google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, March 2, 2018, David Alfred Bywaters

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Mar 2, 2018

Friday, March 2, 2018, David Alfred Bywaters


Title: Where have all the Ws gone, long time passing...

DAB is back with a letter removal puzzle. His reveal is more complicated as each "W" is part of a phrase that begins with "SW." Hence the reveal. This seems mostly easy for a Friday, but the consistency of the theme and having three grid-spanners makes it a thing of beauty. I enjoyed the long ones, with SINGING BOTH WAYS my favorite. The remaining fill was typical of a puzzle with 66 squares dedicated to theme with OPENHANDED,  SPARE TIRES, AVOIDED and EMBASSY the long ones, BRIBED and BROODS interesting ones.


17A. Ratting to the cops and carrying a tune? : SWINGING BOTH WAYS (15). Both kinds of Singing.

24A. Dupe gatherings? : SWAP MEETS (8). Where the pigeons are plucked.

39A. What rain may do to a bad toupee? : SWEEP UNDER THE RUG (15). Wonderful image of rain water on a bald man.

51A. Place to buy a chair? : SWEAT SHOP (8). Not a PC term.

62A. Cowboy outfit? : SWADDLING CLOTHES (15). A new born changes into a cowboy.

71A. Deli cheese ... or, in three parts, a hint to the five longest across puzzle answers: SWISS (5) you have to parse this as SW-IS-S. S replaces SW.

ACROSS:

1. Leftover bit in a basket: CRUMB. The bread basket.

6. Taken out by Buffy? : SLAIN. She was known as the SLAYER.

11. Farm home: STY. Two weeks in a row.

14. Lash LaRue's "Frontier Revenge,"e.g.: OATER. Since the stars of the movies were horses and they ate oats. Should be easy after Steve's write-up yesterday.


15. Critical circulation aid: AORTA. You know this as the main artery of the body, supplying oxygenated blood to the circulatory system. In humans it passes over the heart from the left ventricle and runs down in front of the backbone.

16. Op lead-in: PRE.

20. Chem. class suffix: IDE.

21. Buddy type: BOSOM.  Who recalls this career launching series?  LINK

22. Scots Gaelic: ERSE. Repeat. Along with 55A. Sounds of hesitation : ERS. No common link. Or maybe 35D. Romain de Tirtoff, famously : ERTE.

23. More than moist: WET.

27. Kept away from: AVOIDED.

31. National Grandparents' Day mo. : SEPT. The first Sunday after Labor Day. HISTORY.

32. Trumpet players? : LIPS. Lips are key to all wind instruments, I believe.

33. Regions : AREAS.

36. RN workplace : ICUIntensive Care Unit.

43. Hold one's __ : OWN.

44. Cook in the oven : ROAST.

45. Walk unsteadily : REEL.

46. Prince in "Frozen" : HANS. Spoiler alert.

48. Diplomat's headquarters : EMBASSY.

56. Forearm part : ULNA. The outside bone, the radius is on the outside. I fractured my radius two years go.

57. Last European colony in Asia : MACAO. Macau also spelled Macao and officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the western side of the Pearl River estuary in East Asia. in 1887 the Portuguese finally managed to secure an agreement from China that Macao was Portuguese territory, ending 330 years of uncertainty. In 1999 it was handed over to China. Macau was the last extant European territory in continental Asia.

59. Dallas sch. : SMUSouthern Methodist University.

66. Consumed : ATE.

67. Like many squawkers : AVIAN. Birds.

68. Immerse completely : DOUSE. More water.

69. Nickname for Edward : NED.

70. Cruel sort: MEANY. Seems like a silly word.

Down:

1. "__ fan tutte": COSI.

2. Prohibition surprise : RAID.

3. __ Reader : UTNE.

