theFJguy wrote:20th Century America
The 1970 follow-up line "We've had a main B bus undervolt" was addressed to a listener in this city.
I got this FJ (in my head in the studio audience) but when it was first revealed, I experience a second or two of mild quasi-panic where you can't "parse" the clue. It took me a few moments to make sense of it, and on another day, it might have taken me much longer.
At first, the word "bus" made me think of buses, the large passenger vehicles. But then I realized it was probably something else (the way USB stands for "universal serial bus") and I realized that furthermore, we probably weren't supposed to pay too much attention to the technical details, and we probably didn't need to know what "undervolt" means.
I realized we were probably supposed to treat the clue as "The 1970 follow-up line 'blah blah technical blah blah' was addressed to a listener in this city." (My girlfriend once told me that with some FJs, it's good to "squint", as it were, and not always look too carefully at certain details.)
I thought the word choice in "We've had a..." suggested that something had gone wrong. So think of a famous incident in 20th century America (more specifically, in the 1970s) where something technical went wrong.
Three Mile Island popped into my head. But I knew that was later in the 1970s, and the clue said 1970. So I tried to think of other famous 20th century events where something technical might have gone wrong -- something kind of science or engineering related, perhaps. And why is the
city relevant? What's a famous incident where someone told someone else in a specific
city that something technical had gone wrong? That made it click, but on another day, the process might have taken me too much time.