Welcome to Sunday Puzzle Warm-Up -- a chance to have a little fun on a Saturday night and to get your brain warmed up for tomorrow evening's potluck puzzle party.
Last month we had gremlin problems, with the little critters which usually plague Sunday Puzzle coming over here to work their mischief on the warm-up puzzles. But now that it's April things have returned to normal. No gremlin pranks tonight, just a nice straightforward puzzle for your Saturday evening enjoyment.
Here are the clues for tonight's JulieCrostic. If you're new to Sunday Puzzle and aren't familiar with this kind of puzzle, don't panic -- a complete explanation of how these puzzles work (along with an example of a solved puzzle) can be found following the puzzle.
1. fled
2. made a noise
3. sand particle
4. get back
5. __ loss
6. what you might smell when Boehner offers a deal
7. this, for example
8. Burroughs' hero
9. decay
10. ripped
11. strong suit
12. line at the bottom of the page
13. pass on
14. price of Action Comics # 1
15. stuck
16. jog one's memory
17. feeling down
18. boys
19. New and Fair
20. rented
PS # 1: if you have trouble solving the puzzle, it might help to know there are three 2-word answers.
PS # 2: I debated what to use as an example for clue 7, and thought the diary linked to would make an enjoyable example. As a bonus, here's another good one:
And now, for the benefit of any new folks, here's
An explanation of how JulieCrostics work:
What you do is solve the clues and write the answers in rows. (Tonight's puzzle, as indicated by the clue grouping, has five rows with four 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. The object of the puzzle is to solve all the clues and read the vertical message.
For example, here's the answer diagram (and the clues) for last week's puzzle:
rest A aster M master H hamster
isn't M mints A mantis E inmates
mend A named D damned E Deadman
lied R riled E relied V deliver
rash C chars I chairs E Archies
sour H hours N onrush N unshorn
1. take time off
2.
3. skilled person
4. popular short-tailed rodent
5. doesn't exist
6. pillow candies
7. predatory insect
8. prisoners
9. fix
10. titled
11. cursed
12. Boston Brand
13. appeared on Fox News
14. irritated
15. depended on
16. transport
17. hasty
18. burns
19. presides
20. Bunker and Andrews
21. lemony
22. parts of a day
23. strong forward flow
24. like Samson before he met Delilah
As you can see from the diagram, the verticals read
AMARCH MADEIN HEAVEN. (When properly spaced that should read
a match made in heaven -- but the gremlins, in honor of March being gremlin month, changed
match to
March.)