Sunday Puzzle Warm-up is a companion to the regular Sunday Puzzle series, which features puzzles suitable for group solving. These Saturday evening warm-up diaries feature somewhat easier introductory puzzles to get folks warmed up for Sunday (and to try to lure in new folks).
I'm away tonight, but have queued up this diary to publish even though I won't be able to be part of the party.
For the past month the theme of Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up has been Hell To Pay, spotlighting some of the candidates mentioned in the Hell to Pay diaries. So far the answers have included Carol Shea-Porter (September 29th); Betty Sue Sutton (October 6th); Manant Trevedi (October 13th); and Tammy Baldwin (October 20th); and Rick Nolan, David Gill, and Joe Garcia (October 27). So none of them are featured in the verticals for tonight's puzzle; but if you get stuck you can look at some of the Hell To Pay diaries for help in figuring out who is.
Hope you have fun with tonight's puzzle. And don't forget: tomorrow is potluck puzzle party at Sunday Puzzle, when everyone who has a puzzle is encouraged to bring it along and share it. The ever-delightful pucklady will be hosting the party, so you know it will be a lot of fun.
And now, here's tonight's puzzle...
NOTE: If you're not familiar with JulieCrostics, don't panic! An explanation of how they work, and an example of a solved puzzle, are provided directly below tonight's puzzle.
1. blooms
2. paints unskillfully
3. like Corsi's conspiracy theories, or the idea of Palin as a serious candidate
4. Charlie the talk show host
5. Samuel the inventor
6. Bill the journalist
7. group formed in 1957 whose membership included Steve Allen, Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando, Henry Fonda, and Marilyn Monroe
8. spice used in black jellybeans
9. crazy
10. first brother
11. legendary tower
12. talk too much and say too little
13. puts away food
14. walking sticks
15. large bodies of water
16. nickname for Barbara
17. witty remarks
18. soak up
19. hints
20. bring about
21. charge with wrongdoing
22. does wrong
23. goes down
24. lizards
25. limbs
26. storms
27. small mallets
28. Ives
29. speak without thinking
30. vicious
31. pound
32. wash
33. exhalation
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How to solve JulieCrostics
For those of you unfamiliar with this kind of puzzle, what you do is solve the clues and write the answers in rows. In tonight's puzzle there are 3 answers per row.
Each word in a row contains all the letters of the previous word, plus one new letter. Write the added letters in the space between the word which doesn't have it and the word which does. The vertical columns created by the added letters will spell out a word or phrase.
Helpful hint: from now through election day, the answers spotlight Hell To Pay candidates.
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As an example of how it works, here are the clues, grid and answers to last week's puzzle:
CLUES TO LAST WEEK'S PUZZLE
1. BDCEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
2. kind of horse
3. joint US-Canadian Air Force group
4. river, nation, or athlete
5. kind of tide
6. take public transit
7. ventilated
8. traveling crew member
9. Chinese mountain, Italian river, or Southeast Asian person
10. soft drink
11. not shy about speaking out
12. recessed space
13. pale
14. masturbate in England or Australia
15. as good as a nod
16. getting up
17. digit
18. prestigious school
19. famous
20. what you can do at Act Blue
21. occupied a chair
22. cereal
23. does and bucks
24. fragmented hulled grain
25. what Ernesto was more commonly called
26. salacious person
27. place located between mountains and the Pacific Ocean
28. over-used expression
29. Garfunkel
30. fictional plantation
31. shrine
32. rope
33. soldiers
34. one more thing Romney doesn't do well:
35. cast
36. gesture
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GRID FOR LAST WEEK'S PUZZLE
1. --- [ ] 2. ---- [ ] 3. ----- [ ] 4. ------
5. --- [ ] 6. ---- [ ] 7. ----- [ ] 8. ------
9. --- [ ] 10. ---- [ ] 11. ----- [ ] 12. ------
13. --- [ ] 14. ---- [ ] 15. ----- [ ] 16. ------
17. --- [ ] 18. ---- [ ] 19. ----- [ ] 20. ------
21. --- [ ] 22. ---- [ ] 23. ----- [ ] 24. ------
25. --- [ ] 26. ---- [ ] 27. ----- [ ] 28. ------
29. --- [ ] 30. ---- [ ] 31. ----- [ ] 32. ------
33. --- [ ] 34. ---- [ ] 35. ----- [ ] 36. ------
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ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK'S PUZZLE
no A R roan D NORAD J Jordan
red I ride A aired O roadie
Lao C cola V vocal E alcove
wan K wank I a wink G waking
toe N Eton D noted A donate
sat O oats G goats R groats
Che L lech I Chile C cliche
Art A Tara L altar I lariat
GIs N sing L sling A signal
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The verticals read RICKNOLAN DAVIDGILL JOEGARCIA -- which, properly spaced, spell out Rick Nolan, David Gill and Joe Garcia, Hell To Pay Congressional candidates from Minnesota, Illinois and Florida respectively.