It's not just adorable-looking, it's a clue!
Welcome to Sunday Puzzle, a weekly series for people who enjoy light mental exercise spiced with politics, humor, odd bits of trivia, and big cats.
The theme this month over in our Saturday night companion series Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up, has been good quotes.
The first quote, 2 weekends ago, was:
"The fact is, torture is for sadists and for thugs. It's like getting groceries with a flame thrower. It doesn't work, and it makes a mess."
(Michael Westen, Burn Notice
The second quote, last weekend, was:
"You are to take charge of two hundred and eleven privates of the British Army... Treat them with humanity, and let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British Army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren."
(George Washington)
I had intended to post two more anti-torture quotes last night in Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up, but a conservative said something so spot-on I felt obligated to use it instead. Speaking about Newsmax contributor Steven Emerson (who said on Fox News that Birmingham, England, is entirely Muslim and a no-go zone for non-Muslims) British prime minister David Cameron commented:
“When I heard this, I choked on my porridge and I thought it must be April Fools’ day. This guy’s clearly a complete idiot.”
So, what about the two anti-torture quotes I'd intended to use last night? Well, here they are tonight:
Tonight's anti-torture quote # 1:
"No, mel fcgd pcrmczat gcyt goatbcurt uz pet goatbz also xtxtbz atiaourt utoinc, fcgd mlurontyl pl etcbz flipoidcrl ucffldipat also pet ucbucbocioagl, pet fbdtrc gdbytbaz boil flryd urllyc, htxtiz pet glapt plbgtipoinc mczaz also apcbxoinc jciyd sbttjoinc flggopptyt uz mldbz stitgotat... Petat ucffldipat ecbblm gt utzliyo ytafbokpolic."
Tonight's anti-torture quote # 2:
"... Games, lciduaes bdurt ltumoes fdbm elm zmoet gtpans. Zpdoglmis, nbcmpes bdurt happdaus ldhm gbmhdapmra bdurt ids odydaum. Zcet elms qtu'ed gbmhdapc odydauoes Fdimband, naut elaom ntuemoet, zmndcom Za jaurd elm itbm gtjc elmid fdbm vmigptsmra, elm pmoos elms ocnnmmra."
Granted, the quotes are a little hard to read at the moment. That's because they're Crypto-Gremlins.
Crypto-Gremlins are a special kind of cryptogram -- ones which can't be solved by online programs which run through and test out every possible letter substitution, but which can be solved by reasoning and creative thinking.
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.
Ah, but what about those of you who don't like, or aren't good at, cracking Crypto-Gremlins? Don't despair! Tonight's diary also includes two JulieCrostics...
... or at least it was supposed to. But the Sunday Puzzle gremlins felt there wasn't enough room for two puzzles. So, to save space, they re-numbered the clues for the second puzzle and ran the two puzzles together. I'm running late, as usual, and don't have time to separate the puzzles, so you'll need to figure out for yourselveds where the first puzzle stops and the second one starts.
NOTES FOR NEWCOMERS: JulieCrostics are a special kind of acrostic puzzle, named in honor of Julie Waters who started the Sunday Puzzle series here 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.
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.
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
s. Have fun and I'll see you in comments!
1. therefore
2. March who's Grant
3. wiener tester
4. river's legendary Pope
5. what happened to Jane a year before Kennedy's election
6. lance
7. hgfedcb
8. often heard before "please" ...
9. ... or neighbor
10. on its own it's a hot beverage; with hot, it's an expression of delight
11. musical Mitchell
12. something Florida and the nation would like to forget
13. words often said in church
14. another name for arias
15. kind of mustard
16. butt (or, a "but...")
17. presidential initials
18. kind of glass
19. hell, damn, and 13
20. Jefferson
21. notes
22.
(Science should know the answer to this one, but I suspect he doesn't. I know I sure didn't!)
23. steers
24. makes unreadable