"Endnotes" - January 22, 2021

[Joe Ross]

I've put off celebrating until after MGWCC Week 4 with a Sam Adam's Holiday Porter, or some.

Here's to two masterful puzzles!

[Al Sisti]

I'm ashore.

But, I Want To Tell you, like so many others of you, I believe I took the shortcut. Need to spend some time looking for The Long and Winding Road. I'm not going to Take It Easy until I see it Come Together. Not going to wait until When I'm Sixty-Four. Sure, I see things Here, There and Everywhere and it's all kind of Helter Skelter. But no nudges, please (yet). Don't want to say I got it With A Little Help From My Friends. (I'll Carry That Weight a long time.) But if I work on it For No One but me, in The End, I'll be able to say I am a...

FREEBIRD!

(For this weekend, at least.)

Disclaimer: If Something above is actually a hint, then I'll be Shocking Blue!

I saw a video today from the REO Brothers - siblings from the Phillipines -- doing Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End today... blew me away. Check it out

[SewYoung]

Mmmm - La Crema Willamette - almost any year - chugging not allowed!

The Willamette edition is pricier and harder to find than the Sonoma.

But softer and more nuanced - worth the search and the few extra bucks (unless of course you are going to guzzle and then...). I do like the Sonoma (and if you are a BJs member it is $17.50!) but Oregon is my favorite US pinot destination. I like Burgundy but I don't like their snotty pricing structure. You can find some decent entry level Bourgogne Rouge that won't entail you hocking your TV set, but anything with Cru in its name is shocking. Unfortunately supply and demand, as well as patina, combine to raise the price bar.

if you think science is always that simple you have obviously never sat there in front of a biochemistry exam trying to decipher how the particular configuration of the molecule is going to rotate light. I mean before that test I had hair!!!!!

What happened to Ockham's razor? Is someone using it to shave their head?

Occam was however a friar (as opposed to a broiler I suppose) and not a scientist and no doubt never took biochemistry. In the scientific method Occam's razor is respected of course but not always valid in questions of logic since there is always a large set of possible answers. Scientists tend to choose how easy the answer is to prove, and the easier to prove the better. For example "All sheep are white" is an easy explanation but refutable with the single demonstration of a black sheep (or DrTom as the case may be). Additionally, given enough time the truth may change - "all roads lead to Rome" may have been correct at some point in history, but having traveled in Italy more recently I know that some lead to a dead end on a scary mountain road in the dead of night. Besides on the exam in question, had there been any razor I would not have used it to shave my head, but probably to slit my throat (or the Professor's which would have been the simple answer).

In the few freshman physics classes I attended (it met at 9 a.m., which was very early at the time), the professor was teaching vector analysis. The problems on the final exam could be done with long and complicated calculation, but if you used vector analysis, you got to the result with just a few strokes of the pencil. I didn't find this out until the exam post-mortem (nearly literally true in the case of my own exam paper) when he explained it, and I had a much too belated "aha" moment.

Vector analysis you say - well I prefer Vector Velasco, he is the little scientific principle that lives in the attic of my head and only come down to get me drunk on ouzo!

Similarly Sherlock Holmes' statement that "When you eliminate the impossible; whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.", while a nice catchy and profound sounding phrase, does not take into account that after eliminating all impossibilities, there may still be any number of possibilities left.

[Bob cruise director]

I think you missed me, Bob! I was staring out at the island at post #68, doing the dog paddle near shore at post #85, and had my toes in the sand at post #112.
[/quote]
you are now officially on shore - sorry I missed you

[Isw]

Ashore

[flamingbear]

I feel like I missed a step, but pretty confident I’m ashore.

[Henry Paul]

Still on the back of the boat, stuck in my tiny kiddy pool filled with Molasses and Treacle, covered in dirt from the many rabbit holes I've gone down....

Nudges very welcome!

It's funny how some weeks (N < 5) it's very apparent and others (N > 50) where it's not... And here I thought 2021 was going to be different...

[zacmoretz]

We are working on it, but still enjoying Isaac’s bartender jokes at present. I am convinced they all get an operations manual when they become bartenders with the same jokes and greetings for the regulars....

[CPJohnson]

Whether folks solve short, long or some combination of both, as long as they enjoyed doing it that is fine. Heck if they did NOT solve short, long or some combination that is equally fine under the same constraints.

Stealing a line from a different cruise line:


in truth it may well be 98% of the fun. After I get the answer the fun part becomes talking about how I got there, kind of cuddling up and reliving it rather than rolling over, having a virtual cigarette and going to sleep. It of course kills me not to be able to solve something, but that is not because of the win it is because I enjoy our community so much I don't want to be left out of the fun, and the fun is definitely more intense if you have solved because of the chance to describe your twists and turns. Granted for me it is often as much fun to describe how I did NOT get there but got somewhere else instead that certainly looked like there at the time.