4. Not much memory, these days : MEG.  I bought a computer for my sons in 1992. A "Portable" computer of the time period, something like a Compaq LTE weighed six pounds, which had a i386 CPU, a 9.5" display (smaller than the size of the iPad's) and VGA graphics (640x480). We are now up to Terrabytes.

5. Greased : BRIBED.

6. Droops : SAGS.

7. University of New Mexico team : LOBOS.

8. Kitchen drawer? : AROMA. A classic hidden heteronym misdirection, that which draws (entices) people to the kitchen.

9. U.S. manufacturer founded as a communications co. in 1920 : ITT.

10. "Don't think so!" : NAH.

11. Trunks often contain them : SPARE TIRES. As do many WalMart customers.

12. Private meeting : TRYST.

13. Approvals : YESES.

18. F-sharp, for one : NOTE. This clu/fill leavce me flat.

19. "Willow __ for Me": jazz standard : WEEP. The two Ws here are fine because they are not attached to an S.

23. Bit of smoke : WISP.

25. H.S. junior's exam : PSAT. Standardized tests for pratice.

26. Net fabric : MESH.

27. Too : ALSO.

28. Condo selling point : VIEW.

29. Generous : OPEN HANDED. Dictionary: 1(of a blow) delivered with the palm of the hand.
"an openhanded slap to the side of the face. " 2. giving freely; generous."openhanded philanthropy"

30. Duchamp genre : DADA. He was a true pioneer. LINK.

34. Legal thing : RES.

37. Parlor sticks : CUES. Billiard parlor.

38. Like some moods : UGLY.

40. Footed vases : URNS.

41. On-the-run bite : NOSH. One of many Yiddish terms incorpoated in our culture.

42. Big periods : ERAS.

47. The teensiest bit : A TAD.

49. Nourishment provider : MEAL.

50. Stews (over) : BROODS. Who does not love a great BROODING HERO.

51. 1940s-'60s top-10 girl's name that ranked 922nd in 2016 : SUSAN. Hi, Hahtoolah.

52. Thrill : ELATE. A favorite word of our fearless leader.

53. __ vincit amor : OMNIA. Love conquers all.

54. Certain polytheist : PAGAN. Pagan definition, (no longer in technical use) one of a people or community observing a polytheistic religion, as the ancient Romans and Greeks.

58. Sch. in Harlem : CCNYCity College of New York.

59. Feng __ : SHUI. 2018 UPDATE.

60. Slob's production : MESS.

61. Versatility list : USES.

63. On the __: hiding : LAM. A CSO to John Lampkin.

64. "__ had it!" : I'VE.

65. Drag behind : TOW.


March has arrived, was a lamb or a lion where you live? Here it was still spring, perhaps a touch to warm, but the 60s are coming back. Thank you David and all who read and/or write. Lemonade out.


48 comments:

Argyle said...

My fastest Friday in a long time.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Same here. Flew through it. However, the puzzle’s execution is still superb.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Spelled MACAO with a U and tried ATOM before A TAD, but otherwise it was a smooth slide to the bottom. Thanx, David and Lemonade.

ULNA: Broke both bones in my right wrist. Twice. Both times in phys ed class.

CSO to DW at 51D. She was never a Sue or a Susie. CSO to me at 11D, with my "spare tire."

KS said...

Sailed through the puzzle in record time. Didn't get the theme. I guess I didn't need it to solve it. Nice puzzle.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, missing the WAG at Natick OcNIA x cACAO. Still a fun puzzle, my favorite being "trumpet players" for LIPS. When I caught the theme I thought of the Clinton lackeys who pried the "W" keys off a bunch of the White House keyboards on their way out. I missed the fact that they all started with "S".

When I filled in SUSAN I thought of the song "Suzie Q", but couldn't remember the artist. While searching I ran across a long list of artists who have covered the catchy tune.

ITT sued my company to get us to sell or spin off our manufacturing businesses like Sylvania. Had they prevailed my path and Abejo's might never have crossed.

