Chicago: Become Familiar with its Distinctive Neighborhoods

it was fun helping to mix some tracks in the middle of the day. looks like we'll have a 25 min EP out for NYE.

Yay, Jordan!!

Jesse, do they have a cute pattern on them?

I <3 PJ bottoms.

Also, John, I want to know which clue you wished you could change.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH

I watered the plants and the pan under one sprang a leak and the overflow streamed into the suite below us. Two angry tenants have come to yell in our office. Jesus.

Jesus is the reason for the season.

do you have holes in the floor, wtf?

Shouldn't they be yelling at the building owner for having such a shitty building?

IT'S A FUCKING LOFT! That's what you get in a loft building.

Have you done it already, Sarah? 62-Across.

jesse-- i'm wearing a suit because i'm working at a hillary thing, but it's too cold for suits, so i'm wearing long underwear under. PJs would be better, though!

i will email about the dev work, thanks sisut!

Look at any timber loft-style building ceiling (unless it has drop ceilings) and you'll see wood panels. Above those boards is parquet flooring. That is all there is between the floors.

You pay for leaky ceilings, huh? I never have understood real estate.

The building is from 1876 - you can expect some quirks.

Anyway, I'm frazzled and annoyed.

Oh Dan, eternally difficult.

I'll tell you what's difficult: you not being on chat.

Although I came up with a marginally better clue for it.

john, my only qualm with your crossword was the one that was "elevator alternative" or something like that. i think of the answer you used as more of a location than an actual mode of transportation, which would be an alternative to elevators.

Yeah, that occurred to me, Nick, but I thought it was OK because the elevator is also a location (or would the analogue be "elevator shaft"?). Maybe "It's next to the elevators"?

i would think of elevator shaft as the analogue but that would be a weird obscure clue ("elevator shaft alternative" sounds like something else you could move elevators through). i don't think what you had was terrible, i can imagine professional crossword writers using a similar "cheat," it just kind of made me go "huh" when i got it

I just did 62 across, yeah. :> I got the answer right away, but it's not something that's physically possible, right?

also thought it was pretty easy (finished it in five to ten minutes) but i think we have really similar frames of reference

That bar on Broadway where we had my birthday in August offered me the same cheap-drinks-for-you-free-drinks-for-me deal for a Wednesday karaoke night this month, which I guess would mean next Wednesday unless I can get them to move it to January. Anyone around?

62-Across is a shit clue, as the British would say, because once you "prepare the cherries" once, you can't prepare them again. The deed's done. I thought about changing that to "Set up another fight?" It's still not great, but that's because it's a made-up word.

i think i only got 62-across by filling in the down words but i don't have a problem with it, i think by using the question mark in the clue you imply that there's something funky about the answer

xpost Right, as Jordan said.

WHAT ABOUT THAT THEME, HUH?

I wished it could've been RELIT or REMIT, but SCOLE and SCOME aren't words.

eazy, we'll be around but jan might be better if possible...

sarah and i will not be here

next week, that is

I'll be in MI.

"What a true homeboy does with his hood"

Also, I'm dumb, what does ISO stand for?

(theme is cute, i didn't get it until i looked at the title after finishing the puzzle)

In Search Of

I'm checking with the bar to see if I can do it in Jan instead of next Weds, we'll see...Otherwise, they do have karaoke there on Wednesday and decent and decently-priced drinks, so it could be a good midweek evening either way.

jaymc, alternate clues for 62 across:

-gouge the head of a drum, again

-stop for car maintenance during a race, again

-WHAT A TRUE HOMEBOY DOES WITH HIS HOOD

Ohhh!

I like that!

sarah ... there is a preview for the new season of the wire on youtube. however, season five (the last season) doesn't START until Jan. 8, which means it's going to be FOREVER until it comes out on DVD

Although maybe "What true homeboys do with their hood"?

Sure. Or even cut "true" if it's too long of a clue.

Maybe I will wait until The Wire is done for good before I start watching it. I'm trying to think of who tried to tell me recently that The Wire was only three seasons long. I tried to correct them, but they were just like, "Nope, it's over."

No, I like "true." And I don't care too much about long-ish clues. Cf: "Course in which 'The Wealth of Nations' might be on the syllabus."

This upcoming season of The Wire is the final one. I cat-sit for a friend once in a while who has HBO On Demand, so if I stay there sometime this winter/spring, we could watch a few eps then.

Ha, I like Eazy's clue.

i really don't recommend starting in the middle or near the end if you haven't seen the wire before, there are way too many characters and backstories

If I had HBO, I would probably become one of those people without hobbies.