Welcome to the last Sunday Puzzle of March!
Next week is potluck Sunday -- so if you'd like to share a puzzle, remember to bring it along to post next week.
This week I had prepared a nice straightforward JulieCrostic for you folks to enjoy this holiday weekend. And then the gremlins struck...
But the jokes on them! Their tampering actually makes the puzzle easier to solve. Come down, solve the puzzle, and teach those gremlins a lesson. (Or, if you're not a puzzle person, come down and cheer on the solving team.)
Here's what happened. I told the gremlins I didn't want them one-offing the puzzle verticals again. And they agreed not to do that...
So, when I wasn't looking, they once again appended one of their puzzles to mine. I'm running even later than usual this week and don't have time to separate the puzzles, so you'll have to figure out where one puzzle ends and the other begins.
But here's what the gremlins didn't realize. In honor of the holiday, I had prepared a little puzzle within a puzzle. After you folks solve the verticals, you need to figure out what's missing. And I was sure you'd guess wrong...
Except the gremlins sort of gave the game away with their puzzle. So now the puzzle is even easier than I intended.
Have fun, and I'll see you in comments.
PS # 1: If anyone is new and not familiar with JulieCrostics, you can find a complete explanation -- along with an example of a solved puzzle -- over in our companions series Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up.
PS # 2: Apparently gremlins can be bribed. They crossed out the clue I wrote for # 30 and replaced it with a different clue -- and I think I know who put them up to it. They deny it of course...
1. original version of "intelligent design"
2. kind of frame
3. team, plus beginners
4. weaken
5. gangsta bum
6. first beauty contest judge?
7. twist
8. might be evening
9. suzie, a hong kong prostitute and strange manservant
10. welcome, chuck!
11. short-tailed rodent
12. part of a bulb
13. split
14. kind of love
15. way to get somewhere
16. roundabout way to get somewhere
17. dirt
18. brings up for discussion
19. suave
20. farah's followers
21. kicks
22. enters
23. place where people go to get high and come down
24. make use of
25. spit
26. travelled
27. planet of the forest moon
28. new-fangled
29. diplomacy
30. spiteful absolutely perfect
31. mouse or string
32. macarthur, for example
33. excite
34. tricks
35. famous poet
36. religious holiday
37. contaminated
38. belt
39. shortened name used by obama
40. flounce
41. flat container
42. black and sticky
43. joan of arc, for example
44. window part
45. biblically this comes before vanity
46. colleagues
47. average
48. having thick long hair
49. bicycle built for two
50. philosopher, author, and generator of 20
51. what things go down
52. awards for extreme stupidity
53. abrupt
54. outer layer
55. kind of fruit
56. how 55 might taste.
57. awaken
58. class
59. energy units
60. musical instruments
61. doozies
62. 0CC
63. sometimes drawn