My first computer was an Apple II with 48 kilobytes of memory. I still have it. I had to upgrade when a mainframe I logged into remotely needed lower case letters, and the Apple had only SHOUTING keys.

Thanks DAB and Lemonade. Fun outing.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Make that FIW, not FIR.

BobB said...

Easy Friday. My first computer was a Commodore Vic21 with 1K of memory. Surprisingly you could do quite a bit using Basic programming language.

inanehiker said...

I'm with Dudley- a faster solve than usual for a Friday - but theme , grid all - a thing of beauty.

Thanks Lemonade and Daivd!

Our day will be sunny on the coolish side in the low 50s as a high!

Big Easy said...

Was that vain bald-headed buzzard (like ME) SINGING BOTH WAYS on the way to the rodeo as the rain SEEPed UNDER THE RUG, just maybe getting his SADDLING CLOTHES wet? I dunno but the missing W was an easy spot after the SAP MEETS. "Willow WEEP for ME", OMNIA, ERTE and DADA-perps. I had ATOM before A TAD, which was my only change.

Wanted OPEN HEARTED but it wouldn't fit. I've never heard of OPEN HANDED in the sense of being 'Generous'. Maybe Open WALLET.

MEG- I remember when 'core' was measured in K, not mega, giga, or terabytes. And it cost six figures too. As far as I'm concerned, the cost of the computer these days is close to zero. You pay more for internet access.

JINX- SUZIE-Q was CCR's first hit. If 'ANON-T' is listening, it was composed by Stan Lewis, who owned the Stan's Record Shop in Shreveport. MY first computer? IBM-1130 that required an expensive 80-column keypunch, card reader, and blazing 30 lpm printer.

billocohoes said...

AORTA seems more like a circulation path rather than an aid

Is there a “PC” term for SWEATSHOP? Seems accurate to me.

Yellowrocks said...

After doing most of the top third, I skipped to the bottom and came across SW Is S. That made the rest of the puzzle easy. Very enjoyable. I liked kitchen drawer. Nice expo, Lemon.
My first experience with computers was in the school where I taught. We had TRS 80's with 1K memory.
It seems that here on the Corner Walmart customers are portrayed as mostly X-large. Reading that, I have checked out our Walmart several times and have found the usual mix of sizes that you see everywhere else, S, M L, XL with plenty of small and medium customers.
With OPEN, I guessed HANDED right away. Openhearted doesn't mean generous exactly, but "expressing or displaying one's warm and kindly feelings without concealment." I am sure that many openhearted people are also open handed.

I didn't understand the PC reference either.

jfromvt said...

Took me a little longer to finish than some of the other commenters. Some obscure down answers, like COSI, OMNIA, SHUI, really don't care for puzzles that have them. But once I got the theme, was able to finish the puzzle, even though the SW-IS-S answer never clicked for me. Did two puzzles yesterday, as my paper published the 2/21 puzzle on 2/28, then made up for it yesterday and had both 2/28 and 3/01 puzzles. Need a break...lol...

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Overall, this was fairly easy for a Friday with a theme that was evident early on. Had a few hiccups, though: Fluff/Crumb (Basket morphed into a lint filter,), TCU/SMU, CUNY/CCNY, and Atom/A tad. I thought the theme and reveal Sw is S was quite clever.

Thanks, David, for a very doable and enjoyable solve and thanks, Lemony, for guiding us along.

There is about 6 " of snow on the ground and it's still coming down. It's very windy and several thousands are without power. I'm so happy to be inside. I am due to have a grocery order delivered berween 9:00-11:00 but I doubt it will be here on time. No problem, as I'm not going anywhere.

Have a great day.

Lucina said...

YESES on a beautiful grid! Thank you, David A. Bywaters. No dreck anywhere.

What a quick and easy romp. SAWPMEET gave me the missing W gimmick. Hand up for MACAU before MACAO which seemed wrong.

I see SPARETIRES on people everywhere not just Walmart.

