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Austin has presented me with several puzzles, a few of which I finally researched and solved tonight.
1. The "Kwik Wash" laundry chain has sites all over Austin, each of which sports a sign that reads "Laundry-Kwik Wash-Laundry" with the first "Laundry" printed upside down. I checked the company's website and found out that a sign-installer's mistake in the late 60's drew a lot of attention at one location, so the Kwik-Wash honchos decided to adopt the look company-wide.
2. There's a highway here known alternately as "Loop 1" or "Mopac". No one I've met could tell me what "Mopac" stood for - I found out tonight it's short for "Missouri Pacific", which is the name of the railroad that runs up the center of part of the highway.
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I warned you that this was going to be uninteresting. (Unless you're an obsessive geek like me.)
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At the airport last week, I observed this lovely bit of parenting -- A man and his little boy were in the waiting area with me. The little boy (aged probably 3 or 4) was getting antsy, pulling at his father, asking for drinks of water and generally acting like a bored 3/4-year-old at an airport. He finally spotted a book kiosk and asked if they could go in and "look at some books". The dad looked down and the kid and sneeringly said, "You can't even read." Nice.
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My 11-year-old nephew is now a published poet. He is also frighteningly intelligent and if he didn't look so much like his dad, I would think my sister mated with a robot.
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Now that I'm working again, I am overwhelmed with an urge to stay up really late every night. This isn't good because my work day starts quite early. But tonight there is beer and good company and leftover food from a party S. catered last night and damn it, I am staying up.
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