Welcome to another Sunday Puzzle. The theme of the puzzles for the past 3 months has been Candidates Worth Supporting and that theme continues tonight (and for 2 more weeks).
Back in August one of the puzzles spotlighted Dana Nessel, the incumbent Michigan attorney general who’s up for re-election this year against Matthew DePerno, a Trump supporter who was involved in illegally gaining access to Michigan voting equipment to look for evidence to support Trump’s election fraud claims. Dana Nessel has been doing an excellent job of standing up for the people of Michigan and is a candidate well worth supporting even for people who don’t live in Michigan. (And if DePerno were to be elected, that would be disastrous for all of us across the country.)
Last week’s puzzle spotlighted another very good state attorney general who is up for re-election this year: Keith Ellison.
Most of you are probably familiar with Keith Ellison from his 12 years in congress representing Minnesota’s 5th district, but 4 years ago he left congress to run for and win election to the office of Minnesota’s attorney general. This year he’s up for re-election against Jim Schultz, a hedge fund Wall Street lawyer, and the election is looking extremely close — which is worrying, and an important reason to do what we can to support Ellison in the 2 weeks and 2 days left. We can talk more about that in the comment section, but first ...
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Before we get to today’s puzzle, let’s look at the clues and answers to last week’s puzzle. Here were the clues:
1. from then till now
2. nauseate
3. coins
4. attempts at humor often found on Daily Kos
5. Carpenter, Pence, and Marvel Comics' Page
6. annoys
7. Specter
8. kind of equation
9. company which will fly you places
10. frighten
11. provides food
12. Lansbury or Lawless
13. attacks
14. red vegetable
15. buns and fishtails
16. look at intensely
17. a day to gather eggs
18. sincere
Clue # 5 refers to Karen Carpenter, Karen Pence, and the Daredevil comics character Karen Page. Clue # 7 refers to Arlen Specter, an interesting Pennsylvania politician who became a Republican during the Lyndon Johnson presidency and switched back to Democrat following George W. Bush’s presidency. Clue # 12 refers to Angela Lansbury and Lucy Lawless, two noteworthy actresses. And clue 17 refers to a religious holiday celebrated in parts of the US about a rabbit who likes to hide colored eggs.
The way these puzzles work is that the answers to the clues are entered into rows. In this puzzle there were 3 answers per row (hence, the grouping of the clues in bundles of 3). Each answer in a row has all the letters of the previous answer in that row, plus one new letter, and new letters get written into columns between the words they connect.
Here’s how that looks when you’ve figured out all the answers to last week’s clues:
since K sicken L nickels
snark E Karens L rankles
Arlen I linear I airline
scare T caters S actress
raids H radish O hairdos
stare E easter N earnest
As you can see, SICKEN contains all the letters of SINCE plus a K, and NICKELS contains all the letters of SICKEN plus an L. The add-on letters form 2 columns reading KEITHE and LLISON. When decapitalized and spaced correctly, that spells out Keith Ellison — the answer to the puzzle.
So that’s how these puzzles work. (If that’s not clear, post a question in the comments and I’ll try to better explain whatever part is confusing.)
Here are the clues for tonight’s puzzle:
1. rocks containing metals such as gold and iron
2. wanders
3. people who help you get things from one place to another
4. smaller quantity
5. [see picture]
6. star character of (at least) a dozen movies and 6 tv series
7. look for
8. like a cat's fur
9. genuflects
10. only
11. Bob and Elizabeth (a married couple, both of whom were senators)
12. Veronica in comics and Henry Cabot in the senate
13. clever remark
14. dudgeon
15. provides gear
And here’s one more hint in case anyone needs it: the movie and television role referred to in clue # 6 was a female role but it was always played by a male — which most people watching the movies and tv shows didn’t know (and which didn’t bother people who did find out).
I’m short on time today, so no poll this week. But I will be checking in on comments tonight and throughout the week, so please share any of your thoughts you’d like to share about Keith Ellison or Dana Nessel or about the clues and answers to last week’s puzzle (or about the clues and answers to this week’s puzzle, but if so please try not to be too obvious in revealing any spoilers about today’s clue answers or the puzzle answer).
Have fun!