My mother used to tell me that she and my father had a regular TRYST in church as they weren't allowed to meet. Her parents meant her to marry another person. They lit many candles throughout their courtship.

Thank you, Lemonade, for yet another fine analysis.

I wish you a fabulous day, everyone!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Once the theme fill was done, the rest was relatively easy for a Friday as most have said.
SLAIN - Seems akin to Dutch 'slaan'
EMBASSY - In my previous life, I was privileged to attend occasional receptions at the residence of the US ambassador to Canada in Ottawa, and of the Canadian ambassador to the US in D.C.

IM - Snow is still coming down here. We've got 6-10" so far.

Unknown said...

Nice job David and Lemony. Only stumble was atom/a tad. Oblivious to theme until tada. Years ago, I would time my completion for all four puzzles. J/S/C/C, to the second. This would have been a good day to resurrect that nerve racking habit.

desper-otto said...

1KB computer memory? Really? The operating system probably required more than that. I've heard of 4KB and 8KB computers, but never 1KB.

Big Easy, Dale Hawkins had a hit with Suzy-Q in '58, a full ten years before CCR.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I went through many definitions of GREASED and DRAWER before I struck paydirt
-I’ll bet a trumpet player’s embouchure is in every spelling bee
-Joann bought a ROAST that was way too big and so when she got it out of the freezer I cut it with my circular SAW.
-EMBASSY diplomats in NYC don’t worry about these
-Some think Dowsing rods can help find water for DOUSING
-Name with the most nicknames? How ‘bout Elizabeth: Liz, Lizzy, Eliza, Ellie, Beth, E, El, Betty, etc.
-In England one keeps SPARE TYRES in the boot
-What? Chad and Jeremey didn’t write Willow Weep For Me
-MESH I see High School hallways these days
-Would a slob ever use Feng SHUI?
-NYC spare tire issues!

Yellowrocks said...

DO You're correct. The early TRS 80's had 4K not 1.
It rained during the night, changing to snow at 7:30 AM. It has been snowing hard ever since. The plow just came by for the first time on the cross street. Our development hires its own plow operators who have not yet shown up. Some people in our town have power outages but we have been lucky so far.

Picard said...

Hand up for MACAU before MACAO. Amusing comment about WalMart customers, Lemonade. Not PC but true.

Fun theme. I had to completely finish before I got it to mean: SW IS S

What is the usual meaning of SWINGING BOTH WAYS? Did anyone else get stuck thinking it was something about SINGING IN THE RAIN?

Agree that SWEAT SHOP is very descriptive. Learning moment that SUSAN became so rare. Definitely common in my generation.

On Wednesday I took this visiting professor for a hike to get a good VIEW.

We each got a VIEW of the other on a rather precarious perch. Gotta run now!

Irish Miss said...

Spitz @ 9:20 ~ It's still snowing here, also, and it looks like about 9 or 10", so far. The plow has been through twice on the main street, but the driveways have to wait for the HOA's plowing service. I got lucky, though, with my grocery delivery. The driver came at 10:00, although he did say that he almost didn't make it up the hill leading to my development. He was going to use a different route on his departure. (I just hope we don't lose power.)

Stay safe and warm everyone!

oc4beach said...


I didn't get the theme until Lemon explained it. It was a Friday level puzzle, but otherwise it was not a bad puzzle to solve. Perps, as usual, filled in the unknowns.

A few hitches along the way: ERS vs ICU, TCU vs SMU, TED vs NED, MACAU vs MACAO, and it took a while for LIPS to sink in.

The first computer(s) we had at home were two Commodore VIC20s with 5KB of memory (not 1KB) for each kid. They had a lot of fun with them. My first home computer was a Commodore 64 which was a pretty good game machine for the day. I graduated to a MAC in the 80's before the many PCs that followed. Most all of them are in boxes in the basement along with the ATARI console. DW wants me to get rid of them, but I haven't been able to do it.