I liked this puzzle when I solved it, I LOVED it when I was nudged into how to REALLY solve it, but (and after seeing the MGWCC I realize this may be my only week-end solve) what I am relishing is the online banter. I mean where can you get this type of repartee, exchange of ideas and cultural nuance ANYWHERE except a meeting of a society that I probably would net be asked to be a member of. I participate in FAR too many different groups where idea exchange is the goal and believe me there is NOTHIGN like the Muggle board that I have run across. I feel safe here, I can make stupid comments here and they are smiled at not jeered at. You have even suffered through my Pundemic in the Pandemic without collecting a lynch mob (wait is that villagers with pitchforks and torches outside - no, phew, just the garbage man). So solve or not solve, long or short, easy or hard, direct or scenic, I'm just happy to be here and agree with BirdLives on his evaluation; I don't gulp wine, read the last few pages of the book or check IMBd for the plot and synopsis of the movie I am going to see.

Dr Tom, Your Pundemic in the Pandemic is often a bright spot in my day. And you are right about this community....it’s one in a million!

[CPJohnson]

I got it, after traveling down many, many rabbit holes. I now understand the 2 different ways to arrive at the answer. I spent a lot of time between step 1 and step 2.

[HunterX]

I'm ashore.

But, I Want To Tell you, like so many others of you, I believe I took the shortcut. Need to spend some time looking for The Long and Winding Road. I'm not going to Take It Easy until I see it Come Together. Not going to wait until When I'm Sixty-Four. Sure, I see things Here, There and Everywhere and it's all kind of Helter Skelter. But no nudges, please (yet). Don't want to say I got it With A Little Help From My Friends. (I'll Carry That Weight a long time.) But if I work on it For No One but me, in The End, I'll be able to say I am a...

FREEBIRD!

(For this weekend, at least.)

Disclaimer: If Something above is actually a hint, then I'll be Shocking Blue!

I saw a video today from the REO Brothers - siblings from the Phillipines -- doing Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End today... blew me away. Check it out

Wow! If you close your eyes, or listen with another window up, it's hard to tell it's not the Beatles themselves. They really 37D'ed it.

[ccmac]

I think you might have missed me enjoying the beach. At least I thought I was on shore . . . but after reading more posts am wondering if I took the right route.

[Tom Shea]

Scuba instructor school? Spear fishing?

And I thought my life, spending all day in my apartment working for hours on end on my computer until darkness has descended and my fiancée and I, exhausted, log off, and scrape together a 10pm salad to eat before crashing, was an exciting life.

Oh, I logged plenty of computer and cubicle time.

Sometimes early retirement is acquiescing to an employer’s decision to pay someone younger less money to do one’s job.

“How’d you manage to retire so early?”
“I didn’t manage anything. They stopped paying me.”

Very proud of my 28 year old son who quit his job as a cyber security engineer for a defense contractor to work full time on the business he had on the side. “Dad, I can’t be an engineer in a cubicle for thirty years. This is my chance to get out.”

I admire those who can follow their passions. Fortunately, I like my company and work with great people. And most of the time I've enjoyed what I do. But after 30+ years with them, it's getting old. (As am... eh-hem... I.) I switched myself out of management and onto a special project thinking I would retire when it was done. But we keep extending the Go-Live date. And to add compliment to injury, when the pandemic downturn hit, they cut costs by offering a bunch of senior people I've been working with for many years packages to retire, AND THEY DIDN'T OFFER ME ONE! My fiancée keeps saying, "You don't owe them anything at this point, and you're working like crazy. Just retire!"

I will. But not until after the next annual bonus payment!

I got the package a year and a half after I foolishly turned it down the first time.

I'll steal a friends quote and say "retirement is underrated." I liked my work and a lot of the people that I worked with, but the political maneuvering got very tiresome. Traveling for work could also be fun, but also wears (and sometimes downright sucks -- Houston in mid summer and Minneapolis in mid winter). My wife got free trips to Paris on our anniversary twice (I sacrificed for the company by getting lower airfare over the weekend). She also saw Barcelona and Dubai gratis. I got a chuckle the last time I flew from the fact that I forgot a hairbrush. My go-kit wasn't ready for the first time in a couple of decades. I made me feel really retired.

Edit: And I really don't mind the 4:30 a.m. alarm. Closest I get is 6 a.m. to make the early dive boat, and the view makes up for the early alarm.

[cbarbee002]

I'm generally fine with not solving a meta (well that's a big fat lie), but when it's Page 14 and the meta is rated 2.5, I have to decide between quitting this endeavor, or finding the correct libation that will loosen the gears. Obvious choice I think. I'll stick with it.

[boharr]

I got the package a year and a half after I foolishly turned it down the first time.

