Welcome to Sunday Puzzle, a weekly series for people who enjoy light mental exercise spiced with politics, humor, and odd bits of trivia.
On tap tonight: a brand-new 27 clue JulieCrostic, and DKU notes on last week's puzzle. Come on down and join the puzzle party!
As usual, last week's puzzle clues and answers featured a number of political and cultural references. Here are some DKU notes on last week's puzzle.
First the cultural references:
- 4. John Elroy after name change
The answer is REDD (because the actor Redd Foxx was previously known as John Elroy Sanford.)
- 5. well-known Helen
- 15. 5 often says I am
The well-known Helen is Helen REDDY, who often says (especially in musical form): "I am WOMAN".
Helen Maxine Lamond Reddy (born 25 October 1941) is an Australian American singer, actress, and activist. In the 1970s, she enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed 15 singles in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Six made the Top 10 and three reached No. 1, including her signature hit "I Am Woman". She is often referred to as the "Queen of '70s Pop."
What the noted child psychologist and the person who handled the 3 am crisis calls for the Soviet Union in 1984 have in common is their first name: both were named ANNA.
- 26. 6 in outlaw hero of the castle
This was a hard one which no one managed to crack, although folks did figure out this was a blank answer (to fill out a set of three, as the gremlins like to do).
The answer to clue # 6 was L, so that's easy. And outlaw is a synonym for BAN. That leaves hero of The Castle -- a reference to Franz Kafka's unfinished novel The Castle:
The Castle ... is a novel by Franz Kafka. In it a protagonist, known only as K., struggles to gain access to the mysterious authorities of a castle who govern the village for unknown reasons.
So the clue says to put L into BANK. Put the L in the right place and you have a BLANK.
All right, on to the political references!
- 1. person generally resistant to logic, reason, and factual information
The answer is R, for Republican. (It would be slightly more accurate to say C, for conservative -- but the add-on letter needed for the puzzle was an R, not a C.)
This is not intended simply as a gratuitous dig at Republicans / conservatives, even though it may sound like one. Recent research indicates that in their thinking conservatives tend to rely more on intuition and liberals tend to rely more on analytic reasoning. That's something which may be worth researching more and keeping in mind.
The answer is DR. This is a reference to Kent Hovind, an evangelical Christian who promotes creationism and runs a creationist theme park (Dinosaur Adventure Land, which puts forward the notion that humans and dinosaurs shared the planet in the past and that there may still be live dinosaurs running around somewhere on earth today...)
Dr. Dino is one of the nicknames Hovind uses to make it sound like he's more knowledgeable than he is. Hovind does have a doctorate... but it's in Christian Education, and was granted by an unaccredited college.
From Wikipedia, a quick summary:
In 1988 and 1991 respectively, Hovind was awarded a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education through correspondence from the non-accredited Patriot University in Colorado Springs, Colorado (now Patriot Bible University in Del Norte, Colorado, which no longer offers this program).
Having a website called "Dr. Dino" has provoked some academics to look closely at how Hovind presents his education and credentials. Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy, expert on the history of creationism and activist in the creation-evolution controversy, wrote that Hovind's lack of academic training makes it impossible to engage him on a professional level.
- 13. Obama's real bosses, according to some militant right-wingers
Among many on the right, especially anti-government types such as flocked to support Cliven Bundy, it's believed that Obama is secretly working for the NWO (New World Order). I'd prefer not to link to any of their sites, but if you Google Obama NWO you'll come up with millions of hits.
The CIA was created by the NSA.
No, not the National Security Agency created in the wake of 9/11. The NSA which created the CIA is the National Security Act of 1947.
- 19. Cruz doesn't like what it's been doing
Ted Cruz has been critical of NASA this year since taking over as chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness. Here's a link to a FactCheck.Org piece on Cruz's comments.
And lastly:
As is widely known, Rush Limbaugh not only possesses a large REAR, he is often considered synonymous with one.
Before we get to tonight's puzzle, here are some
NOTES FOR NEWCOMERS:
JulieCrostics are a special kind of acrostic puzzle, named in honor of Julie Waters who started the Sunday Puzzle series here a little over 7 years ago. If you're not familiar with how JulieCrostics work you can find a detailed explanation in last night's Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up.
If you're new you should be warned that we have some mischievous gremlins who like to tamper with the Sunday night puzzle clues. In particular you should keep in mind:
* you can't trust the clue capitalization;
* you can't trust the clue punctuation;
* sometimes you can't even trust the word spacing.
Because of this, some of the clues may be hard to crack, and you may not understand the answer at first after it has been cracked. But the answers actually do make sense, once you look at them the right way. If you have any trouble understanding how an answer fits the clue, please leave a comment asking for an explanation.
The gremlins also like bundling the clues into tidy little groups of 3, regardless of how many answers there actually are per row. If the number of clues doesn't divide evenly by 3, they add a space-filler clue or two at the end to fill out the final bundle. If you see a clue at the end such as nothing to see, that could well be such a clue.
A small request: please don't put any any spoilers in the comment subject lines. Use the subject line of comments to identify what your comment will be about but keep any guesses as to clue answers or the verticals confined to the comment itself. That way folks who are still trying to crack a clue for themselves won't inadvertently see the answer before they're ready to see it. Thanks!
Okay, I think that covers all the basics. Here are the clues for tonight's puzzle. Have fun, and I hope to see you in comments!
1. lots of money
2. pitches
3. drive aways
4. human rat
5. kind of party
6. achieves
7. scatter gunpowder
8. auto-sky test
9. water sex
10. well-known dick ...
11. ... like Cheney (or Rove)
12. O'Reillyish?
13. hot bucket
14. "Dear Cain, I am so horny!"
15. flash description
16. Clooney, Murphy, or Takei
17. hot wheels
18. workplace
19. blotch
20. gentle red
21. contra
22. another's place
23. rubber necked
24. wandered
25. Chuck
26. hand or bat
27. kind of wax