HG: How did you do last night with your CPAP machine. I hope all went well.

High winds and snow today. I'm really very, very, very tired of this winter. C'mon Spring.

IM and all who are in this Nor'easter, stay warm and dry. I hope those who are not in it are enjoying your weather.


Husker Gary said...

Musings
-oc4beach – Thanks for asking. I am getting very comfortable with the nosepiece as I adjusted it slightly and it allows me to turn 360˚ without any problems. Oddly, I did not seem to sleep for a long time according to the clock but I woke up with a clearer head and felt more refreshed than what I have had for a long time and DID NOT SNORE. I feel my heart and brain are seeing a lot more oxygen than they have for a while. Sleep’s a funny thing

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thanks for a fun & amusing puzzle, David. Thanks for your expo, Lemonade.

Caught on to the theme early which helped fill the rest. Never saw the SW IS S reveal clue at all until I came to the corner. Perps filled it and I failed to read it.

Yay, I remembered UTNE for once. First time. That ELATES me.

I played trumpet as a kid (well, cornet) and was also very LIPpy. Clue was a gimmee.

My first computer was a MAC purchased in 1985 when the newspaper I was writing for computerized. No idea how much memory it had. That meant I could write up night meetings when I got home and take the stories into work the next day on floppy disc. Boy, we were impressed with the desktop publishing arrangement.

IM: So glad you got groceries. You'll need plenty of tummy fuel with all that snow. We are having spring-like weather here. I actually went out and picked up sticks in my yard the other day in an effort to reduce my SPARE TIRE and make my yard neater while imbibing on fresh air.

Misty said...

Woohoo! Woohoo! I got a Friday David AB puzzle without a single error or cheat! Yay! A great way to end what had actually been a bit of a tough puzzle week for me. Many thanks, David. Since I also had trouble with the Diabolical Sudoku, even the Kenken and the Jumble this morning, this puzzle was my salvation. And I even got the theme! Woohoo!

Lots of fun clues--"taken out by Buffy" and "Trumpet players" among my favorites. "Greased" for BRIBED was fun too. Great write-up, as always, thank you too, Lemonade.

Lucina, I loved hearing about your parents' church TRYSTs.

Have a great weekend coming up, everybody!

CrossEyedDave said...

Fastest Friday?
Flew through?
Sailed through?
#@&*%$
This puzzle killed me!

Got the theme answers alright, but was totally stuck on the multi Natick
of omnia/macao/ccny. The reveal that "Swiss" was in 3 parts went right over my head also...

Snowing here, but ground to warm, not sticking(yet).

1st computer? I guess mine was a later version of this gizmo.
Played Space Invaders,Missle Command,Defender, and all the Atari arcade games,
but you could also create your own computer programs using its keyboard.
Very rudimentary, something about (128 byte) maximum RAM that was a barrier for so long.

Does anyone remember that RAM barrier? could not have a computer with more ram
for some unknown technical reason I cannot find a history of...
(or was it basic memory?)

Anywho, my 1st flight sim was on this thing,
a green background with vertical sticks you could fly around.

Then came this...

Now (from 2 years ago) this guy built this in his home???

A favorite bit of nostalgia (for me) was playing a flight sim game in the 80's
on the Atari, that was black and white. You flew biplanes (that looked like a white cross, or a fly) to drop bombs across a river on the enemy side.
The game board was a very small grid square, and had and outline of mountain barriers on two sides.

I have been searching for it for years, but cannot find it online.
Anyone remember this game?

Lemonade714 said...

Looking for more solving fun, C.C. scripted today's Chronicle of Higher Education crossword. It is fun and there is a nice WRITE-UP at the Fiend.

AnonymousPVX said...

Crunch week lives....and I never saw the gimmick despite getting the solve.

I realize everybody knows everyone here, except for us newer folks, but I have no idea of the location anyone is talking about when they start talking about the weather, snowfall amounts, etc.