I'll steal a friends quote and say "retirement is underrated."

Underrated indeed. I had a daughter relatively late in life and basically missed the first ten years of her life because I was ALWAYS working. Left in the morning before she was up; retuned as she was going to bed. Then there was a generous buy-out package (a year's pay lump sum, plus salary for another year while not working including the yearly bonus, and a defined-benefit pension. I felt "it was time," so I took it. And I am glad I did. I made up for a lot of lost time with her. And now she's off to college, and well, you know.......

[ImOnToo]

FINALLY had a chance to sit down and look at my finished grid.

Done and done.

On shore. 🏖

[Bob cruise director]

After now finding the 100% confirmed, no inelegant final step needed solution, I wish he had only used that one and skipped the clunkier version.

Yes, but truthfully you needed all moving parts to get to 100%, it was unavoidable unless I am missing yet something else (and if so please PM me so we don't give too much away). I don't know that it was recognized beforehand (and as clever as Mike is I am sure it was realized but....) However believe me when I say that the inelegance was almost enough to make me consider not submitting. We are far too used to a YEP, that HAS to be it, as is witnessed by so many statements this week of the "don't know how I got here but that has to be it...."

Dr Tom
There is a rumor that you can translate this sign for us. What does it say?

[HunterX]

Oh, I logged plenty of computer and cubicle time.

Sometimes early retirement is acquiescing to an employer’s decision to pay someone younger less money to do one’s job.

“How’d you manage to retire so early?”
“I didn’t manage anything. They stopped paying me.”

Very proud of my 28 year old son who quit his job as a cyber security engineer for a defense contractor to work full time on the business he had on the side. “Dad, I can’t be an engineer in a cubicle for thirty years. This is my chance to get out.”

I admire those who can follow their passions. Fortunately, I like my company and work with great people. And most of the time I've enjoyed what I do. But after 30+ years with them, it's getting old. (As am... eh-hem... I.) I switched myself out of management and onto a special project thinking I would retire when it was done. But we keep extending the Go-Live date. And to add compliment to injury, when the pandemic downturn hit, they cut costs by offering a bunch of senior people I've been working with for many years packages to retire, AND THEY DIDN'T OFFER ME ONE! My fiancée keeps saying, "You don't owe them anything at this point, and you're working like crazy. Just retire!"

I will. But not until after the next annual bonus payment!

I got the package a year and a half after I foolishly turned it down the first time.

I'll steal a friends quote and say "retirement is underrated." I liked my work and a lot of the people that I worked with, but the political maneuvering got very tiresome. Traveling for work could also be fun, but also wears (and sometimes downright sucks -- Houston in mid summer and Minneapolis in mid winter). My wife got free trips to Paris on our anniversary twice (I sacrificed for the company by getting lower airfare over the weekend). She also saw Barcelona and Dubai gratis. I got a chuckle the last time I flew from the fact that I forgot a hairbrush. My go-kit wasn't ready for the first time in a couple of decades. I made me feel really retired.

Interesting. I once want to hire a guy who hadn't worked in a full year. When I asked him why he hadn't worked, he told me his previous company had paid him a year's salary under the condition he not work for anyone else. (Standard non-compete clause, and for good reason.) He said after 6 months he got bored out of his skull. And that was why he was willing to work for me, even though he could have easily done (had) my job.

Yeah, back when I traveled, it was to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Scranton, Pittsburgh, Cinci, Allentown, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, D.C., Louisville, and even Pittsburgh. And in my early days with the company I visited a lot of properties in the middle of nowhere. And I had the pleasure of sitting in the witness chair in Federal court in a couple of nice, old courthouses in places like Milford, Pa (1847). Now it's just Skype calls all day long, fortunately without video.

Once this project is done.......

[Tom Shea]

After now finding the 100% confirmed, no inelegant final step needed solution, I wish he had only used that one and skipped the clunkier version.

Yes, but truthfully you needed all moving parts to get to 100%, it was unavoidable unless I am missing yet something else (and if so please PM me so we don't give too much away). I don't know that it was recognized beforehand (and as clever as Mike is I am sure it was realized but....) However believe me when I say that the inelegance was almost enough to make me consider not submitting. We are far too used to a YEP, that HAS to be it, as is witnessed by so many statements this week of the "don't know how I got here but that has to be it...."

Dr Tom
There is a rumor that you can translate this sign for us. What does it say?

I just hope it is not from a surgeon. That would be like the guy trying to shave in the restroom on Airplane!

[HunterX]

.....

.....

.....
Edit: And I really don't mind the 4:30 a.m. alarm. Closest I get is 6 a.m. to make the early dive boat, and the view makes up for the early alarm.

I was certified Naui and Padi back in the '80's. Always LOVED heading out on the boat in the morning sun.