June 28, 2023

A new sighting of "large boulder the size of a small boulder."

In today's New Yorker crossword:


My tiny screen grab doesn't show the place for the answer, but it's a 10-space answer that I'll just spoil after the jump.

It's just "road hazard."

The tweet that started it all, that is always worth another look, in all its tiny grandeur:

15 comments:

Nancy said...

Thank you Ann! That phrase always makes me smile!

mezzrow said...

I have to ask if you are a devotee of honky-tonk piano, Althouse. Stick Big Tiny Little into your favorite search and see what pops up. It'll probably be exactly what you would expect. My Granny loved this guy.

from his Wikipedia bio:

Born in Worthington, Minnesota, United States,[1] and the son of Tiny Little, Sr., a prominent musician and bandleader, Big Tiny Little, Jr. first took up playing piano at the age of five, becoming both a honky-tonk, ragtime pianist and playing other instruments such as the organ, bass horn and bass fiddle.[1] After playing in his father's band for a while, he joined the United States Air Force and did a tour in the Far East. He became a member of Lawrence Welk's famous "champagne music makers" just one month after Welk's national TV debut in 1955. A regular feature of Welk's popular show, Tiny's outstanding keyboard artistry won him millions of fans from coast to coast.[citation needed] He was featured in solo performances of old Tin Pan Alley tunes, but he also worked quietly as a member of the Welk ensemble, at the rear of the bandstand, playing background piano alongside singer-pianist Larry Hooper.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Tiny_Little#

Wilbur said...

mezzrow, Lileks used to have a whole section on Big Tiny Little album art. http://www.lileks.com/misc/bigtiny/1.html

Alas, the link there is no longer good.

Ann Althouse said...

@mezzrow

Yes, that is very Lawrence Welk.

I can listen to approximately 5 seconds of it before losing my mind.

Temujin said...

I almost went through my entire life without ever knowing about Big Tiny Little.
That just doesn't seem right.

Ann Althouse said...

I watched Lawrence Welk in the 1950s when staying overnight with my paternal grandparents. It came on ABC on Saturday night right after "Leave It to Beaver."

rwnutjob said...

Was that a troll or a mistake where the social media intern for the sheriff posted it, was fired, now & nobody knows the password to delete it?

gilbar said...

i Know it's funny, and will Always BE funny (to You)..
But, isn't it clear that the sheriff Meant to type Large Bolder the Size of a Small Car?

Quaestor said...

So how big is a small boulder? This was an important question to Wile E. Coyote (genius). After all, if one has gone to the trouble of designing and constructing the ultimate anti-roadrunner tension-principle boulder launching catapult, it doesn't follow that loading it with mere cobbles is suitable for the sustenance-gaining task.

Thankfully, Mr. Coyote(genius) consulted the published literature and learned the question was settled in 1922 by geologist Chester K. Wentworth, who defined a boulder as a particle greater than 256mm in mean diameter. It seems Professor Wentworth did not specify an upper limit to boulder-ness, so we're all standing on a small boulder right now.

Kate said...

@gilbar -- hahaha! I'm cracking up. The tweet never made sense to me, how they could write that, until you explained what it was supposed to be. It's hilarious now.

Narayanan said...

My fervent wish for the Sheriff to be Media face of next Trump-ency-dom

Ann Althouse said...

"But, isn't it clear that the sheriff Meant to type Large Bolder the Size of a Small Car?"

Yes, I think that's been widely recognized from the beginning.

Ann Althouse said...

"It's hilarious now."

Proving my point that it's been widely recognized from the beginning. Those of us who are cracked up by it are not distracted by why someone could make a mistake like that.

Ann Althouse said...

"It's hilarious now."

Proving my point that it's been widely recognized from the beginning. Those of us who are cracked up by it are not distracted by why someone could make a mistake like that.

ngtrains said...

I just liked the photo because that’s the road to Telluride.

Little rock’s like this are common.

When they are the size of a house, then they are large.