Lemonade714 said...

PVX, Husker Gary has created and has published on the blog home page as the first item under "OLIO" a map of the general areas where people live, including you. It does not reference any recent updates, but we do have regulars all across the US. C.C. is in Minnesota, HG in Nebraska, many in New England, a whole bunch in Texas and Florida and California.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Congrats to Misty, Lucina, and all who had a pure Ta- DA! today. You beat me, as I'm confessing to a cheat on LOBOS. I wanted to go with HOYAS, but figured UNM is probably a state school, so I held back. But when I couldn't crack the perps I needed a leg up.
I did it, so I gotta sing!

Otherwise, I found this a most satisfying pzl. I enjoyed the mis-directions, even the filler clues ("Sounds of hesitation"). Thank you, Mr. Prepositional aquatics, er... Bywaters!

Thanks, Lemon, esp. for parsing SWISS for us.
____________
Diagonal Report: Just one, the center mirror line NE to SW. The possible message (an anagram) is: DRAT, YE SEEM AN ASS.

Yellowrocks said...

This is a strange storm. C.E. Dave and I both live in NJ, about 15 miles apart. The snow has been piling up here for the past seven hours, but Dave's snow is melting when it touches the ground. The snow is so plastered to my screens and windows that I can hardly see out.
This morning we had a power outage lasting a few minutes while I was online. When I turned the computer on again my wireless mouse wouldn't work. Finally, I thought to check the battery and that was the problem.
I think I will turn my heat up for a few hours. I have semi-solar heat plus electric. If the power fails tonight I will have residual heat to draw on. I ordinarily keep the house on the cool side.
Stay warm and safe.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Misty from yesterday - thanks for your good wishes re. my stress test. I trust your results were/are good, and I look forward to hearing good news on mine. While I was lying there, half dozing, I had a wave of fresh appreciation for modern medicine.

While I think our crazy multi-layered system for financing health is truly inane & corrupt, I cannot complain about today's advances in techniques and procedures. There I was, being checked way ahead of any actual problem, in order to head it off if one should occur.
Our parents and grandparents were left on their own to meet the ravages of age. We have all these machines and people and, if need be, supplementary gadgets to stave off that ol' reaper.
We can't beat him, but we'll fight a pretty fair holding game.

Misty said...

Ol'Man Keith, I hope you get great results from your stress test, as I did on mine a little while ago. You're so right about how lucky we are to be able to get information on possible conditions before they strike, and while they may still be prevented or mitigated. We owe a lot to researchers and doctors who have made and make this possible.
Have a great day!

CanadianEh! said...

Friday fun. Thanks David and Lemonade.

P&P required but I say the SW to S early which helped the solve. But I did not parse the 3 parts of SWISS until I got here.

Picard @10:44 asked about the usual meaning of SWINGING BOTH WAYS. I had wondered about a definition I had in my head but thought that it was surely too unPC for Rich to allow. Google gave me a dictionary definition "enjoying sexual relations with both sexes". Or there is a link to a Robbie Williams album of that name- I'll leave you to LIU!

On the other hand, BOSOM crossing SAGS was appropriate. Or SPARE TIRE as d-otto has commented.

After a start in preOp and surgery, if one doesn't hold one's OWN, one may end up in ICU.

We had STY and MESS today instead of Neat.
Favourite misdirection today was that kitchen drawer!

Picard- loved that VIEW. Looks like a rocky climb.
Stay safe and warm all you in the path of the snow. We got about 25 cm. (10 inches) of heavy snow which stuck to all the trees and made it look like fairyland ( or Frozen). So our March came in like a lion.

Michael said...

Must be Computer Nostalgia Week here ... my first one was a Sinclair (ZX-something-or-other?), then I went to a Kaypro II. Loved that machine, because it was the last one I could understand and trace the circuitry on (now there's 80 bazillion transistors and NAND gates and such on one chip, and the whole thing fits on one freckle).

