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Start on a corner letter and move horizontally, vertically, or diagonally from letter to adjacent letter in the grid to spell out a common nine-letter word. Then start in a different corner and spell out a different nine-letter word. For each word, use every cell in the grid exactly once. What are the two words?
That (courtesy of Page-A-Day puzzles) is your warm-up puzzle tonight. Yes, it's time once again for
Sunday Puzzle Warm-up is a companion to the regular Sunday Puzzle series. The aim is to introduce people to the kind of puzzles featured in the regular Sunday Puzzle diaries and to provide introductory-level puzzles for folks to practice on.
Tonight's feature puzzle is a 12-clue acrostic, suitable for individual solving but fun for team solving. (Or, if you're not up for solving tonight, you're welcome to come watch and to cheer on the solvers.)
If you'd like to solve the acrostic on your own, set comments to shrink or to hide so you won't see what others have posted. Or if you'd like to join in our Saturday night mini-party, set comments to expand so you can see what other people are saying and be part of the team.
Either way, come on down to the diary and the comments section, say hi, and join the fun. (And if you enjoy this warm-up, please consider returning in 12 hours for the regular Sunday Puzzle party.)
If you're familiar with JulieCrostics, jump right in. If you're not, an explanation of how these puzzles work (along with the clues and answers to last week's puzzle, so you can see what a completed puzzle looks like) are included a little lower down the page.
1. good attorney general
2. proprietor
3. amazement
4. when it comes to supporters, these may be all Michele Bachmann has left
5. swine
6. snakes
7. what Herman Cain did in CNN interview with Piers Morgan this week
8. annoyed
9. hi-jack a discussion
10. discharge
11. Winchester
12. something which really doesn't matter much
how to solve JulieCrostics
Here's a quick explanation of how JulieCrostics work. (And if you'd like to see what a solved puzzle looks like, the clues and answers to last week's puzzle are provided a little farther down the page.)
Read the clues provided, then fill in answers 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 MAGI, GAMIN, NAMING, and MANNING you'd place an "N" in the space between MAGI and GAMIN, an "N" in the space between GAMIN and NAMING, and an "N" in the box between and NAMING and MANNING.
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.
clues, answers and DKU notes for last week's puzzle
I. The clues:
1. legendary gift-givers
2. urchin
3. applying a label
4. noteworthy comic book artist Russ, noteworthy comic book anti-hero Luther, or a dated term for serving
5. Sideshow and Brooks
6. what some might call O'Keefe and Corsi, and what O'Keefe and Corsi do for a living
7. comparison
8. there was never a sequel to 1975 movie starring Bruce Dern and Barbara Feldon, but if there had been this would be it
9. derisive remark
10. start
11. kindly
12. fort which houses infamous school
13. tiny fly
14. representative
15. cancel out
16. adolescent
II. The answers:
1. Magi N 2. gamin N 3. naming N 4. Manning
5. Mels I 6. slime I 7. simile I 8. Smile II
9. gibe N 10. begin N 11. benign N 12. Benning
13. gnat E 14. agent E 15. negate E 16. teenage
III. DKU notes:
The verticals spell out NINE-NINE-NINE -- a reference to Herman Cain's poorly-thought-out plan for revising the US tax system.
4. noteworthy comic book artist Russ, noteworthy comic book anti-hero Luther, or a dated term for serving
(a) The noteworthy comic book artist is Russ Manning. He was an artist for many years on both the Tarzan comic book and the Tarzan newspaper strip, and he is well-remembered by comics fans as the co-creator and original artist on the Magnus, Robot Fighter.
(b) The noteworthy comic book anti-here is Luther Manning. From 1974 to 1976 Marvel Comics ran an unusual science fiction series titled Deathlok about a man enslaved against his will as a weapon for the military. It was a rather ground-breaking series for its time (and a much better series than the summary at Wikipedia might lead you to expect).
(c) The dated (and somewhat sexist) term for serving or staffing is manning.
5. Sideshow and Brooks
The answer, Mels, refers (a) to film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, actor, producer and comedian Mel Brooks and (b) to Simpsons' cartoon character Sideshow Mel.
6. what some might call O'Keefe and Corsi, and what O'Keefe and Corsi do for a living
James O'Keefe and Jerome Corsi make their livings by smearing people they disagree with politically. O'Keefe is known for his dishonest videos of ACORN, NPR, Planned Parenthood and others; Jerome Corsi for his part in the Swift-Boating of John Kerry and his promotion of various conspiracy theories concerning Barack Obama.
8. there was never a sequel to 1975 movie starring Bruce Dern and Barbara Feldon, but if there had been this would be it
I needed a 7-letter answer which had three I's and at least one other vowel. Such words are in short supply, alas. But it occurred to me that a movie sequel could account for two of the I's. Was there, perhaps, a movie entitled "Smile"? Yes, there was! Not one I'd seen, or even heard of, but surely anything starring Barbara Feldon (agent 99 in the "Get Smart" series) is suitable for use in a Sunday Puzzle clue.
12. fort which houses infamous school
Fort Benning (located near Columbus, Georgia) is home to the School of the Americas, infamous for training soldiers of Latin American dictators techniques for repressing their people.
A good source more information about the SOA (including dates of upcoming actions to protest the SOA) is SOA Watch.