Hello, and welcome to ...
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.
Just below the DK squiggle you'll find a new 12-clue acrostic, complete instructions for solving this kind of acrostic, and the answer to last week's bonus puzzle.
If you'd like to solve tonight's puzzle on your own, set comments to shrink or to hide so you won't see what others have said. If you'd like to be part of the solving team, set comments to expand so you can see what other people are saying.
And if you enjoy this warm-up puzzle, please drop by tomorrow morning (9:30 am Eastern time) for the regular Sunday Puzzle diary.
If you're familiar with JulieCrostics, jump right in. If you're not, an explanation of how these puzzles work (plus an example of a completed puzzle) is included a little lower down the page.
1. hurried
2. precipitation
3. smart person
4. droop
5. what every diary must have
6. loose-fitting garments
7. animal doctor
8. authorize
9. kitchen appliance
10. Newt Gingrich: "... Apparently if the president sends out Christmas cards, they are paid for by the Democratic or Republican National Committees because no federal official at any level is currently allowed to say ‘Merry Christmas'."
11. Kazan
12. identical
1. _ _ _ [?] 2. _ _ _ _ [?] 3. _ _ _ _ _
4. _ _ _ [?] 5. _ _ _ _ [?] 6. _ _ _ _ _
7. _ _ _ [?] 6. _ _ _ _ [?] 9. _ _ _ _ _
10. _ _ _ [?] 11. _ _ _ _ [?] 12. _ _ _ _ _
NOTE: the verticals in tonight's acrostic provide a hint about the answer to tomorrow morning's Sunday Puzzle acrostic.
how to solve JulieCrostics
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 CRAG, CARGO and COUGAR, you'd place an "O" in the space between CRAG and CARGO, a "U" in the space between CARGO and COUGAR.
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.
Example of a solved acrostic: the clues and answers for last week's bonus puzzle
I. The clues:
1. naked
2. large boat
3. second rate
4. Wisconsin residents
5. Huey
6. get started
7. large empire
8. imminent
9. tiny thing
10. words of agreement
11. reveal Stooge is gay
12. result
II. The answers:
1. bare G 2. barge D 3. grade B S 4. Badgers
5. Long O 6. log on M 7. Mongol I 8. looming
9. mote O 10. me too U 11. out Moe C 12. outcome
The verticals read GOO DMU SIC. Spaced out correctly, they spell out good music. That was a hint to the solution to the Sunday morning puzzle, in which the verticals spelled out Eric Andersen: "Thirsty Boots". It's a classic movement song from the 1960s, about activists who put their lives on hold for a cause:
Then tell me of the ones you saw, as far as you could see
Across the plains from field to town marching to be free
And of the rusted prison gates that tumble by degree
Like laughing children one by one they look like you and me...
Here it is as sung by John Denver: