What do Judy Blume, Wayne Morse, and Mike Gravel have in common? If you don't know, you'll find the answer in today's diary. You'll also find an 18-minute video well worth watching.
Sunday Puzzle is a regular weekly series. The puzzle party begins Sunday mornings at 9:30 am Eastern time / 6:30 am Pacific time, and you're invited.
But the puzzles in the Sunday Puzzle series can sometimes be a little intimidating to newcomers. So now there's also Sunday Puzzle for beginners, which posts Saturday evenings at 8:30 pm Eastern time / 6:30 pm Pacific time.
Each week Sunday Puzzle for beginners features an introductory version of the types of puzzles you'll find in the regular series, plus the answers to the previous week's puzzle.
Today's puzzle is an 18-clue JulieCrostic. You'll find the clues right below. If you don't know what a JulieCrostic is or how to work one, don't worry; you'll find a complete explanation of that right below as well.
All that, plus the answer to what Judy Blume, Wayne Morse and Mike Gravel have in common -- just below the fold.
Part I: TODAY'S PUZZLE
1. Join together
2. Lacking in seriousness
3. A person who rides horses professionally
4. Famous Scott
5. More peculiar
6. Beloved
7. Created
8. Broads or babes
9. Changes
10. Winged creatures
11. Hank McCoy
12. Missing
13. Oracle
14. What a jury is made of
15. Rest
16. Sunrise direction
17. Speed
18. Greek city
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Part II: the rules for JulieCrostics:
Read the clues provided below, then fill in words to match the clues in the appropriately numbered spaces in the diagram.
Each word in a row has all the letters of the previous word in that row, plus one new letter. Write the new letter in the space between the answers. For example, if the answers in a row were DIRT, TRIED, and RIOTED you'd place an "E" in the box between DIRT and TRIED and an "O" between TRIED and RIOTED.
When you have filled in all the spaces correctly, the columns formed by the added letters should spell out related words. It might be a person's name, such as CHARLES DICKENS (spelled out in two columns). It might be the title of a book or movie, such as GONEW ITHTH EWIND (spelled out in three columns). It might be almost anything. Your challenge is to figure out what the verticals say and what they mean.
As an example, here are the clues for last week's puzzle and the completed answer grid
THE CLUES to last week's puzzle:
1. Faded out
2. Put up paneling on the exterior wall of a house
3. Insulted
4. Outer covering
5. Bring about
6. Charge
7. Sad
8. Noteworthy young adult author
9. Unpopular kind of pie
10. Red color
11. Noteworthy Republican-turned-Independent-turned-Democrat
12. In a bad mood
13. What Limbaugh is lower than
14. Tested
15. Ran amok
16. Contributed
17. A fine and private place
18. Noteworthy Democrat-turned-Libertarian
THE ANSWERS to last week's puzzle:
1. died S 2. sided S 3. dissed
4. case U 5. cause C 6. accuse
7. blue M 8. Blume H 9. humble
10. rose M 11. Morse O 12. morose
13. dirt E 14. tried O 15. rioted
16. gave R 17. grave L 18. Gravel
Reading the two verticals, you get SUMMER SCHOOL.
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Q: What do Judy Blume, Wayne Morse, and Mike Gravel have in common?
A: All three were featured in the clues to last week's puzzle.
Part III: DKU notes for last week's puzzle
The Sunday Puzzle diaries are intended to be educational as well as fun, so I like to include occasional clues or answers which refer to noteworthy people, events, writings, songs, and works of art which I hope will be of interest to Kossacks. I refer to these as DKU (Daily Kos University) clues.
Last week's puzzle had references to Judy Blume, Wayne Morse, and Mike Gravel.
1. Judy Blume is the award-winning author of many books for children, for teens, and for adults. From Wikipedia:
Blume's novels for teenagers were among the first to tackle such controversial matters as racism (Iggie's House), menstruation (Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.), divorce (It's Not the End of the World, Just As Long As We're Together), bullying (Blubber), masturbation (Deenie; Then Again, Maybe I Won't) and teen sex (Forever), and as such have been the source of controversy over the appropriateness of such topics for her middle school audience.
You can find an interesting interview with Judy Blume -- "one of the most banned writers in America" -- here.
2. Wayne Morse was elected to the senate from Oregon in 1944 as a Republican. In 1952, though, he quit the Republican party in protest over the selection of Richard Nixon to be Eisenhower's running mate (yes, there were people who despised Nixon even back then) and became an independent. In 1955 he was persuaded to become a Democrat, and he remained one for the rest of his career.
Morse was one of the strongest anti-war voices in the senate during the Vietnam War. He -- along with Ernest Gruening of Alaska -- were the only two senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin resolution (which, essentially, authorized Lyndon Johnson to wage war on North Vietnam).
“Since when do we have to back our president — or should we — when the president is proposing an unconstitutional act?” -- Wayne Morse
3. Wayne Morse lost his seat in the senate in 1968 -- the same year that Mike Gravel won a senate seat in Alaska.
During his time in the senate Gravel was a strong opponent of the war and of the military draft. One of his most notable actions was helping make the Pentagon Papers public. Here's a video of him telling about his role in that:
Or, if you prefer, here's a link to a transcript of the complete program, with Daniel Ellsberg, Mike Gravel and Robert West telling the story.
Gravel continued to be an outspoken critic of bad presidents and bad policies throughout his life. During the Bush years he was an outspoken critic of the Iraq war:
“I believe America is doing harm every day our troops remain in Iraq -- harm to ourselves and to the prospects for peace in the world. I would remove our troops expeditiously, without contingency. President Bush's mistake is not worth the life or maiming of more American soldiers.”