but ice has melted off all highways.

Montana

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Suggest "An Atomically Correct Theme" as a title?

Easy solve. Did not realize it had only 14 columns until coming here.
Agree about the coin toss kerfuffle. Seemed like a non-sequitur.
Agree with Howard about seeing QUEEG and MUTINY together. Didn't realize QUEEG was rich in vowels.

Have a great day.

CanadianEh! said...

Straightforward Monday solve today, once I got there. Cruciverb wouldn't work for my iPad also so I started solving on the LATimes site. But after filling in a few clues, my touch screen would not respond. So I fired up my laptop and went to the Mensa site. Hopefully the online issues for iPad solving will be resolved soon but at least there are options.

Thanks Clement and Argyle. I enjoyed listening to P's Canon while reading the blog. Some good music last night at AMAs also (Carrie Underwood and Celine Dion especially).

WEES about EVENS. I was not a fan of SAML for Samuel abbreviation (I never see the L used for that). Hand up for Ashcan before BIN. As soon as I saw 31D, I knew Tinbeni would be a DNF today!


Some Einstein trivia from our Switzerland trip: it was while riding on a city tram on his way home from work at the Bern patent office that Albert Einstein looked back at the receding clock and imagined what would happen if he were traveling at the speed of light.

CLOCK TOWER

Cooler here. Enough frost last night to finish the flowers.

Lucina said...

Greetings, friends!

No LEAP of faith today on this easy grid but a quick sashay. Loved listening to the Pachelbel CANON while reading the blog and as a TREAT, it was followed by Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Thanks, Argyle!

As soon as EVENS emerged a question mark went off in my head.

I used to like having my fourth graders make MOSAICS. Some of them were highly imaginative with their creations.

Thank you, Mr. McKay for a fine puzzle.

Have a wonderful day, everyone! It's time for my physical today.

Husker Gary said...

This physics teacher missed the theme but laughed out loud when it appeared!

Musings
-Math sub today doing %’s. I asked them to figure a 20% tip on a $25 meal in their head. One boy subtracted 20 from 25 and accidentally got the right answer $5. Blind squirrel/acorns?
-For good or ill, this followed
-Our priest just returned from ISR with a group of 40 and said he felt very safe
-I remember what I saw with the microscope in my first slide of pond water
-I walked into a HERS bathroom last week because the school’s architect reversed them on the north and south of the bldg
-This restaurant near my house has been VACANT for 3 years. They didn’t LOOK before they LEAPED and built an incredibly expensive bldg with geothermal heat/ac and put in a lousy place to eat
-I’m subbing in GYM tomorrow. That’s a whole different dynamic
-I think she did SAY YES!
-A hilarious UNPLUG SCENE from what movie?
-More % seeking 14-year-olds on the way in!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I enjoyed this clever, yet Monday-friendly offering. Seeing Queeg and mutiny reminded me of the play I saw in Stamford, Ct., The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, which featured Michael Moriarty (where has he gone?) and Arthur Rubenstein. It was quite intense, as was the movie and the book on which it was based.

I knew a certain Floridian would choose a DNF rather than fill in that dreaded, dastardly, diabolical, detestable three-letter word! 😈

Thanks, Clement and Argyle, for a pleasant start to the week

It's sunny but very chilly right now but the good news is that Thanksgiving will be dry and 50+ degrees. A great forecast for those who must travel. I, myself, go to my sister's who is 5 minutes away.

Have a great day.

Bill G. said...

That was a very enjoyable puzzle with some surprisingly crunchy parts for a Monday. Thanks Clement and Argyle.

I agree with almost all of the EVENS comments, especially Northwest Runner. We used to play a similar evens/odds game (just two people) to see who buys coffee only just using fingers. Somebody would call evens or odds. On the count of three, we'd hold out one or two fingers. If the number of fingers matched (two ones or two twos), evens was the winner. If they were different, odds was the winner, a 50-50 proposition. It works exactly the same with two coins. Still, I don't like the clue for a Monday.

