If you like solving puzzles, you've come to the right diary. If you like a little bit of light political humor on a Sunday morning, and the occasional educational tidbit, you've also come to the right diary. Welcome to...
Every week at this time we have a little puzzle party. Sunday Puzzle generally posts at 9:30 am Eastern time / 6:30 am Pacific time, and features puzzles suitable for group puzzle-solving. Usually pucklady or I host the party and provide the puzzles. But the first Sunday of the month is potluck Sunday. And today is the first Sunday of March...
On the menu so far for today's potluck: a JulieCrostic and a Puckladder from Pucklady, some Mastermind puzzles from science, and a One-Off song puzzle from me. If you've got a puzzle you'd like to contribute, post it in comments and pucklady or I will edit it into the diary.
Today's party begins right below the DK squiggle...
Puzzle # 1: Julie Crostic by pucklady
Well, here is my puzzle. Funny story - I created a puzzle with the same verticals for my weekly atheist gathering. They group-solved it. This one is harder, but give them a break - they are rookies at this.
1 tiny underwear
2 tiny boaters
3 shores
4 user
5 businesslike
6 coffeepot
7 blessed
8 enveloped
9 approved
10 victor
11 pretended
12 aroused
13 a chair, a college, a cat; a city in Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia or Manitoba
14 flowers
15 what Fox News does
16 removal
17 complete consumption
18 interfered
19 improved computer performance
20 cute papa
21 What the believer did (this teenybopper weeps)
22 arguers
23 sleeping arrangements
24 offal
25 these words are so non-PC that I hate to clue them, but the puzzle requires it. Sorry about that.
26 pompous. I might have referenced Rush for this clue, but this word isn't remotely scatalogical, just overblown.
27 designator
28 Label
Puzzle # 2: Mastermind puzzles by science
*********
MASTERMIND
*********
Many of you are acquainted with the Vic-Toy game, Mastermind. If you are not, here is a quick summary: The puzzler chooses a combination of four pegs (the pegs are of six different colors: White, Red, Brown, Yellow, Green or Blue). In some versions of the game, the choice is four pegs of four different colors, such as Red-White-Blue-Green; in some versions, some could the same, such as Red-White-Red-Green. The player has to deduce this combination by means of successive trials. For example, if the puzzler chooses Red-Blue-White-Green, and the first trial is Red-Green-Blue-Yellow, then the puzzler would score it XOO - the X meaning that the player has a correct color in the correct place(Red), and each O's meaning that the player has a correct color in the wrong place (Blue,Green). A correct solution is XXXX.
Mastermind #1: The pegs in general will not be all different colors. The trials below have the results shown. What is the solution?
1. Red-Green-White-Yellow -- OO
2. Brown-Blue-Green-Red -- OO
3. White-Yellow-Brown-Blue -- XO
4. Yellow-Brown-Blue-Green -- XO
5. Blue-Red-Yellow-White – XO
Mastermind #2: The pegs will not need to be all different colors. The trials below have the results shown. What is the fourth trial you should use to guarantee that you will get the solution once you know the result of the trial?
1. Red-Blue-Red-Blue -- O
2. Yellow-Red-Yellow-Green -- OO
3. Green-Green-Brown-Brown -- XO
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Puzzle # 3: One-Off song puzzle
Here are the lyrics to a verse from a well-known song. Well, almost the lyrics... I changed one letter in one word of each line of the verse. Then I wrote a paraphrase of the altered line, being careful to avoid using any word from either the original or altered line in the paraphrase of the line. Your challenge is to figure out what the original and altered lines are. (As an aid in solving the puzzle, the number of words in each line are given in parentheses at the end of the line.)
My brain is aware that James Angleton puts condoms on my penis. (6)
(I know this because yellowish liquid secretion reveals it.) (6)
That man has a tiny skeleton, (6)
The parts of which break easily. However, that man equals the controller of puppets. (7)
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Puzzle # 4: "VIDI, I DID, VICI" by sny
Fill in the blanks with phrases in keeping with the pattern followed by the following sequence of phrases. There are many possible answers that fit the pattern, and its not trivial to come up with an answer once you figure out the pattern. So, I suggest that you state your answer without telling the pattern, so that others can still try to figure it out (I should be able to tell if you got it, based on your answer). I'll title it "VIDI, I DID, VICI". The phrases are:
__
every fourth winter in iowa
their next purpose
tax the poor
no taxes on unearnt profits
axe the "inferior" jobs
axe jobs for thirteen fifty nine workers
exit voter jobs
___
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Puzzle # 5: Puckladder
This type of puzzle has many answers.
The idea is to get from the starting place to the end. Each step, you add one or two new letters to get to the next step. If you add two letters, you must remove one of the existing letters. Each step must be one letter longer than the previous step.
Can you make this ladder?
GOP to SANITY
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Puzzle # 6
Still plenty of room for more puzzles. If you've got one you'd like to share, now's a great time to post it.