Do you like puzzles? Do you like a little light political humor? Do you like adorable kitty pictures?
Well, two out of three ain't bad.
Welcome to Sunday Puzzle -- a chance to exercise your wits, have fun, and occasionally learn the odd fact or two in the process. Sunday Puzzle posts weekly, generally at 9:30 am Eastern time / 6:30 am Pacific time, and features puzzles suitable for group puzzle-solving.
Inspired by a couple of diaries which appeared yesterday and events in the news, I am launching a new feature which will be appearing weekly. You'll find the first in the series -- along with a new JulieCrostic and a code competition -- right below the nurple...
Here's today's JulieCrostic. Usual rules apply. (If you're new and aren't familiar with JulieCrostics, you can find the rules, introductory puzzles, and examples of solved puzzles in our companion series Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up).
1. dirty look
2. famous for legs
3. confused
4. attendant
5. third, fourth: first, sight
6. something people generally need to do to become pregnant
7. phase
8. annoys
9. heftiest
10. attain
11. more painful
12. fictional muffin
13. this is special if it's blue
14. once-common type of roller which is now increasingly rare
15. red daily
16. wash
17. interpreter at campaign event
18. shrinks
19. britons
10. broom or water
21. big cats
22. these are made for two
23. most churlish
24. kind of user
25. nerve
26. cavalry weapons
27. unrestrained
28. deride
29. mustard parts
30. maddens
31. whiff
32. poems made up entirely of quotations
33. agreement
34. annoyed
35. gentler companion
36. kind of spirits
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Next: a competition between two kinds of codes!
Several years ago I introduced Crypto-Gremlins -- a kind of cryptogram which can't be solved by online code-solving programs. I thought it was a new idea -- but in working through the JulieChallenge these past weeks I learned that Julie had come up with a way of doing this several years earlier!
My method involves adding letters on to the beginnings and ends of words, according to a specified set of rules, before encrypting the text. Julie's method is more elegant: she replaces all the vowels with asterisks.
I like both methods, so today I thought I'd create one of each and let them compete for your attention.
First, the JulieGram:
#be#rp#t# #a up# o#b#u#l#b el#a#, Ot#e#n#au #s#x# u#n#d e##n p# “x#eeo#z#” rp#a p# e##n b#eu r##z up#u up# ot#h#u# e#lu#t #w up# #l#a#xd r#e w#a#: “Rp#u # x##au u# e#d r#e up#u X#uu T#xa#d #e # n#lz.”
#and S#t#r#um, "Up# S#t#r#um T#o#tu", F#a# 12, 2012
(NOTE: I had to use number signs rather than asterisks, since asterisks are mistaken by the site for formatting tags.)
And second the Crypto-Gremlin:
Grxa drmutl, can't brna tmusuatabil noynm Fanny Urfble crmphr ulplytl jyba qyhm wytlhr zrbm tmdol uy wpynybnpe hatorbltna sulfatl. Peabil jatl coynm Urfble hrltl wltny.
Klha Plcatrbl, Kmbl 14, 2012
(NOTE: If you need a refresher course in the rules for Crypto-Gremlins, you can find them
here.)
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New Weekly Feature!
Today I'm launching a new feature, which will continue every week for the indefinite future.
A few words of explanation. This new feature is not a new kind of puzzle; it's a word which will be appear each week in one of the puzzles, either as a clue or an answer.
You know how pucklady and I like to work Rush Limbaugh clues into the acrostics? Well, this is sort of like that -- but spotlighting something delightful and desirable rather than obnoxious and repulsive.
Here's the first puzzle in this series. Today's puzzle is a Crypto-Gremlin, but next week the mystery word will appear in a different type of puzzle.
This Launch: “Wh’om dtswwmampu bug’am esttg iu kuckmacmpu rslugwh ob eszhcs. Lgws cu omscim cu.”
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Have fun!