Misty said...

I love a Monday speed run and found this one a delight. Many thanks, Clement, and you too, Argyle. I may not know much about physics but I got the theme without any trouble at all. Piano players was my favorite misleading clue.

I was worried that I was going to have to have cataract surgery this month, but got a break when my opthomologist first suggested that I try getting new glasses. Drove up to campus yesterday, wearing them, and was amazed that I could read street signs, and shop signs. And at night, the moon didn't look blurred. Yay! Something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving.

Have a great special week, everybody!

AnonymousPVX said...

I did finish this correctly, BUT…

Well, it is a Monday. So I did NOT expect "SAML" as an abbreviation for SAMUEL despite the "O.T." In the clue.

However I have NEVER seen "EVENS" as a choice for a coin flip. Maybe the NFL should start using that in the coin toss, as they can't even seem to decide what is and isn't a catch anymore. Why not add to the confusion?

Really a bad - I mean awful - clue. In a Monday puzzle, no less.

JD said...

Good morning good morning all,
Hand up for for coin toss clue confusion and equalS. Loved the theme, and thanks to Argyle for hi lighting it. No laughs today except for my misguesses. I had pingers before fingers...
Have a lovely week. Finally, our trees have changed to Autumn colors...not like the East or North, but still a beautiful sight.

billocohoes said...

Agree on EVENS, and with BillG on the finger-throwing method of choosing.

Students of the Battle of Gettysburg recognize the COPSE of Trees (now capitalized) as the target point of Pickett's Charge.

I've always used SQUARED OFF in the past, active tense, if you "looked ready to fight" you were "set to square off" (passive). To say someone was squared off just sounds awkward.

Chickie said...

Hello Everyone, Not heads, not tails, but even. In the next Down group not Devil, not Satan, but Demon. Lots of erasing in that corner. Other than that, the rest of the puzzle was pretty straightforward.

My science classes never included a physics class as I was a strictly Biological and Natural Sciences major in college. However, some physics found it's way into the lectures and labs. I Enjoyed the theme and Albert Einstein gave me the beginnings of the last theme answer. Fun

Lots of work today. Our youngest granddaughter is here for the week and we are going to do Christmas Stocking shopping and stuffing for a family my alum group takes care of, and also lots of cooking for Thanksgiving. She is a great kitchen helper.

Have a great day everyone.

john28man said...

Anonymous:

Go here: http://www.us.mensa.org/AML/?LinkServID=9C6D60CE-E081-4C23-C43F546F9F20DE10

for the puzzle.

Jayce said...

Yellowrocks said, "I thought the intended question last night was, What were you doing on November 22, 1963? I was surprised one else answered it seriously." You obviously didn't see my serious answer.

Yellowrocks said...

Jayce, last night I read your very interesting comment about 53 years ago. I surmised there was a mistake in the question and it was about 52 years ago. Your comment on that was vague. I wondered where you were and what you were doing.

Jayce said...

Cool puzzle. I liked it. I also had difficulty with the EVENS clue.
Anybody ever notice the similarity between Einstein's equation and the Newtonian equation E=MV^2 (the amount of kinetic energy in a moving object = its mass times the square of its velocity)? I think the symmetry and logic is beautiful.

desper-otto said...

YR, I plead guilty for asking the original question, and for getting the year wrong. That's where the 53 v 52 got started.

Tinbeni said...

Jayce re: November 22, 1963
We were letting my Father's Birthday Cake go stale, since it was His 44th Birthday,
but we weren't in the mood to celebrate.

VirginiaSycamore said...

Thanks for a fun puzzle Mr. McKay and write-up Argyle. I got the theme early and it really helped.

Argyle, after searching for drunken elves on Google images, your elf has enough friends to start a 12-step group at the North pole! There is a small group here in Cleveland, the 3rd city in the world to have AA.

