Cryptoquote Spoiler – 10/23/18

“Man who invented the hamburger was smart; man who invented the cheeseburger was a genius.”   —   Matthew McConaughey

(Well, I guess ol’ Matthew really loves his cheeseburgers!  I’ve never taken the time to study the evolution of the cheeseburger, but it seems to me that they’ve both been around my entire life. 

I’ve noticed though, that since the later ’70s/early ’80s on, that the big burger fast food outlets have essentially done away with the basic hamburger.  All of their burgers are essentially cheeseburgers now.  You really don’t see a plain burger on their menus anymore.  It used to be you’d see a hamburger for a certain price, then – for 10, 15, 20 cents more – they had the cheeseburger.  And, all was right with the world. 

But, the fast food companies got greedy, and decided to put only cheeseburgers on their menus.  If you don’t want cheese on your burger they’ll happily remove it.  But, and here’s the kicker, they still charge you the full price of the cheeseburger.  This results in a 30 to 90 cent profit for them when you say “No cheese, please.”  This is what is known as an “illegal tying arrangement”, and there is a federal class action lawsuit, that was filed in Florida, saying that this is unfair, deceptive and misleading.  That’s a nice way of saying that it’s a ripoff! 

Not only is it a ripoff, but I think you could make a good argument for the correlation of there being a huge increase in cheese consumption in this country – largely as a result of only cheeseburgers being available – and the increased rate of obesity in the country.  You’re getting between 6 and 9 more grams of fat with every cheeseburger, over a basic hamburger.  Plus, about 60 more calories.  They also seem to push cheese and cheese sauce for just about everything these days. 

I love cheese.  And, I think eating it, in moderation – like with anything else – can be a healthy choice.  But “choice” is the key word here.  If we choose to go the healthier route, and forego the cheese, should we be forced to pay for it?  Doesn’t seem right to me.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Image courtesy of Google

https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/cheeseburger-1-4-lb-meat-plain-on-bun

https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/hamburger-1-4-lb-meat-plain-on-bun

Jumble Spoiler – 10/23/18

Visual Description:  Lifestyles of The Obscenely Rich, Part Deux.

RDTEN  =  TREND,  PIREG  =  GRIPE,  DURETG  =  TRUDGE,  ODIMUP  =  PODIUM   —   Giving us:  TNGIETREODI

Clue/Question:  When he was asked to train the new horse, the jockey said he would – – –

Answer:  GET “RIDE“ ON IT

(Another great stinky pun!  And, one that I did not pick up on immediately.  I definitely didn’t struggle with it any, but the answer didn’t jump off the page for me either.

All old favorite clue words again.  However, all of the jumbles are coming up as new.  All great, but the only one to give me any pause was “odimup”.  The answer letter layout was a fine 11-letter jumble.  It did a good job of disguising the answer.  As usual, the quotation marks were a big clue.  And due to the way the clue/question was phrased, I was able to reason that the first word was going to be GET.  Although, NOT might have worked as well, but fortunately I didn’t think that, until just now.

Fun cartoon, again!  Jeff is giving us the same uber-rich couple that we saw just yesterday.  I liked the background, with the grandstand and the other horse being put through his paces.  My only quibble with this Jumble is that – typically – the jockey is not responsible for “training” any horse.  They have trainers for that.  The jockey needs to develop a rapport with the horse, and he/she works with the trainer, but their job is more to ride the horse in the races.  But, I loved it anyway!  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google