0:27! Sub 30 always feels good
SnowGlobal
joined 1 year ago
This was back in line 2009. I was trying to fly cross country back to home (ATL-SFO) right at the end of the holiday break. Like the last day before people had to go back to work, so it was crazy busy. I got a ride to the airport from some friends who had a later flight, but we left early enough that we would have plenty of time for me to be early for mine too. But then there was a massive like 18 car pileup on the freeway and we were stuck in traffic between exits with nowhere to go. We sat there for 2 hours before we got going, and that was enough to eat up my buffer and make me miss my flight.
I got to the airport check in desk and told them what happened, and they said they would try to get me out on standby on one of the other flights. This was at ATL, trying to go back to SFO so plenty of options right? Well it was such a crazy busy travel day that I kept getting put on standby but all the flights were full. I needed someone to no-show for their seat before I could take it, and there were plenty of other people trying to go standby too. At the time I had no airline status so I was at the back of the line for priority to get a seat.
I got so close a few times. By the end of the day I had been issued 8 boarding passes for standby flights. On 6 of them I never got past the gate. On one of them they cleared me in and I was walking down the jet bridge before the original passenger showed up and they ran down to tell me that my spot was no longer available. One of them I made it all the way to a seat before I got yanked back off the plane. The very late original passenger sheepishly passed me in the jet bridge, both of us being escorted by gate agents but in opposite directions.
It was nighttime now. I had told the customer support agents that I would be happy getting to any airport in CA, or even anywhere along the way. Finally they said they had a flight for me to DFW with a confirmed seat on it, and then they could get me a confirmed flight back to CA the following morning. Shit, I’ll take it. Get me out of ATL, and get me out of standby hell.
I made it to DFW and got some shitty hotel near the airport (not comped). I had spent so long in ATL listening hearing the din of an airport and fragments of conversations as people walked by me (I didn’t have good NC headphones back in 09). As I was lying in the hotel trying to sleep I was literally hearing voices in my head, unintelligible pieces of airport conversations that my brain was making up. It felt like I was going crazy. The standby demons had won.
Thankfully I finally fell asleep and got a few hours of zzzs before heading back to the airport and catching the early flight to CA. What a mess. I hope your situation isn’t nearly as painful!
The themers were fun, but the NW corner was very brutal for me to get through. Made it, but it was not pretty hah.
So “Biden” and “Trump” both have 5 letters… did anyone manage to make a similar puzzle for the 2020 election? I have to imagine somebody tried
French is the bane of my crossword existence and makes me feel so dumb. But Spanish is comfortable (and a bit more common?) so I guess it’s a semi fair trade.
I started during covid and could only do Monday and some Tuesdays, but with a few years of practice I can get most days now (with those odd days when it just doesn’t click). I am not a speed solver or a streak chaser, but I enjoy doing it every day!
Edit: And I used to like going to r/crosswords after I solved and seeing what others thought. I rarely commented there, but I feel a drive to help kick off this new community here on Lemmy, so I’ll keep chiming in around here!
That was… slow. But I got there. I came back to it about 4 times throughout the day. Initially I got the NE and then the middle, and struggled the most with 28D and 31D, as well as a number of their crosses.
Any week I get all the way to Saturday I’m pretty happy, and this week I got them all, so that’s a win!
0:44 here. I chose bad timing of when I started and was distracted by a talking spouse hah.
Oh hi fellow space city weather reader. I thought apple weather would get better after supposedly integrating the Dark Sky features in there, but it seems like there’s still a few kinks to work out.
Pretty similar to you: Had heard about Mastodon when Twitter started imploding and made an account over there. But didn’t really get it and I never really used Twitter anyways so I wasn’t too interested in figuring it out.
Then when the APIpocalylse kicked off I came and checked out Lemmy and learned more about the Fediverse. When I found the Memmy app and more people started coming here it really felt like this was taking off, and I’m excited to see that momentum continuing. I haven’t opened Reddit since Apollo died, and this is now filling that void in my online diet.
I figured out the trick in the top two but it still took me a long time to get it to work on the lower two themed clues. It didn’t feel super satisfying when I eventually got it, but I think that was just frustration with the time it took.
Also how do I post hidden spoilers in the Memmy app?
I only knew about half the themer clues outright but the rest of them came together with a couple letters on crosses. Fun and quick puzzle; 9:43 for the solve which is quick for me on a Tuesday.