The 12-step group here is called T.W.A., Toys with Addictions. If your elf-on-the-shelf is missing, he may be at his meeting in your locality.
I don’t know how to post picture so they show, but the links are:
TWA_MEETING
Elf reading the “Little Book”, the Toy version of the “Big Book”.
TOY_BIG_BOOK

Happy Holidays to all,
VS

CrossEyedDave said...

I can deal with 48D evens,
but SamL?

E=

MC

squared?

Bill G. said...

Jayce, I hadn't noticed the similarity between those two equations. Thanks for pointing it out. I think there a missing one-half in the KE equation as I remember it. I had a lot of trouble with the first year of physics at Cornell. Every test question looked different from the homework I had done and the lecture notes I had gone over. Then somewhere about the end of freshman year I realized that there were just a few important principles and all I had to do was figure out how to apply them to each new problem. It all began to click and I've loved it ever since.

Argyle said...

Google images of 'drunken shelf elves'. Some are a riot!

Lucina said...

I came home from the doctor's with the news that I have diabetes. It's distressing but the realization that it could be something worse is helping me deal with it. I've known for some time that I need to lose weight so this is a definite motive for it. But, sigh, I love to eat, especially sweets.

Does anyone with that problem have any tips or advice? I shall have to attend classes in a couple of weeks to learn more about it.

Jayce said...

Lucina, from my experience with diabetes I can advise you to:
(1) Cut out the sweets. Starting now.
(2) Avoid anything containing "corn sugar" or "high fructose corn syrup".
(3) Avoid foods containing processed or bleached flour, such as white bread.
(4) Cut way down on alcohol.
(5) Move around often. For example, every hour get up and walk from one end of your house to the other and back again.
(6) Get a blood test for "fasting glucose" and "A1C" at least twice a year. The class you will be going to might suggest you buy and use a blood glucose meter so you can keep an eye on it yourself at home. Personally I have found this to be unnecessary.
Diet and exercise is the key.

Lucina said...

Thank you, Jayce, that's a wonderful starting point and especially about the exercise.

Bill G. said...

More recently, my daughter Bonnie was taking the last couple of courses for her undergraduate degree and her teaching credential. She needed a lab science course appropriate for elementary teachers. Her college had rearranged their curriculum and nothing was offered when she needed it. They suggested going to the local junior college. The only thing they had available was a physics class but it was for science majors, not elementary teachers. So she would go to a summer class four days a week. Then she would come home feeling lost and we would spend another two or three hours poring over the material together. She did well enough that she could opt out of the final and pass with a C. I told her that she had earned a good enough grade to be proud of and that I hoped she would take the final and do her best. She did and ended up with an A minus or B plus as her final grade. I was very pleased with both of us.

VirginiaSycamore said...

Lucina,

I have type 2 and the best guide I have found is the web site “Blood Sugar 101 found here BLOOD_SUGAR_WEB_SITE

And a book form of the site is at Amazon.com. Make sure you get the 2012 updated version. Amazon says the Kindle ebook and the paperback are 2012.
AMAZON_BOOK
The author, Jenny Ruhl, has this information about herself
JENNY_RUHL

Her big push is to get a meter and know your numbers. The goal is to get to 150 or below an hour or two after meals which gives an A1C of 6.0 or below. This is the level which prevents complications. She gives practical advice from her experience, research articles and the sharing of other diabetics on web sites.

VS

SwampCat said...


Lucina, I agree with Jayce's advice. Diet and exercise have been the answer for me.

And the diet is not hard once you get used to it. I never even want bread any more...just lost my taste for it. Sugar is pretty much the same, although that was harder for me.

It's a change in attitude, but diabetes doesn't have to be a real problem. I hope you get good guidelines at the classes you are going to. Let us know how you are doing!

Abejo said...

Good evening, folks. Thank you, Clement McKay, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.

Worked no puzzles over he weekend, in Pennsylvania and too busy. Late last night I tried cruciverb and it worked, so I downloaded Monday's puzzle and worked it last night on my IPad. Today I tried to download Sunday's puzzle and could not get into the normal cruciverb site. Tried several times.

