A Fool and His Money

[Wendy Walker]

Off the couch with a chuckle. And thanks for the shout-out, @Clark E. Tripe -- I had a great time making your b-day puzzle!

[hcbirker]

OTC. Loved the intro!

[sharkicicles]

Still haven’t cracked the meta. It reminds me of the time I was trying to install Rage 128 proprietary graphics drivers on my Slackware install. It should be easy, but just can’t get the XF86Config right.

[Jeremy Smith]

Uncouched. Thanks, Clark!

[Bob cruise director]

I finally got time to work on it. And was quickly up and off.

Nice work @Clark E. Tripe

[Qmark]

Off the couch...loved it! Thanks!

[whimsy]

Hey, Clark.....I have a cousin.......

(She's still on, but I'm off.)

Great job, you rascal you!

[DrTom]

Off the couch...no money was lost in the solving of this meta! Fun AHA when it finally became clear I was trying to complicate it,

Thanks for the puzzle, I think I'll use this license plate for a few days just to reward myself:

[Hidden in 3D]

I have vacated the couch! Couldn't sleep last night so I got up and completed the grid. Was pretty sure I had the answer, but didn't trust myself to post coherently until I'd finished off two cups of coffee this morning. (And this amount of caffeinated coffee for me is a dangerous thing - I switched to decaf many years ago!)

[Clark E. Tripe]

Well, as far as I can tell, 56 of you "Muggle" people found the answer to my puzzle:

benchen71
Abide
LarsCaine
Capn Rick
Tom Wilson
Cindy Heisler
ky-mike
rjy
Pair O Ducks
KayW
Darth
Meg
Alex Sisti
boharr
Hector
Cindy Weatherman
DCBilly
Bird Lives
MatthewL
ChrisKochmanski
omnilynx
DIS
Ergcat
lbray53
Carolyn
ajk
Jaclyn
Schmeel
david
Dow Jones
woozy
JM
HeadinHome
Laura M
markhr
Eric Porter
andeux
Tyrpmom
Wendy Walker
hcbirker
hoover
Jeremy Smith
Bob cruise director
Berto
Tim
whimsy
Gutman
Qmark
Danny K Bernstein
LB800
potemkinish
BarbaraK
Kulea
DrTom
Rick
Hidden in 3D

Hope I didn't miss anybody.

[whimsy]

Clark, there must be some misunderstanding about your appeal to young ladies.
And you obviously have a fine ride parked in front of your house.
Perhaps if you cleaned those tiny, grimy windows in the basement....

[michaelm]

Another fool parted with the couch.
Is it true the Linux Habitation Error Handlers used to be named the Linux Kernels?
Thanks, Clark!

[JeanneC]

Solved. Enjoyed the metaism.

How about a pay per view event? I can see the intro now: “Tripe Tonite! Picks up where Carlin left off”.
I’m in!

[MarkWoychick]

Off the couch - thanks, @Clark E. Tripe!

[Cap'n Rick]

Very "smooth", Clark! Maybe we can run one of your metas on SSS sometime.

[sharkicicles]

Hey @Clark E. Tripe I haven't solved the meta yet, but I got real interested in the history of Linux Habitation and I kinda went down an Internet rabbit hole. Wikipedia... Slashdot... Hacker News... COBOL Weekly... anyway I ended up on eBay and found this old city sign. Figure it might bring back some good memories for you. Got it cheap too!

[Clark E. Tripe]

Hey @Clark E. Tripe I haven't solved the meta yet, but I got real interested in the history of Linux Habitation and I kinda went down an Internet rabbit hole. Wikipedia... Slashdot... Hacker News... COBOL Weekly... anyway I ended up on eBay and found this old city sign. Figure it might bring back some good memories for you. Got it cheap too!

Thanks, sharky! The city has been wondering where that sign got to.

[Clark E. Tripe]

Three more of you found the solution:

katie
michaelm
MarkWoychick

That makes 59 if my math is correct.

[CPJohnson]

Some of us are waiting for nudges.....thanking you in advance.....

[Clark E. Tripe]

Wednesday nudge 1:

combine 1-Across with3-Across . That’s the ticket!