Welcome to Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up, a weekly series for people who enjoy light mental exercise spiced with politics, humor, and odd bits of trivia.
The theme of the warm-up puzzles in recent weeks has been good quotes. I took a break from spotlighting good quotes last week, in order to instead spotlight a good candidate (Chuy Garcia, in the Chicago mayoral race). But tonight we return to good quotes.
Here's tonight's quote:
"Anyup oyui and Edict stop and Stcwe, wimsy ande’cd biggt cpmmymli otcy rcduysdmap."
Of course, you'll need to decode it first if you want to read it. Instructions for decoding (plus a JulieCrostic which identifies the source of the quote) can be found below the orange squiggle...
UPDATE: major oops! Instead of posting the quote I intended to use tonight, I accidentally re-posted the Crypto-Gremlin from February 7th. Apologies! I already have a different quote schedule for next week's warm-up, but I'll run the quote which was supposed to be in tonight's diary in the March 21 diary.
For anyone new to Sunday Puzzle, please note that the encoded quote is not a regular cryptogram; it's a Crypto-Gremlin. Crypto-Gremlins are a special kind of cryptogram. If you're not familiar with Crypto-Gremlins you can find a detailed explanation of how they work here.
(And you can find a handy tool to help you with letter substitutions here.)
Crypto-Gremlins may look complicated at first, but they're actually pretty easy to solve once you get the hang of them. Here are two handy hints to get you started:
- Make a list of the word-ending letters. This will give you a list of all the letters which stand for vowels (and possibly a few consonants too, if the encoded text includes words like ballet, marquis, nigh, faux or knew). Knowing which letters stand for vowels gives you a good start on figuring out which vowel is which.
- Look for 3-letter words in the text. These are almost always natural (i.e. no added letters). If you see a word with pattern consonant-consonant-vowel there's a good chance it's the; if you see a word with pattern vowel-vowel-vowel it's almost certain to be you.
Next week I'll do a step-by-step demonstration of how to solve the one in tonight's diary, so if you have trouble solving it tonight come back next week to see how it's done.
Before we get to tonight's JulieCrostic, here are the
DKU notes on last week's JulieCrostic:
The answer to last week's puzzle spotlighted progressive Democrat Chuy Garcia, who is running against Rahm Emanuel for mayor of Chicago. Some of Garcia's stands on the issues include:
I envision a city that works hard to make sure that every resident feels included. Whether they are from Michigan or Michoacán, everyone who chooses to make this city their home should have access to the same benefits and protections as every other Chicago resident
I am proud to count myself among feminists who understand the vital role of women in homes, workplaces, and society at large. As Mayor, I will continue to advocate for policies that promote wellbeing and success for women.
Here are the issues I will prioritize as Mayor:
- Violence against Women
- Economic equity
- Education and girl-focused programs
One of the most distinguishing characteristics of our great city is the large network of buses, trains, and highways that form our transportation system.
Transportation is essential for community development as well as job creation and providing all residents with efficient, regular and reliable connections to work, shopping and recreation.
As Mayor, I will continue to invest in our infrastructure and existing systems to ensure that all Chicagoans have access to safe and reliable transportation
I have been a steadfast supporter of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities throughout my 30 years of public life, even when it was not politically expedient...
I strongly believe in full equality under the law for everyone regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. I support marriage equality as a Constitutional right. As an elected official, I was an early supporter of laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. I also believe in aggressively enforcing the laws protecting LGBTQ rights.
As Mayor of Chicago, I will enhance the quality of life for all Chicagoans, including the LGBTQ community, by improving public education, expanding economic development, reforming public safety, and exercising fiscal responsibility...
And as part of Sunday Puzzle's
fair-and-balanced policy, the clues to last week's JulieCrostic spotlighted tea party Republican
Dan Fisher, who recently introduced a bill in the Oklahoma House regarding
what can and can't be taught in Oklahoma schools:
Dan Fisher is an Oklahoma Republican lawmaker and Baptist preacher who dresses up as a Revolutionary War era preacher to sell his book series about Revolutionary War era preachers...
Rep. Fisher is also successfully navigating his bill – which would replace traditional AP U.S. History courses with a selection of religious sermons, the Ten Commandments, and several Ronald Reagan speeches – through the Oklahoma legislature. It passed committee along a party-line 11-4 vote this week, and is now headed for the full House.
As
Newsweek reported:
Oklahoma’s legislative committee on education voted 11-4 Monday to pass a bill prohibiting public schools from teaching advanced placement United States history amid accusations that the course is not patriotic enough, and Oklahoma teachers are fuming.
“My first reaction is that this is totally going to undermine public education in Oklahoma,” says Matt Holtzen, an AP U.S. history teacher at Enid High School in Enid, Oklahoma. Holtzen has taught the course for the past five of his 17 years as a public school social studies teacher in the state. “We’re looking at a $611 million shortfall in the budget for Oklahoma this year. And AP U.S. is what they target to cut?”
House Bill 1380 was introduced by Representative Daniel Fisher, a Republican and member of the Black Robe Regiment, a group that seeks to dismantle the “false wall of separation of church and state.” Fisher said the AP history course focuses on “what is bad about America” and fails to teach “American exceptionalism” ...
And now, here's
tonight's JulieCrostic puzzle (so named in honor of Julie Waters, who founded the Sunday Puzzle series a little over 7 years ago).
Tonight's puzzle has 4 rows, with 3 answers per row. When you've solved the puzzle the verticals will spell out the source of tonight's quotation.
If you're familiar with how JulieCrostics work, you can jump right in; if you're new and don't yet know how JulieCrostics work, you can find complete instructions in the bottom part of the diary.
(Also if you're new, a request: please don't post any answers or other spoilers in comment subject lines. Instead, please put any guesses at possible answers into the comment itself. Thanks!)
Okay, I think that covers the basics. Here are the clues for tonight's puzzle. Have fun, and I hope to see you in comments!
1. Jason's ship or Kara's city
2. Shadow's Lane
3. well-known J.P.
4. virtuous
5. Philadelphia's mayor Wilson
6. Howser
7. mailed
8. lets off steam
9. birther King
10. rushed
11. digging tool
12. hangs over
For the benefit of anyone new to Sunday Puzzle, here are
instructions for solving JulieCrostics.
In JulieCrostics you are given a set of clues, such as these:
To solve the puzzle, figure out the answers to the clues and enter them into a grid of rows and columns, like so:
All the rows in the grid will be the same length (i.e. have the same number of answers). All the answers in a column will be the same length (i.e. have the same number of letters). And the words in each column are one letter longer than the words in the column to its left. That's because each word in a row has all the letters of the word before it plus one new letter.
For instance, if the clues for a row were
1. say what's not so
2. resting
3. concede
then the answers might be LIE, IDLE (= LIE + D), and YIELD (= IDLE + Y)
Write the added letter in the space between the word which doesn't have it and the word which does. For the row in the example you'd write:
1. LIE D 2. IDLE Y 3. YIELD
When you have solved all the clues and written down all the added letters, the added letters will form columns that spell out a message of some sort. It might be a person's name, it might be the title of a book, it might be a familiar phrase, or it might be a series of related words. Your challenge is to solve all the clues, fill in the vertical columns, and figure out what the vertical columns mean.
In the example given, the verticals read DAIL YKOS. With proper spacing and capitalization that spells out Daily Kos!