Monday, February 20, 2023

Monday, February 20, 2023, Emily Carroll

Well, this is a funny coincidence. Just yesterday, I changed a fuse in this very house! I'm at my Dad's, for reasons I won't go into, and my sister and I each had just started our coffee makers (hers is a drip, mine a Nespresso), and at the same time she poured some cold coffee into a mug and popped it in the microwave so she didn't have to wait the interminable minutes until her drip coffee was ready. All three were on the same circuit, and as soon as she hit the Start button, everything went off, the lights went out and, obviously, all was chaos. The first thing we did was plug each coffee maker into a different circuit, then I went down cellar to look for a new 15-Amp fuse.

On of the old-fashioned FUSEBOXES

But Ms. Carroll wasn't really talking about fuses at all. She was talking about fusing different kinds of boxes together. SOAPOPERA (Daytime television drama) puts a soap box and an opera box together. TINDERMATCH (Romantic prospect after swiping right) combines a tinderbox with a matchbox. Let's hope the second is a toy car, otherwise we've got a dangerously flammable situation! 

In the fill, who doesn't enjoy seeing a BLUEJAY, an AZALEA in bloom, the feeling of RAPTURE, or a HOTTODDY? I just had a day-old doughnut with my coffee and it was unsatisfying. I would have preferred a SCONE, I think, and I'm not even that crazy about scones. 

Remember back when you had to change money all over Europe? When Frannie and I had a Eurail pass back in the day, we tried to make those American Express Travellers Checks last as long as we could, which meant only cashing the very bare minimum in each country. Our greatest triumph was leaving Spain with just three PESETA.

Finally, I was reminded of a lesson I should have learned long ago - don't just guess at the spelling of a name you don't know. I had ERI_ for "Actor La Salle" and I just put in a "c" without really thinking. It took me almost two minutes after filling in the grid to realize that it should have been a Q to make SQUEEZETOY. Sigh. Hopefully, I will remember this at the A.C.P.T.!

- Horace

2 comments:

  1. On that Eurail trip, we made extensive use of that now-obsolete item a paper MAP. We also had difficulty catching any quality ZEES, occasionally resorting to random overnight trains to avoid paying for other accommodations. And one time, when we did shell out for a place to stay, we ended up in a trailer that shared its power supply with a kids ride in the form of an donkey, or ASS. Good times.

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  2. Our "back-in-the-day" Eurail trip was in 1989. So long ago!! Much the same penny-saving, analog-navigating experience as you. I couldn't remember whether it was ERIC or ERIK LaSalle, so I filled in the ERI and forgot about it, so no time wastage there. 2:40 - speedy even for a Monday.. helped along with the felicitous BLUEJAY right off the top..

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