Even better, the OS (CP/M) would completely fit on one track of a 180K floppy, and was also understandable! So different from today's graphics-heavy OS's.

Good puzzle today -- I even got the theme before reading Lemonade's explication!

CanadianEh! said...

Should we be worried that fermatprime, OwenKL and Dave 2 haven't checked in here yesterday or today as yet?
CMoe said he would be MIA for a week.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Move over Jinx... You had a C in box 57 and I had a P... FIW. I would have finished it wrong anyway - I should have know you don't spell PAGAN [1:37] with an E.

I caught the theme at SAP MEETS. SEEP UNDER THE RUG confirmed my suspicion. It did take a bit to parse SW IS S for the Hah! Thanks David for a fun puzzle. Ya' got me but the sparkle, called out by Lem, was worth it.

Thanks for the expo Lem. I remember BOSOM Buddies... Don't know now why I thought it a good show :-)

WOs: I'VE in LAM's squares, SUNY b/f CCNY
ESPs: COSI, LOBOS, HANS
Fav: I kinda gotta chuckle out of RAID re: Prohibition

FLN - LOL Rick!
HG, Misty, & OMK - good to hear modern-medicine is working it's magic. Rock on!

Jinx - While trying to figure out 51d's "girl's name" I started going through the catalogue of songs from that ERA. I had the U from ULNA and wanted ATE @66a but didn't commit... The first song that popped into my head was Suzie Q [CCR studio version]. Only took another 8 seconds to think of Susan :-). Thanks for the tie to Shreveport, LA BigE.

CED - I recall a memory-barrier in DOS where you'd have to Load HIGHMEM=512 or some-such to get some things to run (Windows 3.0 (yuch!) comes to mind - I used WIn3 for a day and then went back to DR-DOS).

The fist computer I owned was a 386-25DX (yeah!, w/ a math-coprocessor, baby!) tricked-out w/ 4 MEG of RAM and a 40MB HD. Before I could afford my OWN, I had to borrow time on everyone else's computers (sometimes, even with their permission :-)). First programmed on TRS-80, Vic20, Apple ][e, and Illinois mainframe in SPI.

Y'all up NE getting this nor'easter - we feel you. I talked with a guy in Boston this AM - he was flooded in, working from home, and said 'wicked-winds'. Then he paused for a second, "wait, you're in Houston, I'll shuddup about our rain."

Y'all Stay warm and dry!

Cheers, -T

PK said...

Correction: I bought my first computer in 1988. CED: I remember that early flight simulator well. I never played it, but my son installed it on the MAC and went off to college. He pulled all the RAM to that game and when I tried to print out my year's worth of bookwork to do income tax from the reports for three different businesses, they garbled and wouldn't print out. I was in the process of redoing them painstakingly by hand when the kid came home from college. My husband asked him if he knew anything to do to help me. "Sure," he said and went into the computer and clicked a few places. VOILA, I could print out my Quicken reports. He's the USAF pilot, retired, mechanical engineer and still a computer whiz. I'm the computer dunce who can't figure out much of anything.

YR: I'm thinking of you with all that white stuff. I couldn't even watch the Olympic skiing because all that snow made me too cold. I'm glad we haven't had any deep stuff (knock on wood) yet. However, I remember the year I brought my oldest son home from the hospital, it had snowed heavily the second week in April.

CanadianEh: I was wondering about Fermatprime too. At least, we know she's not snowed under.

Anonymous T said...

Didn't refresh before posting says...

Michael - YESES! Abstraction upon abstraction -- the antithesis of security's K.I.S.S. principle. If you're familiar Meltdown/Spectre you can see where this gets us (and don't get me started on web-based "resources" in code!)

I thought about Fermat & OKL too. OKL sometimes drops-off for a spell; Fermat not so much. We'll round a possy soon (she might be on the game that she keeps trying to retain #1 on).

