A place to discuss the WSJ Weekly Crossword Contest and other "meta"-style crosswords
https://www.xword-muggles.com/
I actually wouldn't surprised if I have a set in my junk tech box even now.Streroto wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 5:09 pm I wonder how many of us actually had rabbit ears in the house at some point. I know I did.
Rabbit ears actually work better for me for HD OTA signal today than any new "HD antenna" being hawked on amazon.Streroto wrote: Mon Mar 17, 2025 5:09 pm I wonder how many of us actually had rabbit ears in the house at some point. I know I did.
Considering our average age, I'd be upset if it were lower than ... er.. 80%
Another week, another empty shelf.I feel your pain. As do many Muggles!
I like your new profile picture. That looks just like my Dad's that I took to MIT for my freshman year.
Did your Dad show you how to use it?OohLaAHA wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 7:14 pmI like your new profile picture. That looks just like my Dad's that I took to MIT for my freshman year.
I don't even remember how I learned to use it. My husband was three years ahead of me and he says the first time he saw a calculator was his junior year when one of his classmates had one. I think they went on sale at the Coop my senior year and sold for around $400 which was a fortune then.Bob cruise director wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 7:42 pmDid your Dad show you how to use it?OohLaAHA wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 7:14 pmI like your new profile picture. That looks just like my Dad's that I took to MIT for my freshman year.
If you only used it freshman year you must have graduated in the 70's which is when calculators were introduced.
Love that profile picture, too. Way back in high school (graduated early 80s) the academic competitions between schools included the usual - debate, math, science, etc. - but also slide rule. I won in our district but lost in regionals. Don't tell my wife I did that; she thinks I'm a piano player in a Waffle House.OohLaAHA wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 7:58 pmI don't even remember how I learned to use it. My husband was three years ahead of me and he says the first time he saw a calculator was his junior year when one of his classmates had one. I think they went on sale at the Coop my senior year and sold for around $400 which was a fortune then.Bob cruise director wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 7:42 pmDid your Dad show you how to use it?OohLaAHA wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 7:14 pm
I like your new profile picture. That looks just like my Dad's that I took to MIT for my freshman year.
If you only used it freshman year you must have graduated in the 70's which is when calculators were introduced.
Yep, I'm one of the lazy ones who guessed TELEVISION. It was too easy to be correct!MikeMillerwsj wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 5:02 pm The contest answer is RABBIT EARS. As suggested by the answer AS SEEN ON TV, find five instances of TV in the Across answers, then take the two letters on top of each instance to spell the contest answer.
A big and successful turnout for this clever puzzle: 2,147 entries, 87% correct. A lot of solvers got partway to the solution and simply guessed TV in one form or another: 173 guesses with TV including CRT TV (30), ANALOG TV (6), and TUBE TV (5). Plus 25 guesses of ANTENNA.
Congrats to this week's winner: Dan Kelly of Fort Wayne, Ind.!
Thanks. Now I'll have horrible flashbacks/nightmares on high skool physics and second semester thermo.Bob cruise director wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 7:42 pmDid your Dad show you how to use it?OohLaAHA wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 7:14 pmI like your new profile picture. That looks just like my Dad's that I took to MIT for my freshman year.
If you only used it freshman year you must have graduated in the 70's which is when calculators were introduced.
Every now and then I take another look in vain for my old slide rule. I find it hard to believe that a packrat like me would ever get rid of something that takes up so little room. They were just a little before my time, but I was so nerdy in school (like I've become much cooler since haha) that I got one because I thought it would be cool to know how to use one. Anyway, whenever the topic comes up, I make another fruitless pass of any place I think I could have stashed it. One of these years it will magically turn up!Tom Shea wrote: Wed Mar 19, 2025 9:19 pmThanks. Now I'll have horrible flashbacks/nightmares on high skool physics and second semester thermo.Bob cruise director wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 7:42 pmDid your Dad show you how to use it?OohLaAHA wrote: Tue Mar 18, 2025 7:14 pm
I like your new profile picture. That looks just like my Dad's that I took to MIT for my freshman year.
If you only used it freshman year you must have graduated in the 70's which is when calculators were introduced.
Interesting discussion on the thread about an obsolete device.
My slide rule is in a place of honor in my garage toolbox (the one on top of the workbench, not the other 8 ones) my father's mic's are on the shelf right next to it. The slide rule is there just to confuse youngsters that might wander by. I continue to use neither, but could figure out the mic's if I had to. For the slide rule, I'd have to look up how to use it on that newfangled contraption called a come-pute-er. Graditated without owning one of those (and didn't buy one for probably a decade). Dropped out of the fortran class, because you had to sign up for time during prime drinking hours. The only things I still own from that painful institution are a circa 1988 alumni directory and my diploma, somewhere in a drawer.