The puzzle was fine. Got through it easily. Couple tough ones, of course.

I had the same question about EVENS as many of you did. But, I accept the explanation of the two coins and EVENS vs ODDS. Sounds OK to me.

Really liked the theme. Excellent!

Didn't we have QUEEG recently? Not that I mind.

I am traveling back to Illinois now, passing through Pittsburgh as we speak. Hope to get the Sunday and Tuesday puzzles on the IPad. Also ave my book to read, Source, by James Michener.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

Anonymous T said...

Hi Puzzle Pals!

A speed run except for the NW. It took three alphabet runs to get 13 & 16a to x 5d. Whew!

Otherwise, it is a straightforward Monday w/ only a 1 SQUARE write-over (I started w/ AMm_ before checking perps). Thank you Clement for a fun pzl.

Argyle, the drunken ELF is LOL! Oh, and the write up was great too.

WEES re: EVENS - I've never called that in the air...

Fav - Theme and how 1st & last name crossed. Einstein, while brilliant, wouldn't accept Heisenberg's uncertainty. "God does not play (EVEN) dice."

CED - funny. Thanks for the cartoons.

Lucina - DW has been diagnosed 3 separate times w/ Type-2 (and then subsequently un-diagnosed w/ it). It was her thyroid. Not saying don't eat right & exercise, but don't go overboard w/ drugs & such. My $0.02.

The trebuchet saga continues. We did a little Ferris Beuller and spent an extra day building a bigger boat. So far, the ball goes about 10' up and 5' backwards.

Did anyone else find it funny that eHARMONY is over (trumps?) BIOLOGY? Not something I'd imagine a SCORPIO would put up with.

Cheers, -T

Anonymous T said...

Whoot! ~15'! We're 5' from a B. C, -T

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Very different type of theme. Good one! Thanks, Argyle, loved that rendition of CANON. WEES!

Montana, I was wondering today if you were on the road with all the reports of snow.

Lucina, they diagnosed me with Type 2 diabetes 20 years ago when I had been sugar bingeing after my husband's death. I cut out sugar, walked more, lost 20#. When I went back to the doctor who had diagnosed me, he couldn't figure out why I was asking about diabetes. My test results haven't shown any since, although I need to go in for tests again soon.

I want my kitty back. A mouse ran across my floor tonight during DWTS. I haven't seen a mouse in the 12 years I lived here and had the cat around. Yardman cleaned up all the leaves yesterday and we had the attached garage open. Today I left the door to the house open while I was carrying in groceries very briefly. Shudder! I want my kitty back. I don't need anything creepy crawly in my life right now with all my allergies.

Bill G. said...

Have you noticed the present champion on Jeopardy? She has an unusual manner of speaking. Her voice often sounds odd at the end of her sentences. I wonder where that mannerism came from?

AnonT, do you still think 30 feet is a reasonable goal?

Anonymous T said...

Bill G. Is it vocal fry, uptalk, or upspeak? More than you'd want to know about it. I heard it on NPR last summer.

Yes, 30', but not w/ this machine. It seems it will take ~4 lb to toss it that far. We have ~1.5lb and any more wt. would break our 1/2" x 1/2" boards structure (we've already bent the fulcrum). We needed a much bigger boat :-)

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

Thank you all for the advice. How lucky am I to belong to such a supportive and caring group! And it makes me realize how many of you have faced this battle in your lives, either yourself or someone you love. Kudos to you all, my friends.

Anonymous T said...

I'm going to second Lucina on our wonderful group of x-word eFriends. Eldest & I finshed the trebuchet at 23' and couldn't have done it w/ out Spitz, et. al. piping in to help. A great group we have here to share & learn.

HG - Airplane! One of my top 10 QUOTABLES (or was that Friday plz? - I've got to stop sniffing glue...)

Cheers, -T