C, Eh! - I forgot to address Picard's Q. You did nicely - I won't :-). There's a line in Beck's "Where It's At" that goes:
"What about those who SwING BOTH WAYS? AC-DC's?"

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

I'm sending WARM thoughts to all you who are snowbound or otherwise inconvenienced by the snowfall. Stay warm and safe!

Misty@11:51
Thank you for your nice thoughts about my parents' TRYSTs. Maybe it's the aging process but I think more and more about them these days. Or maybe I just have time on my hands. My father died at age 34 from the ravages of TB. What modern medicine could have done for him! It's sad to think that he did not enjoy a fullness of life with us, his children or later progeny. The grands and great-grands are delightful people and he would have loved them.

Picard said...

CanadianEh: Glad you enjoyed the VIEW! We call that area "Rocky Pine Ridge" for obvious reasons. Some people call it The Rock Garden. No CONDO up there!

Yes, I am familiar with the sexual preference meaning of SWINGING BOTH WAYS. Yes, it seemed a bit surprising puzzle content. That is why I was wondering if it had another meaning?

AnonT: Thanks for keeping an eye out for this question, too.

Was I the only one who got stuck thinking it had to do with SINGING IN THE RAIN?

Terry said...

MITS Altair was my first home computer. 64k max memory, 8080 CPU and you had to use toggle switches to input the boot code. Now those were the days...

Anonymous T said...

Terry - In my book you just won. I saw one of those in the back of the lab at LA Tech... It wasn't plugged in but I could see exactly how the thing worked up to the the chip (because I knew Zylog's circuitry I extrapolated :-))

Picard -
1) no worries. I read everyone and take NOTEs on what to say... Sometimes, I forget to consult them fully. //I'll scratch off what someone else already answered.
2) I thought of it but had SINGING-O[I want T for ITT...][H or W for Nah|Naw]W (? - I thought no W's )AYS -- so Rain was right-out.
3) did you catch my phasing of Q* - just for you :-).

Cheers, -T
*too meta? - Encounter at Farpoint dude! :-)

Yellowrocks said...

Steve, I hope you got a flight out of New York and arrived in LA okay. I don't know how you handle all that air travel.

Anonymous T said...

Oops Terry - I just LUI and it seems I pulled a "what Jayce said FLN" about speaking too soon with some knowing :-). Altar 8800 was based on Intel's 8080 chip (based on the earlier Z80) but the computer I was thinking of is a big stand-up unit - with toggles and lights... not a 'little' box like the 8800 was. -T

Lucina said...

Picard:
I also wanted to mention the gorgeous view! It's spectacular!

Note to self: DWAD, do what anon-t does, write a note on what I want to comment. Aging is not fun.

Steve, I also wonder how you handle all that travel. I hope you are now in L.A.

I've been waiting for a plumber who is supposed to arrive by 5, it's now 4:53, to install my new toilet and we are planning to go out to eat. Arrrgh. The best laid plans . . . . . . .

Misty said...

Lucina, how terribly sad to hear of your father's so early loss-what a tragedy for you and your entire family. Every memory must therefore be something to cherish and I'm so glad you have such lovely ones. Thank you for letting me know.

Picard said...

Lucina: Thank you for the kind words about the VIEW! I am sorry that your father died so young of something that indeed could be treated today. But he and your mother must have had a wonderfully romantic time by having a forbidden TRYST!

AnonymousT: Sorry for being dense. I am quite familiar with "Encounter at Farpoint" and the character Q in that episode. But I must have missed something you said that made reference to it?

Thanks to all who brought up memories of early computers. I had one of those Sinclair kits and I still have it in a drawer. I later had one of those computers that had to be programmed with switches. I learned a lot that way about the raw details of the microprocessor. Made me appreciate having an assembler and later a compiler. Yes, we crammed a lot into a few K of memory!