Referring to Ben Bernanke's famous helicopter speech.

An indicator that someone was being sarcastic. For those of you wondering, the icon is a snark missile.

See here.

Refers to Tony Hayward's epic PR fail during the gulf oil crisis.

One of our locals wore me down. He also endeared himself by spending considerable free time picking up trash, and running our weekly bank failure poll. Not sure how he fared in the National Sucking at Kayaking Team Trials - you'll have to ask him.

If you look closely, you'll see The King making an appearance driving a bulldozer. Our own elvis has often suggested the best solution to the housing problem is bulldozing, i.e. to remove housing stock.

The mini pig refers to comments from the previous thread that were posted after the pig arrived, i.e. after a new post was made by our gracious host. This is often used to get closure on a previous discussion, or to reiterate something they found worth sharing.

The current color of the stock market's indicators, i.e. negative.

The current color of the stock market's indicators, i.e. positive.

Rumor has it that Nemo has a monkey sitting at a keyboard with an embedded chip in its head, awaiting new posts from CR. This is the only plausible explanation for his notoriously witty firstiness.

Many an evening has been passed here swapping squirrel recipes, as we discuss the End of Days.

If you aren't daddy's favorite, you won't be getting a pony. In case you've been in a cave for the last three years, the banks are daddy's favorite, and you are not.

Words to live by here. Sadly, many don't heed them.

Scooby rooby roo!

Maybe a bit too much Sesame Street.

And don't forget your towel! From Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Every good salon has its celebrities.

As in Fonzie jumps the shark.

Cats that look like Hitler. Because it's FUNNY, that's why.

See :roastbeef:

All I can hear is crickets. Anyone here?

Whether something is broken is a matter of perspective.

(Humble and lovable) shoeshine boy, from Underdog

A unit of measure for stock market moves. One Slumdog is 150 DOW points. Genesis of the term was Slumdog predicting the DOW would trade in a 150 point range for two weeks, here. It traded -155 ten minutes later.

Indications of economic recovery.

Indications of economic non recovery.

The (bad) luck of the Irish.

An issue that doesn't really have any meaningful impact. Fluff.

Running joke: the best way to peg the FDIC's next bank closure is to watch the pizza parlors.

This was Neil's signature, representing the attitudes of many here feeling resigned to watching the barn burn.

If you see any here, let me know!

This refers to the uncanny change in behavior exhibited by polemics after attending White House roast beef dinners.

Yeah, it's one ugly icon.

See Nassim Taleb's remarks about the Fed.

Some questions are better left unanswered.

With reference to CR's European Bond Spreads posts, where several posters played with the title. This is a tub of speisequark, a european, yellowish (aka blond), spread made from cheese curd. My apologies for this one.

The name comes from a sorely missed commenter by that handle, who had many here seeking new keyboards (see :keyboard:).

From the infamous Red Pill/Blue Pill scene from The Matrix.

See The Red Pill. Alternatively, the "Little Blue Pill". Might be some connection there...

AKA Prilosec. For heartburn.

Usually used as a morning greeting, for obvious reasons. Why three kinds? This bunch is opinionated about their coffee...

See :coffee::

Sound it out?

See :coffee:

No, that's not a glass of milk, it's a white russian. Hey, careful, man, there's a beverage here!

Really. It's true. Just ask this guy.

The HCN rally cry. Well, after HCN itself of course.

Made someone laugh so hard they spilled on their keyboard.

Sales figures are down. Must be the snow.

I'm resigned to losing my privacy. Just install a chip in my head.

Signs point to yes.

Get used to it.

Useful when frustrated by another commenter beating one to a point, joke, etc.

More Irish sympathy.

Every good salon has its celebrities.

Tales From the Coast, by Jim Blackview, aka Bob Dobbs.

See Slumcast.

C'mon, you haven't seen Casablanca?!?

Watch those Hitler references...

Hogan's Heros? Sergeant Schultz?

How do you deal toughly with your banker?

That would be Jackie Gleason, from The Honeymooners.

The Great American Sociopath, Tony Soprano. And sorry, yes, it was Silvio who delivered that (great) line. Watchoogoonado?

From Star Trek, TNG. As ResistanceIsFeudal eloquently put it: It's an excellent and many-sided metaphor for, among other things, the post-9/11 world and especially our probable near future. Any idiot can see that there are only four lights. The captors know this too. It's a psychological contest of wills determined to break the prisoner (and Picard is the almost too archetypal Hero of character, intelligence and discipline brought via torture, imposed austerity and operant conditioning to the brink of insanity in this episode) and it nearly succeeds. It's a deep metaphor - taking away a person's ability to use logic and reason to determine reality for themselves by continual propaganda to convince them that black is white, or that there is an invisible or a watching their every move.

See here: Calculated Risk

See here: SNL

Can't find the right clip, but she was a national treasure. Here's a take from one well known episode. I Love Lucy

This is Elizabeth Kuebler-Ross, well known for her work on the 5 stages of grief. Which stage are we at now?

Admiral Ackbar, from Return of the Jedi. And yes, some fish are people too.

If you are experiencing problems with Hoocoodanode, it's possible changes have been made to the site that are not showing up in your browser, since the browser keeps temporary copies in a local 'cache' that can get stale. Clearing the cache can often help with this. If you don't know how to do so, look here for directions.

Locutus of Borg.

If you squint, you'll see Clint

For your listening pleasure: D'oh!

A rather inconvenient form of currency.

Sales figures are down. Must be the oil spill.

Useful code phrase for Our Times.

The name of the ranch belonging to one of our regulars. See where bribery will get you? :-)

A rimshot. I wanted to do an Ed McMahon belly guffaw, but couldn't come up with a worthy icon.

From Planet of the Apes. I find myself thinking this often these days.

:ramp: Adj. 1) rampant - Extending unchecked: rampant corruption This one was part of jumptheshark, but it made for a huge icon, and the circling shark has other uses...

From the early days of the CR commentariat, with nods to Mad Max. Our nation's capitol seems a quite appropriate venue these days.

For those who are just here to see the barn burn. Or maybe to suggest we need a really, really, really big pail.

From the SNL skit with Blue Oyster Cult, Will Ferrell, and Christopher Walken.

If you've never heard this investment phrase, try here.

For those of you who never attended a Foghat concert: before cellphones, people expressed appreciation of a musical act by sparking their bic lighter. Why they had lighters in their possession at the time is no one's business but their own.

Another Matrix reference suggesting your experienced reality is an illusion created by others.

There are larger castration tools, but for her needs, this should suffice.

A klaxon horn.

You do realize they're listening in on your brain waves, don't you? Tin foil is a simple, cheap solution.

Doris Dungey, aka Tanta, was CR's coblogger until shortly before she passed away. She did not suffer fools or miscreants well, and she had a fearsome, rapier wit. It was rumored she wore bunny slippers with steel toes, and would use them on those exhibiting childish behavior in the comments. She is dearly, dearly missed.

There's no place like home.

This is a five point Safety Restraint System. Highly recommended when buying extremely volatile short ETFs like SRS. Rule #3 is from the movie Zombieland.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.