A Portrait of My Father
"Is [X.] coming today? Well... why the hell not?!?"
Over dinner tonight, my mother related my dad's annoyance that I did not show up Sunday to do my laundry at their house (as I am prone to do). It wasn't that he wanted to see me per se (the fact that he finished dinner and was in the basement before I even arrived from work tonight certainly proves that); he simply knew that I could solve his crossword problem for him.
Thus, as I ate broccoli and my dad watched television downstairs, my mother related his tale of woe. It seems that a Washington Post crossword puzzle featured four occurrences of the same clue: "Out of three?" To his credit, my father had solved most of the puzzle despite his lack of understanding regarding this particular clue. He then received the answers, which are printed in the following day's paper, and struggled to ascertain the clue's meaning. When that failed, he consulted my mother. Apparently, even their combined brain power still couldn't divine the connection between the hint and the solutions. They went so far as to email the Washington Post requesting an explanation.
I was attempting to watch a report on a recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of students grading other students' papers when my mother set down the crossword puzzle and corresponding answers in front of me. On a smaller sheet of paper, she had neatly printed a list of the four solutions for the clue in question:
sight order print
tune sorts office
patience town gas
date pocket range
I looked at the list for a couple seconds and said, "They are three words that complete the phrase: out of sight, out of order, out of print, out of tune, out of sorts, et cetera..." I went back to eating my beef and broccoli as Mom ran down to tell my dad.
I didn't see him for the rest of the evening.
Over dinner tonight, my mother related my dad's annoyance that I did not show up Sunday to do my laundry at their house (as I am prone to do). It wasn't that he wanted to see me per se (the fact that he finished dinner and was in the basement before I even arrived from work tonight certainly proves that); he simply knew that I could solve his crossword problem for him.
Thus, as I ate broccoli and my dad watched television downstairs, my mother related his tale of woe. It seems that a Washington Post crossword puzzle featured four occurrences of the same clue: "Out of three?" To his credit, my father had solved most of the puzzle despite his lack of understanding regarding this particular clue. He then received the answers, which are printed in the following day's paper, and struggled to ascertain the clue's meaning. When that failed, he consulted my mother. Apparently, even their combined brain power still couldn't divine the connection between the hint and the solutions. They went so far as to email the Washington Post requesting an explanation.
I was attempting to watch a report on a recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of students grading other students' papers when my mother set down the crossword puzzle and corresponding answers in front of me. On a smaller sheet of paper, she had neatly printed a list of the four solutions for the clue in question:
sight order print
tune sorts office
patience town gas
date pocket range
I looked at the list for a couple seconds and said, "They are three words that complete the phrase: out of sight, out of order, out of print, out of tune, out of sorts, et cetera..." I went back to eating my beef and broccoli as Mom ran down to tell my dad.
I didn't see him for the rest of the evening.