archive for May of 2006

other Washington Post Sunday crossword, February 19 (contains answers)

Posted May 13, 2006 • Comments Off on Washington Post Sunday crossword, February 19 (contains answers)

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Title: Prez Clippings
Theme entries: presidential trivia

Examples:
22A, Carter was the first president ___: born in a hospital
3D, W.H. Harrison attended it: medical school

Things I learned, with web links so you can learn them too:

39A, Quince, e.g.: POME
2D, Coolidge translated it: Dante’s Inferno [this is noted on many websites, but I’m amused by the context on the one linked]
56D, Middle Eastern bigwig: AGHA
68D, Plum variety: GREENGAGE
85D, “Brat Farrar” author: TEY [I can never remember her]
91D, Marceau’s everyman: BIP
94D, Mesta superlative: MOSTEST
100D, Saint of Seville: ISIDORE
105D, Order from an 88 Across [tsar]: UKASE
117D, Casino game: FARO [This game is actually pretty fun. Play it here. Beautifully designed site, too.]

Overall:
I changed 3 squares and looked up 10 things.

general Sorry, not actual content (again) (still)

Posted May 13, 2006 • Comments Off on Sorry, not actual content (again) (still)

The episode of Friends (TOW Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs) is on where Ross can’t name all fifty states. You’re supposed to name them all in six minutes, and it’s supposed to be hard, and Monica only gets thirty-six, and so on and so forth.

Every time I see this bullshit I am compelled to play this game.

It took me almost two minutes this time. Granted, I only wrote the two-letter postal abbreviations, not the full names, but I do, in fact, know the names of all fifty states off the top of my head. I had a slight pause after 45 because I had skipped four of the big square ones in the West, but a few seconds later I realized which chunk I’d missed out. Then I had one missing and had to go back over the mental map before I realized I’d forgotten Ohio (the state I was born in; heh). But it didn’t take me all day. It didn’t take me six minutes. It took me less than two.

The following statement can really only make sense to someone who watches as much Friends as I do. (Julie?)

I find this episode completely unrealistic. These are supposed to be college-educated people!

technology Something useful I’m saving for later

Posted May 10, 2006 • Comments Off on Something useful I’m saving for later

Just read this on Woot! from a forum user named WindowPain:

———

If you currently have a 4:3 set and you want to know how big a 16:9 set you need to purchase so that you really do get a bigger picture, multiply your current set’s size by 1.22. For example, if you currently have a 32 inch 4:3 set you’d have to buy a 39 inch (OK, 40 inch) 16:9 set to get equivalent 4:3 picture size.

If you want to know the equivalent 4:3 picture size for 16:9 set multiply the 16:9 set’s diagonal measurement by 0.82.

HD promoters like to tak about how HD gives you a “bigger” picture. It’s only bigger if you buy an HD set sufficiently large so that its 4:3 picture is equivalent to your current 4:3 set’s picture.

If you were to go from a 32 inch 4:3 set to a 32 inch 16:9 set you’d actually be getting a total screen area that’s more than 10 percent smaller.

———

This earlier entry gets a different result from more math. I’m not sure what I did wrong, but it stands to reason that a 16:9 set, with a ratio of 1.77, with the same diagonal measurement as a 4:3 set, with a ratio of 1.33, would be less tall and overall smaller. Not even counting the fact that 4:3 sets have different measurements and “viewable” measurements.

general Centreville in the news

Posted May 9, 2006 • Comments Off on Centreville in the news

Officer Fatally Shot Outside Police Station

This event happened in my town, yesterday, while I was home from work. Fairfax County’s traffic advisory service sent me a message saying both my exit on 66 and the next one were closed, which is very rare indeed. Then Lisa, thinking I was on my way home from work soon, called me to say people had been shot at my police station, there was a manhunt going on for an escaped suspect, and I wouldn’t be able to get home, and I should just go to her house instead. I assured her I was home, and she told me to lock the doors and stay inside (presumably, away from the windows).

It was really very unreal and strange. In case you don’t get it, I provide this map from the article linked above, plus a copy I have edited for clarity.

other Washington Post Sunday crossword, February 12 (contains answers)

Posted May 8, 2006 • Comments Off on Washington Post Sunday crossword, February 12 (contains answers)

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Title: Way to Go
Theme entries: phrases that include a form of transportation [aside: “Well, a car could be blue!”] with another meaning

Example:
24A, Economical way to travel?: cheapSKATES
122A, Honeymooner’s way to travel?: bridal TRAIN

Things I learned, with web links so you can learn them too:

5A, Jokhang temple city: LHASA
21A, Fine fiddle: AMATI [This is a cool story; the first Amati designed the shape of the modern violin and was Stradivari’s teacher.]
28A, Word describing a quasar: STARLIKE
33A, Aleppo resident: SYRIAN
50A, Painter Andrea del ___: SARTO
52A, Dangerous way to travel?: FAULT PLANE [also a theme entry]
78A, Riis subject: SLUM
3D, Risky way to travel?: TRIAL BALLOON [also a theme entry]
13D, News twos: ITEMS [no idea. help!]
37D, Region of Spain: LEÓN
54D, Spiral shells: TRITONS
62D, “West Side Story” girl: ANITA
79D, Pouty look: MOUE
89D, Gimlet, e.g.: TOOL
95D, Cassandra, e.g.: SEER
110D, Heyward hero: PORGY
124D, Vichy, e.g.: SPA

Overall:
I changed 2 squares (so close!) and looked up 17 things (eek!).

media The TV convergences must stop

Posted May 8, 2006 • Comments Off on The TV convergences must stop

You remember how I was saying a while back that it’s really weird how all the same actors rotate through all the same great shows, with an emphasis on Joss Whedon shows? It’s back.

