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 to give new people an introductory version of the types of puzzles you'll find in the regular series. Sunday Puzzle for beginners 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, along with answers and DKU notes to the previous week's puzzle.
Today's puzzle is a 15-clue JulieCrostic. You'll find the clues right below the DK squiggle.
Section I: today's JulieCrostic
(If you don't know what a JulieCrostic is or how to work one, don't worry; you'll find a complete explanation farther down the page.)
1. broil
2. minister
3. echoes
4. pointed objects
5. exchanges
6. most beloved
7. create a picture
8. candy-filled object
9. leader
10. surrenders
11. belief systems
12. wrinkled
13. look hard
14. indications
15. drug groups
16. last name of a noted political figure whose first name is Howard
17. large drinking cup
18. more depressing
Section II: solution to last week's puzzle
1. do away with
2. surprise attack
3. Nixon cabinet member
4. kind of tire
5. regret
6. written symbol used in magic spells
7. care for
8. tear apart
9. fruit drink
10. another name for Howard
11. another name for Elgin
12. another name for a name
13. neither's partner
14. showing signs of age and use
15. another name for Jerry
16. another name for Sylvia
17. definite article
18. warm up
19. dirt
20. enthusiastic
1. rid A 2. raid L 3. Laird A 4. radial
5. rue N 6. rune S 7. nurse D 8. sunder
9. ade N 10. Dean H 11. Haden L 12. handle
13. nor W 14. worn B 15. Brown E 16. Browne
17. the A 18. heat R 19. earth Y 20. hearty
The verticals spell out ANNWA LSHBR ADLEY -- which, spaced out properly, spells out Ann Walsh Bradley. (You probably know who she is, but if you don't see the DKU notes section, below.)
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Section III: how to solve 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 TREE, METER, and REMOTE you'd place an "M" in the box between TREE and METER and an "O" between METER and REMOTE.
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.
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Section IV: DKU notes
DKU note # 1: Wisconsin Supreme Court justices Ann Walsh Bradley and David Prosser were the focus of a news story in late June about an altercation in Bradley's office during which (depending on which side you believe) either (a) David Prosser put his hands around Bradley's neck in anger in a chokehold or, (b) Bradley aggressively thrust her neck forward into Prosser's unsuspecting hands before he could move them out of the way.
From TPM Muckraker:
"The facts are that I was demanding that he get out of my office and he put his hands around my neck in anger in a chokehold," Bradley told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Meanwhile, an unnamed source who is on Prosser's side of the argument accused Bradley of initiating the violence. "She charged him with fists raised," the source told the paper, saying that Prosser "put his hands in a defensive posture" to block her, and made contact with her neck. Bradley is then said to have immediately complained of being choked, while another, unnamed Justice responded, "You were not choked."
In response, Bradley told the paper: "You can try to spin those facts and try to make it sound like I ran up to him and threw my neck into his hands, but that's only spin."
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DKU note # 2: Melvin Laird was Secretary of Defense during Richard Nixon's first term as president, and a counselor to Nixon on domestic affairs from June 1973 through early 1974. As members of Nixon's administration go, Laird was one of the less objectionable people, and he has emerged from those years with his reputation largely intact.
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DKU note # 3: Howard Dean served 6 terms as governor of Vermont (from 1991 to 2003). He competed for the 2004 Democratic nomination for president and was an early front-runner in that race but his chances for winning plummeted when the media repeatedly ridiculed him for the speech he made following the Iowa caucuses which included what came to be known as the "Dean scream".
Following his defeat for the presidential nomination, Dean founded Democracy for America. A year later he was named head of the DNC. Dean's 50-state strategy played a large role in Democratic successes in 2006 and 2008.
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DKU note # 4: Suzette Haden Elgin is a noted writer of fantasy and science fiction, and of a series of more than 20 books about the gentle art of verbal self-defense.
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DKU note # 5: Jerry Brown is the once and current governor of California. He made unsuccessful attempts to win the Democratic nomination for president in 1976, 1980, and 1992.
During his first run for the nomination Mike Royko referred to him as "Governor Moonbeam", and the nickname unfortunately stuck. Years later Royko apologized, and tried to get others to stop using the term, but by then it was too late:
How Jerry Brown Became ‘Governor Moonbeam’
By JESSE McKINLEY
... The nickname was coined by Mike Royko, the famed Chicago columnist, who in 1976 said that Mr. Brown appeared to be attracting “the moonbeam vote,” which in Chicago political parlance meant young, idealistic and nontraditional.
... [A]fter many vicious gibes at Mr. Brown’s expense [Royko] offered an outright apology to the governor, and spent years trying to erase the moniker.
In a 1991 column in The Chicago Tribune, he called the label, an “idiotic, damn-fool, meaningless, throw-away line,” and pleaded with people to stop using it.
“Enough of this ‘Moonbeam’ stuff,” Mr. Royko concluded. “I declare it null, void and deceased.”
It didn’t take. Mr. Royko died in 1997, and when Mr. Brown declared his candidacy last week, most, if not all, press accounts referred to his “Moonbeam” past. (This reporter included.)
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DKU note # 6: For close to 40 years Sylvia Browne has been pretending to have psychic powers, pretending to be able to speak with the dead, and scamming people out of money for readings and consultations.
A good source of information on Sylvia Browne, her methods, her track record, and various people she has harmed over the years, is Robert S. Lancaster's site Stop Sylvia Browne
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That's all for this week's Sunday Puzzle for beginners. But if you enjoyed the puzzle in this diary, you might also enjoy coming to the regular Sunday Puzzle party tomorrow morning. Hope to see you there!