This week’s CSI featured Julie Benz. I had to stare at her and stare at her and even look her up before I realized she’s Darla. This is something I should’ve known at once.

And I’m now watching the final episode of 7th Heaven, a show I didn’t quite get into except when Lin was staying here and we watched a ton of the reruns. But I saw on a preview that Jessica Biel, who left the show amidst being a total whore depicted in the mainstream press wearing very little, was coming back for the last episode, and I wanted to see that. She’s awful pretty. And I notice the chick Simon is marrying looks very familiar. It’s Sarah Thompson, a name that rings no bells, except that she’s Eve from Angel. I just give up.

other Washington Post Sunday crossword, February 5 (contains answers)

Posted May 8, 2006 • Comments Off on Washington Post Sunday crossword, February 5 (contains answers)

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Title: Earsplitting
Theme entries: phrases that begin with E (or EA) and end with AR (or R)

Examples:
22A, The Les Paul, e.g.: ELECTRIC GUITAR
54A, Gung-ho type: EAGER BEAVER
102A, Like a spacewalk: EXTRAVEHICULAR

Things I learned, with web links so you can learn them too:

5A, Rummy group: MELD
27A, “Tru,” e.g.: PLAY [I have no idea. Someone explain this. Tru-Play is a term used by a couple brands of sports equipment, but that doesn’t really help here.]
43A, Dumbarton ___ (D.C. mansion): OAKS
61A, Lewis’s street: MAIN
93A, ICU readout: EEG [I always get this confused with EKG, which is heart, not brain]
112A, “Topper” pooch: NEIL
30D, Declare firmly: AVOUCH [I’m not sure why I didn’t know this word]
40D, Fragrant compound: ESTER
49D, Black Hawk‘s people: SAUKS
51D, Gets clean: LAVES
65D, Parkinson’s treatment: L-DOPA [I have no retention for this information and have looked it up several times in this space]
78D, Kitty player on “Gunsmoke”: AMANDA
82D, Hap Arnold, e.g.: GENERAL
97D, Prefix with resin: OLEO [this is in maybe 3 of every 4 crossword puzzles in the world and I finally decided to look it up]

Overall:
I changed 9 squares and looked up 14 things.

other Washington Post Sunday crossword, January 22 (contains answers)

Posted May 8, 2006 • Comments Off on Washington Post Sunday crossword, January 22 (contains answers)

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Title: Inside the Beltway
Theme entries: phrases that can be read as containing references to Washington institutions

Example:
103A, Senate worker after a banquet?: FULL PAGE
64A, Advisers moonlighting as manicurists?: FILING CABINET

Things I learned, with web links so you can learn them too:

33A, Former Chicago conductor: SOLTI
57A, Valletta’s land: MALTA
71A, Rwanda’s capital: KIGALI [you’ll note the G is missing; I couldn’t remember at the time]
101A, Waterfall effect: SUNBOW
113A, Seine feeder: OISE
5D, Teammate of Duke: PEEWEE [though I’d heard of both of them, I didn’t know what team they played for]
25D, Tim of old oaters: HOLT
61D, Showy lilies: SEGOS [see 71A]
74D, Ill-gotten loot: PELF
93D, A Grover veep: ADLAI [this is flabbergasting to me; I had no idea the one from the 1950s was a political scion.]
102D, Citrus hybrid: UGLI

Overall:
I changed 4 squares and looked up 11 things.

family Sunday

Posted May 7, 2006 • Comments Off on Sunday

Today we went to Glen Echo Park and rode the carousel. What a sweet old place. Lovely carousel, tons and tons of children running around having fun, art galleries, yurts, all at the middle of a very pretty drive. I have pictures (and movies) and will post them when I get around to it.

In my reading tonight, I discovered Arwen got three kittens yesterday.

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family Today

Posted May 6, 2006 • Comments Off on Today

Today we went to a really great house museum called Hillwood, way up in extreme northwest DC. Beautiful house, amazing collection of Russian imperial art (much of which properly belongs in Russia, if you ask me), gorgeous gardens. Excellent audio tour. Just a lovely, lovely place.

Then we went to Lake Fairfax park, where my parents are camping. Along the way in, we saw a sign saying “Cricket Fields,” and we figured those were sports fields named after some guy called Cricket. Or something. On the way out we went up, and lo and behold, dudes playing cricket. Mostly Indian or other South Asian. The three of us were the only observers who weren’t players (not counting what looked like a couple of wives and three or four young children). One very nice young man took the time to explain the rules of the game (score when we left: 200 to 47) and make small talk with my dad about the RV and satellite television.

Both those things were completely delightful and completely strange. Neither was what we expected. My understanding of cricket, which I had never seen played before, has at least quadrupled. I’m smarter than I was this morning.

Plus? I’m not as damned as I thought I was.



Your Deadly Sins
Envy: 60%
Sloth: 60%
Gluttony: 40%
Greed: 40%
Lust: 40%
Pride: 40%
Wrath: 40%
Chance You’ll Go to Hell: 46%
You will die at the hands of a jealous lover. How ironic.
How Sinful Are You?

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